Stars, lots of stars....

Did I have a lot of fun last night :-) I belong to a quilting group called 'Material Girls'. We meet once a month for two hours at a community center. I have been coming to the group since we started it about 10 years ago. It is mainly a quilting group, but others crafts are represented as well. Everyone is welcome so we have the absolute beginners and new to quilting/patchwork to the very experienced. Usually about 15-25 ladies show up when we meet. Sometimes we have a lecture or a workshop, other times we help each other, if somebody has come to a grinding hold with a project. Last night I taught the 24 ladies. It was such a good laugh.
I had been asked to teach them how to make the very traditional Danish Christmas ornament, an origami star folded in paper or fabric. When I told my sister that I was going to teach star making to the group she just looked at me and said "you are a very brave lady!" She claims that she is yet to figure out how to make the stars after countless unsuccessful attempts. Anyway... All I had asked the ladies to bring was a small pointed pair of scissor and patience! I would provide a kit with pre cut strips and instructions. And I'm proud to say that most of the ladies went home with a star and a big smile on their face and no one broke down in tears..... :-)

'Out Of The Fold' at Cavern 4, Bury St. Edmunds

Have I been busy lately. YES!! Even though my blog has been neglected, I'm happy because I'm almost done preparing work for two different, upcoming exhibitions in one October with 'Out Of The Fold' and one November with 'Sindano'. Actually I'm taking part in a third exhibition with 'Fiberfusion' in November as well, at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Harrogate. That is why I've been pushing my self to get all the other exhibition work done, so that I can concentrate on that piece, which I haven't started yet. Mind you, I only did join 'Fiberfusion' recently, so that's my excuse. I'm not bored that's for sure :-)
We, the 'Out Of The Fold' Textile Group is having our second major exhibition of stitched and dyed textiles. This time it is a week long exhibition at 'Cavern 4', Whiting Street, in Bury St. Edmunds , Suffolk, England. The exhibition is on from the 24th-31st October. All new work from the 13 textile artists will be on display. I've seen group members working first on their design work and then on their pieces this last year and stunning work is being produced! It will be very exciting to see the exhibition finally hung. Please contact me for more information.

Do You Know 'Wordle' ?

Tag word cloud:

The website 'Wordle' was recommended to me sometime ago. Kind of forgot about it, but the other day found the little note with the link, when I was tidying up my desk. I love incorporating words and text in my work. More often graphics is more important to me than the actual meaning of the words, so finding 'wordle' has been a lot of fun. On the web site you are able to create word clouds. You can either write/copy and paste a text, import an URL, or import your tags from Delicious. The word clouds that I have created here for this blog post are based on imports from my Etsy shop and my tags on Delicious. The results are just stunning. Don't go to the site unless you have more than a moment to spare. It is so addictive. (Don't say I didn't warn you :-) If you don't want to create your own clouds, then browse the gallery, for some stunning examples, that changes all the time.
The other day I mirror imaged a wonderful word cloud before printing it on a transparency (for ink jet printing). Painted some acrylic mat medium on to fabric, while still damp (you have to work quite quickly), I pressed the printed text transparency with the rough side down into the medium. Rubbed it with a spoon. And presto. The word cloud was transferred with the writing the right side up on to the fabric. Pretty neat. I could get carried away with this..... Here is the link you you want to have a play: Wordle

Etsy shop cloud:

More Festival Of Quilts 2009

At 'The Festival Of Quilts' and at the 'The Knitting and Stitch Show' at Alexander Palace, London one of the many highlights is always the 'Graduate Show Case'. I find it so exciting talking to the graduates, looking at their work. Pure bliss when workbooks are on display. I love other peoples work/sketch books. It is so intriguing to follow the process from initial idea to the finished product. The creative energy is just mind boggling.
At 'The Festival Of Quilts' I just loved Fiona Wilson's work. It was so light and airy. So delicate. Her layered, stitched and lightly distressed pieces were just beautiful. I bought one of her pieces. It just had to come home with me and I love it! If you go to her lovely blog Fiona Wilson you'll find a lot of info about her work and you'll see what I mean
While browsing the huge and very tempting vendor area I stopped for quite a while to listen to a demonstration by Textile Artist Brenda Boardman. She was giving a superb talk on how she uses heavy weight Lutrador in her beautiful free style machine embroidered work. Lutrador is one of the products that I have never really gotten around to play with, so this was perfect getting all this inspiration and learning about it's properties. I bought two long and quite unhandy rolls of the 'stuff' and was logging them around for most of the day. Not particular smart, but I didn't want to waste my precious time going back to the coach. You can see Brenda Boardman's work on her web site: Brenda Boardman

Festival Of Quilts, Birmingham 2009

Drop Box

Wow what a week last week. Tuesday was the wonderful day out at The Henry Moore Foundation with 'Fiberfusion'. Friday a superb day trip to The Festival Of Quilts, Birmingham with my other textile group 'Out Of The Fold'. Had the most fantastic day. A huge amount of quilts, exhibitions within the main exhibition, demonstrations, workshops and vendors galore. It is always so mind boggling and inspiring to attend these huge events. I usually do my home work and kind of know what exhibitions/artists I want to concentrate on while my brain is still fresh. On this occasion I didn't take a whole lot of photos. Only 12 to be precise. But one of the few ones, that I took was an art quilt that really caught my eye. After looking at for a while, I went to read who had judged it. I couldn't help smiling when I saw the judges name. It was a Danish lady called Lisbet Borggren. It didn't surprise me at all that another Dane would have spotted that as well! As I was too cheap to buy the festival program I didn't know who made the quilt. It wasn't until yesterday that I learned that the quilt was made by a Danish! Internet friend of mine Mai-Britt Axelsen. I'm so thrilled for her. As a matter of fact she won two prizes. First price in the miniature category with 'Little Thin Blue Line' (30x30 cm)(the photo above) and second price for her art quilt 'Another Thin Blue Line' (120 cm x 120 cm) WELL DONE. CONGRATULATIONS!!! On her lovely blog Linen and Silk you'll find much better photos of her prize winning quilts, so do take a look.

Fibrefusion at Henry Moore

Yesterday I spend the most wonderful day at the Henry Moore Foundation, Perry Green, Hertfordshire Henry Moore Foundation It was a day trip with the textile group Fiberfusion. Very recently I had the honor to be asked if I wanted to join this very advanced textile group. This was only my second time meeting with Fiberfusion Fiberfusion But what a day! What more can one ask for: Great company, fantastic weather, a superb pub lunch in one of these very old, timber framed English country pubs AND the most impressive sculptures placed in natural surroundings, with lots and lots of open space around them. The sculptures were allowed to express themselves, not being crowded by one another (or city scape's for that matter. Very powerful. Three of the sculptures were placed amongst grazing sheep. One was on its own little mound, but two of them were actually the field. Over the years the sheep had polished an area/ring around the sculptures in sheep height, giving that area a lighter golden colour. It was lovely. The Marquette room was very exciting. There it was possible to view some of Henry Moore's design inspirations and his first attempts creating mini sculptures, playing and familiarizing himself with the shapes. In this area of England (East Anglia)there is a lot of huge flint stones/blocks in the ground, and one of Henry Moores returning design source were these big lumps of organic shaped flint stone. I didn't know that. It was a beautiful day out.

Workshop and Cakes!

I've have (once again) not been blogging as much as I would have liked to. 'Real life' has been busy, so my 'Internet life' has been put a bit on the back burner. Having said that, I have missed blogging as it does focus my busy life for a brief moment. So what has taken my time? Well the last week in July I attended a 5 day summer school in free style machine embroidery, Tutor Pauline Verrinder. A superb time with 15 like minded creative souls and their sewing machines. I'll write more in detail abut that later. So much to tell......
The summer school was followed by a lovely warm and very sociable weekend with friends. Then I had to do my final preparations for teaching one of my textile groups. We all take turns in teaching and cake baking. I do more teaching than cake baking which is totally fine with me :-) Everything in moderation (kind of :-) but I do love all these home baked, traditional English cakes all baked from scratch that suddenly appears in the tiny kitchen of our village hall where we meet once a month. This one was a moist, sweet, tardy lemon drizzle... beautiful!!!! Such creativity!
I tell you about the workshop I taught in my next blog post. Gotta run, I'm of to make a cake.... :-)