Today I am busy getting together quilts, big and small, for a talk I am giving to a local quilting group on Monday. I decided last year No More Slide Shows. The curtains are drawn, it is dark inside and so easy for some of the audience to nod off especially after lunch! Quilts are all about touch after all.
As my talk is mainly about how I got to where I am right now, I delved deeper into cupboards for a few pieces made when I was taking my City and Guilds in 1990, how time flies when you are enjoying yourself!
I've always stitched, but never taught so to speak. It was a huge learning experience and such fun. Twelve of us went far and beyond what was required for the course, and my life changing experience came when I decided to study Indian textiles which lead, eventually our first trip to the subcontinent. I should say India was a place I had been fascinated with as a child.
Some photos taken today - light conditions not brilliant, but it should be remembered that
home computers, as we know them today, didn't exist. Photographs were on film - hurrah for Photoshop.
Aqua Sulis - a carved head from the Roman Baths, Bath
(1991)
third term - project hand quilting
my enthusiasm knew no bounds
Roman tesserai printed borders, Italian corded quilting
and trapunto, hand quilting, leaning towards Kantha
the Indian connection is appearing and I haven't even visited yet!
project - 3/D applique (1994)
designs for a three fold scene came to naught, I couldn't find a screen
so I made three hats. Top hats all made from silk dupion and the
bottom hat is black cotton and machine embroidery
now for my final quilt - threw all that I had learnt into this one
it is big, about 6ft square, it's heavy
it has bells, buttons and shisha, and my first dyeing and printing attempts
I haven't 'looked' at it for years and I still love it. Not sure what the adjudicator thought,
possibly a little before it's time and certainly not patchwork as we knew it then.
a few panels
Chandarvo 1994
fine silk raw edge applique
fabric manipulation
the rolled edge of the quilt contains all the thread and
fabric scraps gathered over two years
star flowers - dyed fine silk hand applique
shisha, kantha quilted background with a
burnt edge border
my first small steps at tying patterns
on to cloth - bhandani
the journey continues
