Workshop and talk for the Quilters' Guild

Last weekend was exceptionally busy. It was the annual conference of the Quilters' Guild in Dundee and I had been asked to run a workshop and give a talk. So on Friday afternoon, I spent a delightful three hours helping a group of ladies 'experiment with design'.

I had a lot of fun and I think they did too. We did lots of drawing, which I assured them were not going to be good and perhaps freed from the expectations of having to be able draw well, they just enjoyed it. Which for me is the whole point and some of the resulting drawings were surprisingly good.

We then translated the ideas from the drawings into fabric and there were some really interesting outcomes. I should have taken some images to share with you, but it was all rather frantic trying to pack it into three hours.

I'm running a similar workshop but over a full day at this summer's Festival of Quilts and there are still a few places available.

My talk was about how I had made the work Unsung Muses. When I wrote the blurb for the conference programme, I had called it a rollercoaster ride. This was written long before the work was completed and I had no idea how prophetic it was to be! The talk seemed well received and many people commented on how honest it was. I'm in two minds about this because I think a bit of mystic about my artistry may be more beneficial. But on the other hand, I am a fundamentally honest person and as someone said afterwards the talk was very me.

What do you think? Is it better to be honest and give a warts and all view or do you prefer to have a bit held back to make you or the artist more interesting?

Opening of Goddess exhibition

Friday evening we took the kids through to Edinburgh by train so we could go to the preview of the Goddess exhibition at the Scottish Story Telling Centre.  I think the kids enjoyed the experience of going out late on Friday.  They liked the exhibition and we enjoyed the thought-provoking performance by the Megaphone Choir.  It was lovely to see the exhibition hanging and seeing how others had interpreted the theme.

If anyone is in Edinburgh, the exhibition is on until the end of the month.

Out and about with cameras



Yesterday we took the oldest group of kids from our Saturday morning art class out to explore the neighbourhood to sketch, photograph and get inspiration for their next project.  Miraculously the rain stayed off whilst we were out.

It is amazing what you can see when you actually look closely.  We barely went 100m from the hall and found lots of interesting contrast just round the corner.  The kids photographed, sketched and took rubbings.  These are some of my photos.  It was so much fun looking from inspiration in the everyday again that it was hard to remember I wasn't there for me, but for the kids.  I took the photos to give them an idea of what I found interesting, to help them learn to look (and because I wanted to!).



Cutting Through Time: Jeanette Sendler at the Collins Gallery

Whenever I have asked people about venues to show textile art in Scotland, th ere has only been one response: the Collins Gallery in Glasgow. Sadly, the University of Strathclyde has decided that whilst it can run non degree courses in painting and genealogy that my dad attends, running a world class gallery is not part of its remit.

Its final textile show is drawing to a close and I went to see it yesterday. It was well worth the visit. Jeanette Sendler is a German born artist who now lives in Scotland. Her practice is varied and in the past has made significant work involving felt. However, this group of work is based around the notions of pattern cutting and shaping for the body. The materials used were simple, giving an honesty to the work. The contrast of the calico to the light brown of the pattern paper was subtle and effective.

I particularly liked the wall mounted, ribbed pieces, which gave the impression they may fly off the wall at any moment and launch into the air. The multiple shadows were also enchanting, a by-product, I suspect, rather reminiscent of Caroline Broadhead's work of a number of years ago.

I have always enjoyed my visits to the Collins Gallery and the symposiums they have often run in conjunction with the shows, even if I haven't been able to attend them for a while as they always clash with the Saturday morning kids art class I run, which is a terrible shame given the exciting programme they had for the last one.  Change is inevitable, but it is sad when it seems a retrograde step like closing the best gallery in Scotland.

Recycled Denim Quilt

I am passionate about recycling and can get quite obsessive about making sure anything than can be recycled goes in the correct bins.  Before our local council recycled plastic, I used to save ours up and take it to the bins in another district.  Only when I was passing, of course, so I didn’t use up more energy driving than was saved in recycling the plastic.

So I have been saving up old jeans to make a quilt.  We go through a lot in our house.  The kids keep growing – fancy that!  And also the adult jeans get trashed crawling around on the floor with the kids.  So I’d cut them all into rectangles to make a quilt.  It took forever and frankly, I wouldn’t use the kids jeans again as there was little reward for all the effort.  However, I have finally finished the quilt.  It is made from different width strips and will make a decent single bed covering.  I like the subtle nature of the colours from the worn denim.  It reminds me of the sashiko exhibition I saw in York a number of years ago, which showed lots of different old Japanese work clothes being stitched together again and again.

I now have lots of little rectangles of denim left over.  Any ideas what I could make from them apart from cushions?

Quilters' Guild Conference in Dundee

Time is meant to go quicker when you get older.  It seems to go so fast now – what is it going to be like when I am finally mature?  Actually, I don’t believe now I’ll ever be mature, just wrinklier and even stiffer!  When the Quilters’ Guild asked me to run a workshop and do a talk at their conference in Dundee, March 2012 seemed a long way off and now it is only next month. 

Has anyone been to a Quilters’ Guild Conference?  I’m shamed to admit I’ve never made it before and I’m looking forward to the experience.  If you are going, please do come along to my talk.  It’s at 9.30am on Sunday 25^th March, the morning after my daughter’s birthday.  It’s also the day the clocks change and we lose an hour of sleep.  I do hope people will be able to drag themselves out of bed to come and hear me... and next time I attend an event, I’m definitely going to the early morning speaker out of solidarity!

Goddess at the Scottish Story Telling Centre

Finally, it feels as if my work is coming together.  I am very impatient by nature and want everything to happen now, but the world doesn’t work like that and it means I have to write lots of applications, etc before I find the one that is going to be successful.  Over the past few months, I have written many applications for a variety of things and so far February is turning out to be a fruitful month (4 acceptances vs 2 rejections!)

When I saw the call for submissions for an exhibition entitled ‘Goddess’, related to a theatre production at the Scottish Story Telling Centre, I knew that I had to apply and that it would fit in perfectly with the themes of my ‘Unsung Muses’ work.  So I was thrilled to get an email today telling me that my work will be included.  The exhibition opens in Edinburgh on Friday 2^nd March, with a Private View from 7-9pm.  Please come along if you can.  It should be an interesting show, with work from a number of different artists.  I can’t wait to see their work and how it fits with the theme.  All I need to do now is organise the childcare so I can hang the work...!

National Museum of Scotland and a day out in Edinburgh

A few Saturdays ago, we had a trip over to Edinburgh to visit the newly revamped National Museum of Scotland.  It has certainly changed and in some ways feels as if it has been pulled from the Victorian era straight into the 21th Century.  I hadn't taken my camera with me, and these are all from my phone, so sorry for the lower quality images, but I wanted to share some of the things I liked.

These little items above look a bit like buttons, but apparently they were used to decorate the interiors of Egyptian houses about 3,000 years ago.  To me, they still look really fresh and I could see the patterns being used in art today.

These dogs are part of 'Night Time Dreaming' by Australian artist, Wally Pwerle.

I am a sucker for Islamic tiles and this piece was fantastic.

Much of the museum remains unchanged, although the fishes have gone from the main courtyard, which is a terrible shame!  They were my favourite thing at the museum when I was a child.  However, the galleries and structure apart from the fish ponds looks unchanged.

The children made me go and visit the Space room, which is an area I generally avoid in museums.  However, I found it fascinating and really enjoyed a short film about the Big Bang, which said we are all made of stars.  I like that idea, being full of stardust.

 

Although the kids enjoyed the museum and want to go back, their attention span is limited, so we finished up at the Castle.  It was bitterly cold, but the sunset was amazing.  This a photo from the top as there was a beautiful and large full moon.  Given the poor camera though, this becomes like the old game of 'spot the ball' - the moon is there in the top left quadrant. 

The Museum is having an exhibition of Egyptian Mummies soon, so hopefully we can have another trip there soon.  We had lunch at the fabulous Fruitmarket Gallery cafe and caught the closing days of the Bill Bollinger exhibition.  The kids were totally relaxed with the 1970s  minimalist art work.  And I enjoyed watching the gallery attendants smirk at the visitors attitudes to seeing a piece of rope on the ground as the art work. As to the art work itself, I admit I struggle with it, especially as my practice is so labour/craft intensive!

So all in all, a great day out and it is good to remember that we have such fabulous places so close to home.

I couldn't resist

Normally, I avoid the temptation of showing cute photos of my little monsters on this blog as they aren't entirely relevant to my work; they only contribute to the lack of it! However, when we found our daughter last night curled up asleep on the chair on the landing rather than in her bed, wrapped up in the little quilt I made, I couldn't resist it. It's goodto share how my art works are used!

Christmas Slippers

Rather than do useful things leading up to Christmas, like get organised, make art or blog, I decided to make the family slippers for Christmas, using a pattern I had seen in Making magazine.
Amazingly, they all fit and the kids are enjoying sliding on our wooden floors whilst wearing them. I used a piece of over-felted felt for the soles, so hopefully they will last as long as the kids are their current shoe size.
It was nice to make something practical for once, although it would have been more practical to actually buy them and use my time more productively. I think the same could be said for the fudge made as gifts for teachers. It tasted great, but took ages and my pan still hasn't recovered from the burnt batch...!