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Quilts in four different exhibitions this weekend - all at once!

March 29, 2017, 1:22 am
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If I include my sashiko students' work which will be at the Spring Quilt Festval, Exeter, I will have work in four different exhibitions this weekend.  The sashiko sampler is in 'New Quilting' at the Rheged Centre, near Penrith. I'm not quite sure why the exhibition organisers wanted this one rather than the Denman Kannon, which is the more recent of the two, but it is there anyway.


'Sidmouth Revisited' will be at the Quilter's Guild AGM and Conference weekend in Torquay.  I'm not quite sure where it will be hanging, or whether that part of the conference area will be open to members of the public during the AGM meeting itself, which it was last year in Llandudno.


As previously mentioned, my sashiko students' samplers will be at the Spring Quilt Festival at Exeter.  This is the last time they will be shown together in that exact group, although I hope some of them will be able to be shown at SECC next March and perhaps make a trip to Japan together after that.



My other quilts on show will be at the Prague Patchwork Meeting over the weekend.  Somewhat by accident, these quilts all have a lot of machine work on them and are mostly machine quilted, with the exception of 'Solstice' (above - handquilted) and 'King of Hearts' (below - a mixture of hand and machine work).


'Secret Garden' (below) was long arm quilted by Ferret.


There's a little bit of sashiko inspired quilting on the tiled background on 'Fish and Chips' but the rest is machine applique.



'We are the Champions' (above), done for the 'Going for Gold' challenge at Malvern in 2012, and 'Missenden Now and Then' (below) are 100% machine sewn.  I've sent quilts to Prague that haven't been exhibited a lot before.  I wonder if quilters will think they are different to what they usually think I do, i.e. my Japanese quilts?


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Sidmouth Revisited - twice!

April 1, 2017, 10:48 pm
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Kim Higgins posted some photos on Facebook showing my Sidmouth Revisited quilt and Rachel Nichol's version hanging side by side at the Quilters' Guild AGM in Torquay this weekend.  Lovely photos and it is great to see them beside each other, even though it feels a little like seeing double!



Spot the difference!  Mine is above and Rachel's is below.


This is the original -


Another photo of mine, with slightly better lighting -



Kim wrote -

I'm probably not going to have time to look at the exhibition at the Torre Abbey this trip, so I'm glad to see two replicas of the Sidmouth quilt here at the conference.

I happen to be stood taking photos alongside Heather, the QGBI Curator of quilt collections so we admired these two together. 

Susan Briscoe's hand quilting of her replica deserves a photo of the back side too. I believe this is more authentic in terms of fabric colours, no binding and its hand quilted. Am I right to describe the back side as "wholecloth"?

But I love the fabric choices of Rachel Nichols' quilt which, in my opinion, still gives it an olde worlde antique look even with it being machine quilted.

I think I need to dig out the pattern from The Today's Quilter magazine and put it (yet another project) on my ever growing quilting to-do list!

The original is on show at Torre Abbey at the moment, along with some other quilts from the Guild's collection.

This is the first time I've really viewed the back with the quilt hanging up.  It still needs some extra quilting, but the quilting shows up very nicely on the cream sateen I used for the back.

UPDATE - I pasted all three together in this photo, so you can see them side by side.  The resolution isn't very high but you can still see it a bit larger if you click on the photo -

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A weekend at the Prague Patchwork Meeting - around Prague

April 5, 2017, 4:13 am
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We arrived on a very early flight on Friday morning and left on Monday morning, but we managed to pack so much into the weekend.  The evening view above was from the restaurant terrace where we joined the gala dinner party on Friday night.


I had stepped in at fairly short notice as another tutor had to go into hospital for an operation a few weeks ago, and wouldn't be able to participate this time.  I hope she is making a good recovery and will be back next year.  This is my little exhibition - six quilts which show a different side of my work from the Japanese inspirations that most people know.  It was good that a couple of the quilts which appeared in 'Compendium of Quilting Techniques' ('Solstice" and 'Missenden Now and Then') were in my selection as, unknown to me until Friday, it is now published in Czech!



We did my koi panel in sashiko in the Friday afternoon workshop, which was fun.  Everyone made a good start.  I might do this as a workshop at one of the UK shows sometime.


On Saturday, we went into the city by tram, following more or less the same route I took in 2010.  The trams are so easy to use.




The Schwarzenbersky Palace has the most amazing sgraffito wall decoration. 


There must be a quilt or two in it!





There is a wonderful view from this terrace -




Of course, it was a Saturday, the weather was good so the city was full of tourists.  I usually try to keep other people out of my photos.  But it was a bit difficult at the changing of the guard.



We were by the building used as Mozart's house in the movie 'Amadeus' when the military band retired.



This enclosed courtyard round the back of the castle reveals some of the oldest walls.



I retraced the route I walked on my last trip as much as possible.  However, security is much tighter now around the castle and cathedral, with bag checks and guarded entrances/exits, so we couldn't use the same route down from there as I did seven years ago, which was a shame.  I'm not even 100% sure those steps are still open to the public, as we couldn't find them at all.  The next five photos are from 2010.  More 2010 photos here.




I wanted to see this wall again, and maybe get better photos.


Seven years ago, it was much colder too.


The amazing retaining wall below the castle.



Glyn had read about this antique stove shop mentioned as a curiosity in one of our guide books, and we weren't even trying to find it, but we stumbled upon it quite by accident on our way to the Church of Our Lady Victorious.  So we were very pleased to find it.  I think it was one of the highlights of the city for Glyn!  The stoves are wonderful.  No, we didn't buy one, but we would like to.


On the Charles Bridge.



We saw this rather unusual spinning wheel outside of Manufaktura near the Old Town Square.


The astronomical clock.  You can't go to Prague and not see this.





We went to Wenceslas Square to find a bookshop so I could get a copy of the Czech translation of 'Compendium...' and there was a big Easter market.  Rather similar to the German Christmas markets we have in the UK.  There was a blacksmith working in the centre, with some lovely bells...


So we brought one back for our back door.  I'm glad we were flying back with the quilts as checked in baggage, as I don't know what the reaction would have been to us taking this as carry on! The perfect souvenir of Prague (along with some cheeses, cake and salami!)


Photos from the quilt show coming soon!

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A weekend at the Prague Patchwork Meeting - the quilts - Part 1

April 7, 2017, 3:21 am
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There were so many interesting quilts at the Prague Patchwork Meeting last weekend, and I can only show you a few!  So I will write a second post about them later.  Innovative use of materials seems to be a common link between many of the quilts, and is both refreshing and inspiring.  These are just quilts that grabbed my attention - my personal favourites.

As usual, click on the photos to see them at a larger size.  I have included the labels with the maker's details.

The first selection of quilts are from Pia Welsch's exhibition.  I love the innovative ways Pia has used some of my fabrics in her quilts.  The orange 'marbled' silk is one of mine.




Her kimono shaped series are very interesting.


The grey and peach wave patterin silk in this quilt is one of mine.



Also the rainbow wool in this one.  Alas, all these fabrics were sold out a while ago!



There was an exhibition of quilts from South Korea.  These were exquisite in design and stitching, with lots of texture in the fabrics.





Fabulous machine quilting in this motif.





This quilt caught my attention when I saw it on Friday morning.  Incredible!



I made a short video clip, as it is impossible to capture the sparkle of hundreds of crystals in a photo.




Corrine Zambeek van Hassett uses a very interesting batik technique to dye the fabrics for her quilts, which she kindly explained to me.  Wow! She really knows how to use colour.  We indulged in some of her hand dyed fabrics too - very, very hard to choose just a few to bring home...





Some of the quilts from the SAQA exhibit.







This exhibition was displayed on artist's easels.






Another quilt from the Korean exhibition.




Simple construction but a wonderful use of colour and value.


More quilt photos soon!
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City & Guilds Diploma exhibition next Sunday

April 19, 2017, 12:02 am
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Our C & G Patchwork and Quilting exhibition is next Sunday!  Hence my lack of blog posts in the last week - I am working flat out to get my final project finished.  I won't have everything done for the exhibition, but at least this will be.


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City & Guilds exhibition at Balfron

April 24, 2017, 5:48 am
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We have had a great weekend at the City & Guilds exhibition at Balfron.  Our tutor Gillian Cooper organised it at the McLintock Hall in the centre of the village.  The room was very well lit, with plenty of space.  Our work was displayed on a zigzag of quilt frames up and down the room.  Despite a slightly later arrival than we had planned (we stopped to pick up a 1950s kitchen table in Perth) and then not spotting the entrance to the hall car park (!), it took less than three hours to get everything set up and looking OK.


My final piece, a boro noren curtain I've called 'Departing Memories', is almost finished.  I need to do a little more hand stitching, a bit more beaching (not so strong as the double spiral), and add the touches of gold stencilling and Brusho pigment speckles.  It will need blocking and the top adjusting so all the panels hang level.


The fabrics include my Dad's old shirts, a pair of linen trousers I had tie dyed a few years ago, and some hand dyed muslin scrims from Images of Egypt.  The old family photos, scanned from prints and 35mm slides, are cyanotype prints.



I got a digital picture frame to show photos of work in progress, inspirations etc.


Papers and fabrics dyed, printed, foiled and stencilled during the course.


More fabrics printed and dyed during the course, below another variation on Japanese Circles and Squares, including breakdown printed and thermofax prints.


On Saturday evening, we had a private view.  As both the Certificate and Diploma students were exhibiting in the same show, there were a lot of people there.  This is Mahri Prince's final project, all naturally dyed.


Sue Selwyn's Japanese art inspired tryptich.



Ellen Griffith's work has a lot of historical inspirations.  Loved the cushion!


Catherine Palmer explored the imagery of Pacific cultures.


Sue and Gillian.  We each had a very nice gift of a Wonderfil thread selection box to take home, plus a certificate (not our C&G one yet).


Sunday was really busy.  I have no idea how many visitors we had, but it felt like well over a hundred.  I managed to get a few more photos in quieter moments, but there weren't many of those.











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Departing Memories boro - making

April 24, 2017, 6:42 am
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A few photos showing work in progress on 'Departing Memories'.




It was a problem keeping it still for a reference photo!







Marking the bleached spiral.



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Knitting and Stitching Show at Edinburgh

April 26, 2017, 7:17 pm
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I'm at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Edinburgh today, Friday and Sunday, and Glyn and Fiona will be there with my fabrics on Saturday (when I'm teaching).  Stand C16.  I have lots of 'new' vintage goodies!
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World Textile Day South on Saturday

May 2, 2017, 5:39 am
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World Textile Day South is on Saturday, at Wickham in Hampshire.  We'll be attending, although it might be the only time we get so far south for WTD!  All the info is at www.worldtextileday.co.uk  This event will be a special one for indigo and shibori fans, as Jenny Balfour Paul and Jane Callender are joining us.  We will be bringing lots of blue and white yukata fabrics to fit with the theme, including the new kits for my Fanoe quilt.



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Our trip to Kent and the South East of England - photos

May 9, 2017, 2:31 pm
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We started our trip to Kent with an outing to see Hartley Morris Men dancing at The Windmill at Weald last week.  Glyn joined in for the public dance at the end, Bonny Green Garters (Bampton) -



We stopped briefly in Steyning on our way to set up for World Textile Day at Wickham, which is where I spotted the wonderfully sabi side of this old building -



At World Textile Day.  I have packed some kits for the Fanoe quilt (behind Glyn in the photo) now I've got lots of vintage blue and white yukata cottons in stock.


A rare quiet moment at WTD, during the morning lecture.


Our theme this year is 'Colour', so I showed a furisode karinui (tacked fabric) and a man's dance yukata.



Here's Glyn at Toad Rock near Tunbridge Wells on Sunday.  It is kind of traditional for us to have a family photo here.  There's a photo of my mum at the rock about 60 years ago.




On our way over to New Milton yesterday, we had to stop off at Arundel and have a short exploration.  The town looks so lovely when seen from the A27, with the cathedral and castle looking majestic and fascinating.  The rest of the town didn't disappoint, with lots of antique shops and galleries, and an interesting bath shop (closed on Monday - probably just as well!)



I spotted this lovely Japanese Imari ceramic cat, about 13in (33cm) long, so he's coming home with us.




After a fun evening with New Forest Quilters showing them (some of!) my UFOs, we had an Introduction to Shonai Sashiko workshop today, and they all have a few extra UFOs now.  Tomorrow's sashiko workshop is with Chichester quilters, so I'll get some photos from that too.


We saw this amazing orange washing machine and tumble drier as we were leaving New Milton.  If I was going to be looking at a machine in my workroom, I'd want one of these...


They would go only too well with my Frister Rossman Cub 3!


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Workshop with Chichester Quilters last week

May 15, 2017, 6:28 am
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My second workshop last week was with Chichester Quilters, where members got started on sashiko kinchaku bag panels.  I don't have any photos of the workshop in progress, as Glyn took the camera into Chichester while I was teaching and enjoyed a mooch around some of the local architectural gems.







He spotted this piece of Roman mosaic in the cathedral, with a swastika twist pattern that later traveled along the Silk Route to China and later to Japan.



He thought the background on this embroidery looked just like free motion machine quilting!





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Talk in Perth next Saturday

May 18, 2017, 3:46 am
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I'm the main afternoon speaker at Region 16's Regional Day in Perth on Saturday 20th May.  My talk is 'Samplers and Settings', which is quite a new one and hasn't been heard very often.  All booking info is here.  Maybe see you there?
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Region 16's Regional Day

May 22, 2017, 3:10 am
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Thanks to Tarja Burlison for the photo of my talk for the Quilters' Guild's Region 16 Regional Day in Perth last Saturday.  We had a very enjoyable day, including presentations from some of the Guild's specialist groups (Contemporary, Modern, Miniature and Traditional - I'm a member of the last two) and a lecture by Professor Malcolm Lochhead about Keeping Glasgow in Stitches, the community mixed media textile project he designed in 1990 (there is also a book about the banners available and you can see photos on his website on the link above).  If you get a chance to hear his talk about the banners, he is an excellent speaker and also very amusing with the stories about the imagery and creation of each piece.


The quilt on the table to my right is the beautiful Edwardian Welsh silk patchwork quilt I bought eighteen months ago from the Antique Textiles Company.  I am planning to make a new version of it soon and will be offering the pattern to Today's Quilter. One of the members on Saturday thought this part of the border looked like beach huts - what do you think?
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What I am working on today...

May 26, 2017, 3:56 am
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I'm working on another version of my Masu quilt, which was designed for kimono width fabrics (although it also works with fat quarters). This time, half the fabrics are chusen stencil-dyed cotton yukata and half woven stripes from Nukomori Koubou.  I'm using one metre pieces and only twelve fabrics, unlike the original (below) which had eighteen different silk and wool kimono fabrics.  Because the yukata designs are very large and there is a lot of variety in the strips cut from one fabric, I wanted to see how well the pattern would work with fewer fabrics.  It is taking a little more planning to keep them really well mixed up!


This time, I'm going to use a narrower border too, so the finished quilt will be slightly smaller, at approx 69 inches square.

Instead of alternating between light and dark fabrics in my blocks, I'm alternating between striped and stenciled, whether they are dark or light.  The amount of plain background in most of the yukata prints means that I've managed to get plain and patterned pieces from the same fabric.



Some of the stripes are very colourful.  I'm using the sixth (blue) stripe from the top in the photo above, and the one just below it, which is a pretty pastel stripe, also on the top in the photo below.  The yellow stripe is also in the blocks.


I have a printed pattern available for this quilt and will also be making some kits of the yukata and stripe versions - the colourful one I'm making, a greens/purple/yellow version and a blue/white/red/bright colours one.  Photos once I've got the blocks finished and the top made.

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New Edinburgh sashiko dates! - and sashiko samplers in progress

May 30, 2017, 3:06 am
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We had a get together for some of the sashiko students from this year's and last year's Edinburgh courses on Sunday, to see how everyone is getting on.  Catriona, Fiona and Jo brought their sampler blocks and we had fun trying out a few different arrangements, deciding on how to use the sashing and border fabrics etc.  With tea and refreshments organised by Fiona too.

I have arranged next season's dates for our sashiko course at Edinburgh Patchwork.  They are all Saturdays once again - 7th October 2017, 21st October, 18th November, 9th December, 3rd February 2018, 3rd March, 24th March and 14th April.  As we have done in previous years, the class will run from 10.30 a.m. to 4p.m. and the shop opens at 10.  The course outline is staying the same -
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  • Session 1 - rice stitch variations and woven stitches - small samples –on 4 1/2in squares, with grids directly drawn on the fabrics.
  • Session 2- persimmon flower stitch, coin stitch and variations - small samples and long sampler, plus more variations on persimmon flower stitch - triple, igeta pattern, infinite - on 4 1/2in squares.
  • Session 3 – introduction to flower diamond pattern, fish scale stitch, diamond stitch, abacus stitch - on 4 1/2in squares plus stitching on stripes and patterns in circles.
  • Session 4 – fans and kamon crests – marking and stitching corner fans and family crests – on 9in squares, using paper templates for the fans and chaco transfer paper for the crests.
  • Session 5 – drawing larger patterns with straight lines – raimon (lightning spiral), masuzashi(stacking boxes), asanoha (hemp leaf) and elongated asanoha – all on 9in squares.
  • Session 6 – moths/butterflies, grasses and bamboo patterns – patterns for all over pictorial effects - on 4 1/2in squares
  • Session 7 – drawing larger patterns with curved lines – shippou(seven treasures – like wineglass), fundou(balance weights – like applecore patchwork), nowaki (grasses in clamshell shapes), seigaiha (ocean waves, also clamshell shaped) and ganzezashi (sea urchin stitch, a variation on shippou) – all on 9in squares.
  • Session 8 -– sewing samples together into a patchwork sampler – with a brief look at some of the denser hitomezashi patterns - paving block, kasuri (ikat) check, ground stitch, cedar stitch, facing butterfly, arrow stitch.  It will be possible to do this session with any combination of samples made in the previous sessions – 4 1/2in and 9in – using 1in sashing strips.
The cost this year will be £40 per session, payable one session in advance.  Please contact me via my website if you are interested in attending.

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This is Catriona's sampler in progress.  She is going to make a wallhanging (all three samplers from Sunday will be wallhangings) and luckily is just about to move into a new flat with high ceilings!  Apologies for the shadows in the photos. It was really sunny on Sunday and the room we were in had a logo on the window, and pillars on the facade.


Fiona with her sampler (and I'm trying to block the light a bit!)  She is going to use the green/ochre/cream striped tsumugi cotton in the first photo for her sashing, playing with the stripes going in different directions.  There are touches of green/autumn coloured shaded threads from Hida Sashiko here and there on the blocks too.


Jo's sampler will include a gorgeous hemp and cotton stencilled yukata along with striped tsumugi shading across blues and purples, and a two tone purple and black tsumugi for the sashing.  Lovely effects possible with these fabrics and the sashiko blocks. Purple details in the blocks.


I tried another photo a bit further away from the window!



Sam and her mum Pamela from last year's group joined us. These are the panels they started in the extra December class we did last year, where we made marumon (circular designs) inspired by kamon crests and other Japanese designs, making kirikami papercuts for our templates.  Sam's panel is above.


Jo also made a panel in that class and it is almost finished, inspired by a piece of antique Japanese embroidery.


I've been asked to run this class again - are people interested in it?
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World Textile Day Central (Kings Sutton) on Saturday

May 31, 2017, 1:33 am
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We are off to Kings Sutton near Banbury for World Textile Day Central on Saturday 3rd June.  This time we have a much bigger car than last year, when we had to turn the Micra into a tardis! So we have a lot more of this than last time...

 


I got one of Bob's baskets at the last WTD - wonder what I'll bring home this time?





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World Textile Day last Saturday and on June 17th WTD Scotland

June 4, 2017, 1:40 am
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We had a very good day at World Textile Day in Kings Sutton yesterday and met some great people.  I'm looking forward to seeing photos of some of the interesting projects planned using my fabrics!

If you have ever wondered at the amount of work that goes into setting up a World Textile Day, here are some of the 'behind the scenes' photos from Friday afternoon.  Typically, we set up the show in less than six hours, but that is after our traders have driven heavily packed vans and cars from all regions of the UK, usually starting our journeys the previous day, after packing the vehicles...  On top of the travels we all do to source our goodies - and a lot of them really do take a great deal of hunting down - there is a lot of work to do to set up the event.  But it means we can bring our treasures to a hall near you.







Our next World Textile Day is at Bridge of Allan, near Stirling on June 17th.  Looking foward to seeing everyone there once again!
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World Textile Day Central - in photos

June 5, 2017, 2:37 am
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Here's a few photos from World Textile Day at Kings Sutton last Saturday.  John Gillow started off the 'crazy headgear' theme for our group photo above!








Our next World Textile Day is on Saturday 17th June at Bridge of Allan, near Stirling.
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Sashiko on Sewing Quarter TV

June 7, 2017, 12:27 am
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I heard from a friend of my mum's that my sashiko books were featured on the Sewing Channel TV yesterday - you can watch it again on youtube.  The sashiko section starts one hour in.

Their studio is in Birmingham, but we have talked about me going on the show sometime.


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World Textile Day Scotland, at Bridge of Allan next Saturday (June 17th)

June 14, 2017, 6:07 am
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WTD Scotland is on Saturday - www.worldtextilday.co.uk.  I'm spending the next few days preparing...


I have some lovely new fabrics for this show, including quite a lot of the crisp blue and white yukata cottons I'm so fond of.  After launching the blue and white version of the Fanoe quilt last year, I now have some kits packed up too.  I'm doing these with a great discount for the bundles, as the fabric costs are approx. £185, but we are doing the kits, including the £8 pattern, for just £165.




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