All set up for the Great Northern Quilt Show

We have got everything set up for the Great Northern Quilt Show, which opens tomorrow at Harrogate, in the new hall - a lovely, spacious venue.

During the autumn quilt shows, Grosvenor are touring a selection of quilts by Barbara Howell.   We had a wonderful retrospective of her work at Quiltfest in Llangollen in 2014.  This may be the last chance to see some of her work on show.

I have the last few copies of her book, 'Ideas for Textiles from the Celtic Heritage' for sale at my stand (126 - 127), on behalf of her son Rob.  Copies are £5 each and the money will be donated to charity.

Quiltfest 2014 - photos

Quiltfest had a lot of visitors at the Pavilion to see Barbara Howell's retrospective exhibition.  I don't think we have ever seen so many people in the gallery at once. There must have been more than sixty people there.

Barbara's son, Rob, and his wife Sue had organised a buffet lunch and invited other family members and Barbara's many friends to join them.  It was lovely to remember her and to be able to chat to so many other friends about her beautiful and inspirational work.

Rob gave a short speech at the lunch.

I think Barbara would have been delighted to know so many friends gathered to enjoy her work.  Here is a selection of some of my favourites, with detailed photos. Click the photos to see them in more detail.  There will be more images from all three Quiltfest exhibitions coming soon on the Quiltfest website (see links, right).

Some of Barbara's sketchbooks were on display.  It was very interesting to see these, as they were full of written notes, not the kind of elaborate and colourful sketchbooks that many quilters seem to think they should keep.

I didn't get as far as I hoped with the latest Japanese Circles and Squares piece, but it was good to be able to work on it and chat to friends and visitors at the same time.  I will be adding fine gold cord couching by machine, using a technique Barbara showed me several years ago - she used a cording foot a lot in her work, as well as running embroidery threads in the bobbin and stitching from the back.

'Roofscape' (centre) will be getting a new home - it is coming to live with us in Scotland. I am delighted that we will be able to enjoy it every day, but hope that it will be going out to other exhibitions of Barbara's work too.

 

The River Dee was in flood and quite spectacular -

Trading day seemed well attended and people weren't put off by the wet weather.  I hope visitors were inspired by the exhibition and will create their own art quilts using our fabrics!

Quiltfest in Llangollen

If it is February, it must be Quiltfest. This year, it is open every day from 4th to 14th February, with Trading Day on Sunday 9th February.  I will be there as a demonstrator every day at the Pavilion gallery from this Saturday to Tuesday next week, inclusive, apart from Sunday when I will be trading - bringing lots of lovely fabrics I bought on my last trip to Japan. UPDATE - I was planning to demo for the first time on Friday, but the weather has been so wet and windy today (Wednesday) I still haven't finished packing the car, so I can't go till Friday realistically.

Quitlfest's featured artist this year is Barbara Howell.  Many of you will have heard via the quilting grapevine that Barbara sadly passed away before Christmas.  We were shocked at how sudden it was - although Barbara had not been in the best of health for some time, we know she was looking forward to the exhibition and everyone was helping out so it wouldn't be a lot of effort for her.  Quiltfest will be a tribute to her wonderful work.  Val announced a few weeks ago that Baluch (top), Barbara's award winning quilt, will be included and it looks like we will also be able to see her beautifully coloured rooftops quilt (below), one of my favourites. I am planning to demonstrate machine couching, a technique Barbara taught me, among other things.

Quiltfest VIII is open

Quiltfest VIII opened today, as February 1st coincided with the monthly Sunday antiques fair at the pavilion. We had a lot of visitors for the first day and a little celebration at 12 o'clock.

Quiltfest's format is probably unique. Val Shields (right) had the idea for a quilt show in an art gallery and it is now in its eighth year, with many visitors returning year after year to see yet another stunning collection of quilts, hand picked from the best. Not only is it about quilts displayed as art in a gallery setting but we also have daily craft demonstrations every day that the exhibition is open. So whichever day you decide to visit, there is always a live demo to see or a new technique to learn.

Today's demonstrators included Debbie Gordon of Wrexham Quilting Circle, who was working on a kaleidoscope design in patchwork -

Dilys Fronks, author of several books on specialist applique techiniques and known internationally for her "garden gate" quilts (among other things) showed a machine applique technique.
The "Yamagata" quilts by Peaceful Heart Quilt Group are displayed as a group in one quarter of the gallery - there are more picture of their recent work on Reiko Domon's website (a slideshow should start when you click the link, showing the exhibition at the Yurari in September 2009 - hopefully the link should take you to an automatically translated version of the site too).

I'll be there on Tuesday demonstrating sashiko, along with Barbara Howell who will no doubt be making something adventurous and highly tactile by machine - I always look forward to seeing what she is doing next.