Festival of Quilts 2016: The more you look the more you see

 In contrast to the simplicity  of  Claire Benn's lines  I also enjoyed several pieces of work  with very rich surfaces and content, some using recycled fabrics.   In the 'Art textile : made in Britain 'Gallery I was again drawn to the work of Louise Baldwin .  particularly those piece where she 'excavates' to the  layers below.  We'd planned than Ian would join me on the Saturday as it was our wedding anniversary but he was still recovering from surgery. I contacted him by phone and Skype to ask for his approval in purchasing  a small piece by Louise ( which I'll share another time when it's framed) It will look very well in our newly decorated sitting room.

 This piece  by Suzette Smart  was  very much about the detail - it  was  made from an old dress  with fragments of embroideries from sketchbooks, a very personal journey.  Incidentally the dark line  in the picture above  is not part of the piece but the shadow of a wooden strut, such a shame)

  I've admired the work of Anne Smith  for  a long time, she regularly get her work into Quilt National bu tit's only fairly recently she's exhibited at FoQ   in the Fine Art quilt Masters. She came to talk to CQ  a  few years ago and shared her working practices - working on an iron board , pinning up her work in progress on the backs of doors, on the floor , collecting   her fabrics from  charity shops.  Her work is so lively and painterly , it reminds of a slightly wilder Edrica Huws    

 Old recycled fabric also featured  in this piece  by Maria Thomas   who talks in her statement of ' mending, fixing, parenting cloth'

 What I liked about  Helen Parrott's ' Nine yards or thereabouts'  was the exquisite attention to detail in something so monumenta1. Inspired by the 1773 Mary Ware  notebook,  some sections were modern interpretations, others replicas of original stitching.  How much skill it takes to  show  imperfections and  subtle changes in stitch in such   intricate sections as these. I could have looked at it for ages.

 In the Contemporary  Quilt section   2 quilts showed  different responses  to  the awful things going on in the world. 

Caroline Wilkinsons'  colourful  work ' Not much sunshine plenty of shadow'  had as it's catalyst the terror attacks of last year, emphasising the need for love and respect.

While  in Uta Lenks' ' Capsized (text message 8)'   the image of a migrant boat in the moment of capsizing is  slowly revealed under words relating to migration.  Truly the more you look, the more you see .