Festival of Quilts - more galleries

Continuing our round-up of all that was good at this year's Festival of Quilts, first comes a mention for the Quilters' Guild In the Spotlight gallery. This gallery appears biennially and aims to celebrate talented quilters form the regions and specialist groups of the Guild who are not (yet) well known. Makers are asked to follow a theme: this year it was Adventures in Wonderland to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Submissions ranged from depictions of scenes from the book to much wider interpretations. Here are three of the more unusual ones. The first is Jane Varrall's Down, Down, Down, Would the Fall Ever Come to an End? which uses Jane's own silk painting together with digitally printed fabric from Fingerprint. Jane writes:

"Time passes from 1865 when the book was published with the memorable Tenniel illustrations. My quilt shows Alice falling through the tree roots and hovering above the modern architectural icon of the Shard, my 'time tunnel' of today. Time periods change as she descends in the fashions of the Roaring Twenties, the Swinging Sixties and a modern-day Alice. She lands amidst paperback pages; illustrations from the book still avidly read by young people today. The White Rabbit exits clutching his designer watch!"

Jane Varrall - Down, Down, Down ...

On the subject of the Tenniel illustrations, we were captivated by Hilary Drake's collection of miniatures. Appropriately styled as bookmarks, she managed to reproduce the drawings by sewing machine (hand-done, feed dogs up, not programmed) in black thread and minute stitches, complemented by her favourite Liberty fabrics; and they were stunning. 

Hilary Drake - Drink Me

She says: "I looked through the book for inspiration. What immediately caught my eye were the original black and white drawings dome by John Tenniel. The line sketches reminded me of small stitches so I decided to make these the centre of my work."
Click on the images for a close-up.

Very different to the others and intriguing with it (although very difficult to photograph) was the piece by Christine Chester. Entitled The Dark at the End of the Tunnel it was a comment on the link between the conscious and the unconscious mind and 'stream of consciousness' writing. Building on the thought that Lewis Carroll used his own experiences as a migraine sufferer as inspiration for parts of his book, it was constructed from three (possibly four) machine stitched sheer layers hanging off the wall to achieve a 3d effect. Christine writes: "My hanging suggests the links between the conscious and the unconscious mind and the development of writing from a stream of thoughts and experiences. Words link the layers of consciousness together, creating a tunnel of unconscious creativity."

Christine Chester - The Dark at the End of the Tunnel

Christine Chester - detail of The Dark at the End of the Tunnel

One gallery I wish I hadn't missed was that by Linda Barlow: Searching for the Invisible Woman. Her work is based on research with women in 'middle age' and explores the sense of invisibility felt by many in this group. This gallery has provoked a raft of extreme reaction on the web by those much more eloquent than me, some angry that (they feel) she has chosen to depict this aspect of (some) women's lives, rather than a positive, empowering one (see Helen Conway's blog) and others in agreement that the sentiments expressed are real. I must admit that my initial reaction on reading about the exhibition (as newly part of that age-group) was 'who says?' and 'why are they not doing something about it?' but I have also to admit that I have thankfully not had that experience so am not qualified to comment. By making her thought-provoking art and starting the dialogue I suspect Linda has achieved what she set out to achieve. If you missed it too, why not visit her website to see more of her work. Her blog post from March 2014 explains the thinking behind the exhibition, and reveals that her aim was also to explore the positive opportunities seized by many women as they reach this stage in their lives. You may not agree with all the sentiments, but I guarantee it will set you thinking about the issue (image below borrowed from Linda's blog).

From Linda Barlow's blog

Well since this has turned into a longer post than I'd planned, there will be more galleries later in the week

thanks for reading

Terry