Spring at last

 A little bit of warmth and suddenly the gardens and countryside are full of colour. The left hand photo shows cultivated flowers and the right thrift growing wild on a Cornish cliff

Most of the fruit and ornamental cherry trees are in blossom. The main road where I live has beautiful mature flowering cherries which are looking spectacular at the moment - this means we will have heavy winds in the next day or so.

Greens and browns are wonderfully fresh too.

A walk through the woods shows little secrets pockets of colour.

After seeing all these beautiful colours around me I decided to dye some fabrics and threads using procion dyes and the low emersion method.

These have all been machine washed and are ready to go ... 

the only thing is, what to make?

Using up fabric - part two

Way back in January I showed you some quilt tops I had made in an effort to use up some of my fabric. This set of fabric is from the 'Friendship Garden' range. Again nine fat quarters (ish) and the fabric for the border which I have also used as the backing.

I then cut up all the spare fabric into squares and made this top.

Smaller pieces were cut into hexagons ...

... and even smaller pieces were made into coasters.

Exeter Quilt Show

On Friday I went to this show with my mum and some friends. We had a lovely day out and although the show was very small this year there was some beautiful work to be seen.

This work is by Jane Hopkins and has been inspired by a place called Clennon Valley. The left hand one is 'Spring at Clennon Valley' and the right 'Winter at Clennon Valley'. Reverse applique using organzas and embroidery have been used. They are quite large (about 90cm) and wonderfully detailed.

Here are three detailed shots from the Spring one.

 Another piece of hers that I really liked was 'Early Riser', made using the same techniques.

These two pieces were created by Joan Dawson of South West Quilters.

Kathleen Matthews had an exhibition of the pieces that she had made for her book 'Stitched Textiles: Landscapes'. As well as featuring beautiful work the book shows you how to make some of the pieces.

Flower Garden; Lavender Farm; The Old Wood Shed

 These two pieces by Mary Bird contained hand dyed fabrics, photo transfers and loads of stitching.

River Stour 1 and 2

Applique work from 'Images of Egypt'

'Fossil Town' by Liz Drake

'Harbour' by Delyth Mattingly

'The Blues' by Marion Mountjoy Row

'The Old Barn Steps' by Penny Armitage

'Portobello Road' by Stella Hammond

'Rhubarb Picture Gallery' by Maureen Rhodes

Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch

Last week I went to see the above show at the NEC. There was some lovely work on display and I had the chance to have quite long chats with several of the artists.

Two of my favourite artists are Linda and Laura Kemshall. I subscribe to DMTV and so it was lovely to see in 'real life' many of the pieces I had seen on the screen. Linda had been creating a series of painted birds from her garden, these were then digitally printed onto fabric. Of course I had to buy one for myself and one for my daughter.

Laura had been working on some large quilts and these were displayed behind their workstation.

There was also plenty of printed and dyed fabric and threads.

I was looking forward to seeing the project 'Barkcloth to ArtShoes' as it was promoting the charity 'Hands up for Uganda' and my daughter has recently returned from living in Uganda. The shoes were decorated by a whole variety of artists and were beautiful.

 The shoes were displayed alongside traditional baskets and mats made in Uganda.

I was also captivated by the work of Gillian Travis who kindly let me photograph her work. You may notice the resemblance to photographs on earlier posts. Gillian has travelled widely in India and we had a good chat about the textiles we had seen there. I recommend her book 'Journeys in Stitch'.

There was an amazing exhibition showcasing embroidery from Palestine.

 These are wedding pillowcases from the Hebron area in the 1920's.

The picture below on the left shows a historical Qabbeh and the one on the right is a modern interpretation of it.

There was an exhibition of costumes from the film version of 'Les Miserables'. Costumes worn by Helena Bonham Carter (the Thenardiers) and Hugh Jackson (Jean Valjean)

Costumes worn by Russell Crowe (Javert)

Costumes worn by Sasha Baron Cohen (the Thenardiers)

 Another artist whose work I really admired was Hilary Beattie. Not only was her work wonderful but she was more than willing to explain how she had constructed each piece. She gave a good hours length demonstration of how she creates both her canvasses and her collages. I highly recommend her book 'Make it Personal'  which is full of clear pictures and instructions on how to create your own work.

Echinacea 1

Echinacea 2 and 3

Beauty Matters 2 and 1

It was a lovely show and I enjoyed the work but I still think £10 for parking is a bit steep. Of all the shows I have visited only the NEC charges this much, most have free parking.