In the Wrong Order - a look back at the Festival of Quilts

Yes, the Festival of Quilts was in August, but that got lost in my summer hiatus and so blogging about the show was sadly neglected.

But all the talk of the Knitting and Stitching brought me back to the photos I took at the FOQ.  Particularly exciting was seeing Stephanie Redfern's stand, especially as my mum then bought me one of her pictures.  I love my mum.  And my dad, I think it was a present from him too!!

Spring Rain by Stephanie Redfern. 

Flowerpecker by Stephanie Redfern

Stephanie's work on her stand was amazing.

Duanne Cervaal's piece had amazing colours and was constructed beautifully

Sandra Wyman's Transition: Dragonfly

Linda Kemshall's quilt was huge, and had been printed on one piece of fabric.  It looked fabulous.

Uta Lenk's Play of Lines XXXI

It was a great show, with plenty of great quilts on display.  Also there was a stand by Mandy Pattullo.  I am not entirely sure about whether I like all of her work, but this piece, a printed skirt was lovely.  I liked the colour and the pattern created by print.  

Mandy Pattullo

Adeline Schwab at Knitting and Stitching

I wanted to create a new post for this artist Adeline Schwab as I loved her work so much.  It was beautiful - created on a tiny scale and painstakingly stitched.

Creating her own fantasy world of beautiful angels, birds and flowers, this work was featherlight and so delicate and exquisite!  I have given a fuller description on the Workshop on the Web December issue Exhibitions section - that is openly available to all readers, and you don't have to be a subscriber to read it.  It comes out on December 1.

Knitting and Stitching Show

Please excuse the hiatus in writing.  The world seemed to have moved too fast over the last few months and I am just gathering myself together before half term starts and I get lost again.

Last weekend saw a trip to Alexandra Palace in London for the Knitting and Stitching Show.  I had a great day, meeting up with Maggie Grey, Fiona and Lauren (from Workshop on the Web) and my lovely friend Paula Watkins.  It was incredibly busy and too packed out in places to be able to walk around and see some of the stands at leisure (much better at half past four, when my feet were starting to complain) but I think I managed to see a good proportion of the show.

I really enjoyed some of the exhibitions that were there this year.  Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn had a wonderful exhibition, Jan being inspired by fields and how different times of day and the year affected their appearance.  Jean Littlejohn's work came from the glimpses of times past as a result of renovations in her home and her fanastic works of distressed surfaces were a joy to behold.  The fantastic stitching had us bowing at the altar of Textile Royalty.

Jean Littlejohn - Reclaimed Victoriana

Hoar Frost Jan Beaney

Moving on from there, Ruth Issett and Bobby Britnell had a joint exhibition Equal on all 4 Sides.  I loved the contrast between the two here.  Bobby's work was based on a Ugandan game, and the bold colours and pattterns were striking (left).  Ruth Issett's work was a bonanza of colour, and having reviewed her new book A Passion for Colour in the September issue of Workshop on the Web, it was fantastic to see how bright and vivid her work is in the flesh (it was incredibly vibrant on the page).(right)

Also on show, and not covered in my WOW review was the work of Nicola Jarvis, The Embroidery of Nicola Jarvis and May Morris.  The daughter of Willliam Morris, May Morris was a designer and embroider in her own right, and ran the embroidery studio of Morris & Co.  Her work is held in galleries around the UK and it was these textile designs of May and her father that inspired Nicola Jarvis to create embroideries, drawings and paintings.

The birds featured in the work were beautifully painted and stitched and I loved how Nicola Jarvis incorporated the colours and patterns into each bird.

All above pictures Nicola Jarvis

A lot of great stalls were there and I bought some fantastic fabric from Alter Ego (www.handdyedfabric.co.uk)

I also bought a few thermofax screens, some seagull masks and some yarn for my sister.

But aside from the shopping opportunities, at the end of day, we met Stuart Hilliard from The Great British Sewing Bee.  I have to say that he was so delightful it was the perfect end to a great day.  We all chatted about the Sewing Bee and how lovely and British it was to have people all supporting each other and being competitive in a non-competitive way!  He was hand-stitching some lovely pieced fabric.  His life in textiles has taken off since the show and it is fantastic that someone so enthusiastic about their work has such a life-changing experience and embraces everything it has to offer.