FOQ

Where to start?  As usual Festival of Quilts has been a wonderful experience and I have taken way too many photographs.  Several friends have already blogged their visits so there are a lot of images already out there in blogland.  I shall do my usual thing of burbling on and see where we go. 

The first thing I made a bee-line for was Carolyn's beautiful St Ives inspired quilt.  The quilt is titled 'Seaside Cottages' and is made from beautiful silk fabrics which have been painted and dyedand is embellished with heat distressed chiffons, found objects, beads and hand embroidery.  You may be able to see the very delcate embroidered fabric that Carolyn incorporated into the quilt and she has included digital images of views of St Ives and beautiful cobbled streets.  I'm a St Ives devotee but this quilt is a delight with so much to look at. (If you follow the link to Carolyn's blog you will be able to read a little about her journey with this quilt.  You'll need to scroll down a bit).

Next port of call was Annabel's wonderful 'Life, Measure of Time' quilt (left above) which was attracting constant and interested attention.  It had been hung next to another quilt including figures titled 'Do You Remember'  but was attracting much more attention and discussion (despite my photo above).  You can read Annabel's own story about her quilt here.  Very deservedly Annabel won a 'Highly Commended' for this quilt.  From my own point of view I was blown away by the power of the painting of the female figure.  This lady stopped me in my tracks as I arrived to view Annabel's work.

This is Sandra Wyman's 'Digging For Bait' which I love for its piecing and the light it describes.

I liked this quilt for its surface texture.  It's entitled Crack't and describes the patterns and plants on stone.  It is by Ruth Brown from Hull.  I have just had a revelatory moment and think that this may be the work of Ruth Brown who lives in the Humber Estuary and trades as Stone Creek Silk.  The surface was created from breakdown printing.

The Tentmakers of Cairo were attracting a lot of attention and their work is phenomenal.  You have probably seen other views of their stand elsewhere and all of the pieces on sale were ridiculously cheap by our standards.  Sadly, because their work is associated with funerals in Egypt tourists are not directed to see them when on holiday so they do not command a price sommensurate with their skills in their own country.  I watched this man working for a short while and the speed he stitched at was phenomenal!  I wish now I had taken some more detailed images but the stand was heaving!

This stunning piece of silk is by Regina Benson, one of the professional exhibitors.  This stand had me mesmerised!  Regina often starts with black cloth which she discharges, sometimes over snow.  You can read her own statement below.

Another of Regina's pieces discharged on snow.  You can go to Regina's website here.

An artist I had not met before was Mary Lloyd Jones who is a renowned Welsh artist.  Why had I not seen her before?  Her work is so exciting and inpired me so much.

You may not be able to see it clearly from my photos but Mary's work includes text both ancient and modern and has a very painterly quality. 

Back to the general exhibition this quilt is titled 'Rock Face' and is in fact 2 quilts one hung in fron of the other.  I love it for it's colours (not surprising!) and its design.  It is by Patricia A'Bear from Gauteng South Africa.

I was asked on my last post about the artist using re-purposed household linens and ephemera.  The artist was Jennifer Hollingdale and her work is beautiful and quite poignant.   she makes use of old linens and old packaging, some of which she has had made into printing screens so that she can repeat the image.  She then combines the screened image with found objects like pins that would have originally gone with the packaging.

Blogger is now sulking so I'll continue next time :-)