Festival of Quilts 2015 - In The Spotlight

I have a quilt in the exhibition called 'In The Spotlight' which is a small gallery showing up and coming quilters at the show and it is not part of the competitions so it is not judged at all.  Trouble is that not all the quilters are up and coming, some are well known and it is stretching the term a bit.... I will say no more.

Anyway, this is the first time I have ever had a quilt put up at a major show and so I thought I would post a photo of it.  This is the one I took at home because the show organisers have put a spotlight shining onto the middle of the quilt and I think it is too bright so the photo of it I took at the show is not as good as this one I took in my spare bedroom at home.  The theme we were given was "Adventures in Wonderland" to celebrate 150 years of the Alice in Wonderland book by Lewis Carroll.  I liked the rabbit because of its heart heraldry.  I think if you look closely you will see I have tried to inject some humour into the theme.  I am pleased with the quilt but think I should have quilted the background, so I ordered Diane Gaudynski's book called 'Guide to Machine Quilting' just now because I think it will inspire me.  When I receive the quilt back I may have another fiddle with it.  After all, I am an up and coming quilter and I am still learning.

Farfield Mill - Margaret Townsend quilt

Great minds think alike, I bought this material too.  The one with the hearts on it, except I thought it would make some great table mats, funny how different the two uses are and yet the hearts are very apt on the edge of this quilt.  I love the whimsical feel this work has and the way she has made the work come together with the use of narrow strips of fabric, a technique which I sometimes employ.  I began to think that sometimes when we go to a quilt show there is so much to see that we pass each quilt by far too quickly to move onto the next one instead of settling down for a really good look and think about the one infront of us.  So take your time and have a good look at this one just like Margaret did when she designed it.

I also like to make tabs on the top of smaller quilts for hanging them by and often use a stick or piece of bamboo as the pole. I chose to photograph a close up of the dog becaue I like dogs in quilts.  My own piece on show in the same room had several dogs on it too. But not like this one which appears to be a fox terrier or Jack Russell. I love the change in 'pace' which the night scene with the owl brings to the quilt and also the way the bars of fabric interact to give subtlety to the fowls and animals which might appear too crude if not sympathetically framed.  Yes I think this is a fun quilt.  Underneath I have reproduced the text from the card displayed with the quilt.

Margaret Townsend

Daisy’s Birthday Pieces

Margaret’s grand-daughter, Daisy, gave her a bag of small pieces of fabric for her birthday, which she brought from a local quilt sale. Shortly afterwards, Margaret came across the work of Janet Bolton, and then her book, My Grandmother’s Patchwork Quilt - so she felt she had to make the quilt! The wall-hanging is hand stitched using needle turned appliqué onto a background fabric, quilted onto a wool batting foundation, with surface embroidery, it falls into the category of Folk Art.

Dumfries EG some of the photos

A pretty display up the top of the stairs

 The display was brilliant and filled two rooms plus all the way up the stairs, but photography is not always simple in such situations.  Some of the embroideries had glass over them which made it almost impossible to take a decent photo. So I have a taken ones I thought would show the diversity of their work. I did not have a catalogue so I cannot give all of the names and techniques here but I am sure you won't mind.

Shirley McKeand's Jacobean waistcoat

 I did recognise Shirley's work straight away as she is a very talented embroiderer and studied and worked in couture for many years.  She had quite a few jackets and coats in the exhibition and this was just one of them showing how she uses crewelwork to enhance a waistcoat.

Lovely silk paper slippers by Lynda Crowson

Some of you will know that I am particularly fond of making silk paper and then turning it into all sorts of objects, but I have never made a pair of tiny slippers, so these attracted my attention. I also liked the little needle punched puffins which you can just see below them, but I will post photos of them and other delights another day.

Dumfries Exhibition another snippet

Family Portrait by Maggie Goodyear

Well here is another reminder about the Dumfries show which ends this Saturday, 12th May; so go and see it if you are dallying before it closes.  The show includes quilts, embroideries and examples of spun and woven textiles. It is at the Gracefield Arts Centre Dumfries.

I will be posting more photos soon but meanwhile I thought you might like to look at these lovely birds as it is the nesting season, especially in my garden, where the sparrows, blackbirds and dunnocks have been particularly pleasing in their antics this year.

Solway Quilters

Catherine Mandoki "Liberty in the museum"

Yesterday I had the pleasure of a day off and went with the EG ladies and the Cumbria Patchworkers to Dumfries in Galloway to their show.  It was inspirational. This quilt used Liberty fabrics reproduced by them for their late 18th century and 19th century quilts and coverlets for the Victoria and Albert Museum 2010 exhibition. It was hand appliquéd, pieced and quilted. There were strong spotlights hanging from the ceiling so I could not avoid the loss of colour on the top left hand corner. I did try enhancing with photopaint to get rid of it but the degredation to the rest of the quilt was not worth it.  Catherine it was lovely to meet you again and thank you for being a loyal follower of this blog.

I will be posting more soon but the show had embroidery as well as quilts so if you look at the Keswick Embroiderers' blog you will be able to see some more exhibits. I am not sure when Lesley will post, but I expect it will be soon.

A very brief glimpse at the exhibition on Friday if you missed it.

A rug made by Verena in superb colours and yes I seem to have picked out the items which showed our diversity as a group and not those which are strictly embroidery.  This is deliberate because I don't want you to think that we are not multi talented.......

A real eye stopper of a felt bag and I don't know who made it, sorry, but if you know perhaps you will comment on the blog. I imagine it was made during our felt bag making workshop with Marilyn Hughes.

And to finish a small part of a sampler just incase you really wanted to see loads of embroidery. I think it says it all really; and so I take my leave before I become verbose.

Cheshire Textiles exhibitions

Notice of two exhibitions have been emailed to us and the details are below:-

Bankfield Museum
Boothtown Road
Halifax
HX3 6HG
Tel: 01422 352823/352334
Open: Tuesday to Saturday 10 am – 5 pm
Sundays: 1pm – 4pm
Bank Holiday Mondays: 10 am – 5pm

11th July – 6 September 2009

‘Evolution - Celebrating 21 years of Cheshire Textiles’

And for those of you who like to be nearer home:-

Farfield Mill Arts and Heritage Centre
Garsdale Rd
Sedburgh
Cumbria LA10 5LW
Tel: 015396 21958
Open 10.30 – 5 daily

4 July – 30 August 2009

‘21 Vessels Plus’
Cheshire Textiles at Farfield Mill

Sadly, no illustrations or photos were included so you will have to use your imagination. And you may have noticed that Sedbergh is not quite as we spell it, I only copy the posts I don't always correct. Lyn