Countdown to the Festival of Quilts

I’m on the countdown to the Festival of Quilts now. I have 17 days before I leave to go and hang the work. Obviously by this stage, I have got it all completed, packed, piles of postcards and other small items ready to go... if only!

As usual, I’m on my last minute mode. I would like to think I will learn something from the experience of making this body of work. Already, I can see the two main lessons are ‘don’t be over ambitious’ and ‘remember everything takes much longer than you think it will, so leave plenty of time.’ Good sound lessons, but this could be referring to my last project and the one before, so obviously these are two lessons I am incapable of learning! However, hopefully it leads to quality work.

Transformations

I posted my press release yesterday, but what does the work look like?  Do you remember a few months ago, I showed you this cloth?  It was pieced together from lots of off-cuts and old clothes.  Well... now it looks like this.



It forms part of one of the two triptychs I’m showing at the Festival of Quilts. 



Working hard

I’m beginning to get very excited about the Festival of Quilts.  It is now less than a month away and it is starting to feel very close.  I sent out a press release last week to lots of different magazines, which my friend Jane Rae of Cinnamon Press helped write and put into the correct terms.  It also had the very embarrassing photo of me attached.  Even when I have had my photo taken professionally, it never seems to appear like the wonderful image I have of myself in my head...  Here is the text of the press release:

Scottish textile artist Gillian Cooper is introducing a new dimension to this year’s Festival of Quilts being held 11-14 August at the Birmingham NEC. Visitors to the show will be able to walk through her exhibition space, virtually rubbing shoulders with the ethereal life-sized figures that she has created in her piece entitled “Unsung Muses”.

The installation, consisting of quilted pieces, floating figures and transparent hangings, celebrates the lives and influence of our female ancestors and forgotten goddesses - the “unsung muses” who have shaped the lives of so many women today. Gillian has incorporated the notion of time passing by creating outlined rather than detailed figures, almost hovering under layers of embellishment and organza; slightly obscured but never forgotten.

“The idea of what is needed to give a shape human form has fascinated me for ages and this was a way of exploring it. How little is required to give an outline a sense of human presence?  A number of years ago, I explored the idea by looking at dolls, but I couldn’t get it to work for me.  With these figures, I found a stronger connection”, said Gillian.

The figures are pieced from a variety of over-painted and hand-dyed fabrics and incorporate discarded clothes and remnants from earlier projects.  Once the figures were pieced, further detail was added using oil sticks and extensive machine quilting.

“I hope that ‘Unsung Muses’ will strike a chord with many of the visitors to the show helping them to reconnect with the fabulous goddesses and winged angels that are part of their own narrative”, said Gillian.

If you know of anyone who would be interested, please pass it on.

In progress figures

The Festival of Quilts is approaching at a very fast rate.  I now have every work in progress, with some basically complete and others which have a bit further to go.

Our annual holiday was curtailed a bit so I spent a week working at home whilst R played with the children on beaches in Northumbria.  The day I left to come back I had been on the beach at 6.30am with a four year old who refused to sleep.  It was beautiful, but I did feel incredibly guilty at leaving R to cope with this on his own.  Luckily she improved and I got a great weeks work down, making another four figure shapes as can be seen here underway.  Everything takes longer than I think it will - especially the pinning of all the fabric onto the shape.

The figures are all pieced and are now having details added to them.  My arms are permanently covered in oil paint and I am dashing into the studio for the odd ten minutes whilst the children entertain themselves - ten minutes seems to be the maximum without resorting to 'screen time'!

ArtWorks Kids Exhibition

Last weekend, we held the second exhibition of art made at the Saturday morning art classes I run with Dawn.  When we got the boards out on the Friday evening to set it up, we were a bit worrried that there was not going to be enough work to fill them up.  We need not have been concerned.

We kept finding more and more work and had to make some tough decisions about what actually got shown as there was so many good pieces, we wanted to show it all.  In the final week of classes (although I am not meant to call them that as it puts some kids off!), we made folders and all of these were on display for visitors to look through, so even the work not on the walls could be seen.

I was really pleased at the variety of work: there was our 3D totem pole sculptures, textile faces, prints, pictures using sticky back plastic, others using found objects, charcoal, brown paper and tissue paper.  And then there was the pottery.  I am a sucker for pottery and I'm thrilled at how the pots turned out.  When I have some more time, I want to have a go myself!

Speaking of time, I haven't been writing much recently and it all seems to be about other people's work.  Well, I have been really busy with mine, especially as the Festival of Quilts seems to creep closer and closer.  I've got lots to show and will start revealing it soon...

There was a lovely write up of the exhibition in the local paper, the Stirling Observer, along with some nice photos.  I think there would have been over 70 people in attendance, which was a nice number and not bad for any art exhibition.  We had laid on a couple of activities that people could try out, just as the kids had done in class.  One of them was using straws, clay and silver foil to make little sculptures.  These got more and more elaborate as time went on.  R really got into it and made several, including a ski jumper about to take off (or crash land?) which is now on top of our piano.

Frieda Oxenham's fantastic exhibition

Last month I was really lucky to have the opportunity to go and see my friend Frieda's solo exhibition of quilts in Peebles.  It was great.  It was a horrible day outside, but the lovely room was filled with bright, vibrant, uplifting colours.  She spends a lot of time repeating designs, playing a form of a 'what if' game, seeing what happens if you alter the colour scheme or shape of a piece.

This results in a coherent group of work, all linked by a love of colour ... and beading!  Frieda must have spent years of her life just sewing beads on to quilts as they enhance her layouts and designs.  Wow - the patience!  Frieda also has a great sense of humour and this appears in her work too.  You can see more of it at her blog.  

These photos here are some close ups of some of her works.  I've written an article about the show for Popular Patchwork, which will be appearing later this year.

Dyeing fabric

Although I have been quiet on the blog front, I have been very busy working.  My new studio is up and running and is a godsend.  Just as well for the amount of time I have been spending in it.  I have been dyeing fabric to make my principal pieces for my Festival of Quilts gallery.  I had five buckets set up in my studio and used four different colours of procion mixed together.  I know that many people want to dye precisely, but I love the random effect, so the buckets had too much fabric in and gave a great patchy effect.  I didn't have any soda ash, but our fabulous local ironmongers, McFarlanes, which has everything, had washing soda.  I had help from two of my monsters with stirring the fabric in the buckets.

I started rinsing it out my hand, but eventually just bunged it straight in the washing machine to rinse out any excess dye.  I brought a drying rack into the studio as it was raining (it rained every single day in May - we're feeling rather soggy) and got it all dried.

Of course, the downside of doing all this dyeing is all the ironing it creates.  This was the bucket of some of the fabric waiting to be pressed.

The fabric is all pressed now and I'm cutting it up to make my figures.  Having used scraps for so long, it feels rather strange to be cutting into large pieces of fabric, but I don't have enough scraps to make a 2m high person.

Favourites from the Loch Lomond Quilt Show

Leaving the Accra Quilt Show by Helen Conway

Last week was a rather busy week for me.  I visited Frieda Oxenham's fabulous exhibition in Peebles (more of this later) and also two visits to the Loch Lomond Quilt Show.  The Loch Lomond Show was a good one this year, with a huge variety of types of quilt on show.  I am currently writing about it for Popular Patchwork, but thought I would give you a flavour of some of the great quilts on show.

Schizophrenia III One in a Hundred by Jacqueline Atkinson

Gardens by Cora Ham, with small pieces inspired by it by other members of the Filanderers

Trasparenze by Alda Tosi

Digital Orchids by Ann Clayton

RICHOrchid and Dragonflies by Mairi Wheeler (left) and Singapore Botanical by Marjorie McKinven

 

A Canadian World War II Red Cross Quilt

Yo-Yo Bracelets

This is just a piece of fun.  I wanted a break from 'real' work and make something quick and easy and undemanding.  So here are two little Yo-Yo or Suffolk Puffs to use the English as opposed to American name bracelets that I made.  As you can see, my model was really cooperative!  Instructions will be appearing in Popular Patchwork sometime soon.

New York Flag Quilt

I've become a little obsessive into researching articles on old quilts at the moment. I have written a feature on feedsacks and their use in American quilting for Popular Patchwork and spent ages trying to find out more and more. I also saw a block that attracted my attention at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, which was part of the Cindy Rennel's collection. It was called New York Flag. I've been trying to find out more. I have traced it to a book published in 1976, (this was after I had drafted my own version) based on a series of quilt blocks published in an American magazine 100 years ago. I really want to find out more, but it was require a trip to the British Library in London. I'd love to do it, but honestly, I think it would be rather extravagant to travel 400 miles when I have little time or money to spare just to see if this magazine actually gives me more information, when it probably won't. How long do you think I can hold out? In the meantime, this is a little four block quilt I made using the pattern. Every now and then I like to just make something traditional, to see if I still can and so I don't lose the skills. Besides it was fun! I bought some red, white and blue fabrics in Houston, not my normal style as the white one could even be termed 'novelty', something I usually avoid like the plague, but some how they found their way into my hands and now I've used them. This must be something of a record, me using fabric within six months of buying it! I hope the instructions for this block will be appearing in Popular Patchwork once I have figured out some more of its back story.