InStitches Creative Textile Courses
  • Home
    • Contact us
    • The Small Print
    • Privacy policy
    • Want to stay locally?
    • COVID-19 information page
    • About us >
      • The story of InStitches
      • How to find us
      • News and events
      • What our students say
      • Gallery
  • Courses & workshops
    • Courses and workshops at a glance
    • Studio Days
    • Year-long courses >
      • Inspiration to Stitch
      • Bringing colour to life
      • Creative Journeys
    • Textile adventures >
      • Guest tutors 2022 >
        • Claire Benn Acrylics with a textile sensibility
        • Judith Needham - weave your own chicken
        • Polly Pollock - Pebbles & nests
        • Debbie Lyddon - stitched collage 2022
        • Cas Holmes - Layers, lines and image
        • Kate Findlay - Wild Garden
        • Christine Chester - Poetry of decay 2022
        • Caroline Bell - introduction to eco printing
        • Polly Pollock - From the sea
        • Claire Benn - Out of this earth
        • Amanda Hislop - Escape into landscape
        • Alice Fox - Natural Structures
        • Polly Pollock - Twined baskets & pods
        • Wendy Dolan - Inspired by India
        • Kate Findlay - Magical lantern
        • Matthew Harris - From parts to a whole
  • Online workshops
    • Online
  • Shop
    • Workshop Gift Vouchers
  • Blog
    • On our travels

Festival of Quilts - more galleries

27/8/2015

2 Comments

 
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!"
Quilt by Jane Varrall
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. 
Miniatures by Hilary Drake
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
Christine Chester - The Dark at the End of the Tunnel
Picture
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).
Picture
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
2 Comments
Joan Holloway link
29/8/2015 05:05:30 am

Really interesting to read the conversation about Linda Barlow's gallery on Helen Conway's blog-almost motivated to add to the discussion. Sarah White and I spent a few minutes chatting to Linda at FoQ and liked what she had done-guess it all depends on individual experiences and what age/stage you are at yourself.

Reply
Terry
30/8/2015 07:00:24 am

Absolutely! Thanks for your comment Joan. The debate goes on over at Helen's. I think her main objection was that women were portrayed in one piece as mouthless, for which read helpless, unable to speak up for themselves and change the situation.

Reply



Leave a Reply.


    Welcome to our blog! Here you'll find out what's been going on, plus plenty of ideas and inspiration and the odd cake recipe!

    Check back often to see what we're up to - it's great to have you along

    Hazel & Terry
    Picture

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    #10minutedrawingproject
    And There Was Cake!
    Artists To Inspire You
    Blog Changeover
    Bringing Colour To Life
    Colour
    Craft Ptoject
    Creative Play
    Creative Warm Ups
    Creative Warm-ups
    Festival Of Quilts
    Finding Inspiration
    How To...
    Inspired By Cloth
    #institchescreative2020
    Line
    Places To Inspire You
    Quilt Shows
    Text
    Texture
    The Story Behind The Quilt
    Tools Of The Trade

    InStitches travelblog
    InStitches textiles travel blog
    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    April 2016
    March 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013

    Visit InStitches's profile on Pinterest.
InStitches: exciting courses for people who love textiles, quilting, design, stitching and sketchbooks

Connect with us

follow us on Facebook
read our blog
Instagram inspiration
Pinterest pinnings
newsletter signup
follow us on Facebook
read our blog
Instagram inspiration
Pinterest pinnings
newsletter signup

Courses and workshops

Courses and workshops at a glance
Short courses and workshops
Longer courses
Guest tutors 2022
​Online workshops
​Studio days

InStitches

About
How to find us

Support

Contact
​
The small print
Privacy policy

Our address

Sunfield Studio,
Unit 12, Sunfield Business Park
New Mill Road
Finchampstead
Wokingham
RG40 4QT
We support
Just a Card logo
Copyright © InStitches 2010-2022
All rights reserved.