EG EAST MIDLANDS REGIONAL DAY 2012

Good morning from a wild wet and windy England.  Here is some eye candy from the Regional Day of the East Midlands area of the Embroiderers Guild.  All these images are part of the EG collection
Some are famous names and others lesser known, I have not put names on any of them

The collection (this is a tiny  part) is now on its way to Edinburgh

I had to take this & the other Swedish piece, given our connections now to this country.  I love corded work, called Boutis in France.  Interesting to see the connection between the South of France and Sweden! in stitch

Chinese childs shoes, so very tiny, were in a glass case, forgive the blurred image

A beautiful christening gown, hand made lace

The other Swedish design, 100 years old

This is a pepper it was quite big, I photographed it with the label, but I cant read it now.  Interesting marks and colour choices

 
I cant read this one either but I THINK it was Constance Howard.  It could have been done recently but was about 50 years old, so ahead of her time

Ah no this is Constance Howard, I think the other one is Rebecca Compton.  So cross with myself now for not making notes

Three Faces of Eve this was called

 

 

 

I loved this little sampler, reminds me of the cardboard cat, who ran out again this morning when I appeared after sitting on my husband for over half an hour.  I can stroke her when I feed her but thats it.  She does not like me

This is stunning

This is so balanced, I loved it

My wonderful country, I am so proud to be English (okay I have an Irish mother, not Northern Ireland, so I am not British, I am English)

 

This was made by one of the pupils of the Caroline Chisholm school in Northampton (the one in England not Australia lol)
Very very good
I didnt photograph any of the cometition entries as it was really busy around those tables and when they all went to listen to the chairwomans nagging, I spent a lovely half hour talking to the guy who is moving the exhibition around the country.  He was telling me about the new Headquarters in Walton, so that was very interesting and I got to speak to some previous students and view the collection in peace.#I hope you have enjoyed seeing these images, thanks for reading x

JAMES HUNTING

Today I spent a lovely time with my friends at The East Midlands regional day of the Embroiderers Guild, run by Daventry Branch
The afternoon speaker was JAMES HUNTING
JUST COMPLETELY WONDERFUL
Smitten with his work....have become a groupie
Wonderful work, very sensual using the male form, all images are the body of David Beckham
Cloth is all new linen that he changes with discharge paste
And the marks are just wonderful
I am so sorry that the images are poor quality, my phone camera, inside a hall on a black background, but he has images on his site

This piece had a profound effect on me, it made me want to cry, the yellow was very intense and I had a real reaction to it.  I told him this and he said that it has the same effect on him
Sorry about the image

 

These are a record to remind me of the quality of the work and the quality of his talk, highly recommended if you have a connection to your cloth.  All hand stitched, with sometimes the stitches removed, sometimes worked from the back and sometimes invisible stitches.

He has a love of the flat grey days over the sea at Brighton (Hove) where he lives
This influence shows in the horizon.  It is just so hard to explain with these poor images, the pieces were about half a metre long and all very narrow

Part of one of the images, showing the removal of colour and the quality of mark
What a privilege to have been to his talk
I will post some images of some of the embroideries contained in the EG collection, in the next post.
Please visit his site and enjoy the experience.  Contemporary embroidery toally of today x

UTTOXETER FOUR

I know that I said I had posted enough pictures from Uttoxeter Embroidery & quilt show, but Ruth has just lent me these pictures, mostly of the embroidery, so I thought that you might like to see them

 

 

 

 

A lovely hand embroidered crazy piece, this was stunning

Excellent use of metal

 

Goldwork

This was the winning embroidery

There are many more, but these were all so lovely and well crafted.  Thanks Ruth for them x

RAVING

Boomp de boomp de boomp, we have been raving....last night was my daughters engagement do, wey hey we hit the town running with all the young ones.  Firstly to  the noisiest and busiest and hottest bar I have ever been in, so funny we were so out of place that was for two hours where I was introduced to 'sex on the beach' in huge jugs with lots of straws.  Save to say I poured a little into a proper glass and did the I am almost 60 thing lol
Then it was off to Cocoon....well that says everything doesnt it.  The bar / club opened specially for us, an exclusive couple of hours in a fabulous venue, right in the centre of my local market town.  It was just like on the TV, a barrier & at least 6 security guards (called bouncers in my day)  My husband and I were so amused at the square disks on their arms holding their licenses and their head sets

My pictures are all personal ones of people & I dont post without permission.  But here is a bit of the bar and the neon.  I trotted off to the loo (I always have a story dont I?) very posh and 3 sinks, sorry bowls and huge taps.  Swing the tap right and left nothing... try the next one, no water, grrr then try the third one nothing again, ahhhhh now what do I do, try them all again, panic, ah ha wash hands in running water in a clean toilet bowl and scurry outside to the big boss man,pathetic me...theres no water in the ladies loo....him oh yes there is...me no there is not, so he went into the loo with me (without finding out if anyone else was in there) and pulled the tap towards him and water shot out, boy I felt really silly, he said happens all the time, and I though idiot why dont you put a notice up then, then I thought ah ha you like rushing into the ladies loo with all the scantily clad girls...hoho

So normal service resumed and I trotted back to my cage.  I had asked DH to get me some iced water as we had been drinking champagne & I was driving home.  It arrive din a ghastly glass.  I hate drinking out of horrid glasses, just a pet hate of mine, so I decided to tip some of it into the champagne glass, forgetting that it had chunks of ice in it that obviously would transfer to my glass, oh no not for me a great big piece of ice shot across the glass table, bounced on the lower part of the table, shot across the floor and under a chair.  Oh I was mortified, cant really take me anywhere!!

I retrieved it, phew, popped it into a spare glass when my husband erupted with the most hilarious look on his face and bellowed (men do bellow dont they?) thats my glass and Im drinking that.  I have a very strange sense of humour and collapsed into a heap of giggles.  Goodness knows what all the youngsters thought and the big huge boss man, I must have looked like I was rolling drunk, I got a couple of odd looks for the 'hey I have a big square bright armband and a black jacket and headphone brigade'  DH looked very uncomfortable and then a huge squirt of smoke shot out from the DJ (gosh I sound so cool....not) desk, cough cough cough, I am so glad that I didnt put the errant contact lenses in, cough cough, WHO thinks that is a good idea.  Our friends of our age arrived just as the volume was really pumped up (cool heehee) and we shouted to each other for about half and hour and gave up and fought our way past the paparazzi (not) and slunk off home

When we were outside there was a St Johns ambulance station, all set up, I counted a dozen policemen, just in the small area opposite the bar that we had been in at the start of the evening, there was a girl in hardly any clothes staggering around in the road, and the pole dancers in the windows (see previous post) were in full flow.  I think that secretly my husband thought we were going there!! That would have been even funnier I think

We transferred super cup cakes to friends and came home for a cup of tea, slippers, talk to the cat.

I AM OLD.....yep I defo am and boy am I GLAD.  A one off experience and I am glad we left then as it looked like it was brewing for a war.  All those resources, all those Police taken out of the community to deal with the stupid lot of drunks.  Hey these jugs of 'stuff' were 2 for a tenner, no wonder they are all drunk, its so irresponsible of the pubs, bars etc to offer booze so cheap.  What a load of drunks there were.

On a final note of this tale, my daughter and her friends all had wonderful shoes on, huge 4 or 5 inch stiletto heels, fabulous, of course I had really sensible ones, not quite brogues but sensible and felt like an oik, not to self get into the 21st century for the wedding, short skirt, boobs hanging out and big heels, whoo hoo, wanna join me next Saturday night ...oh sorry I have a date with my furry dressing gown and the TV

Happy days x

UTTOXETER PART THREE

Back again with some more images & no moaning this time. 

There were some quilts on a theme, I dont know what it was, but they all had a feeling of loss.  This one has the heart traces running across it and it has words printed onto sheer fabrics that I dont think can be read on this photo.  I think this works so very well, is very balanced & won a award.

I have to admit here that I took this photo then stood and read all the words on the quilt and it made me cry (probably the cause of the headache)  It is about losing her husband, oh it was so sad.  I dont think I would want to bear my soul so blantently.  I suppose it might have helped & indeed I made a quilt through the loss of my dear mum, but it was all bottled up in me & my hidden meanings.  I admire this lady for doing this and also for producing an outstanding piece of textile work.  It is interesting, balanced, has a lot going on but is treated in such an excellent way, truly outstanding for me, but oh so very sad

On a jolly old note, this was lovely, I really liked this, being a bit obsessed with London at the moment
Conversation with daughter' lets all meet up in Milton Keynes for suit trying on'
Me 'oooh lets come down to London & do it'
Daughter ' Doesnt that cost a lot on the train'
Me well its 30 quid in petrol to Milton Keynes & only 48 quid to London (ignoring the tube costs & Paperchase & all the London eateries)
Daughter well there is one in Northampton.....
DUH - I have been considering all week on how to get back down to the smoke, so this quilt I LOVE, oh by the way the yellow bits are actually road map fabric.  I think that I mentioned that I bought tube map fabric as I am about to start work on making a WEDDING BOOK - yep - I will post about it as I go along
I need a good brain storm & a good think about what book (think the Khadi one will win) or I might buy a new one - Ive got a huge stash of empty books awaiting for THE DAY that they are made alive with drawing, painting & stuff
Whoops sorry got off track there, back to the photos

I liked the use of attic windows, applique and log cabin in this quilt, the colour choices were also very pleasing

I dont usually like wonky placement of blocks, I have no idea, just does not appeal, but I liked this one, I thought that the colour choices were very good & its funky, young and fun, might even have a go at a similar thing myself (thats year 2034 sorted out then Shelagh?)

Finally, cause I am afraid that I might be sending you to sleep.  This was one of three and my favourite, it was beautiful, I am very into lace at the moment so thats probably why.  I think that we should all start wearing lace again, do a Mary Portas & bring back our lace industry.  I have had many goes at trying to make bobbin lace but I have huge mitts for hands, hey they are enormous in the reading glasses at the optician has lend to me, I cant get over how huge my hands look at plus 2.5, very interesting seeing all the blemishes, liver spots and dry skin (oh yuk)
I have a few pieces that has been given to me by very lovely friends that I cherish, the friends and the lace
Right on a babble now so off to an early night.  Back with other things rather than Uttoxeter soon lol, thanks so much for reading my ramblings, am getting a newsletter together along with some other interesting things......watch this space x

UTTOXETER PART TWO

Headache gone today thank goodness, wow I had forgotten how awful they can be.  So thanks to Janis for the pills & to Carolyn for the cup of tea.
I didnt take many photos, certianly none of the embroidery, as I had my contact lenses in and really could not see very well (maybe the cause of the headache? even though I had removed them hours before it arrived)
I dont know the names of the makers so forgive me if you are reading this, I will crop the images as well cause its not fair to post the complete pieces I feel.

This was the winning quilt, each part was a different technique, I think.  I am not 100% sure who made it, from a distance it looked very good but close up - well its not really for me , who had nothing on display to nitpick, but Ill just say I was not impressed & leave it at that

This is part of Stephanie Redferns quilt (see picture in post below) which came second.  Innovative & different, I just cant understand the judges, I never have and never will I suppose.  The inconsistancies of judging put me right off of entering, infact sometimes it makes my blood boil - rant rant
Rant over......................(sort of)
Back to the quilts

This one has also won an award, look what they have done with the certificates, they pinned them onto the quilts with small bulldog clips, terrible thing to do, I am still ranting I am afraid
Sorry about the image quality, I was using my phone and the lighting was not great, neither was the mega mega ceiling heater - more rant

This quilt was great, it was little pieces of knitting and then lots of embellishment & a really interesting shape.  Reminds me of my knitted bag that I made 3 years ago and is still going strong
There was a superb piece of crazy patchwork int he embroidery section, the light in there is dire for photographs & anyway I was not sure if we could photograph, maybe a google search will bring up some photos of it
Nope not found anything yet.

I love fuchsias, this was a lovely appliqued sampler style quilt

This one was unusual, these are stuffed little pockets that have been pieced, the black is the curtain behind, interesting

Mostly I went to see a local group called Facets, which has members who are previous students of mine.  They have a site, so I am not putting their work on here without permisson, this is a group of a photo taken of my friend, who also might not want me to post her on here
Their theme was Diamonds & excellent it was too.  Well done girls, some really lovely pieces & you made the very best of the space & resentation that the organisers had given to you (more ranting, I am afraid)

Off for a bit of exercise now, more images to come, later today or during the week
What do you think of judging?
Thanks for reading x