We’re both members of SAQA and earlier this year we each submitted a quilt into the Europe and the Middle East members’ call for entry for the Wide Horizons VI exhibition . The way this works is each quilter submits two images, a whole quilt image and a close-up image, for consideration by a jury panel. Then you sit, wait and act as if you don't mind one way or another! In our case we’ve both been (and still are!) very busy running the studio, sorting next year’s programme out and getting ready for Thread and Festival of Quilts, so this part at least was quite easy.

It was a delightful surprise therefore, in the midst of a very busy day, to receive an email announcing that my quilt Do you remember the cherries? had been one of the ones selected. And it was a double delight to find that Terry has also received an email saying her quilt Black across the sun had been selected as well. In total over 80 quilts had been submitted with 27 making the final selection. Just 8 quilts come from the UK and two of those are from the InStitches Studio!

The Wide Horizons VI exhibition will be at various quilt shows through out Europe during 2018/19 but at the moment we don't have the UK dates so we thought we’d give you a sneak preview of our entries, first up this week is my quilt Do you remember the cherries?

When I’m sewing my art quilts I’m constantly pinning them up on the design wall to see what they are saying and as you may know, sometimes quilts just demand to be made; this quilt knew it’s own mind and how it was to be. I also had in the back of my mind a postcard, sent to me many years ago from another friend, by the Japanese artist Tomoi Yokoi. I didn’t want to copy her artwork, but using the dark background appealed to me and put me in mind of the Flemish still life artists such as Caravaggio and Bruegel and the female Dutch still life painters, Rachel Ruysch and Clara Peeters. The food is central to the compositions but the accompanying textiles and china all have important roles too. With my bowl (incidentally this one I bought on a trip to Warsaw and it holds many fond memories, not just of cherries) constructed it was time to audition fabrics, I like to use my Ipad for this aspect of the design process: pin, click, view. Easy!

Once I’d selected my fabric drape - a piece of wax resist hand dyed cotton sateen, I pinned and tucked it into place before removing it and snipping (very carefully) the excess bulk away. I wanted to incorporate text into the pale areas so I used a piece of removable paper stabiliser behind the fabric as I free motion embroidered the words. It was then machine appliquéd into place before the bowl was finally positioned and stitched down.

The final step for my still life collages is to add extra dimensional detail using Derwent Inktense pastels and in this case, a quick touch of gilding paste for that just picked look!

Artist’s Statement:

Alison had bought them on her way home from work: you didn’t have much appetite by then
and she thought cherries would tempt you.
Our clever girl, she knew you so well, after all she has your sweet tooth.

Plump, sweet and ripe, the juice ran down your chin
And as we carefully wiped it away we saw the delight and happiness in your eyes.

Two summers after you went away I planted a cherry tree for you
And last summer I was able to fill a huge bowl full.

Plump and juicy, each one I ate reminded me of you.




Until next week, when Terry will tell you all about her quilt, Black across the sun, enjoy the weekend,

Hazel & Terry

Hazel takes every opportunity to visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park because its such an inspiring place , but last bank holiday, when spring and summer finally arrived all at once, I went to explore a different sculpture park. Set on the northwest corner of Portland in Dorset, Tout Quarry sculpture park is a fascinating place with views over Chesil beach and Weymouth to die for.

Tout Quarry is one of only two remaining quarries where Portland Stone was extracted using the old methods. The last stone was taken from there in 1983 for the sea defences at West Bay (30000 tons of it) and since then the landscape has been left to nature. The Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust Project protects the site, and artists have created over 60 hidden sculptures from the stones left behind by the quarrymen. It’s a great place to explore and gives a sense of the geology and ecology of the area, as well as the history and of course the art.

Works are carved into rock faces, extracted boulders or built from shale, and there is something to see around every corner of this magical landscape. Some are inspired by animals, with detailed carvings or simple line drawings. . .

.. . .others by the human form: the work on the left & middle below, entitled Still Falling, is by Anthony Gormley, and is carved into a massive rock face of unquarried stone in the centre of the area.

One recent sculptor took inspiration from the grizzly local folk tale of the Roy Dog, which hunted smugglers and ate them, weaving their eyes into its fur so they can still see. Look closely at the picture on the right and you’ll see the eyes!

All around are remnants of quarrymen’s work - tramways, bridges, caves and the places where the spoil was tipped over the cliff.

As you wander around the park you will discover a wealth of marks and lines to record and inspire you. (The ones bottom centre are known as Portland screws - fossilised shells in the rock - often seen when Portland Stone is used in building.) Nature has been left to reclaim the area and it is managed as a nature reserve.

We had only intended to stay for an hour but ended up staying all day, walking to the local town centre (Easton) and buying a picnic from White Stones Cafe and Gallery, which is a gem with an artist’s garden and well worth a visit.

We’ll definitely be back to discover more in this fascinating corner of Dorset. Put it on your list if you’re ever in the area - you won’t be disappointed.

Until next week

Terry & Hazel

It’s not the most enticing of blog titles is it? But nevertheless it’s an important one if you are finishing a quilt ready to enter into one of this summer’s quilt competitions, hang it in an exhibition or on your wall at home. It never ceases to amaze me when I walk round a quilt show such as the Festival of Quilts, how badly some quilts are hanging. Very often it isn’t the fault of the show’s hanging system but the quilt itself. So here’s the InStitches method of hanging a quilt and preparing it for an exhibition!

First things first, make sure you’ve given your quilt a good press and sewn your binding in place. Now you are ready to attach a hanging sleeve. A hanging sleeve is just a simple tube of fabric attached to the back of the quilt which needs to be generous enough to accomadate the width of the pole without distorting the quilt top. Finished size is 4 - 5inches.

Cut fabric 9-10 inches wide and at least the same length as the width of the quilt.

Fold in half an inch twice on the short edges and machine stitch the hem close to the inside folded edge. Some people (Terry!) prefer to make the hem on the right side, to minimise the pole snagging on it when inserted. Hazel can never remember.

Fold in half lengthways (wrong sides together) and stitch with a 1/4 inch seam. The seam stays on the outside of the tube against the quilt back. Press the seam open and then press the sleeve lightly, so that the seam is in the centre of one side.

Roll down the top layer of the sleeve (it will ‘stop’ where the stitching begins) and pin. Sew along the top edge. Doing this introduces extra fullness to the profile of the sleeve to accommodate the pole.

When we are sending our quilts off to a competition or exhibition we also like to give it a bespoke rolling tube and travelling bag - after all we’ve gone to all that effort in the designing and making of the quilt, we want it to arrive at its final destination in the best condition possible.

Fortunately in the Studio we have a ready supply of sturdy cardboard rolls, but try asking at fabric shops for something similar. So that the quilt doesn’t slip down the when rolled and stood on its end, we cover the cardboard tube with a piece of wadding (or in my case an off-cut of curtain inter-lining) - cut it two or three inches longer than the roll so the ends can pushed down the tube to secure it in place.

For extra security, slip-stitch the wadding in place around the tube.

Don’t forget: when you roll a quilt, roll it right side out and from the top to the bottom. That way you’ll minimise the creasing.

For the travelling bag cut a piece of fabric wide and long enough to accomadate the rolled quilt and sew into simple bag. It’s a good idea to write the name of the quilt and your contact details on the bag so if you store your quilts rolled you won’t have to keep unrolling them to find which one you are looking for, and also to make sure you get it back from a show!

And don't forget....no quilt is truly finished until it has a label!

So now I need to go and make sure my quilt entries are all finished and ready for dispatch!

Hazel & Terry

Last week’s blog was about how we take inspiration from nature for our InStitches’ dyed fabrics and threads, so I was particularly intrigued to visit the exhibition, Fashioned from Nature, which opened recently at the V&A, London. The exhibition aims to explore the relationship between fashion and nature from 1600 up to the present time. Not only does it show how fashion has been inspired by nature but it also highlights the effects on the natural environment of the fashion industry. I didn’t have a enough time to view the whole of the exhibition in one go so in this visit I focused on the more direct and troubling interaction with nature, which is featured on the ground floor.


Here are just a few of the exhibits which caught my attention.

Thank goodness for female emancipation, it has spare generations of women from many things, not least the constraints of a whale bone corset

and the dresses which required huge hooped underskirts. I just can’t begin to imagine how restricted and constrained life would have been wearing such garments.

The clothes we wore reflected our social status so having such a tiny waist (just look at the female jacket modelled above!) was a way of showing the society that you were wealthy enough to employ the servants to do the work you obviously couldn’t given the clothing you wore!

The production of the raw materials and the subsequent processing had huge social and environmental effects - think of the cotton plantations, polluted rivers and working conditions in the huge northern cotton and woollen mills.

Many animals and birds were slaughtered, some to the point of extinction, in the pursuit of fashion. Most of this part of the exhibition was both sobering and fascinating in equal measure.

Fans of Alice in Wonderland will recall the mad hatter. Mercuric nitrate was used in the felting process from the early 1700s and mercury poisoning was a common occupational hazard for hatters. To this day the V&A still keeps its many felt hats in sealed bags!

There are so many interesting and thought provoking exhibits that I think I’m going to have to visit several times to really get the most out of this exhibition. Fortunately it runs until the end of January 2019!


Until next week, enjoy the (finger’s crossed) warm weather forecast for this bank holiday weekend,


Hazel & Terry