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!!

Summer Exhibition at RA: Textiles and 3D

715 Eileen Hogan

 Working  with cloth and stitch myself, I'm always interested to see  what textile pieces are chosen  for the RA  Summer Exhibition. There's  always a lot of chattering on yahoo groups about how few there are  but in the end, regardless of what media , it has to work as art - if that means framing  or mounting on canvas  so be it.  I had to include  Eileen Hogan's wonderful oil painting 'self-portrait through wardrobe '  as it sparked all kind of ideas  related  to 'travellers blanket' I've just started. I think I'd have to do a painting of my earring collection ( which is not small....)

126 El Anatsiu

Another wonderful  varied piece by El Anatsui, it was great to get up really close  to examine the different materials used

466 Bridget Bernadette  Karn

Although not really  my taste, this felted picture fitted in well with the 'landscape' theme of the gallery and the texture of the wool  made it far more interesting and atmospheric than  if it had been a painting. Fascinating video here of how she does it. She also posted several pictures on Facebook asking which she should submit  and had a very good response ( I voted myself , but not for this piece)

855 Jacques Lawrence Calver

I really liked this piece by Jacques Lawrence Calver, you can really see the influence of 'Boro' in his work.

668 Miranda Argyle

It's good to see work by Miranda Argyle included again. Always thought -provoking , this piece 'inside out' is based on MRI scan of the brain with the underside showing ( read more about  it here)
I 'm a big fan of the 'unconscious side' of stitched  work

846 Susie Koren

 I wasn't a big fan of Susie Koren's prize winning quilt ' Gravitational Force' last year  at FoQ -  the stitching and mark-making was rather lost on such a  huge piece.  But the two framed  pieces  here worked  much better, stitching as a form of drawing, they looked like fragments of old maps or manuscripts.

1014 Susie Koren

1216 Joe Tilson

In Gallery X  devoted to photography , the large tapestry 'Look'   certainly drew your attention.

1078 Eva Rothschild

This year I found the mix of  sculptural work in the lecture Room overcrowded, overwhelming, I didn't spend very long  in there. 2 pieces close to each other were this  wool  embossed blanket set in resin ( the quilt police definitely wouldn't like that but I liked the enhancement of the texture and intensity of the blue/black colour)

1072 Brian Griffiths

I was intrigued by these dyed kitbags and  investigating further online, found they were part of  what seems a fascinating, poignant , site specific installation recording the history and stories of an old boxing club.

308 Lindsey Archer

I normally only give a cursory look at the gallery devoted to architecture  ( something about all those straight lines ....) but 2 pieces caught my eye. I loved the quirkiness of these little structures made of paper, card , aluminium by Lindsey Archer. It's interesting  to contrast the arrangement in  what I assume was the submission photo ( top) with the more organic layout in the gallery itself.

333 Julie Massie

This is the piece I would have wanted to take home with me -  I've never seen porcelain used in this way, the  qualities of  of the edges spoke to me, especially when I found Julie Massies website with  further work inspired by the fragility of coastlines.