The Queen's Coronation Exhibition

Last week I went to the Queen's Coronation exhibition at Buckingham Palace and it was fabulous! I really recommend that you go, if you possibly can. It's lovely to see the State Rooms, the exhibition is very well done with some lovely film footage but for anyone even remotely interested in stitching I'm sure you will love seeing the Queen's Coronation robes and all the other outfits that are on display. The photographs just don't do it justice, you have to see them for yourself.

Breakdown Printed Blouse

In a previous post I showed my breakdown printed cloth and here is what I made with it. Hands up those who thought I wouldn't do anything with it? Even I feel my own hand twitching to go up at this point! I was hoping to make a simple dress, simple because it would be easier to achieve but also because simple would mean less seams and darts to break up the pattern. 

 

 

The pattern I chose to use was Butterick 5211, the one illustrated in purple below.

I had enough to make the dress if I had the pattern going horizontally but I really wanted the pattern to remain vertical but this would have made the dress too short. I wasn't overly concerned about this as I thought it would make a good tunic. But after I had made it up, I tucked it in and I left it loose and I tied it with a belt and came to the conclusion that it looked better as a blouse.

 

I am quite pleased with it and it looks better on with real arms going through the sleeves than it does on the dummy and there are some interesting patterns on the off-cuts that I could do something  else with. Now who thinks I'll soon be showing what I have done with the off-cuts? My hand is firmly down now.

Festival of Quilts 2013 - Part 2

As promised in my last post, here are a few more of photographs from the Festival of Quilts. This one was called 'Japanese Inspiration' and was made by Anna Christensen and I love the limited colour palette and the simplicity of the design.

Keeping with the spotty theme, this one was was made by Dianne Firth. The backing cloth is made of net and the shadows created by the 'red stones' become part of the work. 

 

This quilt by Jill Butterfield also caught my eye. Again I liked the colours, the simplicity of the design and that the left hand side of the piece was longer than the right side.

 

It's interesting to see which quilts your remember several days after the show and I can still see Annabel Rainbows quilts clearly in my mind. These were exhibited in the Through our Hands exhibition. When you got close to the quilt, there is lots of detail and interesting elements to discover.

 

The miniature quilt section usually has me shaking my head in disbelief and this year was no exception - how do these artists manage to work so small? Bear in mind that these quilts can be no more than 30cm on there longest side. This was the winning quilt and was made by Kumiko Frydl.

 

If you were unable to attend the show this year then hopefully this has given you a taster of what you have missed but remember that the photographs don't do justice to the work and that they are even better in real life. There was so many to see, I wonder how many I missed? Here's to next year's show being just as good!

 

 

 

Festival of Quilts 2013 - Part 1

I had a lovely day at the Festival of Quilts, yesterday. It seemed to be a particularly good year, with lots of very impressive quilts to see. If you were unable to go yourself, then I hope that you will enjoy seeing a selection of the photographs I took.  Firstly though, allow me a bit of self indulgence. I was thrilled when I found my Lago Maggiore  in the exhibition and that it had been selected by Pat Archibald.

 

 

Even with Pat selecting it, I couldn't help thinking that my quilt may have fit better in the Art Quilt category, rather than the Contemporary Quilt Category. Perhaps next time I'll phone up to seek advice beforehand, not that it would make too much difference as the winning quilts are in another league altogether.  

 

This piece by Jill Exell won the Art Quilt Category and it was easy to see why this was a winner. I loved the subtle colouring and the detail when you got up close.

 

 

 

I enjoyed the SAQA exhibition: Metaphors on Ageing. This fun quilt was made by Bodil Gardner.

 

I was very impressed by how Mary Pal created such detail with 'just' black fabric and loose weave muslin...and a lot of skill obviously! 

 

I also enjoyed the Beneath the Southern Sky exhibition, especially as I have a soft spot for Australia. This one was made by Sandy Corry.  

 

This Quilt by Stephanie Crawford won the Pictorial Quilt category and the detail was amazing. I can only imagine the amount of drawing and planning required for this piece before  even a single stitch was sewn. 

 

 

These next 3 quilts were part of a Group Quilt Entry, called the Streets of London and was by Kreativt Sanatorium. I particularly liked the different perspectives of these quilts.

 

 

 

 

 I think that's all I have got time to post today but I hope to post a few more photographs in a few days time. Hope you come back to see those too.

Zandra Rhodes:Unseen Exhibition

Last week I went to visit the Zandra Rhodes Exhibition at the Textile and Fashion Museum and was really glad that I did. You were allowed to take photographs without flash but unfortunately, I only had the camera on my phone. 

The exhibition was in 3 main sections, one was based around her punk period and this is a punk wedding dress:

 

Pretty posh punk, I would say. The fabric slashes were neatly finished off and the safety pins were beaded.

 

There were a lot of dresses with beautiful and intricate beadwork. The amount of work in each dress was staggering and as for the beading samples....well I know sampling's a good idea but I can't imagine having to do some much work for 'just' a sample. These samples needed to be big enough to test out the pattern too!  

 

 

 

I found the last section, the most inspiring probably because I could see a link with my own work but also I could imagine actually wearing these.  Sketchbook pages had been copied and digitally printed onto fabric and made into dresses.  My very first post was about a digitally printed blouse that I created using one of my water lily photographs. Wouldn't it would be great if I could create a sketchbook page that I liked so much, that I wanted to wear it!

 

If you do go to the exhibition and go by train, look out for the 2 for 1 offers. Also make sure that you don't miss the video that's in the first room on the left as you go in, well worth watching.