Winner of Fine Art Quilt Masters 2017

 I'm recovering from nearly a week up in Birmingham at the Festival of Quilts. I had a fabulous time   and  will write posts on the  ecoprint/natural dyeing course I did ( again!) with Brunhilde Scheidmeir and some wonderful quilts  I liked.  But after being rung on Wednesday evening to say I'd won Fine Art Quilt Masters ( and having to keep it quiet until the awards ceremony), I've been in a state of joyful disbelief ever since.

The various painting and drawing classes I've been doing at City Lit  have made  a big difference to my approach  to working and you can see some of my preliminary design work  in this blog post from February.  My statement for this piece ' Birchington Breakwaters' :
" The fragility of disintegrating sea defences rendered using the reverse and reassembled bindings of a threadbare antique log cabin coverlet , holes and tears revealing glimpses of underlying structures"

I was still stunned when this photo was taken ( don't look too closely at the  dark blue fingernails from  dyeing with logwood)  but was more relaxed by Saturday ( photo at the top) . The contents of the envelope: this certificate and a bank transfer form to fill in ( the prize is  £5000, thanks to generous sponsorship by Vlieseline). The icing on the cake for me was being chosen by Pauline Burbidge  and Diana Harrison, both artists whose work I've admired for a long, long time.

Thank you so much to everyone who congratulated me in person  with whoops of joy , generosity of spirit and lots of hugs  and to those of you who contacted me by email  and Facebook  with your good wishes, I'm overwhelmed.
What a way to celebrate 10 years of blogging, you can still leave a comment, I'll be drawing a name randomly next weekend.   and then I should probably be updating my website....
I was going to collect my quilt entry  tomorrow from Upper Street Events  but  the  winning quilts from the show, including mine, will be at the Knit and Stitch shows  in London , Harrogate and Dublin.  I might have recovered by then !

Shabby Delights - another Boro find

Another 'shabby chic' find from ebay  with (to me) delightfully peeling and disintegrating layers of fabric. Washing it resulted in lots of tiny bits of rotted fabric in the machine and over the floor when it was drying (think large tissue left in wash) but worth it! No large woollen scarf as batting as in my previous hidden treasure purchase but scraps here and there which make me think it's a similar vintage and the backing is a heavy homespun twill like the red and white quilt I used for my Cwilt Cmyru pieces which was lovely to hand stitch.

John Virtue Seascapes and Prism textiles

 Taking a days flexi leave ( being nearly 12 hours in hand )  I treated myself to an afternoon of galleries in central London as a reward for cleaning my studio in preparation for friend Maggie coming to stay ( making sure there were no pins on the floor).
I was absorbed by the monochrome seascapes of John Virtue at the Malborough Fine Art Gallery . The  huge canvases gave a  sense of being within the landscape, particularly when you could see several at once and I liked the subtle brush marks in what looked initially like a flat black area.  But  I preferred the smaller works on paper ( still about 1m wide), the variety of marks  more dynamic. Much as I love colour, there's something about the rigour of a limited monochrome palatte that appeals.

Earlier I'd been to see the latest exhibition by Prism at the Mall Galleries . I applied to join a few years ago but wasn't accepted  - probably just as well given the limited time I can devote to textiles at the moment. I  enjoy seeing the variety of work produced by this group - Amanda Hislop, Liz Harding, Alice Fox and Consuela Simpson  were my favourites , mainly I think as they all base their work on marks from the landscape.
Meanwhile, I'm thinking about a potential piece for latest CQ challenge 'Dislocation' using  both the front and back of a very tatty log cabin quilt. There's a bit too much of the red at the moment - I like the flecks of colour that show through the holes in the backing but not sure about the solid red areas ( although I can always paint them .... )

 

Saddened to hear of the death of Robert Genn  - I've subscribed to his twice weekly letters 'Painters Keys' for several years, his  insights into artists practice have given me a lot of pleasure and food for thought. It's good to hear his daughter is continuing with them.

100 metres of thread

Yesterday I posted my entry for CQ Horizons exhibition at Festival of Quilts. I was stitching the facing and sleeve on late of Tuesday night - I'd taken time off work on Monday and Tuesday to do that but couldn't resist adding extra stitching -it's addictive!! I reckon I've used  over 100 metres of thread, estimated from  counting the lines on the back (above).

 I did the majority of the stitching (thanks Hilary for the photo of me in action!)  while on  Summer school retreat at Farncombe , a joy to be among supportive company in a peaceful, beautiful landscape, well fed and watered.

Re-purposing old textiles combined with painting with acrylics and hand stitch  brought together what I love best . I've  still got some of this old red and white strippy quilt left  and am pondering how best to use it in a similar fashion