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!!

Art_Textiles at the Whitworth

Magdalena Abakanowicz

 Monika Zaltauskaite-Grasiene

 

 Abdoulaye Konate

 

 Jessica Rankin

 

Susan Collis

 Beverly Ayling-Smith

On Friday  I headed up to Manchester to meet up with fellow members of Cwilt  Cymru . After a very productive meeting over lunch in the restaurant of the Whitworth, I had a look round the exhibition 'Art_Textiles'  which had an interesting selection of works,  the highlights for me above.

 The piece by  Magdelena Abacanowicz I last saw a few years ago  at Tate Modern  along with work by Do Ho Suh . His new work was also represented in this  show  but a departure from his 1:1 scale fabrications of buildings (  an image of which I chose for my Art Fund membership card).
It's  interesting to see work again in a different context and with new neighbours!

With my fascination with amulets , I loved  how Abdoulaye Konate had referenced  amulet covered  hunters shirts ( there was an antique  warriers tunic on display alongside)

The ethereal piece Quis Est Iste Qui Venit   by Jessica Rankin , stitched on organza , cast wonderful shadows and the more you looked the more you saw , with its' combination of seemingly unconnected words and images.  

There were several pieces by   Susan Collis with drop cloths and overalls with what looked like paint stains but that were actually minutely and intricately  stitched, work 'investigating ideas around perception, craft and the value of workmanship'.
I wished I'd kept my old labcoats with the poppers no longer functioning,  mysterious stains and laundry marks and  fraying holes!

In a similar vein,  in Beverly Ayling Smith's piece remembering, repeating and working through, tearing patching and mending are used to convey the experience of bereavement. Her work at the Society of Designer Craftsmen was  my favourite  earlier in the year. I'm still thinking of discussions about burial and winding cloths from Rydal Hall retreat  and how best to work with some of my indigo dyed  fragments of antique quilts  to enhance  their   worn  and fragile qualities.