Quilts not Monsters

If you have dropped by today expecting monsters... then sorry, I have dragged you here under false pretences. The monsters will have to wait until tomorrow because I had such a lovely day at the Festival of Quilts with my friend Catherina yesterday that I needed to tell you all about it.  As ever the hundreds and hundreds of quilts on display just felt overwhelming. I find it impossible to pick out favourites or to even discern those that are well constructed. Most of the time I don't understand what the fuss is all about.  But there are one or two things that stuck in my mind (closely related to the very few of my photographs that actually came out!)

 

 

I really loved the mixed media work of Stephanie Redfern (pictured above) which appeared so fresh and modern.

 

We were both quite taken with the work of Mandy Pattulo, pieced together from various recycled fabrics. Her wall hangings and garments were fabulous and so rich with texture and history.

 

Catherina and I are both interested in Art to Wear but mostly we were disappointed with this year's exhibits however we both loved this soft wool jacket with its beautiful kantha stitching by Pauline Macauley. I would happily wear this!

 

And I also loved this back and white quilt constructed from the most beautifully mono-printed fabrics by Sarah Welsby. It relates directly to some of the work I've been doing with Spectrum as well as some plans I have for new work which is probably why I found it so appealing. But the highlight of my day... the lovely Kaffe Fassett who spoke to me! There he was surrounded by glorious colour and a posse of admiring women just gently knitting. When I asked if I could take his photo he replied "Sure"... that counts as speaking to me doesn't it?

 

Which leads me on to my purchases... quite modest considering what was on offer.

 

We each bought a bundle of these beautiful shot cottons from Oakshott fabrics - inspired by both the colours and a lovely table runner that was on display. I don't particularly want a table runner... and I don't make quilts... but now we have set ourselves a challenge to each make something from our fabric purchase. 

 

But my best buy... this amazing Kaffe Fassett ribbon. Who even knew he designed ribbons (not me obviously). I limited myself to just one metre but could have easily bought masses in all the different patterns and colourways.

 

So it was a wonderful inspiring day... except for the ridiculously overpriced cheese sandwich which was frankly quite disgusting! I wished I'd bought another couple of metres of ribbon and had gone hungry.

Glorious Colour

I can't really remember a time when I didn't enjoy working with textiles. Knitting, crochet, sewing and embroidery feel like something I have always done. Yet it was when I first became aware of the work of Kaffe Fassett in the 1980s that I really started to feel passionate about textiles. I bought his first book, Glorious Knits and immersed myself in his love of colour and pattern.

 

 

I even started to knit that amazing jacket on the cover, but I am ashamed to say that it never got finished. A couple of years ago when I was sorting through bags of old projects I came across this half finished jacket and had a mind to finish it off but much of the remaining yarn had been eaten away by moths. Probably just as well as I never could wear yellow!

 

I did finish two little "Circus Star" sweaters for my two eldest boys though.

 

So as you can imagine I was excited to hear about the exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum "Kaffe Fassett, A Life in Colour" and yesterday Gill and I got to have a day out to see the exhibition. I had heard mixed reports about it, but we were not disappointed. There were fabulous knits...

 

Amazing patchworks...

 

Wonderful room sets filled with paintings, tapestries and quilts...

 

Lots of these brilliant beaded and buttoned caps (now on my "to do" list)

 

And some fascinating orginal paintings for textile designs.

 

It was a lovely day out, that we both enjoyed and my passion for Kaffe Fassett's work along with my own passion for colour and pattern has not diminished in the least. It was a really inspirational exhibition and I think the fact that not everything was finished perfectly made it all the more accessible. Which ties in quite nicely with what I've been teaching this week. I'm in the middle of a six week creative sketchbook class and this week we were looking at colour. After a little bit of colour theory we got to cutting and sticking.

 

And this was the result of my playing with colour... I'm thinking this would make a fun design for a tapestry cushion!