Susan Briscoe
A sudden decision from reading the Yahoo group BQL of which I am a member, pointing out Quilts Uk started yesterday, a quick text and a 9.30 pm decision, led Carolyn & myself to be saundering along the motorway network at 8am Thursday morning. What a lovely time we had. We decided to shop shop shop......
Last Tuesday I was lent Susan Briscoes excellent book Japanese Taupe quilt blocks by Ruth (thank you , its was ordered that evening, before Malvern was even a glimmer on my radar)
So I went in search of these fabrics & met Susan & bought from her actual Japanese fabrics, oh yum
Then we searched out one of my City & Guilds students quilt. Noe I cant take ANY credit for any of this fabulous quilt made by Susie Corke & it WON the bed quilt category. Made on and off over a 10 year period, it is completely hand stitched and beautiful, so very well done to Susie
Susie Corke
This is a detail of the huge quilt which was hanging straight, which was about the only one that I saw that was hanging straight
Ferret
This was a whole cloth wall hanging, which won. It was a piece of what looked like hand dyed grey fabric and all the colouration was by machine stitch. Tiny swirls on the grey and heavy circles on the dragon. This was not hanging at all straight which was a huge shame, I wanted to take it down and give it a good steam press. It may well have been how it was displayed but it irked me as it was a stunning piece.
UPDATE
(Ferret has commented this - Ferret has left a
new comment on your post "QUILTS
UK - MALVERN 2012":
Thanks for the comment on my quilt. I wish you could have grabbed it and given it a good press. Sadly quilts do not like being posted and often hang badly afterwards. It's been hanging fine for the last month. Oh well at least I am forwarned for when I see it on Sunday. I guess that means I get to re-block it when I get it home :(
Thanks for the comment on my quilt. I wish you could have grabbed it and given it a good press. Sadly quilts do not like being posted and often hang badly afterwards. It's been hanging fine for the last month. Oh well at least I am forwarned for when I see it on Sunday. I guess that means I get to re-block it when I get it home :(
I thought that it was how it was hung as I have seen her fantastic work before, straight and beautiful, how very upsetting and annoying for her
There were a huge amount of traders, lots of new ones including two lovely ladies who are called Pinandstitch
We chatted to two really nice people from Monmouth about backing for a soon to be started quilt and met them again after purchases had been done, had a good old laugh with them
I managed to domineer someones stand as it was so packed I got stuck & was having a conversation through all the hanging bits and bobs and it must have looked like it was my stand, the stallholder was exhausted and not really much amused, unusual because I thought there was quite a carnival atmosphere about the place
There was the usual marquee, with a carpet & as usual it all made me feel quite sick, the floor wobbled (but better than usual) & it was hot & packed except for int he far right hand corner where they had opened the tent, this was near to Images of Egypt, they of the fabulous stuff, dyed fabrics, scrim etc, all at the best prices. Patchwork fabric has leapt in price this last year, due to the poor cotton crop (hmmmm???) mostly between 11 and 14 GB pounds per metre, with a few stalls with 'older' fabrics at a cheaper price & one stall which looked like washing day and was packed out, but the cotton was what I would call inferior, openweave, but cheaper.
This made me chuckle
Panoramic view of the marvellous Malvern hills, the view from the Three Counties show ground
This was taken on my phone, I liken the hills to a woman laying down, see if you can see what I mean?
Back to the quilts
Sorry bit blurred, I dont know the makers of the rest of the photos
Some of the miniatures, some of which in my opinion are not minatures, but smal quilts or samples
Lovely quilting
I really liked this one, I actually have two pieces of work that resemble this motif, Rennie Mckintosh I am sure
This African themed wall hanging was really different & was a winner, it appealed because it had an embroidered element to it, missing in a lot of the quilts, but it was a quilt show lol
Also we are working with an African theme in our Affinity group
Lastly, because I am tired & some of my other photos are badly blurred or actually not that interesting!
There was a Jubilee category & childrens quilts (all fab as usual)
There were two whole rows of quilts from 2 teachers, which were excellent, but rather boring looking at the almost exactly same quilts over and over. I was actually suprised at how few quilts there were. I am sure that there were more in previous years??
As I said lots and lots of traders including a wonderful stand from Kaleidescope, they of the books. The stand stretched almost the width ( or length) of the main room and had stacks of bolts & cut fabrics and was wonderful, I hope that they do more of this arrangement as I am so fed up of the tiny weany booths that you cant get to, hope the organisers of the FOQ take note. We want to see the stuff please!!lol
On the way there we passed road works (always England) with a huge queue, so we decided to take the scenic route back which was just pure joy, watery sunshine and grey skies & stunning scenery to really lift your soul, well it did mine, then we encountered a band of cyclists all dooled up in the usual gear, but one of them had a pink lycra top on and a tutu, yep, a tutu, how we laughted, chances of that ever again in my life...NIL...a tutued cyclist in the middle of nowhere where I have never been before
My bags are all still full and I have not opened them yet today as I have been at work & also looking for something that I forgot yesterday on the Internet...never ends our wonderful hobby does it?
Off to eat, paw at my fabric & Ruth its a R A P......hohoho
Thanks for reading my ramblings on THE GRAND DAY OUT x
Thanks for the comment on my quilt. I wish you could have grabbed it and given it a good press. Sadly quilts do not like being posted and often hang badly afterwards. It's been hanging fine for the last month. Oh well at least I am forwarned for when I see it on Sunday. I guess that means I get to re-block it when I get it home :(
ReplyDeleteHi Ferret, yes you will be cross when you see it, it is also (well on Thursday afternoon it was) sort of squashed along a side
DeleteGiven that some of the traders had enormous spaces, I think the quilt stands could have been moved over & given more room. Congratulations on winning, I love your very skinny piped edge. A few of us had a conversation trying to decide if you used the long arm or ordinary machine?
You kinda get used to your quilts not always looking their best in shows. It is hard to pack them so they arrive perfect. I can say that Grosvenor are now among the best in the world for trying to keep the quilts as the quilter sent them. In the case of my art quilts (including this one) it will have stayed on it's roll until it was hung. However, I may not have got it tight enough on the roll, or the roll may have been crushed/bent in the post. These things do happen, and on these very heavily quilted pieces it is a real pain. I also tend to make large pieces that stretch their frames to the limit, although I didn't think this one was problematic. Wait till Sandown :)
DeleteThe piped binding is my life saver. It is a totally machine sewn binding that is show quality. Given I find hand sewing very painful that is amazing. It if on the Ricky Tims DVD Grand Finale. There is a lot of other stuff on the DVD too, but for me this was the most important.
This quilt was made on the longarm. In hind sight I would probably have been better off doing it on a domestic machine. Those very small pebbles are hard work on a longarm and would have been a lot easier on the domestic machine. Ho hum, live and learn. The binding is put on with a domestic machine. I can't get a good enough finish on the longarm.
The traders pay a lot more for their spaces than the quilters do :)
Interesting report - yes, I'm afriad my overall view of the quilts was generally there were a lot of dull colour schemes and some 'interesting! judging choices
ReplyDeleteI had 2 quilts in and both were hanging badly - a lot of it my fault (tho one was rather just stuffed onto a batten with another) I have never found out how to "block" a finished quilt to make it hang straight and I tend to do a lot of machine quilting on mine. Any tips on how please??
Also Im a "that'll do" type quilter, so my techniques for finishing are not show quality!
I kinda think anyone can show their quilts show quality or not. I have plenty of well loved bed quilt what will never win awards but I love them and people who see them do too.
DeleteBlocking is essentially pin the quilt flat and square then get it damp or steam it. For really featured quilts you might want to get it wet before pinning it out as it will tend to move more when wet. Once pinned and flat and hopefully straight leave it to dry and I generally think the longer the better. Unfortunately with a large quilt this isn't as easy as it sounds. In the US a lot of people seem to pin/tape to a floor, or if they are really lucky a huge table. I have to use polystyrene boards on my bed for most quilt and I've had to sleep in the motorhome before now to left the quilt block. It does make them hang a lot better even if they are not perfect.
Hi Ferret, I hope that you had a good day & was not too upset re the quilt. Interesting thread here, perhaps you could blog about blocking and I will link to it? I guess that some quilters still sew their borders on without measuring them & make mitred corners without being mitres, two common errors for wobbly quilts.
DeleteI agree that all should show their quilts, warts and all, I do hope that our shows never become completely juried as I do love to see quilts throughout from beginner to advanced & also childrens quilts, which are delightful. I look forward to seeing your quilts at FOQ & maybe meeting you one day. I lived all my life until getting married in Hemel Hempstead & visited Patchwork corner a couple of years ago x
Blog about blocking and related stuff now up :) See you had but to ask. I did miss a few things but it's already pretty long.
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