It's an honour!

I am proud, and very touched, to have been awarded honourary membership of the CQ Iceni group.

We started this new Contemporary Quilt group for the East Anglia region in September 2021 and I was joint chair with Annette Morgan until no longer able to attend meetings owing to the best of reasons - looking after my grandson every Thursday

At the AGM this year the group kindly awarded me honourary membership so that I can continue to be involved and sometime in the future begin to be more actively engaged again.

May I personally thank Annette, the committee, and all CQ Iceni members for this honour.
 

'To be completely honest'

 

Treasure unrolled

This is a nice story. 

Creative Stitch is often approached by people wishing to 'destash' and wish their resources to be used by students. This is a good way to keep down the costs of materials required by the courses.

Judith Mann brought in a whole car load of donated materials and equipment from her neighbour Maureen Condon who was moving into sheltered accomodation. 

This treasure trove was sorted through, some sold to students, some offered for sale at the Graduate Show, and some added to the Creative Stitch resources for student use.

I selected a roll of what looked like silk fabrics to add to my 'Shrivel Up and Dye' box. When I unrolled the bundle I discovered that there were several beautifully hand stitched pieces on the lightest silk georgette with designs inspired by Honesty leaves and seed heads.

Work in progress

I thought that these double-sided light and floaty pieces deserved to be celebrated and the original stitcher ackowledged.

The Pojagi piecing technique I have been using all year is a great way to showcase precious pieces when combined with white cotton organdie. All the raw edges are enclosed and looks beautiful with the light shining through.

"To be completely honest" was made for the STARS annual challenge on the theme of 'Going to Seed' and can be seen in full at my solo exhibition in October 2023

I will be completely honest on the label and admit that I am not responsible for the hand embroidery but just the facilitator to bring the work to light and will of course completely acknowledge and credit Maureen Condon who is now 90 and living in Kent. Thank you Maureen.

20th - 25th October 2023  

10am - 4pm each day

Quay Gallery, Snape Maltings, Snape, Suffolk IP17 1SP

Free entry

CQIceni Exhibition 23rd and 24th Sept 2023

 

Please come along to the first exhibition by Contemporary Quilt group CQIceni

There will be a range of work on display by members of the group inspired by the Iceni tribes of East Anglia

Croxton Village Hall, Croxton, Thetford IP24 1LN

Entry £3 (inc a donation to the East Anglian Air Ambulance)

Traders: Cosy Cabin, Mellymade Designs and The Woodland Haberdasher(Sun only)

Refreshments with homebaked cakes!

'Symbol' challenge - members made 8" square pieces inspired by the theme

'Block Print' challenge - A4 sized pieces

'Dallinghoo Hoard' - a large piece of work inspired by the find of  840 Iceni coins in a field in Suffolk in 2008

Dallinghoo Hoard

 

The inspiration for my piece for the CQ Iceni exhibition is the Dallinghoo Hoard discovered in Suffolk in 2008. 

First step was to make some stamps using simple designs taken from the coins - lots of moons and crowns and the funny looking Iceni horse!

Then used a gelliplate and acrylic paint to make monoprints. I think this 'moon crown' design is my favourite

Then second and third overprints with ink sprays and brusho washes to build complexity and a suggestion of ageing and decay

 The original hoard find was 840 coins. I am aiming for 60.

Using my current favourite colour palette of paynes grey, rust orange and turquoise

Stamps looking well-used. Still lots of life in them - may make a second piece!

Next step to dye some background fabrics. Really should have used natural dyes used at the tie of the iceni but all out of madder and woad so used procion instead. 

Orange and turquoise joined by indigo, forest green and burgundy. The cotton organdy dyes really well and retains it's crispness after washing

The first 'minted' coin - 59 more to go

This piece of work will be shown as part of the CQ Iceni exhibition at Croxton Village Hall, Croxton, Thetford IP24 1LN

Dates: 23rd and 24th September 2023

10am - 4pm each day

Entry £3

Solo Exhibition

I am returning to the Quay Gallery at Snape Maltings for a new solo exhibition of work in October 2023

All year I have been playing with the versatile Pojagi piecing technique to create a whole series of textile hangings.

Some of the work has already been exhibited with Spotlight Textiles earlier in the year and shown at Festival of Quilts but there will be some brand new pieces revealed at the exhibition.

The light from the many windows and the plain white walls of the gallery should show off the light semi-transparent double sided nature of the work to good advantage. 

Please spread the word and visit the exhibition from 20th - 25th October 2023

 

CQ Iceni Exhibition

 

CQ Iceni will hold their first exhibition of contemporary textile art on 23rd and 24th September.

There will be group displays of work on three challanges set by members of the group whilst leading sessions at our monthly meetings. 

The exhibition will take place in Croxton Village Hall, Croxton, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 1LN

Entry £3

The first challenge, set by me, was a small 8" square piece on the theme of 'Symbol' 

This is my piece, inspired by the Iceni design of 'Moon Crowns' ofter seen on coins and jewellery. There will be lots of other 'symbols' by group members.

The second challange was set by Melanie Missin-Keating when she led a session on block printing. The challenge was to make your own block and make a small A4 piece of work using your block printed fabric.

Here is mine. Design inspired by the shape on a celtic brooch I was wearing on the day.  Again there wil be lots of other block printed pieces on show by CQ Iceni members.

The third challange was set by Anna Ladds to make a piece using recycled materials when she led a session called "How Green is our craft?" to consider the impact on the environment by using fabric, threads etc 

This piece can be any size as it is lkely to be dictated by the chosen fabrics to be recycled. 

I am using old lace, tablecloths, antimaccassars, old collars etc collected over many years for my entry

The final part of the exhibition is to make a larger piece of work inspired by the overall theme of 'Iceni'

Mine is as yet only in my head but will be inspired by the Dallinghoo Hoard - a large collection of 840 Iron Age coins discovered in 2008. Watch this space to see how it develops.
 

Unfolding

 

The 'Unfolding' exhibition by textile group Out of the Fold will include a display of handmade fans by all eleven members of the group. 

We had a group visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and were fortunate to have a private handling session to view some of their fan collection fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/about-us/collections/textiles-and-fans

A holiday to Seville in April also gave me an opportunity to see lots of different fans including this beautiful lace example from the Real Alcazar

So I wanted to make something light and open but using mixed media. Not lace, but suggestive of lace....

Whilst in Seville I purchased a plain white fabric fan to use as a starting point

However the technical challenges of making a fan proved to be not inconsiderable! Even using an existing fan to deconstruct and use as a template.

Lots of changes of plan later.........we have a completed fan.

This is just a small section to give you a flavour of the 'Fanning the Flames' piece. To see the whole fan, plus those by all the other members of Out of the Fold, please come along to our exhibition at The Guildhall, Bury St Edmunds IP33 1PR from Tuesday 3rd until Sun 8th October 2023 burystedmundsguildhall.org.uk/events/unfolding