Summer 2005 Newsletter
Helping Kaffe Fassett by Jean Nissan
Brandon Mabley, Kaffe Fassett’s business partner, came to a London Quilters meeting earlier in the year and said that they were pressed to finish quilts due in Toronto for an exhibition. He asked if any of us could help in his studio. I was one of the volunteers.
I’m not quite sure what I expected his studio would be like. Certainly I visualised bright swathes of colour, and probably large amounts of space and light. In fact he lives and works in a terraced house in Willesden, and his studio is a modest-sized room on the top floor. I was warmly welcomed by both Brandon and Kaffe himself, who said how much he had enjoyed the LQ exhibition at the library – I was embarrassed to admit that I had not had a quilt of mine there.
The quilt I was to work on was pinned to the wall – a bed-sized quilt in a myriad of muted tones, cut into brick shapes but joined directly under each other – not staggered as in a wall. There was a fairly wide blue border which Kaffe pointed out did not hang straight but looked slightly flounced. He hoped that it would be flat after quilting, but I said it would be better to take it off and measure down and across the middle of the quilt before putting it back. I was hardly surprised this had not been done, and was in fact very impressed with the piecing, since Kaffe Fassett is a designer but usually his quilts are made by other quilters.
We agreed that I would take the quilt home and adjust the existing border, and meanwhile Kaffe cut and pinned together many coloured strips for the next border and I joined them together on his Husqvarna Designer machine. Kaffe also cut the first strip for the final border, which was a navy and white
checked fabric, and pinned this to the quilt on the wall so I could see how it would look.
Meanwhile I was shown the latest fabric designs and also some gorgeous new knitting yarns for Rowan; these almost made me want to take up knitting again. I also saw the embroidery designs Kaffe had produced for Husqvarna and pictures of lots more of his work. Afterwards I was taken on a tour of the house. Then we packed up the quilt and fabrics for the borders for me to take home, together with my present of his latest book. Altogether a very pleasant morning – friendly, casual, no airs and graces and a general feeling of mutual respect and camaraderie.
When I got home the hard work really started. One of the borders had been sewn on by hand by Kaffe himself in backstitch with rather heavy cotton. It unpicked easily but I had to cut each stitch. The other borders were quite a problem to me as the stitching was often so uneven with stitches so close that I had to slide the unpicker between the layers of fabric to cut the stitches. Fortunately no accidental nicks into the cloth. At the time I could not understand this as the machine had been working perfectly when I used it. Next day when I took everything back it became clearer. Kaffe introduced me to his sister who was visiting from California. She had joined the whole thing together although she had never made a quilt before; probably she had difficulties with the sheer size of it when it came to attaching the borders.
Once the unpicking was complete it was easy to attach all the borders – no mitres and no careful matching of checks in the final border (“I’m thinking Gee’s Bend” was the reply when I phoned and asked if I should fuss over that), and I thought the whole quilt looked impressive when I saw it again hanging on the wall. In the end Kaffe decided that it should not be quilted but held together with buttons, which I believe he sewed on himself.
All in all a very pleasant experience for me, and I wished I could have gone to Toronto and seen the exhibition
Judith Roose’s comments on her experiences will be published in the next Newsletter.
CHAIR CHAT
Firstly I would like to say how glad I am that so many members are now wearing badges at the meetings. I think knowing someone’s name makes it so much easier to make friends and make new people feel welcome. And it has the added advantage for me that my ever capricious memory will not find me standing in front of someone I’ve known for years unable to remember who they are. I worry about my failing memory and repeat the mantra that if I’m aware of memory lapses then I don’t have Alzheimer’s or at least not yet.
At the July meeting we’ll be launching our library. As newer members may not know, the nucleus of the collection is the books which belonged to a former member, Loryn Green who died in 2003. The books donated to LQ by Loryn and others have all been catalogued and a list drawn up by Margaret Mavey and Janne Bell. Our thanks go to Evelyn Hurst and Fran Katkar who have agreed to be our librarians at meetings. They will get the books out and issue them, collect returned books and put them away at the end of the evening. We have designed a simple card system which we hope will keep track of which books are where. Books will be loaned for two months at a time and for the time being we are not introducing any fines but will rely on members to bring books back on time. When you arrive at the meeting please help Evelyn and Fran in getting the books out of the cupboard and putting them away at the end of the evening.
I am always amazed at the ability of quilters to collect stuff. As some of you may know Margaret Grounds, a quilting friend of mine, died recently. Her husband, knowing that I was a fellow quilter, offered me all her quilting books and magazines. There are a huge number of books so I thought that the best use of them would be to put them in the LQ library so lots of quilters could benefit from them. She wasn’t a member of LQ but had come to the exhibitions and knew of our activities. In this Newsletter is a letter from Michael Grounds to you all and I hope that as many members as possible will sign the card I have brought along to express our thanks and support to Michael.
I would also like to thank all the members who have heeded my call and donated their own books to the library. Make sure that we know which books are yours as we will be labelling all books with the name of the donor.
Members who are interested in getting more involved in running LQ are welcome to attend committee meetings. You may find yourself offering to do things but you can just come along to listen and comment. The next meeting will be on September 15th at Linda Seward's house near Primrose Hill starting at 7.30 pm.
I’d like to thank Charlotte Hawkins for doing the Hospitality for us--she is moving and so we need one or more people to volunteer take over her job or we won’t have any tea and biscuits at our meetings!
Happy quilting
Tricia
Chair’s Challenge
The Quilters Guild Region 1 challenge is Autumn Gold so to get you in the mood I thought we could make autumn coloured blocks during the summer break. I am a great fan of Sharyn Craig who often writes in Traditional Quiltworks. This is not a contemporary magazine and it has many traditional patterns but Sharyn’s column is often about taking a traditional block and looking at it in a different way. I propose a challenge based on a simple block which was featured in one of Sharyn’s columns many years ago which she called 4-and more.
Autumn 4-and-more: this makes a 14” block (finished size).
1. Cut 16 2 1/2” squares; sew four 4-patch units.
2. Cut four strips each 4 1/2” by 2 1/2” (A).
3. Cut one 2 1/2” square (B).
4. Cut 4 strips each 10 1/2” by 2 1/2” (C).
5. Cut four more 2 1/2” squares (D).
Arrange the pieces as shown in the diagram below and stitch together using a 1/4” seam.
The four patch units can be in any orientation. They don’t all have to be the same. There are no rules about where to put darks and lights--it’s up to you. Just remember that you must use autumn colours.
Bring your blocks to the September meeting and we’ll pin them all up. For each block you bring you’ll get a special raffle ticket. Members vote with pennies for their favourite block and the winner gets a prize. Then the blocks are divided up and depending on the number of sets, raffle tickets are drawn to see who wins the blocks.
Dear London Quilters....
In April, my wife of 25 years died of a blood disease which we hoped was in remission. She was 46 years old. Knowing that the chances of a long life were not good Margaret had been accumulating craft ‘stuff’ to use when she retired at fifty. Her tastes were quite catholic: quilting, weaving, cross-stitch, embroidery. My part in the enterprise was to provide the funds.
Thus when she died I had a massive amount of ‘stuff’ to dispose of. She had filled the floor of her craft room (the 15ft by 10ft back bedroom) to a depth of about 3 feet, with a narrow walkway to the sewing machine. The floor to ceiling shelving was packed.
Since Margaret had been friendly with Tricia Revest I offered her the quilting books and magazines. I am sure that Margaret would have approved. One or two of your members met Margaret and I at your exhibition at Swiss Cottage library. Enjoy the books, and in return please say a prayer to your God for Margaret.
Michael Grounds
FAREWELL TO LONDON QUILTERS by Kate Cox, May 2005
I remember how excited I was when I knew that I was moving to London and found my nearest quilt group was London Quilters. I came to that first meeting in April 1997 full of expectations, hoping to be inspired by my new friends. I can truly say that I have met many wonderful people, made some fabulous friends and heard many inspiring speakers since I joined at that meeting.
As I stood to say goodbye to the group at the May meeting I saw many faces I do not know. That made me realise how much my life has changed in those 8 years. I also realised, when Linda asked me to write something for the Newsletter, that many of you probably don’t know me either!
When I joined the group I had been striving to make Art Quilts for 4 years and had been persuaded to demonstrate at shows. I had recently started to give lectures and workshops to other groups--that tends to happen when you demonstrate! Within a year of joining London Quilters I was very busy doing regular gigs. I was also home-schooling my son and teaching excluded kids part-time!! Nuts!!! Life was getting very frantic but most enjoyable as I found new strengths in my quilt work and was warmly received as a teacher and lecturer.
I think it is important to continue to learn when one is an artist and on one memorable weekend when I and several other London Quilters were at one of the Cabot Conferences I found myself the ‘victim’ of a ‘campaign’ by Marlene Cohen and Stefanie Rickard to agree to be Vice-Chair to Marlene’s Chair for the next year. I had never thought about doing this but they are very good at talking people into things! That was an amazing year. Marlene and I worked hard at it and we got some terrific people to inspire the members. I well remember bringing Virginia Avery, the Queen of Wearable Art, over from the US to do a lecture in Euston and then a workshop. Everybody on that workshop had a great time and made brilliant garments. I am happy to say Virginia has become a close friend and I visit her often. I also was able to have a joint exhibition in a West Hampstead gallery with Alicia Merret, which was a great experience for both of us.
Sadly by the end of that year when I should have become Chair I realised that I would not be able to be at many of the meetings because I had so many bookings myself to go to other groups.
Since then it has been hard to be a regular attendee of the group hence, I suppose, my not knowing so many people now. That’s sad. And it is not about to improve. I am about to move to the USA. I have been fortunate enough to be approved a visa by the US government to live and work as a textile artist in the US. I have done some teaching over there but now I will be beginning again--a scary thought! We will be living in Colorado where we have bought a piece of land in the mountains near Salida, an arty little town. We will house-sit for 5 months in Boulder while we build a house.
I will be back to visit. I have so many children and grandchildren they will be furious if I do not! And I am having an exhibition with Lynne Seaman, Delia Salter and Sandra Meech in Henley on Thames from 7th-20th May 2006. Do put it in your diaries. I will be over to work on that and do some teaching when I am here. I will try and be at the meeting that May.
I want to say goodbye and to thank everybody who has helped make my membership of London Quilters so special. I have enjoyed knowing you and seeing you at the meetings. I have made some lovely friends by being a member. Please keep in touch. I don’t have an address yet but will pass it on to Marlene Cohen. And I will still be on e-mail. If you are coming to Colorado do let me know (when we have built our house…….)
MATISSE: LOVER OF TEXTILES by Hannelore Braunsberg
For those of us who like the work of Matisse and who love textiles, the Royal Academy’s exhibition “Matisse, His Art and His Textiles” provided a feast. Whenever I look at paintings, the representation of garments, drapes and furnishings leads to special study and can offer an extra level of enjoyment. But I had not realised until now what a passion Matisse had for fabrics and that he acquired a collection of textiles which formed what he called his “working library”. Nor was I aware of the extent to which fabrics inspired much of his work and form a main theme in both his still life paintings and portraits.
Born in 1869 into a family of weavers in north-eastern France, Matisse grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois, a town famous for its manufacture of coloured silks used by Parisian fashion houses. The beauty and vibrant colours of these fabrics were evident in the sample books on display. By the time Matisse left home in his early twenties he found he could not live without textiles and, though money was hard to come by, started acquiring scraps from Parisian junk stalls. The exhibition included a display of textiles from his collection alongside paintings, in which they form a main theme.
A visit to Algeria in 1906 resulted in the acquisition of red, yellow and black prayer mats, and North African and Moorish textiles form an important part of his collection. Three large North African hangings from the 19th or early 20th century, inspired by the wooden fretwork or carved ivory screens typical of Islamic art, illustrated a “pierced” fabric technique. To form the design small pieces of the fabric are cut out, the resulting edges of the holes are quite crudely lined with strips of contrasting cotton, stitched roughly to secure, and the piece is then applied to a surround of sack cloth.
Garments exhibited included a velvet jacket, beautifully decorated with gold thread, and three Romanian blouses, one of which was heavily embroidered with minute cross stitch and sequins, all from the 2nd half of the 19th century. Several drawings and a painting featuring these blouses were on show. There were many other wonderful and well preserved pieces of clothing. From the end of the 1930’s Matisse collected French haute couture dresses. One such dress was on show together with a painting featuring it.
The last part of the exhibition included a Polynesian tapa cloth, painted with natural pigments and a group of Kuba raffia cloths from the Congo together with examples of his famous cut-outs from the 1940’s.
This exhibition has led me to a totally new understanding of Matisse’s art.
INTERNET INFORMATION
The London Quilters web site address is: http: //londonquilters.org.uk/
It is run and maintained by Tricia Revest, whose e-mail is: p.a.revest@qmul.ac.uk
OPEN HOUSE
The East Finchley Open (EFO) is a voluntary group of visual artists and craftspeople who work independently in East Finchley. Following their first successful year they plan to have two major events this year: a summer Open Studios and a winter Art & Crafts Fair.
Marelene Cohen is a member of this group and her house will be open on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd July between 11.00 - 5.00. She will be sharing the space with two other artists--Vicky Levy and Oshrit Eisen who are painters. All details are on the website. The nearest tube is East Finchley and the 102 bus passes close by on Lyttleton Road. There will also be rickshaws to take people from one open house to another.
Further information can be gained from www.eastfinchleyopen.org.uk and the site is continually updated.
EXHIBITIONS
The Festival of Quilts. NEC, Birmingham. 18-21 August. Details: 0208 692 2299.
Region 2 Exhibition. Hever Castle nr. Edenbridge, Kent, 9-11 Sept., 11-5 daily. Details: Pat Taylor: 01689 852320
2005
CALENDAR
July 18th: Sewing /demonstrations evening; also launch of new LQ library. Bring a cake!
August: no meeting
September 19th: Helen Deighan
October 16th: Susan Briscoe workshop: Japanese Circles
October 17th: Susan Briscoe: Japanese Textiles
November 21st: AGM and trader
December 12th: Christmas Party
January 16th: to be announced
February 20th: Janice Gunner: Antipodean Adventures
March 20th: Margaret Ramsay: From Sketchbook to Laptop