Ruedesheim - Patchworktage - my exhibition & demo

My exhibition was in a hotel that used to be a monastery, about 4km from the town centre, with probably the best view I've ever had from an exhibition space - all the vinyards stretching away down the the Rhine. As usual, click panoramas to view at larger size and use your browser's back button to return to the blog.



Willkommen in miner Ausstellung! Und Vorschict Stufe! (Watch your step - there's a step down into the room - at least, I don't think the visitors were being warned about me ).


I took the photos above in the quiet moments - usually there were 20 - 25 visitors in the room.

We set up the exhibition on Friday morning. The German guild have a metal quilt hanging system which goes together well and looks good - polished metal. Very tech!

I sat beneath a picture of St Benedict & St Hildegarde (of Bingen), who founded her convent in this area over a thousand years ago.


The sashiko is a new work in progress and I'll take it to demo at Sandown Park next weekend. There were plenty of architectural inspirations in Rudesheim (blogger doesn't like me typing umlauts, so I'll have to stick with that spelling). This is my Ruedesheimer furoshiki in progress. The double corner fans have gothic points, so they look like chrysanthemums (Japanese) or Kloster windows (German).


The balcony outside my window -


Marking out the centre pattern (not so easy to see the marker lines in the photo).


It was adapted from the wall decoration in the dining room at the Hotel Trapp, which I sketched on the first morning when I went there for coffee with the guild's committee. It had only two 'branches' of leaves, so I added two more, making the design more like a kamon crest (which is what it reminded me of). Then I just used a ruler and some circle templates to draft the pattern directly onto the cloth. It is a bit larger than I would usually do for a furoshiki centre, but it's stitching nicely.

I need to work out what's going in the other two corners. Perhaps shippou (since it looks like the wineglass quilting pattern, so appropriate for the location, surrounded by vinyards) or perhaps karakusa style scrolls adapted from the sign brackets. The karakusa (Chinese vine) option is the one I prefer at the moment - it could be more interesting to stitch (I'm always stitching shippou!)


Of course, one of the great things about sashiko is its portability - you can stitch it anywhere. I finished off these pieces before going through airport security at Manchester last week.


Another design inspiration, from the exhibition room's floor - this could become and interesting quilt, perfect for stripes...


More later - I need to get some preparation done for setting up at the National Quilting Championships at Sandown Park tomorrow.