International Threads in Beaujolais

I took the train to Beaujolais on Monday, with most of the quilts packed into the large red suitcase.

Barbara met me at the station in Freising and threw me some more - her - quilts, which we packed into the suitcase, too. Because of time constraints in jumping off one (late) train, repacking, and getting onto the next one only a few minutes later, no picture of this momentous occasion was taken.
But here is a picture of the legendary suitcase in Chalon-sur-Saone:

Unfortunately, this may be its last trip, because whereas in this picture the handle still is extendable, it has now blocked, and pulling or carrying the case without an extended handle is not a pleasant entertainment. In any case - I got to Beaujolais alright.
We are part of Quilt Expo Beaujolais which has been renamed:

Our gallery is right next to the SAQA-exhibition "Two by Twenty", in the upper left hand corner of the floor plan (no. 51):

Despite the fact that we have a good-sized gallery space, I could not put up all our quilts, so I chose the complete sections 'blue' and 'red' and 'change of scale'. Most of 'black to grey with a bit of color' (Kathy's  textilie sketch of the prize winner is in the middle of the picture), a couple of 'proof of sketching' and a small selection of 'lines'.

Visitors are very favorable, they admire the variety of styles AND the homogeneity of appearance at the same time. The arrangement works very well, and it transitions from one color to the next nicely. It is a lot of fun to be sitting in this exhibition!

thank you, International Threads!

You will remember the gray scale challenge that was the second quilt in International Threads' existence.  Our dear late Ita Ziv was the one who gave this challenge, and the rules were that you had to use a wide variety of shades of gray, plus only a tiny bit of another color.  I loved the quilt I made for that challenge, which was a new technique for me.

I wrote about it here.  Some time after this post, I decided on a name:  Linear A, after the ancient Greek writing that was eventually deciphered by archaeologists.

Linear A, 2013, 16 x 32"

I loved the technique, and the quilt, so much that I decided to make it again, virtually identical in design and fabrics, except almost three times the size.

Linear B, 2014, 42 x 73"

I'm so happy to report that the big one is now in Art Quilt Elements, a juried show at the Wayne Art Center outside Philadelphia, and it won the juror's award, which is the second prize, right after best in show.  And it never would have happened without International Threads.

Autumn Gear Wheels

Autumn Colors - Yippee! My favorite color scheme - NOT!
Ok, what do I do now - I already skipped the Afghan Square. No way I'm going to ditch this one.
So now what?

Why do I not like autumn colors? Probably the promise of cold, wet and dark days looming ahead is what really turns me off.

On the other side, autumn has beautiful sides to offer - Chinese lanterns, ripe berries, red maple leaves, asters and pumpkins. So I decided to focus on this color palette - even though it is not the typical autumn color palette you would expect.
After making the spirals, the quilt seemed to be empty in a way so I took to my harshest critique - my daughter. She suggested a green bug. But the only ones I could find which related to autumn were ladybugs and stink bugs. Ladybugs were out of the question - way to cute for my liking. Stink bugs are edgy enough - but most of them are brown. BROWN! Ugh.

So - Gear Wheels! Just because I like them. Yay!

"Thinking of Nasrin" - Afghan Square, finally finished!

After taking forever, I finally finished my Afghan Square quilt a couple of days ago.

It went through a number of planning stages.
This was my original square:

Although the background suggested it, I did not want to 'turn traditional', and at first thought I could stretch, turn, mirror and replicate the shape of the orginal motif. Planning by photoshop and sketching looked like this.

Of course, eight of the blocks - i.e. all the ones that would have been not the original size - would have been pieced. But somehow this didn't really talk to me.
Then we had a left-over square anyway, and Barbara offered to give me hers, too, so I figured I could use three instead of only one. I also had a piece of a real Afghan tchador (if that's what it's called there), which I had dyed blue, and started figuring out how to include that.

The embroidered squares were inset into
circles, and a couple of other circles added

A lot of handstitching, some quilting on the the longarm, and quite a bit more handstitching followed.

Extra stitching added to alter character of pre-stitched cloth

green stitches on the yellow cloth were done by my son,
when he was trying out a bit of embroidery

And with all the refugee crisis, my involvement in and exhaustion from volunteer work the title simply suggested itself, because while I was stitching, I kept thinking about the woman who had made the squares, hoping that this work is enough to keep her well supplied for where she is, without having to think about possible leaving her country via a dangerous and unpromising migration to countries where things would be so different, difficult...

"Thinking of Nasrin", 60 x 120 cm

Signs and Symbols

This is my "Signs and Symbols" quilt

This is my first time to add photo to the blog and the quilt is text challenge

Bella

Autumn
Making quilts is better than filling in my tax return form - due at the end of this month, so I have made my Autumn quilt.
When I was in Geneva in September visiting Chantal, and teaching her group, I took a load of photos of the pumpkins in a yard.

I made a small Journal Quilt for the UK Contemporary Quilt Group 6' x 12"

I was pleased with my small JQ so have made a bigger International threads Quilt

I used Photoshop elements and made some drawings, I used Split Print to make the photograph bigger

Here it is in progress

and then finished

The colours look different as the second pictures are taken in electric lighting

Gillian

Afghan Square Quilt

Here is my finished Afghan Square Quilt
The
Gillian

Signs and Symbols - Gillian

I find working to a smaller size much better - not particularly because of the size but there is less pressure - at 40cm x 80cm, if it is not a great quilt, it doesn't matter, I feel I could easily do another.
I felt inspired to get going with the long overdue challenge
Signs and Symbols
I couple of years ago, whilst in the carpet museum in Istanbul I photographed some carpets with the information next to it, explaining what the symbols mean.
I made some drawings of the symbols and used my Interchange Applique technique.

You may have heard that, in Yorkshire, on Boxing Day we had some devastating floods. It has caused chaos and has been so sad to see so many homes ruined. My quilts were hanging in our local quilt shop, as part of a small exhibition. The water came into the shop to waist high and several of my quilts got very wet. They were in very dirty muddy water for 24 hours! They have surprisingly  washed well.

We spent the next few days helping to clear the shop etc. Elaine from the Quilt Cabin gave me some fabric ( the type and colours she knows I like) for helping so I wanted to use this fabric to make my next quilt.

So, although it is a signs and symbols quilt it is also a Hebden Bridge Flood Quilt, at least that's what it will remind me of.






Gillian