London QuiltersWinter 2002 NewsletterNEW YEAR’S PARTYThe London Quilters held a very enjoyable party during the January meeting. The tables groaned with the delicious food brought by the members, and lively chatter punctuated the dinner. Afterwards, there was a very spirited ugly fabric swap, with most members getting the fabric they wanted in the end. Thanks to the Chairman for ending the stalemate! We also voted for the Chairman’s Log Cabin Challenge, which had a large number of entries and which was won by Kathleen McMahon.The new LQ Cookbook was launched at this meeting and sells for £1. Many thanks to Patricia Revest who printed all the cookbooks at no cost to LQ.EXHIBITIONS
8th July-September 25th 2002: QC - Quilts at the College. Exhibition and sale of art quilts at the Royal College of Pathologists, 2 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AF (nearest tube is Charing Cross).Open Mondays to Fridays 10-5. Entrance free, by prior telephone appointment only.Contact 020 7451 6700.There will also be three Public Open Days including demonstrations and an opportunity to meet some of the quilters on August 8th, 15th and 22nd, open 10-5, no appointment necessary. Details from Cathy@michelg.freeserve.co.uktel: 020 8540 3854 .****Alicia Merrett is having a display of 12 of her quilts at the Spring Quilt Festivals. There is still time to get to see it at Chilford Hall, Linton, Cambridge, on 22 - 24 March.The Hanging Together group, which has among other members, well-known quilter and speaker Annette Claxton, is having an exciting exhibition of diverse layers and structural surfaces, including a 3-dimensional challenge, from 15 - 27 February, at the Chequer Mead Gallery, Checker Mead Theatre and Arts Centre, De La Warr Road, East Grinstead, West Sussex, RH19 3BS. 10 am - 5 pm daily.Some London Quilters visited the group's previous exhibition at the same venue, and found it a marvellous day out. The hanging space is big, white and wonderful. The work is always of high quality, and the whole Arts Centre is a modern complex with a cafe where one can have a pleasant lunch.Paul KleeHayward Gallery, South Bankby Alicia MerrettI consider Paul Klee to be the patron saint of quilters, as his paintings and drawings are so ‘quilty’, with grids and wonderful colours and lines. He creates worlds that hover between the abstract and the figurative, and they are always fascinating. He taught at the famous Bauhaus School in Germany, before the Second World War. This exhibition has been curated by British painter Bridget Riley, together with German art historian Robert Kudielka. Do not miss it!The exhibition is composed of small, some very small, paintings and drawings, which require close perusal as well as looking at from a suitabledistance. Many of Klee's paintings are very ‘patchworky’ - squares and rectangles in many colours, grids, etc.; but the way he uses the line -‘taking it for a walk’, is most inspiring for quilting!The exhibition is open until 1st April, daily from 10 am to 6 pm, with a late opening on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, until 8 pm. Price £8, concessions £6, multivisit pass £16, concessions £12. www.hayward.org/uk/kleeSam Charles Hobden
was born on Tuesday 4th December, weighing 8 lbs. His mother, our former Treasurer, Sarah Cohen, is delighted (as is Grandma Marlene!)
CHAIR CHAT
It has been a rather odd winter so far--quite apart from the weather. We didn’t have our usual Christmas at home in Hamble because my mother is now too frail to visit--so we went to her place (she maintains pretty good, and resolute near independence in sheltered accommodation, but the cooking facilities for Christmas are basic, to say the least). Fortunately, my lovely husband is a good-humoured man and we returned to Hamble for our customary New Year party. But even then, the numbers were depleted through illness.The enormous red Camellia in the garden is still in tight-shut bud. Last year it flowered on January 6th, the year before on the 10th. And our resident robin (who fiercely defends the dilapidated greenhouse in winter) has disappeared. Must have been in a huff at lack of scraps, so things were a little out of kilter.But we have been much restored by a sailing trip to the Caribbean. This was a real bonus. I always love being at sea, that’s why so many of my quilts have sea themes, and sailing from island to island was just blissful. The last time we were there, six years ago at the same time of year, we saw dolphins and turtles, and lots of birds, but this time very little, except for large numbers of frigate birds, those streamlined sea hawks and robbers.The quilting goes on---the most dependable of pursuits, I think we all agree. I am currently battling with an offering to put to the Guild’s jury for next summer’s show in Halifax--together with many others, I expect. I know that a number of LQ members are also trying, and I will be interested to know which of us (if any?) will be chosen. Thinking of exhibition successes, I hope some of us will be able to get to the Spring quilt Festivals (nearest is Chilford Hall, March 22-24th) to see Alicia Merrett’s retrospective display, among other delights including a new show of Australian quilts curated by Dijanne Cevaal. What a good workshop she gave us, as witnessed by our last Show and Tell in January.I would like to thank everyone in LQ’s who gave me quilts for Project Linus (the organisation that donates quilts to sick or traumatised children). On learning of the illness of the London coordinator, I had found another in Hertfordshire and was about to send our quilts to her, when I discovered that the London Coordinator, Sue Oxley, was fit and well again. So the fourteen quilts I have, rather guiltily, been looking after will now go to Sue later this month and will end up, very appropriately, at Great Ormand Street Hospital for Children. Sue tells me that they are very keen to have quilts to give away--they get money and donations, but hardly ever any gifts for the children. She spent a day there looking at the special units and meeting the children and felt very moved and privileged to be able to give something. If members would like it, I am sure she would come and talk to us briefly at a meeting--do let me know if you like this idea.Pieceful times to all, and I look forward to seeing you at this spring’s meetings.ChristineRegional Day,
Region One October 6, 2001By Margaret Scholey-HillThis was my first Regional Day, but I did not know what I had been missing. The hall in the Maria Assumpta Centre, Kensington was richly decorated with quilts and only just held the 100 Region One quilters, with visitors and guests, traders and stalls. The quilts included International and National contest winners from Region One, including Christine Restall and Alicia Merrett, examples from the Guild’s 90’s Collection, the Fine Cellwork stall and raffle prizes.There were three good speakers. Ann Harding shared her inspirations, experiments and expertise as an embroiderer with us. She uses scrumpled papers and felts as the foundation for fabrics and embellishments; Japanese tissue paper and muslins in hand and machine-stitched layers. Dyeing, bleaching and painting the fabric can be the initial processes in preparing the fabrics but they can also be the final touch. Ann showed one example of a tightly stitched piece eventually dyed in a most effective way. A particularly imaginative long wall hanging invited the observer to go with her on a winter’s walk, through puddles, across tractor ridges and along hedged, stony lanes. This added a new dimension of time and distance to textile art.Suitably inspired, we settled down for Celia Eddy’s slide show of the Guild’s 90’s collection. Region One had commissioned three, which were on display. They are all small but intensely worked in the personally developed techniques which we know so well. The artistic statements were interesting and Celia’s comments about the trends in recent years were thought-provoking.During lunch we could examine the quilts, Ann’s samples, buy from the traders (including the colourful African textiles shown by our forthcoming May speaker, Maggie Relph), and visit the Fine Cellwork stall, with its display of beautiful work made in Pentonville prison. Above all we had to catch up with friends and exchange ideas.Jenni Dobson took the difficult after-lunch spot but immediately engaged us all as usual. After telling some of her successes and educational mistakes in a very amusing way, she passed round a wide range of samples. The message was that we must keep a book of our own failures and triumphs as well because later these become valuable learning tools.The show-and-tell was wide-ranging and wonderful. We were encouraged to join the tutors for the Fine Cellwork workers, to make cot quilts for hospitals and any-sized children’s quilts for Project Linus. All great ideas to ponder as we dispersed for home. My first Regional Day but not my last!POPULAR PATCHWORK
The January issue of Popular Patchwork, published 28 December 2001 has a report on the London Quilters’ Millennium Exhibition ... and pictures. The magazine will also give you the last chance to buy the Quilt Lovers' Calendar (at a special price) which includes quilts by Marlene Cohen, Alicia Merrett, Mavis Haslam and Marion Haslam. Look for a copy at your newsagents’ today if you haven’t already got one!A NEW YEAR MESSAGE FROM NEW ZEALAND
Wendy Johnson was with the London Quilters for a year and has sent us this letter from New Zealand.Dear London Quilters,Just a few quick lines to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a 2002 full of joy, happiness and quilting, All has improved much over here. I had radiotherapy earlier in the year and Bruce had a triple bypass so it was all go for awhile but we have both made good recoveries. I went to New Plymouth at Easter for the National Symposium and had a wonderful time, started a Jacobean wall hanging which is now in the quilting stage and hope to have it finished for our guild challenge "Fabric Fantasy" in February. In November it was our Guild’s annual exhibition “Calico Christmas” and it was lovely--over 200 quilts of all sorts and a merchants mall. Nothing like Olympia etc but still pretty nice and enjoyed by most. I put in a couple of quilts just to swell the numbers as I remember what it was like when I was a coordinator wondering if ANYbody would put up a quilt to show. I’m going to the USA next April- May for a nursing conference and to see our daughter, so hope to buy some quilting stuff. Do hope all is well with you and yours.In love, keep the thread going.WendyREADERS’ FORUM
I’d like to introduce a column in this Newsletter so that members can write in with questions or problems that other members can (hopefully) answer.Our first problem is from Em Dahlgren. Anyone who might have the answer to her question is invited to write to me with your suggestions. I’ll print any letters in the next Newsletter. Also, if you have a problem you’d like to discuss in this column, please feel free to write.Em Dahlgren writes: I have a wall hanging above a piece of furniture on which there is a lamp. It appears to me that the wall hanging is fading in the area just above the lamp. Before I hang anything else there, could anyone tell me whether they have had this experience. Is it the light or heat or what? Thanks, Em.DESIGNER CRAFTS 2002
at the Mall Galleriesby Alicia MerrettThis exhibition of wonderful crafts, organised annually by the Society of Designer Craftsmen, was open only for 10 days in early February. Those who managed to visit it, had a feast for the eyes, as well as temptation for their pocket in The Shop Within the Exhibition. There were not only many kinds of textiles, but also furniture, glass, ceramics, jewellery, all to die for!Keep an eye for next year's one - it is usually on around end of January - beginning of February.WOLFIN TEXTILES UPDATE
by Tricia RevestI know that some of the LQ members have bought fabric for dyeing from Wolfin Fabrics. As you may have heard at the last meeting they have now moved from their shop in Central London (Great Titmarch Street) to Hatch End. The full address is:WOLFIN TEXTILES LTD359 Uxbridge Road, Hatch EndMiddlesex HA5 4JNTel: +44 (0)20 8428 9911Fax: +44 (0)20 8428 9955Email: cotton @wolfintextiles.co.ukWeb site: www.wolfintextiles.co.uk where you can get some information about their stock although they don't have a price list on line. However I'm sure they'll send one if you ring.BOWING TO THE INEVITABLE
by Tricia RevestThere are some things like the tides which cannot be resisted. Like most quilters, I have more than one project on the go at any one time and although I like to work mainly with the machine I always have some hand sewing on the go. This not only gives me something to carry around on long journeys and on holiday but also gives me something to do whilst 'watching TV'. For the last two years I have been beavering away on an applique quilt which I'm doing one block at a time including the quilting. However progress on this has slowed recently because I found that in the evenings I was too tired to work on it. It just seemed too much of an effort and I was wondering if I'd ever finish it. Much of my job involves working with a computer screen and when I'm not doing that I'm often reading. When I found the pages swimming in front of my eyes and when I started to get headaches it suddenly dawned on me what the problem was. A quick trip to a shop in Hammersmith and problem solved. I'm now the proud possessor of a pair of reading glasses. Yes, the tides of time have finally caught up with me but it is a transformation. No more wrinkled brow as I struggle to thread my needle. I can read my book at bedtime without having to put it at arm’s length and now I'm not getting headaches. I feel years younger with more energy. So the moral of this tale is that even if, like me, you've never worn glasses in your life maybe you should get your eyes checked out. And that way you might finally put the last stitch in that hand appliqued, hand quilted quilt. The only disadvantage is that now I can't see the TV but as there's never anything worth watching anyway I can concentrate more on the sewing. Even so, maybe for my next pair I'll go the whole hog and get bifocals.WantedMagazine Back Issues to complete a collection:Fabrications magazine: December 1999/January 2000, February/March 2000.International Quilting Times, Issue 10Please contact Tricia 020 8960 7419 (evenings) or email p.a.revest@qmul.ac.ukINTERNET INFORMATION
The London Quilters web site address is:http://members.tripod.co.uk/London Quilters/lq1.htm. It is run and maintained by Tricia Revest, whose e-mail is: p.a.revest@qmul.ac.uk
