BLOG 260

BLOG 260

NEWS FLASH! Our quilt ‘The Exhibitionists’ by the Showstoppers won the Group Quilt section of the Festival of Quilts this year. It depicts a quilters’ Show and Tell with the quilter saying one thing about her quilt and the audience thinking another! There were 9 miniature quilts made in different styles and 9 very different characters. It was great fun to make!

 

                                                               Group quilt

 

At the presentation we received a certificate and a cheque for £1000.

                                                               Winnings

 We are so thrilled and this years’ experience just goes to show how far we have come as a group, shown below. From left to right: Sue Horder, Janice Bebb, Barbara Harrison, Liz Pedley, Jackie Wigelsworth, Jennifer Ellis and Marion Barlow. I’m holding the camera!

                                                             The group

Our first quilt was a series of 8 different hangings, all very well constructed in their own right but, as the judges pointed out, there was no cohesive whole. So we have learned from that comment and improved on it over the years. Although we still make our own individual blocks, they are very closely co-ordinated and structured. There is a lot of luck too in being a winner because the judging process is invariably subjective. Our theme is usually humorous and if you are a quilter you can really relate to what is going on. I particularly liked this quilt from Belgium in our section.

                                              Slice Quilt Project 2014

Having attended quilt shows for over 30 years, I have long since stopped photographing every single winner in every section; I just take a handful of pictures now, ones of quilts that keep calling me back for another look. Here is a miniature quilt by Sue Bibby; this is the quilt that I would have liked to have taken home.

                            The Observers Quilt of Birds

                                  Detail

 This is the quilt that I admired most for an apparently simplistic technique which produced such a striking painterly result. I am sorry that I can’t put a name to it; it was from one of the many galleries I went into where groups of individuals were exhibiting. The scene is like one you would see looking through frosted glass. The detailed picture shows that pieces of coloured fabric are laid over one another to create this effect. Just lovely!

                             Painterly quilt

                                   Detail

The next quilt made me want to cry. It was Jenny Dutton’s portrayal of her mother at the start of her Alzheimer’s diagnosis; the second bore witness to her deterioration. This was ‘painting with thread’ of the highest order as the detail illustrates.

                                   Before

                                    After

                               Thread detail

And in the 3-dimensional section I fell in love with this owl, Tawny, by Rachel Wade.

                                       Tawny

 ...  and what did I come home with? Some merino wool tops, large cutting blades, lozenge papers (me working over papers????!!!! We’ll see) and some Heidi Stoll-Weber fabric. And Hallelujah, I also managed to buy the threads that I need to continue with Dilys’s Multi-Coloured Dream Quilt.

                                                                 Booty