Fashion Stitch Embroidery Show

This is going to be a picture heavy post so I apologise in advance.  Thursday saw Wendy and I making the journey across to the NEC at Birmingham for the combined Fashion Embroidery and Stitch and the Sewing For Pleasure Show.  We had intended to get there for 9.30 when the doors opened but were delayed by an accident on the motorway but in the event we had plenty of time for looking and shopping.  Shopping? Did I say that?  'Course I didn't!

It was certainly a busy show with a good variety of exhibitions and a multitude of traders.  The Quilters' Guild had brought quilts from their 'Pearls of Wisdom' exhibition which showcases nationally less well known quilters from the British Isles.  There were some beautiful and inspirational quilts in this group and I photographed almost all but I will just highlight a few here:

This quilt is entitled 'Angel's Tears' and is by Jill Stillman.  You can see more of her work here .

This amazing quilt is entitled 'Karma' and is by Gilli Theokritoff and the quilt includes 4000 squares bonded and quilted with the word 'wisdom' in many languages. 

This wonderful raw-edged (I love raw edges!) appliqued quilt is titled 'Pied Beauty' and is by Elizabeth J Wall.  Based on the poem 'Pied Beauty' by Gerard Manley Hopkins.  Elizabeth says that the pearls of wisdom in the poem created sparkling images.  Her quilt certainly sparkles with exquisite detail and colour.  I hope when you click on the image you will be able to see the gorgeous detail.

These screens and the 2 images that follow are felted banners made by members and friends of the Scottish Felters  The Standards for Scottish Heritage celebrate Scotland's History and Culture in the year of the Homecoming.

This photo above shows the cartoon from which the banner in the foreground was made.  The banners had all been attached to a sheer fabric for displaying.

For me the most stunning part of the exhibition was the showcase of the work of Dr Isabel Elliott who was Mistress of Embroidery at Gloucester Cathedral.

These collages do not begin to describe the impact of the sheer volume of work on display from this indomitable lady.  Dr Elliott was hovering in front of her multiple displays and I had a few words with her.  She is a dainty little lady and confessed that this is only part of her collection of work.  It encompassed many forms of embroidery, works in 3-D and even quilts.  A stunning collection which was attracting much attention.  If you click here you can see further images of the embroidered child's chair that you can see in one of the collages above.

Above is a very small selection of the many quilts on the Afghanistan Inspiration stand.  All of the quilts displayed incorporated a 10cm square of embroidery stitched by women in war-torn Afghanistan.  These women are unable to make and sell their work in Afghanistan so Pascale Goldenberg encouraged them to make these embroideries to sell in Europe.  Thirteen countries have come together to incorporate these embroideries into larger pieces and the exhibition will tour through Europe.  This link will show you where else the works will be on display and at all of those venues you can support the ladies in Afghanistan by buying your own square.

Can you  spot the original square here? The legend reads "The bird is no longer alone.  He is in the land of the kind lion".

I love this distressed piece which is titled 'White Peace' and is by a lady from Latvia.

Isabelle Deru from Belgium made this piece which is "For all the women of Afghanistan who, like us, dream of happiness".  A very moving sentiment.  I bought a square myself which I'll show you another time as I haven't photographed my purchases yet. Did I say purchase-s?  No, of course not! Just the one! Hmmm!

There were, of course, so many more stands that I didn't manage to photograph.  Particularly outstanding were displays by Threads and Angelico  which explored the concept of Coast, Longslade Community College, which included a piece by a blogger Maria Dent,  Nolitex, Claire Fell and Louise Mabbs.  I had a lovely chat with Mary Whittaker of Nolitex during the course of which I solved one of my problems with my Festival of Quilts entry (which still isn't made yet).   Nolitex are exhibiting at the Sam Scorer Gallery in Lincoln in July this year from 12th to 25th July.

Well, I think I've gone on enough so I'll end with my own Journal Quilts which I was delighted to actually see for myself as part of the Contemporary Quilt Group display.  

Festival of Quilts

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Put the flags out! The girls are coming!! (not forgetting a few guys too!)
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They certainly did. This is the queue 10 to 10 on Saturday morning.
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And this is the rest of it steadily getting longer behind me!! Actually, once they opened the doors at 10 we were all inside in a matter of minutes. Thank goodness I had bought my ticket in advance!

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Recession? What recession? There may be a recession on but the atmosphere at the FOQ was definitely upbeat and temptation and weak-will were everywhere (including yours truly!).

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This year I decided to try and spread the load and stayed overnight from Friday to Saturday. I stayed at the Premier Inn on the Birmingham NEC site which I can recommend (no affiliation). It cost a bit more than I expected to pay but boy, was the bed comfy! ! After a long day it was a very welcome oasis of calm (well in my room anyway, I didn't venture into the public rooms).
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I travelled across to the NEC by train on Friday and the worst part of that was the
l o n g walk to the NEC via the Skywalk which used up my precious energy but apart from that it went well. Bag in the cloakroom and I was ready for action! Phew! So much colour and so many people! I had to stop tho as soon as I walked into the Hall as I bumped straight into 2 friends from home! How likely is that? A bit of a chat and I was off!

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FOQ 2

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Quite early on in the afternoon I went to the tombola run by the Contemporary quilt Group and was lucky enough to win a quilt.

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This little quilt was first machine pieced as a quilt top and then hand sewn. Unfortunately the maker preferred to remain anonymous but I am pleased to have won it. (The colour's a little out in my photo, sorry).

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On Saturday I went back for another crack and won this festive quilt which is entitled "Looking forward to family celebrations" by Stitch by Stitch from Port Talbot. Are you out there, Stitch by Stitch? It's a lovely quilt and will be a great addition to our Christmas decorations. (Oops! sorry for the "C" word in August!)

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I spent a while looking at the Art Quilts (more of which later) before going to find Sandra who I have met while blogging and IRL. Sandra was busy on the Little Gems tombola and before I knew it I had volunteered myself to help fold tickets for the next day. Sandra and I spent a lovely evening in the company of some of her friends having a meal at their hotel. Mind you, we nearly didn't find it! Some fool ;-) had put a load of scaffolding round it and taken all the signs down so we couldn't tell it was a hotel. We nearly ended up in the middle of Birmingham with no dinner! Fortunately by the time we turned round and came back for a second look we spotted a small sign. It kept us laughing anyway! :-) I have to thank Sandra and her friends for making me so welcome :-)
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By the time we had had a leisurely meal and re-found our own hotel, (as Sandra tried to drive, with me frantically looking out for signposts and shouting,"straight on!, turn here!, keep going round!") we were exhausted and ready to fall into bed. Hysterical laughter wasn't far away. Actually, as exhausted as I was, I chilled out watching the Corrie repeat and then slept like a log!

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If you click the link to Sandra's blog you will see some of the detail of her Quilt Creation which I have shown below. It is titled "Wildwood -A Story of Life and Death". The pages of the book are partially see through to give a feeling of light showing through the trees as Sandra explains in her blog. I apologise to Sandra if my colours are a bit out but the light made photography really tricky at the show.

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I have many more photos of the show itself but have not uploaded all of them yet so I'll come back to the quilts later.

FOQ Confessions and ALQS

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Right, let's get the guilty bit out of the way! As is usually the way with these things I din't have a long shopping list but I did invest in quite a bit of shopping, not all of which I've photographed.

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I had been planning to buy the Surface Design Association DVD of demonstrations so that found its way to my bag along with a couple of magazines and a pack of postcards from Sheena Norquay whose work I have admired for some time. Sheena had a stand showing a retrospective of her work and it was wonderful to see it grouped together. 'Net references to Sheena are sparse but if you Google her and select 'images' you will find several links.
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Next up in the shopping stakes was a very little fabric and some threads.

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The threads above were from De Haviland Embroidery and were £2 each so I will be interested to see how they fare.

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These gorgeous threads were irresistible! They are all hand-dyed and the range of colours was fabulous!

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By far my greatest expense was at the Virtual Studio run by Committed to Cloth. I had been thinking of buying some thermofax screens and inks for some time and decided it was now or never! I invested in their new book "Screen Printing" too. Just one mistake, I bought it all early on Saturday and had to carry it round all day. By the time I arrived home (having linked up with my local coach that I was booked on) I was so exhausted I had to ring my long-suffering DH and ask him to walk down the road to meet me and carry my bag and pull case home! I couldn't have walked up the hill home without him! Bless!

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I was enlivened a little when I got home by the arrival of this beautiful quilt from Marloes in the Netherlands from the 'Another Little Quilt Swap'. It's beautiful and there's so much to look at in it.

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The quilt measures 21"x22" and incorporates layered and cut back fabrics, applique and printed figures, dyeing and screen printing. I'm going to find a place to hang it once I've bought a hanging rail. Thank you Marloes!
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Right, I'm off to dish up dinner. I'll post more about the quilts themselves soon.

Sewing For Pleasure Show

As planned, I went on a coach trip to the Sewing For Pleasure Show at the NEC yesterday. It was a bit of an effort as I was still tired from Thursday but I'm glad I went. I decided to concentrate on the displays to start with as I often miss things going round the sales pitches.

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First port of call was the Quilters Guild "Out of the Shadows Into the Light" display which showed the winners and others from a competition in conjunction with Makower fabrics. I have to admit to being a bit surprised at the extent of the exhibit as I had been expecting something larger. I have to apologise to any of the exhibitors who mightlook in here if the colours in my photos are not true. The light was doing all sorts of weird things to my camera!
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This wonderful portrait below is the overall winner in the Stitch/Madeira Threads Embroidery Competition 2008. The theme for the competition was "Glimpses of China" and there were some amazing pieces, not least this handsome gentleman. Unfortuantely it was framed behind glass and the reflections were horrendous. I hope that clicking on the photo to enlarge it will show you some of the detail and the yarns used in the shirt.

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The work above is by Claire Phasuntia who works with reclaimed denim which she sometimes bleaches and dyes. Her work is far more dynamic than my photo suggests and includesstitching, weaving, print and collage and pulping denim fibres to make into handmade paper which she then refashions into wall art. Unfortunately I couldn't find any information on google for her at all!

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The dress above has been made from the cuffs of men's jackets. (sorry, My brain won't dredge up whether this is Claire's work or not).

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There was a whole area dedicated to Recycle, Reuse and Reclaim with a wide variety of interpretations.

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These extravagant costumes have all been made with recycled wire from television sets.

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These are recycled plastic carrier bags made into dresses.

Recycling

I rather liked these recycled found objects. These lovely utensils below have reused book images that remind me of my childhood.
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Do you remember the Hyperbolic Reef that everyone was talking about and which I blogged about last year? Well, there was a small sample on display at the SFP Show. If you click on the link to Rockpoolcandy.com you will be swept away by the gorgeous colours and variety there. I warn you, there are some mouthwatering yarns there too! Don't look if you suffer from yarn envy! The artist's name is inga hamilton.

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Aren't these little creatures gorgeous? I've copied the artist's statement for you to read. Googling Mary Moox I discovered that she is rumoured to make sock monkeys too!

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What Else?

So what else was there? Since 2007 the United Kingdom Hand Knitting Association and Simply Knitting Magazine have been collaborating on this project inspired by Shaun the Sheep. This wonderful PicKnit is the result and is a fantastic showcase of of people's skill and imagination.

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There was so much inspirational work at the Show but I have to single out Wendy Dolan's work which really resonanted with me.

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The image above is a card which I bought from her stand. It is a print of a textile of hers. Wendy works with layers of fabric, cotton, calico, scrim, to which she adds various textures, sand, acrylic flakes and which she then works into with machine embroidery and finally paints. It is the type of work that I am keen to explore and I would love to do a workshop with her one day.

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Needless to say shopping figured in the day! I didn't intend to shop much but I seem to have indulged in quite a bit of naughtiness! The ribbon hank is sari ribbon which I can see being used in lots of ways and which may figure in a Journal Quilt. I bought some supplies for silk paper making and a couple of stamps and embellishments for a couple of projects. It's a good job I save my £2 coins!

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I managed to meet up with Wendy from the MixedMediaATC_UK Yahoo group that I'm in and we had a nice chat, it's always good to put real faces to the names you swap with online, isn't it? All in all it was an interesting day with lots of inspiration and ended up with a nice snooze on the coach going home.

Sewing for Pleasure Show

Despite finding it a bit of a scrum last time, I decided to go to the Sewing for Pleasure Show at the NEC today. I went with my usual local coach company (A & P Travel) and Alan, the driver/owner did a good job of navigating the traffic to get us into the NEC by 11 am. I thought that this time I would go to the exhibition stands first and even take in a lecture and worry about shopping later.

I started my visit with a cuppa (what else?) and a peruse of the Show Guide and then had a wander round the exhibitors.

These costumes are an example of the work of the company designing for "Strictly Come Dancing"" and Dancing on Ice" television shows. These costumes look stunning on the TV under the studio lights and they certainly sparkled on the display.

Close by was this wonderful knitted Gingerbread House which is raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital. Around 500 women from the UK, USA, Canada and Spain have taken part in knitting this.

This stunning piece was part of the "Stitch in Time" exhibit staged by the Quilters Guild of the British Isles which was inspired by Staircase House. You can read about it below.

I think it is the concept of the design of this piece that most knocks me out.

The two photos above show work by a group of 6 textile artists known as "Visions". Each artist took the title "Shades of...." and interpreted it in her own way. I absolutely love the buildings described in wonderful textures above. Hopefully blogger will enlarge it so you can see all its details. The cream pieces above are embroidered felt and depict shades of the garden. This group originates in Leicestershire but is starting up a group in Nottingham later this year so I will be ending an e-mail to register my interest as it will be good to get together with other textile artists. (Hark at me, textile artist! I can hardly swing a needle!)

You've seen this book before as I bought it some time ago but I took the opportunity today to go to a short lecture by Kim (who pronounces her name Ti-ti-cheye). The talk didn't follow the line I expected but was nonetheless interesting and Kim is very entertaining. Kim works with commercially produced products like lutradur, tyvek and bondaweb and also with recycled sweet wrappers, florists cellophane, cellophane greeting card sleeves, plastic bags, decorated paper bags...... All of these commodities she manipulates with heat. I have her book but, as usual, I have not yet found the time to explore it fully.

Needless to say, I indulged in a little retail therapy (well, what else is a day out for?) but the light was too poor by the time I got home so I'll confess all tomorrow!

PS While I was Googling Visions I came across this amazing site which looks well worth a proper look.