Festival of Quilts 2010 - Quilts to Inspire and Delight

These are some of the quilts I admired at Festival of Quilts last week.  I have taken the notes from the Twisted Thread Catalogue of Competition Entries.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did and I congratulate all the entrants for their wonderful and inspiring work.

This is "A Moment In Time" by Sue Rhodes of Heathfield, The fabric was hand dyed and screen printed cotton sateen, pieced bargello-style, with machine trapunto and free machine quilting.  A sea-lily falls onto an ancient sea bed, breaks, and becomes enclosed forever, trapped within fossilised bands of rock strata.

Below is "The Snow"  by Sue Hunt of Solihull, and a detail of the quilt,  Hand printed, pieced, hand and machine quilted.  I took photographs of my garden in the snow, also Edward Elgar's piece "The Snow" words by Alice Cooper.

Next I admired the Winner of the Quilters' Guild Challenge the theme of which was "Summer In The City".  This is by Cherry Vernon-Harcourt of Saffron Walden, A whole cloth quilt, Procion dyed fabric.  Screen printed and scraped with discharge paste and procion dye.  City coastal lands are the inspiration for this quilt.

Birgitta Debenham of Dorchester appealed to my love of Japanese textile style with this wonderful piece, "Seven Stars", Whole cloth shibori: stitched resist, pole warpped and painted with metallic fabric paint, machine quilted.  Applied beads and pailettes.  Cotton/polyester batting.

Detail of "Seven Stars":

Coats Crafts sponsored a showcase of quilt "Diversity in Europe" and I liked this piece by Svava K Egilsson of Iceland called "Magic-Bridge".

 

My next quilt to share is rather an unusual choice for me but I thought it was wonderful in detail, softness and concept.  It is Jennifer Hollingdale's "Button Up", linens and cotton shirting, recycled pieces of clothing, vintage button cards, buttons and tape - scree printed images of buttons, cut-up, reassembled, machine pieced, hand quilted and applied, buttoned together using rouleaux loops, 118 x 118 cm.

Here is a little closer look:

Finally, a quilt that was of special interest and a particular source of inspiration for me as I will be visiting Marrakech later this year. If only I am able to create something as wonderful as Pauline Barnes of Sutton Coldfield's "Marrakech", Hand dyed fabric, Thermolam, various fabric incl. sheers, matallics, silk etc.  Print, apint; applique, quilting, and stitching all by machine.  The buildings are covered - inside and out - with tiles, plaster work, filigree, mosaics.  An abstract look at this 'busy' architecture.

Festival of Quilts 2010

I've posted about my visit to the Festival of Quilts at Online Quilting, both about the wonderful quilts I saw exhibited there and about the various purchases I made (well, it's rude not to isn't it?) and here I want to share the Japanese goodies I brought home from Birmingham.
My first stop was at Susan Briscoe's stand where I bought some lovely vintage kimono fabric pieces which I am going to use for some fabric postcards, all gorgeous autumnal leaves on a sashiko background (hopefully).

I've never made a doll but I couldn't resist this kimono-clad doll kit from Step By Step Patchwork Centre.

And I negotiated for two free FQs with the purchase, I feel a bag coming on!

There were other trade stalls selling Japanese fabrics but I have to say I was surprised at how much variation there was in both price and quality.  It was worth having a good look (and feel) around before settling on what to buy and I'm very happy with what I brought home.

I enjoyed seeing this Japanese-inspired jacket in the exhibition, I hope you can see the detail in the photograph.  The garments, "Gifts 'Round the World'" by Elizabeth Shapland  included curved piecing, applique, beading, hand-quilting with speciality threads and Japanese-style knotted insert strips.

A great find came at the very end of the day, just as I was heading towards the exit.  A stand filled with Japanese fabrics, all half metres, all £3 each.  On the stand were a young couple from California who come over to Festival of Quilts each year.  A shop in Chichester also stocks some of their gorgeous Japanese fabrics.  It's The Eternal Maker and is, of course, on my must visit list now.

It was difficult to select just a few fabrics (and they could only take cash so I was limited) but I was inspired by the indigo and terracotta quilt on display on the stand and so I went for these:

Festival of Quilts 2010 - Part 2

I promised to share my Festival of Quilts loot with you so here goes.  As I am a little partial to textiles Japanese I did veer towards traders that were offering such goodies.  In fact so much so that my friend Trish started to tease me, just a little, "Look, there's some fabric called "Tokyo"...on that stall".  I had a great time at Susan Briscoe's stand (which was high on my list of those to visit) and then, as we were heading for the exit I found a wonderful array of Japanese fabrics that I was totally unable to resist - last minute impulse buys, brilliant.  Please head over to my other blog for Japanese eye candy and links later this week.

Not all my purchases were oriental though.  I "needed" to stock up with wonderful Aurifil thread and as soon as I saw Alex Veronelli across the hall I made a beeline for the gorgeousness of their threads.  I bought the absolutely fabulous Rose of Sharon collection by Sharon Pederson. 

 Isn't that a divine set of colours?  I use Cotton Mako' 40 weight for most things, Aurifil say:

Cotton Mako' 40

Ideal for Machine Quilting , it is a little heavier to show off the quilting stitches. This is the "universal" thread weight in the Mako' range, perfect for quilting, as it is a little finer than the Mako' 28 "Quilting" thread it is great for ditch stitching and fine detail work, while still having sufficient definition to look good when you want the thread and stitching to show. Available on 1000 metre (1094 yd)  green plastic spool holder. 

I also bought a large cone of a basic grey and some delicious variegated threads, mmmmmmmmm.  Love this thread.  It is expensive but it stitches smoothly and finely with little lint and fluff, well worth the extra cash in my opinion. 

My next port of call was at Art Van Go, a wonderful supplier of all things fabric art, dyeing and messy.  This is more Trisha's area, she does exciting, embellished, experimental work, but I want to try my hand at dyeing - I haven't done it since I was a primary school teacher and my whole class made Dylon tie-dyed, underwater-themed cushions.  The choice of powders and potions was a little overwhelming so I made a selection from the "starter" kits and am now waiting for a dry, warmish day to get outside and take steps into this new and interesting area.  Of course, faced with all the goodies available I couldn't stop at one kit so I now have

Procion MX Dye Starter Pack
Contains six mixing colours in red, yellow and blue
as selected by Ruth Issett. 200gms Urea, 6
Pipettes, foam brush and easy instructions.
(Washing soda/soda ash, salt and Calgon also
required.)
11103 £15.95

Indigo Starter Pack
Indigo Vat 60% grains and Hydros, plus gloves, mask
and complete instructions. Will make an Indigo Vat of
15 litres or more.
14103 £9.00

and 

'Peeznkarat' Cyanotype Kit
Create beautiful permanent blueprints on fabrics
and other surfaces. Chemicals to treat approx. 1m
natural fabrics. Instructions included
17101 £7.25

I was delighted to meet Gail Lawther who has recently published a wonderful book about her series of New Zealand quilts called "Glimpses of New Zealand.  We had tried to get a place on her workshop but, unsurprisingly, they were sold out on the day booking opened.  Instead I bought Trish and I the kit 

which we would have used in the workshop and we're going to have fun working together to create our own interpretations of Gail's New Zealand seascape wallhanging (far left on the book cover below).

Of course there was fabric, what were you thinking of me?  Not as much as I expected to buy actually but, apart from the impulse Japanese fabrics I was buying for planned projects - impressed?  I bought this selection from Quilt Essential for an autumn block swap:

and these from Doughty's for a Christmas block swap:

and then I was off my list and seriously into impulse buying!  The first was a doll kit and I don't even make dolls, but she was wearing a kimono, what could I do?  Especially when I cheekily bagged two free FQs with the purchase from Step By Step Patchwork Centre!  

 The second was this:

 Can you tell what it is yet?

It is mulberry bark.  I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with it but I just wanted it.  I love the look of it, the texture and the colours and it wasn't expensive (£2.50 for that piece) so how could I resist?  There's a little more about it here at mijn-eigen.nl 

Here is one of my final purchases, gorgeous eh?  I'll put the rest at Sashiko Started It later on so do pop over there and enjoy. 

The Great Global Christmas Swap 2010

I know it's only August but I received an email from Fiona Marie this morning and it's time to sign up for the Great Global Christmas Swap 2010.  I had such fun doing the swap last year and made friends with Sal in Australia which led to the formation of a small swap group around the world that we call Global Piecers.  (there's nothing on our blog yet but it's a case of watch this space!) So far we have swapped Christmas blocks, Easter pincushions, we're in the middle of a postcard swap, send each other birthday fat quarters and are organising our Autumn and Christmas swaps for this year at the moment.  From such small seeds do exciting things grow. 
Take a look and see if Fiona Marie's swap is for you. I'm certainly going for it again.  There are gorgeous festive bag patterns as part of the swap and the money raised is to help children with cancer.

Festival of Quilts 2010 - Part 1

Here's my first photo report from the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England.  The next one will show you where my credit card got battered.
I travelled to NEC with quilting/textiles friend, Trish, who did a brilliant job with the driving (especially in the torrential rain all the way home after an exhausting day) and Pam and June, excited to be attending FoQ for the first time.  We had a great day but today I am shattered and ache in places I didn't know I had (not just my purse).

There are some whinges about the show - particularly why was the trading area so cramped and also confusingly arranged in blocks rather than rows?  Overall though it was a good show with a rich variety of quilts and textile creations on display (fewer than usual I thought, maybe somebody will correct me on that one).  Here are my photos of the day:

Susan Denton's atmospheric landscape quilts attracted my attention.  Here are "Field Walk" and "Winter Allotments"

It was a delight to meet up with fellow blogger, Suzan, at lunch time (and very welcome to sit down and chat for a while).  I have to say I was impressed with the way the catering was organised, no table-bagging but rather a table made available as we got to the till with our lunches and drink.

The next piece to thrill me was this gorgeous piece by Lia Flemings, delicious.

Time for another sit-down and Trish and I went off to stand E42 to make a Morsbag.  How brilliant this project is, take a look at the website for all the information, patterns and ethos.

"Mission:  Impossible 2" (below), exhibit 764, was the amazing work of Kumiko Frydl of Texas, USA, the winner of the Miniature Quilts class.
The judges' comments read:  "Stunning!  Precision personified.  Wonderful detail" and many people spent a long time peering at this exquisite work nearly unable to believe the 128 point Mariner's Compass was really pieced (paper foundation), reverse appliqued and then freemotion quilted.

Added 23 August from "comments":
Dottymo said... Thought you would like to know. The miniture quilt 'Mission Impossible 2' won BEST IN SHOW. 

Exhibit 822 caught my eye, probably because of the Japanese influences initially.  The garments, "Gifts 'Round the World'" by Elizabeth Shapland of London included curved piecing, applique, beading, hand-quilting with speciality threads and Japanese-style knotted insert strips.

One of the quilts I would have loved to take away with me, one I could both admire and live with, was "Moonstruck", below, by Jean Chesnek.  I found the colours, curves and quilting to be very pleasing and was interested by the idea of rust-dyeing.

Finally today then, Christina Henri's "Roses from the Heart" project.  Since 2003, Christina, a conceptual artist from Tasmania, has focussed on the lives of convict women transported to Australia.  Her mission is to gather and exhibit 25,566 bonnets, one for each woman and including those women and babies who died on the way.  I'm sure you will have read about this project but to see all those bonnets spread out on the floor initiated an emotional reponse and I was moved to contribute.

 

If you're off to the Festival of Quilts this weekend I hope you have a great time and I look forward to reading all your thoughts and responses - it's a very personal thing isn't it?!

Been Stitching

I'm shocked to see how long it is since I last wrote a post.  I have several excuses, would you like to hear them?  No? Oh well, fair enough!
I haven't done a lot of stitching but what I have done has been of the extremely noble kind - I've been working on my UFOs/WIPs.  I do seem to recall promising that I would finish one project for each new one I started....
So, I've been working on journal quilts from my trip downunder earlier this year, I'm making good progress on a quilt for my daughter and I've done another block for my sampler quilt.
As far as new projects - I've joined the BQL postcard swap group.  I had lots of information from Sue about this group and decided to go for it as the swaps are small (7 other people maximum) and optional - so no pressure.
I have nothing much to show you but I can't do a post without a photo so how about this one?  Wouldn't these tiles in Jerusalem be a great design for a quilt?

Lest We Forget

My Visit to Japan - Part 8

Ueno Park (an extremely busy stop on theYamanote Line) is one of the largest parks in Tokyo. The attractions of the park, include the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Western Art, the Shitamachi Museum, the Ueno Zoo, the Shinobazu Pond and also the park serves as a haven for Tokyo's homeless.  We were too late for cherry blossom viewing (April) but this is apparently when Ueno Park is busiest.  Having said that, it was extremely busy when we were there, during Golden Week, and was full of Japanese families enjoying picnics, visiting the many attractions and shrines and the associated food stalls and making the most of the holidays.

Among all the hustle and bustle we came upon a particularly quiet area, the Flame of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  It seems right to share this at this time.

The sign, photographed below, explains how the flame came to Ueno Park:

The Origin of the "Flame of Hiroshima and Nagasaki"

On August 6, 1945, US forces dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and another on Nagasaki on August 9 the same year, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in an instant. Even now, many survivors are still suffering from the damage.

Sometime later, Tatsuo Yamamoto went to Hiroshima in search of his uncle, and found a flame of the atomic bomb burning in the ruins of his uncle's house. He brought it back to Hoshino-mura, his hometown in Fukuoka prefecture. He kept it burning in his house as a memento of his uncle and an expression of his resentment. But years went by, the meaning of the flame turned into a symbol of his desire for abolition of nuclear weapons amd for peace. Hoshino-mura village built a torch and transferred the flame to it on 
August 6, 1968. It has been keeping the flame ever since as the flame for peace, with the support of the villagers.

"The use of nuclear weapons will destroy the whole human race and civilization... The elimination of nuclear weapons... has become the most urgent and crucial for the very survival of the whole of humanity. There must never be another Hiroshima anywhere on earth. There must never be another Nagasaki anywhere on earth." (From the "Appeal from Hiroshima and Nagasaki" issued in February 1985)

In 1988, a flame was taken from the torch and was merged with another flame lit by the friction of broken roofing tiles of Nagasaki. Along with 30 million signatures collected in support of the "Appeal from Hiroshima and Nagasaki", it was carried to the third Special Session of the UN General Assembly for Disarmament taking place in New York City.

In April the same year, members of "Shitamachi People Association" put forward an idea of lighting the flame at the precinct of Ueno Toshogu Shrine in Tokyo. Rev. Shozen Saga, the chief priest, warmly welcomed the proposal, and promised to set up a monument and work together to keep the flame burning.

In April 1989, an "Association for the Flame of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Lit at the Ueno Toshogu" was founded with the people of wide ranging people. Tens of thousands of people took part in the fund-raising for over one year and the construction of the monument was completed on July 21, 1990.

In commemoration of the 45th year of the A-bomb tragedies, a flame of Hiroshima was taken from Hoshino-mura and lit at the monument on August 6, and a flame of Nagasaki, generated by the friction of Nagasaki roofing tiles, was also added to the monument.

We hereby pledge to keep burning the A-bomb flame, convinced that this monument should contribute to strengthening the worldwide people's movement to abolish nuclear weapons and achieve peace, which is the most urgent task for the people across the borders.

August 1990
Association for the Flame of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Lit at the Ueno Toshogu

Here is an Eyewitness Account of Hiroshima by Father John A. Siemes, professor of modern philosophy at Tokyo's Catholic University:

http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/Hiroshima/Hiroshima_Siemes.shtml

Hesitation, then a Decision

I'm about to do something rather different for me and have been thinking about it for a while and then decided to jump in, all needles and scissors blazing.
I'm going to do an online course with Jude Hill at Spirit Cloth.  The course begins in September and runs for four weeks, it is called Cloth to Cloth and is a re-run of the over-subscribed course Jude ran earlier in the year.
Her courses are unusual, challenging and interesting, have a look at Jacky's blog to see what she's been doing on two other Spirit Cloth workshops and get a teasing view of the original Cloth to Cloth in the second part of this post by Nat.  I think these classes will take me out of my comfort zone, I like to be in control and Jude seems to do a lot of "what iffing".  I'll share my experiences here and I believe there are a couple of places left for the Cloth to Cloth course if you are tempted, plus other things coming along in the future.
If you get Quilting Arts magazine you'll find an article by Jude Hill in the current (August/September) issue.

Who are Global Piecers?

We are a small, but select, group of quilters who have joined together across the world to share our passion for quilting and other aspects of our lives.  We have regular swaps and although the group is not currently open to new members this blog is to share what we do and hopefully get some feedback and new ideas.
We are:
Carole in USA
Joan in USA
Katrina in New Zealand
Lis in England
Sal in Australia
Tanya in Australia
Teresa in Scotland
Twila in USA