London Quilters
Summer 2003 Newsletter
Art Deco @ the V & A
Run, do not walk to the Victoria & Albert Museum to catch this jewel of a show. I must confess to being an Art Deco lover, but this exhibition surpassed even my wildest dreams. It contains a plethora of images and designs specially for quilters, from the appliqued costume by Pablo Picasso to the jacket designed in 1924 by Sonia Delaunay in wonderful autumnal colours and exciting patchwork effects. There is a wool tapestry by Fortunato Depero, made in 1920, that virtually vibrates with colour and which looks like it has been created in the technique of inset applique: observe the patchwork borders and the fabulous shadows cast by some of the figures.
For those interested in the clothing of the time, there is a beaded evening dress by Jean Patou with an amazing trompe l’oeil effect at the waist and hem. Then there is Jeanne Lanvin’s purple evening dress with a wide, square quilted collar that would stand out like wings over the shoulders. There is a dusty-rose coloured cloche hat with flowers and leaves appliqued on the front that is to die for - I went with Lynne Edwards and she remembered her mother wearing just such a hat.
The leather book bindings were, well, spell-binding - especially La Petite Ville by Paul Bonet, Paris, 1927 - tiny Monopoly-style houses surround a church with wonderful stylised trees and a little carousel - enchanting! Also, look for the spiky hedgehog on the front of the black lacquered cabinet (he appears with a rather subdued-looking donkey) - what a wonderful image and perfect for a patchwork design. The exhibition is on until July 20th and really is THE definitive show on Art Deco. Don’t miss it!
On the Move
LQ member Marion Haslam is once again packing up her fat quarters and is on the move - this time it's not to the hot deserts of the United Arab Emirates, but instead to the frozen north, well Sweden actually.
"Although I am no longer editing Popular Patchwork I'll still be working with textiles as I am going to work as a Product Developer for IKEA. I'm around until June and then off for a two week intensive Swedish language course - luckily I already know the word for quilt and numbers and colours, so the essentials are covered! As soon as I have my new contact details and e-mail address I'll let you know - it will be interesting to see if my quilts become influenced by the clean, simple lines we associate with Scandinavian design (quite a difference to the hot pinks and turquoise that I enjoy using at present in my quilts). However, I will be popping back home to England on a regular basis - not least because Mavis and I are already planning another joint exhibition in 2004! Finally if you are free on 21 June, do come to my textile clear out - bargains galore as it all has to go!"
Textile Temptations
Marion Haslam is leaving the country and can't ship everything to Sweden!
For sale at bargain prices:
* 60+ books - on quilting, crafts and design
* box picture frames, ideal for collages,
embroideries
* fabrics * wools * patterns
* exotic threads and trimmings
* patchwork magazines
* feather cushion pads
* assorted craft props bought for photography shoots
Saturday 21 June 2.00-5.00
at 27 Veroan Road, Bexleyheath, Kent
(5 minutes walk from Bexleyheath Station) or 5 minutes by car from the A2 - parking no problem)
tel 0118 962 2362 (Marion) marionhaslam@ntlworld.com
or 020 8303 4069 (Mavis) on the day
CHAIR CHAT
Dear LQ Members,
The weather is warm, the sun is shining, and I’ve been spending as much time as possible out of doors. As summer approaches, I usually drag out a hand-piecing project, as it can be taken out to the park or garden, where I can sit in the sun and work. (Take an emery strawberry if it’s hot though, as sweaty fingers cause the needle to rust!) My last one was the purple quilt I told you about in the last Newsletter. I’ve got most of the top together now, and have finished cutting out the pieces for the last border, so I’m well on track for finishing that this year. To see what to do for the last border, I had to find the original design I made (on graph paper) for the quilt, which I had dated when I drew it in 1996.
Now, I’m thinking about my next hand-piecing project, a design which has been sitting around in the back of my mind for some time, while I collected fabric. I thought I would tell you about it, because this month’s Challenge has to do with inspiration, and this one comes from an unusual source. It was inspired by the colours in the clothing hanging on someone’s washing-line in Chalk Farm a couple of years ago, which caught my eye when I went past it on the bus. Now, I don’t know about you, but aside from sorting lights and darks, I don’t colour-coordinate my washing. This line had on it a beautiful assortment of dark wine-red, white, and denim blues. Just those colours, and the red was little flowers on a white dress. Red, white and blue is a classic and well-used combination, and one which had never appealed to me before. But seeing this washing-line, I suddenly wanted to make a quilt in those colours. I started looking at patterns, and decided on a big Feathered Star. At that point, this became the next hand-piecing project, as it’s a pattern which lends itself much better to hand than machine work. (At least, my machine piecing isn’t that good yet!) While I was drafting it, I realised how big the middle part of the star would be, and decided to put an applique rooster in the middle. I think my mind was on feathered things, because of the name of the pattern, but the colours seemed to suit, as well. Then I started thinking about what the rooster would look like. Chickens have been fairly popular with quilters lately--QNM has run features on chicken quilts, and there have been chicken block of the month quilts too. I knew I didn’t want mine to look like anyone else’s. I was stuck until Christmas, when my father (without knowing anything about this design) gave me a book of birds in Japanese art, which has several pages of roosters! One of them stands in just the pose I want, and although it will look considerably different from the ink-painting when it is appliqued in denim blue with black and white paisley tail feathers, it will still be that rooster. Of course, it may take me the next seven years to finish this one!
Happy quilting,
Alys Robinson
CHAIR CHALLENGE:
Inspiration at Work
I hope you all went out and found something interesting to see for the last challenge! If you brought home a postcard or photograph, you may find it handy for the new one. This time, you get to make something! It is not a block challenge, however. Some of you may remember from Linda Colsh’s talk, that she was working on a series of small quilts representing the months of the year. My challenge is to make a small quilt, roughly A4 size, but instead of basing it on a month, I’d like you to use something which you can bring along to pin up beside the quilt. It could be a postcard or photograph--maybe you bought a postcard when you went to see something for the last challenge, or maybe you have a photo you’ve always wanted to do something with. Or, it could be a magazine page or a picture in a book--so long as it’s something you can bring with you to display next to the quilt.
It might help you to decide on a source if you think of using just one or two aspects of the picture. (I don’t mean for anyone to do a copy of the picture itself; it’s just for inspiration.) A painting or photo can be a good source of inspiration for colour. Or, you might want to ignore the colours entirely, and just use the shapes. For example, say you use a photograph of a row of houses. You might see a swath of brick-red at the bottom, and blue sky at the top, and do a quilt that uses pieces in those colours. You might use the shapes of the houses - a regular row of rectangles with pointy triangles on top; but make them all bright colours on a black background. Or, you might even use the pattern in the brick-work of one of the houses.
The quilt itself does not need to be a miracle of workmanship - the idea here is to try something new with design. Feel free to use any technique - for example, bond-a-web applique lends itself well to this, as you can put a design together very quickly. It should be a finished quilt though, with three layers, and some form of quilting.
Please bring your Challenge quilt to the July meeting, which is a sewing evening. There will be a penny vote, with a prize for the best quilt!
Quilters' Guild Conference and AGM 2003
by Mavis Haslam
This year's conference and AGM was held at the Riviera Centre in Torquay which proved to be a very favourable venue. There was plenty of space for lectures, workshops, demonstrations and of course the traders.
Sharon Malec from the USA gave Friday's lecture entitled "Who are the Quilt Police, Anyway?" - a light-hearted but meaningful talk encouraging us to break the rules if it suits our purpose. I totally agree that the main reason for our efforts must always be for the pleasure of creating an individual piece. Full and half-day workshops by Sharon plus ten other tutors offered a variety of hand and machine sewing for all abilities.
On Saturday Susan Denton gave us a fascinating insight into her beautiful landscape quilts. There were also free lectures and short demonstrations of varying techniques by Guild members throughout the weekend.
Saturday's AGM proceeded smoothly, but personally I would have preferred the committee members to read their own reports as in previous years. This gives us the opportunity to identify the committee and a change of voice is also more interesting. However with a membership of 7200 the Guild continues to grow. The gala dinner was well attended with an excellent meal. This year's after-dinner speaker was Jennie Lewis - well known from her success at organising the Hever Exhibition for ten years. Jennie showed us such a variety in her work before kindly donating two pieces for an impromptu auction. Mr Roberts proved to be an enthusiastic auctioneer raising over £700 for the Guild.
With several excellent displays of quilts the whole weekend flew by so quickly there was little time to enjoy the brilliant spring sunshine. Eastbourne will be the venue next year, April 16-18, so come and enjoy a wonderful and friendly experience whether you are travelling solo or in a group.
QUILTERS’ GUILD NEWS
Dear Quilters,
It's been a long time since the last update, but there has been a lot happening in Region I with the Susan Briscoe Japanese quilting day in January and Regional Day with Bonnie McCaffery in March. Region 1 Members will have recently received a mailing about the upcoming celebrity lecture on 18th June with Elizabeth Brimelow. Louise Taylor has finished her term as coordinator and Kirsty Fine has taken over this role. There are also a number of other committee members which you will hear about in 'Our Patch' and meet at the lecture and regional days.
The website has been extensively updated today with all details and dates of coming events in and around Region I with details of how to book for the lecture. Prebooking is advised as the hall at the Maria Assumpta Centre has limited capacity.
New events and contacts include Kaffe Fassett's show at the American Museum in Bath and a number of City and Guilds shows in and around London. There is a new link on the Quilters page to Jennie Rayment's page and a number of new shops and suppliers on the main Links page. The Piecemaker's of Epsom site is no longer up and running, but the shop is still going strong. The Victoria and Albert museum in London has a major exhibition of inspiring Art Deco at the moment until July 20th - booking in advance is advisable.
Although no written information has come out yet about the major Guild exhibition in August at the NEC, the Twisted Thread website has recently been updated with details of how to book tickets and workshops. The main Guild website has also had a major overhaul this year.
If you spot any errors, broken links or if you know of any events or links that we should include on the website please e-mail me and let me know.
Best wishes,
Cathy Corbishley Michel, e-mail: qgrl@yahoo.com
Members representative - Region 1
Website: www.qgr1.freeserve.co.uk http://www.qgrl.freeserve.co.uk
THREE REQUESTS
1. I am an interior designer looking for someone to make quilts in suede and Novosuede. I wonder if you could put me in contact with anyone that does that type of work. Thank you very much.
Paula Robinson paula@tasselsetc.biz
Hampton Wick, Surrey, UK
2. I wonder if your quilting group would be interested in buying fabric by mail order. I have recently set up a small business from my workshop at home selling cotton fabrics for patchwork and quilting. I believe my prices are reasonable and I have a good variety of 100% American cotton fabrics in prints and plains. Examples of some prices are as follows:
Cotton prints: £7.99 per metre
Cotton plains: £5.00 per metre
Fat quarters (plains): £1.40 each or bundle of 5 of your choice: £6.00
Please e-mail me your address and I will send out a sample pack for your perusal. Many thanks.
Mrs Carol Harrison
roger@hh710.freeserve.co.uk
3. Our Highgate Quilters group is making a small quilt for the Centenary of our Library - many people donated money and we have made a "bookshelf " with books which will (eventually) have names on them. Our problem is getting the names on the spines! Someone suggested that the most advanced machines have a facility which can do this sort of embroidery easily and quickly, and what we would like to humbly request is whether any LQ’er out there would be able to help us? Otherwise we will be reduced to cross stitching --which would look a bit naff. Any responses should go to: sbchinn@btinternet.com
Many thanks,
Susan Chinn
EXHIBITIONS
Kaffe Fassett’s Collection of Quilts and Costume in a Kaleidoscope of Colour - The American Museum in Britain, Claverton Manor, Bath, 22nd March - 2nd November 2003
Stitching Women's Lives - The October Gallery has a new exhibition, 24 Old Gloucester Street, WC1N 3AL. May 8th to 31st 2003. The exhibition is organised for women from rural areas in Bihar
who are producing sujunis and khatwa textiles. Sujuni are multi-layered textiles sewn in running stitch and khatwa are narrative applique, chain stitched pieces. Details from Susie Gault, Press and Administration on: ogpress@ukgateway.net
The National Quilt Championships - Sandown Exhibition Centre, Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher, Surrey, 26th - 29th June 2003
Exhibition of Mosaic Quilts - Musee des Arts & Traditions Populaire, Chateau de Martainville nr Rouen, Normandy, 16th May - 27th October 2003
Festival of Quilts - NEC Birmingham, 21-24 August 2003
9th European Patchwork Meeting -
Val d’Argent, F-68160 Sainte Marie aux Mines, 11th - 14th September 2003, e-mail: ot.valargent@calixo.net
The Knitting & Stitching Show - Alexandra Palace, London, 9-12 October 2003
The Knitting & Stitching Show - RDS, Dublin 30 October - 2 November 2003
The Knitting & Stitching Show - International Halls, Harrogate, 20-23 November 2003
INTERNET INFORMATION
The London Quilters web site address is:
http://members.lycos.co.uk/London_Quilters/lq1.htm. It is run and maintained by Tricia Revest, whose e-mail is: p.a.revest@qmul.ac.uk
2003 CALENDAR
June 16th: Lynne Carter, talk on antique quilts. Lynne runs Wisteria Patchwork, and will also bring fabric to sell. No slides, just plenty of quilts to look at; a good evening for traditional quilters.
July 21st: Sewing Evening with demonstrators. Exhibition of Challenge pieces.
August: No meeting.
September 15th: “Basic Necessities” Slides from the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters’ latest show presented by Linda Seward
October 19th: Workshop with Laura Kemshall, "Images on Fabric"
October 20th: Laura Kemshall, "Embellished Quilting" More information on these events is available at www.lindakemshall.com on Laura's pages there.
November 17th: AGM