Cyanotype workshop with Ruth Brown

At the Festival of Quilts this summer, I had the pleasure of being a student rather than being a tutor.  I spent two lovely days in a class with Ruth Brown of Stone Creek Textiles learning how to cyanotype - a blue photography technique that works really well on fabric and paper.  These are some of the fabulous results.

Cyanotyping is a great way to add images onto fabric.  It was good to learn from an expert and discover how to put the cyanotype on the fabric without ending up with the downstairs loo looking like a blue slasher movie has just been filmed there.  I do seem to get in a bit of a mess.

One of the key things I learned was how well pinned down everything needs to be on the fabric before you expose it to light and you see the fabric turning from green to blue to grey.

If the fabric is not well pinned, you get a fuzzy image, which may be desirable, but you want to be able to control it yourself.

We also learnt how to turn the cyanotype from blue to yellow and brown, through soda ash and tea.  I've still to try coffee, which apparently gives a more purple-y brown.

We also discovered how to add photos by making a negative on acetate.  I also loved the random effects you can get by just scrunching up the fabric and exposing it at different times.

Ruth has a book on cyanotyping which is really comprehensive and I would definitely recommend taking a class with her.  Find out more at www.stonecreektextiles.co.uk

Some highlights from the Festival of Quilts 2016

The Festival of Quilts at the NEC, Birmingham took place last weekend.  I went down for three days, but as I had decided to take a number of courses, I only really had 1/2 a day for mooching around looking at the quilts.
As always there were some lovely quilts and looking at my photos this morning, I didn't take many photos this year and I don't seem to have taken photos of all my favourite galleries such as that by Claire Benn and Ingrid Press.  Rather than share full photos at such a small resolution you don't get any idea at all of what the quilt was really like, here is a selection of close ups of some that caught my eye at the Show.

Ineke Berlyn - Pieces of Positivity 2

Edwina Mackinnon - Pathways

Helen Cowans - Forgotten Women of the Land

Leah Higgins, winner of the Art Quilts Category - the breakdown printing was beautiful

Cas Holmes - Unfolding Landscape Summer Verge

Laura Kemshall, Winner of the Quilters' Guild Challenge.  You can read about this amazing quilt and her new processes on her blog at https://www.designmatterstv.com/winning-quilters-guild-challenge-52-degrees/

Ruth Singer with her winning quilt in the Fine Art Quilt Masters category

5 Fabulous Reasons I Love the Festival of Quilts

Bitter Harvest by Clare Smith

I spent Friday to Sunday at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham last week.  As usual it was fantastic and there was a ridiculous amount to see and do.  It was lovely to see so many of my C&G students down there and one thing I’m going to ask them to do at the next class (this is a ‘heads up’ if you reading!) is share what their highlights were as everyone finds something different which really enthuses them.  So this is my version for the 2015 Show

Portrait of a Memory by Christine Chester

1.   Amazing galleries of work by individual artists and groups
This year’s highlight was Quilt Art (unfortunately no photos allowed) as well as Christine Chester’s thought provoking pieces about dementia.  Though Our Hands also had some interesting works and unusual techniques.  I loved the piece by Clare Smith with the dye dripping through it, running where it wished.

Mahri Prince's work

2.   Student work
Okay, this one is a bit of a cheat as part of my reason for concentrating on the student work was because two of my students, Janet Lindsay and Mahri Prince, had been selected to display their work.  It was a bit like a proud parent moment seeing how well their work fitted into the show.  They are both very talented ladies (as well as being a pleasure to teach – obviously as all my students are!)

Janet and her work

3.   Friends
No photos of these (I tend to do photos of ‘things’ rather than people) but meeting up with so many lovely quilters I know is one of the main highlights of the Show.  Quilters are such a friendly and supportive group of people, so each year, my group of friends expands, which is fantastic – meeting old friends and making new ones.

Terry Donaldson - Sussex Coast

4.   Shopping
This is probably further up the list for most people, but I’m not great shopper.  However, there are always lots of tempting goodies at the Show.  This year, I justified my purchases because I need to ‘try things out’ for my students.  Well, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

Philippa Naylor's Miniature

5.   Disagreeing with the judges on the competition quilts
Yes, I know the judges have a thankless task, but it is always fun to see quilts which to my mind seem better than the winners.  A wise person once told me that as the judging has to follow a tick box format, often it is more informative to look at the judges’ choices instead, as they are the quilts the judges appreciated, but which didn’t ‘fit the boxes’.  It is also incredibly difficult as there are just so many beautiful quilts and there can only be one winner per category.

Robbie le Poidevin  - Secret Cove

So that’s it all over with for another year.  Can’t wait until next time. 

Mavis Walker - The Chess Set

Out & About: the Festival of Quilts

My quilt in the competition category - top left

Somewhat unsurprisingly, one of my weekends away this summer was to the Festival of Quilts.  As usual, it was great fun.  Unusually for me, I had finally entered a quilt in the art quilt category.  It was really interesting to see how different it looked to when it was hung at home, with better light.  It seemed rather washed out as opposed to delicate!

Dislocation exhibition

I also had a piece in the CQ exhibition ‘Dislocation’.  I was really pleased that it was selected.  I don’t think I’ve shown it in detail on the blog yet as I only finished it the day before the summer holidays started.

Yvonne Kervinen 'Urban Landscape'

There was some great artwork on show.  I really liked the work of Gabi Mett and Judith Mundwiler, who shared a gallery.  For some reason, I didn’t take any photos of their work, but you can check it out online here and here.  The EQA exhibition is always interesting and this time was no exception.  Here is a link to some gallery shots, as no photos were allowed.

Cecilia Gonzalez Desedamas 'The Difference'

The photos here are of some of the pieces I liked in the competition quilts.  They are a bit random as I was just enjoying wandering and contemplating rather than ‘working’. 

Brigitte Kopp 'Gebarmutter'

Margaret Ramsay 'Nautical Dawn'

Finally, the best thing about the Festival of Quilts for me is meeting up with old friends and making new ones.  In the second category, I met with Linda Seward who was promoting her new book, ‘The Ultimate Guide to Art Quilting’.  She was lovely in real life but I have a bone to pick with her.  All weekend I admired her beautiful scarf, thinking what great taste she had.  Unfortunately towards the end of the weekend I discovered she had bought it at the show as there was a stall, Pappumama, selling them and so one of them just had to find its way into my bag... It is rather beautiful!

 

Nice scarf!

In my studio: Dislocating ancient bird goddesses

I’ve just been looking down the list of my recent blog posts and there has been a lot about me gallivanting around and less on what I’m actually doing in the studio.

Original Idea - breaking up a goddess figure

Last time I wrote about my work in progress, it was to share the drawings I was trying to do daily.  Of course, I haven’t succeeded in doing one every day, but they are on-going and throwing up lots of other ideas. 

My drawing from the vase

For example, I have been considering making a piece for the CQ exhibition for the Festival of Quilts.  I’ve never entered one of their juried shows before, but the theme ‘Dislocation’ resonated with what I’m working on with my forgotten goddesses. 

Some of my doodles looking at the shape

I looked up lots of different dictionaries for the definition of ‘dislocation’ and it includes, paraphrasing the Oxford English Dictionary, ‘the state of being out of place’.  So I had been thinking of making one of my figures and then ripping it up into pieces and laying them disjointed on a background, a bit like my rough sketch, almost like the goddess figurines would be found nowadays when they are discovered on an archaeological dig.  I still like the idea and will make the piece sometime, but for CQ exhibition, there is a strict size limitation and I want some of the pieces to stick out of the sides as if they can be contained.  Also I need to spend more time than I have thinking through the technicalities, having left it to the last moment as normal.

Where I've got to!

Luckily, I was really taken with today’s daily drawing, from an ancient vase in the collection of the Met Museum in New York.  I’ve spent quite a long time doodling it and have come up with some alternative ideas for this lady, who looks a bit like a bird goddess.  Fingers crossed the samples will work when I try them tomorrow!

Inspiration: Mandy Patullo in Popular Patchwork

Thread and Thrift Red Star by Mandy Pattullo

The latest edition of Popular Patchwork (February 2014) goes on sale today and includes my feature on the quilter, Mandy Pattullo. 

Mandy’s work in her gallery at last summer’s Festival of Quilts had really impressed me and it was a pleasure to find out more about it.  Reflecting on it, having mentioned improvisational quilting in my last post, I think Mandy’s work falls very definitely in this category, along with fantastic use of recycling.  She is not jumping on the trendy vintage/recycling bandwagon; it is something she obviously passionately believes in and has practiced for many years.  She is involved in running vintage fairs and this is where she sources her fabric and old over-loved quilts, as well as at auctions etc.  Working intuitively, she refashions them into these beautiful works of art.  On-trend at the moment, but not trendy; you can see the skill and zeal behind them.  Her embroidery/quilting is lovely and delicate, truly enhancing her fabrics.

If you don’t know Mandy’s work, check out her website. It really is inspirational.

Out & About: Good things from the Festival of Quilts

Going to the Festival of Quilts has many attractions.  Firstly, of course, there are the quilts.  Then there is the joy of meeting up with other quilters you have met in the past, such as Ruth Singer or Olga Prins, who explained to me that I had misunderstood her technique in an article I had written last year about the European Art Quilts, which she runs and which, excitingly, is going to have another exhibition soon.  Her actual way of getting colour onto fabric is even more involved and fascinating.  In addition to stitchers you already know, it is great to discover new people.  This time, I met with Mary Fisher, Mandy Pattullo and Lucie Summers, all of whom I’m hoping to write about soon for Popular Patchwork.  They were all really inspirational. 

Another (unspoken) benefit for me is a couple of days off from being ‘mum’ and I enjoy that freedom to be me rather than having to parent and remember to be good!

Finally, there is the huge attraction of all the traders, with their multi-coloured, tempting wares.  What did I succumb to this year?

Some of my students use these dye based paints and I loved the intensity of colour they gave, so I really want to try them for myself.

 

I bought this jelly roll for an article I’m writing for Popular Patchwork and have in fact stitched it already.  It is now awaiting quilting.

 

These fat quarters are for use on my hexagon quilt, which is progressing rather slower than I first thought (isn’t that always the case?!)

I want to find some more ways of adding imagery to my fabrics and thought that these could be a good way of adding details.

 

I’m making a quilt as a wedding present for our niece, Lucy and these 10in squares from the Cotton Patch are now part of the plan.

 

This fabric was bought to be the backing of some linen cushion covers and I’ve run them up already.

Finally, I was sorely tempted and unable to resist temptation I bought some goodies from 21^st Century Yarns.  I would like to try something a bit different to my normal with them and get back to some hand stitching.

That’s lots of plans... we’ll see how they develop!

 

Out & About: Fine Art Quilt Masters at the Festival of Quilts

Although I said I hadn’t done any work in the holidays, it wasn’t quite true.  A few weekends ago I went to the Festival of Quilts.  After all the discussion on this blog about last year’s Best in Show, this year there was a new competition/invitational category called Fine Art Quilt Masters.  I was very keen to see it, partly to see what would be included and also excited because it should have been full of ‘my kind of artwork’ as my Dad puts it.  I wasn’t disappointed.  Yes, there was still quite a variance in standard and I may have chosen a few different ones (but of course, it depends on who puts their work forward).  The lighting was truly atrocious (hence limited photos), but the organisers were well aware of this and promised they would sort it for next year.

Dorothy Caldwell, detail of How do we know when it's night

Dorothy Caldwell, detail of How do we know when it's night

 So what about the quilts?  The winner was Dorothy Caldwell with ‘How Do We Know When It’s Night’.  Her piece (actually comprising of two hangings) was monumental, measuring approx 3m in each direction.  From a distance, personally, it was almost too much, especially given the walls weren’t really high enough and the lighting.  However, when I got close up and started photographing the details, I felt it revealed its beauty.  Personally, I would love any of the details as a complete piece.

Sandra Meech, The Last Silence

At the other end of the scale was ‘The Last Silence’ by Sandra Meech, measuring 35cm square.  It was a very different piece from the work I normally associate with Sandra, although still on the same theme.  I loved the way it was contained within the frame, setting boundaries for the work, which had to be concertina-ed to fit inside.  Again like Dorothy’s hanging, the mark-making was amazing.

Sandra Meech, detail of The Last Silence

Elizabeth Brimelow, detail of Round Meadow

Elizabeth Brimelow, detail of Round Meadow

I am obviously drawn to works which are less quilt-like as two more I liked were Elizabeth Brimelow’s ‘Round Meadow’, which snaked across a plinth in a spiral form, full of little notes and annotations and hints at larger pieces. 

 

 

 

Christine Chester, Portraits of a Memory

 

 

 

Secondly, ‘Portraits of a Memory’ by Christine Chester comprised nine panels of industrial felt pinned to the wall, with paper and voile on top carrying slightly scorched images.  The starkness of the piece was very appealing with its monochromatic colour range and it has a sobering subject matter of memory loss due to dementia.  On a frivolous note,I have to admit part of the draw for me is that industrial felt is one of my favourite fabrics to look at, even if it is something I haven’t used in my own work yet.

Christine Chester, detail of Portraits of a Memory

This is just a small selection of what was on show.  I found these pieces rather thought-provoking and very inspirational.  I hope the organisers get good feedback on this category and that they continue with it.  Also I hope as it gains momentum, more textile artists at the top of the game apply to have their work included to keep adding to this valued dimension to the Festival of Quilts.

 

Did you go to the Festival of Quilts?  If so, what did you think of this category?