Festival of Quilts 2016: Free Motion Stitching From Life

Lots of posts to write on my 4 days at the Festival of Quilts   starting  with the one day class  on Wednesday  with Susan Chapman   drawing with the sewing machine. I had a 4.30 am start  from London  but fueled by  coffee I didn't flag too much  until the afternoon.
On  loaned Bernina B330  machines (luckily   not too dissimilar  to my Activa 125 )  we started with some warm up exercises on  2  layers of medium calico : feed dogs up, stitch length zero, fast feet, slow hands, shoulders back , breathe!! 

After some scribbles  and writing our names, we 'drew' various machine feet and gadgets with continuous line.  Who knew they could be so interesting!! We then drew our neighbour - Judith made a very good job of drawing me reading my Kindle - mine of her was less successful.  We both agreed it's much easier drawing people   who are wearing glasses.

In the afternoon Bailey  patiently sat   in 3  different half hour poses  wearing a variety of different clothes and accessories - hat was good, the scarf very difficult.

 

Then in contrast to normal life classes where you have quick poses then a more sustained  session, we had Bailey standing  for 5 minutes. These were my favourite sketches - no time to overthink, I love the energetic lines produced.

A very satisfying afternoon's work ! Other used scraps of fabric and added  coloured details to some of their drawings - I'd run out of steam after my early start,

  Susan was an excellent tutor and I loved her figures in the 'Quilt Creations' section of the show and the sentiments behind it; ' Communion' is a vision of the world where all nationalities and cultures will stand together. There will be no hatred of people simply because of colour , religion or culture  but an understanding and tolerance of their differences. Amen to that.

I also spent some considerable time with the stitched pieces by Rosie James in the 'Art Textiles:Made in Britain ' gallery, looking with even more admiration now I'd had a go at the technique myself.

This afternoon I wanted to have a go at home on my own machine while the instruction  was fresh in my mind. Ian was a  willing if fidgety model - I'll make a better job of his head next time, it definitely did not show my handsome husband at his best!

The ' selfie' I did in the mirror, as Penny pointed out on Facebook, made me look cross ( it's the concentration)  but with addition of  the bits of  collar from a favourite shirt that has decided to disintegrate, I'll make the deadline for August's Journal Quilt!!