Veriquilt

My quilt "Dearest Darlings" is returned from the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, the Art Quilt competition.  "Dearest Darlings", 36" x 40" From the Review I could read "Warm intimate quilt with a great use of non conventional materials. Images are very well printed". The quilt is from my series "Mothers", a story about my Grandmother and my Great Grandmother. The top is made of  different kinds of silk. The purple is home dyed raw silk, the teal is another homedyed and painted silk, habotai I think. Upper center part is shantung. There is also an old yellow silk ribbon with silk embroidery and an appliqué with an old flower embroidery. I remember the flower as this was a small running cloth on my Grandma's drawer. Just this little part is left. I've made collages in Photoshop from letters and photos and they have been ink jet printed on cotton or soft linen. Letters are also printed on coccon silk fibers.  Detai...

I took another workshop Barking Up the Right Tree with Bobby Britnell as tutor. She is involved in a Charity Project in Southern Uganda and we were using Bark Cloth which we embellished with handstiches. Bark Cloth is 100% organic fiber. The inner bark of the Mutuba Tree is peeled off from the base and upwards. The tree is then immediately protected by wrapping with freshly picked banana leaves. The bark cloth is soft and very nice to handle. Here are some photos I took from Bobby Britnell's work Luke Haynes had an exhibition, Clothes Portrait. It's a series of portraits made from the clothing the subject was wearing sitting for the portrait. Some were self portraits.   I also took some photos at an exhibition where ten shortlisted students who have completed City and Guilds Patchwork and Quilting Certificate or Diploma showed their works. I think I'll stop telling about FOQ now, at least for a while. I also had an art ...

There were so many beautiful quilts at the Festival and I took lots of photos. Through Our Hands had a great exhibition and I want to show you some of Jenni Dutton's portraits. You will find more to read here:  Through Our Hands . Jenni Dutton "Mum Rubbing Her Hands" Detail Jenni Dutton   Another great artist is Genevieve Attinger   Genevieve Attinger "La Rumeur" (cropped) Detail     Studio Art Quilt Associates, SAQA, showed their exhibition Food for Thought. Jim Hay had a lovely quilt telling the story about his Grandfather who had saved money for the family to move from Guernsey Island to America in 1912. But his Great Grandmother became ill before they could leave and the tickets were returned. The quilt is showing the old lady eating tomato soup. Jim Hay "August 10, 1912 Tomato Soup" Speaking about oldies ... Me in SAQA's Booth  

During the Festival you will find a Virtual Studio where wellknown artists demonstrate different media. It's all free and it is a great opportunity to watch a process and to ask questions. I saw when Claire Benn was laminating fabric and if you are interested you can watch more on You Tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNuhbf1yWfI , there are several videos. I attended Leslie Morgan's class "Colour" and later I met her in the Virtual Studio demonstrating grading colors using alginate and also screenprinting. I took another lecture "Taking Work to the Next Level" with Susan Lenz. She highly recommended the book "The Artist Way" by Julia Cameron. I found it at the library translated into Swedish. From cold to warm   FOQ part three will follow another day.

I've been in Birmingham, Festival of Quilts, for a couple of days, I learned a lot and have seen many fabulous quilts. On Thursday I took a half day class for Sheena Norquay, "Creative C Curve Borders for Machine Quilting". Here is one of her quilts from the exhibition, unfortunately a bad photo as the quilt hang very low and I had a problem to knee. Her quilt is machine pieced, fabric painted, free motion embroidered and quilted. Hand appliquéd.  Sheena Norquay "Seapinks At Sandwick" (Pictorial)    Here is another amazing pictorial quilt   Lea McComas "Panning for Gold"   Miniature Quilt Winner was Kumiko Frydl with the marvellous quilt "Temptest". Foundation paper pieced, reverse appliquéd. Free motion quilted, machine embroidered on binding.   Kumiko Frydl "Temptest" (photo is cut) Detail There was also a miniature made by Philippa Naylor, quite interesting as I have only seen her big ...

I didn't succeed all over yesterday, the orange solution was obviously too old. I dyed some other fabrics in the evening and aimed for dunkel brown, 50/50 orange and cobalt and a small amount black added. The result was blue.

Homedyed I've dyed some fabrics today. The Procion MX dye solution has been in the refrigator for a very long time, I made some of the solutions when I took a dyeing class for Elizabeth Barton in January 2014! Perhaps there are some changes in the colors but I don't notice them so it's OK. I'm grateful I made these colorcards when I took the class as I have noticed color mixtures and weight on each card.