FOQ - the Quilts!

Finally on the Sunday I had a chance to look at quilts. Due to the new camera, I managed to take far more than I usually do. The rechargable battery lasts a LONG time!

Here is a selection. I think you will see I was impressed with graphics that seemed to be 3D. and for others what drew me was definitely the image, the mood of the piece, or the admiration for what the artist had done with something that might not inspire others at all.

All of these artists have done an outstanding job and I congratulate them on their successes. Even if there wasn't a prize, the arresting quality of the pieces should be rewarded, and in some small way I am doing that here.

Arnout Cosman - Stacked

Joyce Gallagher - Tumbling Blocks

Maureen Poole - Potscape

Lynne Quinn - A Future and a Hope

Mary Mayne - Pegs

Rosemary Hutton - Silverware

A true 3D piece 

Louise Mabbs - Chequerboard Armadillo

Aliza Inbar - The Band

Erni Genswaider - Ways to Yogyakarta

Deborah Earll - Time Travels

 

Bente Kultorp Andresen - Aweleye

Actually quite large

Janneke de Vries Bodsinga - African Adventure

And Ferret's - Phoenix Rising

which you can see is the inspiration for the coat she had in the fashion show I showed two days ago.

FOQ - Contemporary Coffee Morning

Hmm... just found out I was nearly in a photo from the fashion show. The hands clapping in the forground here!

So anyway, after a late night at the fashion show, I woke early so I could get to the NEC for the rest of the set up for the Contemporary Coffee Morning.

Although most of us had never been to the event before, when the day actually came those had taken on a task just got down to it and did what they said they would do. What also should be noted, that most of us had only just met for the first time, the majority of the arrangements having been made online. Bernina helped to sponsor the event, but I missed out getting a photo of them at the beginning before they had to get back to the show floor.

At the event, groups of visitors rotated round the demonstrations with the assistance of very helpful "crowd control" ladies. It started off with somewhat even groups, but people continued to arrive through the morning...right up to nearly the end. Also, some of the guests had to leave early, so the size of the groups were quite different near the end, which is reflected in some of the photos.
The demonstrations included:

 Free Machine Quilting from Pauline Barnes

Painted Bondaweb from Penny Armitage

Drawing for Those Who Can't from Janet Cook

Using an Embellishing Machine from Jackie Smith

Cheat's Quilting from Sue Turner

Designing your Own Work from Your Photographs from Sandra Wyman

Because the demonstrations did not actively involve the visitors, I had imagined there would be those who would lose interest. Therefore, Chris Dixon and her helpers were prepared with a hands-on stamping/printing activity.

However, the guests were so absorbed in what was being said no one was inclined to wander. So Chris and her team busied themselves with starting the printing anyway and soon had the catering staff involved! One lady said, "I am going to go right downstairs and buy some of this stuff!"

We also had a table with sketchbooks and a few journal quilts from some of the members. Irene MacWilliams, who looked after the table, was able to help people to see how they could develop their ideas in various ways, (including NOT using sketchbooks, but little scraps of paper here and there round the house!) The sketchbook table was also helpful as a stop for guests arriving later in the morning to look while waiting for the next rotation of demos.

The responses to the morning were immediately positive. "You opened up a whole new world for me!" "Best £7 I ever spent!" But the success didn't stop there, we had people stopping us randomly the rest of the show to thank us and to say they had already joined CQ! A few of these live in countries where there are no Contemporary Quilters for them to connect with.

We had some great door prizes from well known authors and vendors. I don't know just what Hilary Gooding said to when she asked, but they were definitely not stingy in their donations!

CQ committee members receiving thanks from several satisfied guests!

Other comments... "It was the highlight of my show!" "Everyone explained things so well I actually think it is something I could do!" Someone said she had taken a 3-hour workshop in a technique the previous day, but got more out of the 15 min CQ demonstration! Comments coming through to committee members run along the lines of this one; "I'm out of my box and definitely not getting back in it no matter what."

THIS is why I am willing to organise things like this!

There were also benefits to those who participated. At least 2 of the demonstrators were asked to come to Scotland to do residential workshops for quilt groups. One demonstrator was offered a machine from Bernina to make work for their stand!

As I said in my report...Even though I was absolutely exhausted after the event, it was such a buzz to have such a smooth running event with such great results. A VERY BIG Thank you to everyone!

Here I am printing with found objects!

FOQ - international fashion show

On the Friday at the Festival of Quilts, I attended a SAQA event in the morning where we got to meet one another. There were more European members than I had realised. It was difficult though to catch names. Maybe as more of these events happen, we will begin to get to know one another.

In the afternoon, we started to set up for Saturday morning. As I mentioned, I was the co-ordinator for the Contemporary Coffee Morning. I will show photos of that tomorrow, but most of the setting up of tables and chairs were done by this gentleman, a friend of one of the demonstrators, and me.

This was Saturday morning. He didn't want his photo taken!

In the evening I went to the International Fashion show. Fashion San Frontiers  This was the first occasion and was a sort of challenge between Russian designers and British Quilters. On the whole, I think the Russian designers tried to incorporate quilting into their fashion and the quilters tried to incorporate fashion into their quilting. all of them did a VERY good job. I am SO proud of the Brits who manage to avoid the tragedy of garments that looked like one was wearing a quilt! Unfortunately, that is what too often happens when quilters try to make wearable art.

Apart from the appalling MC who really was an insult to the designers! The evening was great fun. I didn't get any good shots of the garments on stage, but they had them on display at the show later.

from some of the Russians. One who did everything in the colours of the Russian and British flag!

Two girls who are designers from the Inkberrow school of design were billed as one. Here is a dress from one of the girls. Some of the other work was made from sleeping bags! However, you would have never known straight away if you saw it on the street. Quite high fashion really!

This lady is known for her coiled fabric pots. How brave to go for it to do a garment!

This one is made from soil separator fabric left by builders!

My friend Ferret came through with a phoenix on leather, similar to a quilt she has done. She also made the victorian costume below, and a "suit of armour"in fabric, which her partner modelled.

PS I might put my hand up for next year!
Okay, Ferret is trying to convince me not to, and I know I probably need the pressure like a hole in the head. But well, what a chance to do some of the weird and wonderfuls in my head?

FOQ - Rayna's class - 2

I took a photo of my collection of fabric from Rayna's class. You can see how they start to work together when you are working with the same colours and the same sorts of screens.

I have zoomed into parts of the collection to explain them further.
The ones on the table have been left for the time being till I decide how I want to proceed. I really like the glow od the linen one, so don't want to rush in with any old thing to cover it.

I think I might like to try screening over texture with large areas. Rayna and some of the ladies had interesting mats with twirls and whirls that are meant to go in the bottom of your sink to protect glass. I think I will visit Dunelm Mills to see what is there, as that is where some got theirs.

You can see on the right the pieces I showed yesterday which had stamping. They also got a layer of screen printing through a thermofax screen "cracks". To me it gives a bit of an abstract thorns in front of the forest look. I especially like the one with the yellow circles as it gives a sort of moon through the forest look.

I mentioned the idea of writing on the screen with glue, letting it dry and then screening through it. I tried white on this piece and found it to be far too vivid because the paint was a bit thicker. However, after I blotted it, it looks a bit better. The backwards blotted bit also look interesting on the other piece. At least it redeemed my first attempt at layers which resulted on the overwhelming blue print in the centre of the piece. I added some "chicken wire" in black.

I decided to take this further by using it on the linen piece with the stripes.

I think I like this piece the best. It has the words and the thermofax cracks.

And these are the pieces that were really mopping up cloths or blotting cloths to start with, but I did some bits and pieces to them. One thing was to use a pet syringe that Rayna had given us to try making thin lines with the paint. After a bit I kind of worked out how to do it.

I am surprised at the triangular pink piece, because it isn't too bad. The piece to the left of it though, I decided was my one I liked the least. Not that I couldn't do something with it, but compared to the rest it is a bit too "grunge".

All these painted fabrics are so unlike anything I have in my stash. but I have been admiring this sort of look for sometime. These, of course, are all beginner pieces and I think I will work a bit more on the development til I get more of a feel for designs I can make that will combine with the ways I work now.

It might make a real difference to work on fabric I like to start with!

FOQ - Rayna's class

So, I better get on with showing a bit of what I got up to last week before it is next month!

I do understand now why people do masterclasses. if you are able to concentrate on something for 3 days in a row, you can start where you left off, rather than trying to get back in the groove a week or month later. I also know why people take a certain persons class a second time. Rayna does a class about what to do with the fabric now that you have made it. It would be fun to do that. But I can probably do something if I put my mind to it.

Here are a few photos of some of the printing I did. I was one of two students who hadn't really done this kind of printing before. On the first day, we learned the technique, and some moved onto brayering paint over textured surfaces. I tried a bit of that, but as it is something I have done with paint before I went back to the screen printing so I could get more confident about it.

Day one

Torn newspaper resist and "ghost prints"
I also featured on Rayna's blog Wednesday morning getting the technique on the previous day.

Second Day - getting the layers idea

masking tape resist and a bit of stamping

Day three - I was fighting off a migraine, so didn't take many photos. The room was very small and we had to wash screens off in the cleaners cupboard! We resorted to taping work up every where to dry. So, this photo is not too great because the light shines through the window.

Here is a clearer view of the one on the left. The one on the right only had the stripes at that point.

However, we had drawn with washable glue on the screen and let it dry over night. This acted as a resist so we had the design when we printed. I was going to add more photos to this post, but have decided to put them on Saturday's post.

We had been told to bring fabric we weren't happy with. for me that meant some of the failed snow dye stuff. However, it wasn't till the end that I started being happy with it. Moral? if you REALLY don't like it, you might find it difficult to get it to the point where you actually do!
So, anyway, with scarlet pinkish stuff and some purplish stuff, I tried to make the pieces work together somewhat so I can use them someway. I began to be a bit happier when I started working with a piece of rust dyed linen. The rust wasn't all over, so it works as a first layer. I should have realised I am partial to natural coloured fabrics.

A special thanks to Dorothy who loaned me a screen. I had tried to make one, but not really knowing what I was aiming for, ended up with one which only worked till the first washing out.

I got photos of some of the others work early on. I will post a few tomorrow. Most of it got more work done to it through the days.

Tudor Rose on the road

Today I have been parcelling and reparcelling Tudor Rose in order to get it to America for the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza XVII without it costing an arm and a leg. It will be part of the Stretching Art Exhibit. The theme is Famous Pairs. I made it a couple years ago, but I felt it fit the theme. I had wanted to make more work in a similar vein, but college was a bit too draining this year.

Detail

Description/Statement:
Henry VII, of the House of Lancaster, married Elizabeth of York helping to settle finally the Wars of the Roses: Red Lancastrian Rose vs White Yorkshire Rose. The symbol of the resulting House of Tudor was a combination of the two colours which became known as the Tudor Rose. These colours are reflected in the quilt. Techniques include burn marks on natural colour silk and red brocade quilted with copper thread. Inspiration for the Rose and Tudor couple are from historical artefacts and stonework at Cambridge University.

So, tomorrow I will post more about the Festival of Quilts.

Sky Princess gets an outing

As you may recall, I didn't manage to do as much to the Sky Princess as I had hoped, so I was a bit worried about how it would look at the show. Here are a few photos. Not winning quality by any means, but at least it held its own. The judges comments were kind as well. The fabric is not the best for holding up to shipping, even though I padded it very well.

front

side

detail

What do you think of the fastenings made from copper washers?

back

Here you can really see it needs more clouds.

So, hopefully in the next week or so?