Deborah OHare inspires Cambridge Quilters Members

Just over a week ago, Cambridge Quilters, meeting at Granchester Village Hall, had the pleasure of meeting Deborah OHare from Quilt Routes.  Deborah came to us from Wales to do a talk and workshop.  

Deborah told us how she was a teacher and whilst working abroad took up patchwork and quilting. On returning to the UK she looked for some classes to continue with her new passion and decided to undertake the City & Guilds course in Patchwork & Quilting followed by Machine Embroidery. 

Deborah found her speciality in fabric painting and she showed us a series of pieces based on the many, many places she has travellled to throughout her life.   As an artist she has experimented with many different ways of putting an image or design onto cloth. 

 Nothing too complicated...simple methods which can be done in anyone's kitchen. I was reminded of several, such as transfer printing, which lie forgotten in a studio cupboard.  

This is a photo from Deborah's blog showing her students, on a retreat, painting fabric. 

These two pieces are fairly typical of her recent landcapes. The photos don't do justice to the detail and machine embroidery Deborah includes. 

I did buy the kit to make this set of landscapes.....

wish I'd signed up the the workshop! 

We were not shown these pieces which I found on Deborah's blog. As a 'Modern Quilter, I find these pieces very inspiring.  For one thing, they are quite 'traditional' blocks yet the use of colour is quite stunning and is combined with very intensive straight line quilting

 Here are a couple of close ups. 

Finally, here are a collection of photos taken of members' work at Deborah's workshop...very impressive indeed. 

For more information about Cambridge Quilters do go to our website click here

We welcome anyone to come to a meeting as a visitor paying a small fee. You do not have to be an expert to join, we are a friendly bunch! 

Mary McIntosh visits Cambridge Quilters

We've been really spoilt at Cambridge Quilters with two very engaging speakers.  On the Wednesday evening meeting recently we had Mary Mcintosh speak about her journey into patchwork and quilting. 

Mary related how she began patchwork and quilting back in 1995 when she lived in Canada.  By 2007 she decided to undertake the City & Guilds Course with Annette Morgan which she completed four years later. 

Mary showed us many, many pieces of her work. Early design inspiration came from the site of some traditional brickworks near her home on the Suffolk/Essex border.  3D vessels emerged along with panels overlaid with many fabrics and even newspaper. Here's a close up of one....

More recently Mary has taken an interest in discharge dyeing.  Working on a whole cloth, Mary uses discharge paste to print through a silk screen.

Because bleach is involved, the dye in the fabric is removed leaving lovely copper coloured designs behind. 

Mary is a regular tutor in the area and beyond. She exhibits with 'Out of the Fold' based in Bury St Edmunds and 'Tin Hut Textiles'. 

Click in the link to read more about Mary  on her  blog

Duxford Autumn Quilt Festival

With so much going on I clean forgot to mention going to the Duxford Quilt Show recently. A few friends commented that they felt the show was smaller than usual but it seemed much the same to me.  I still wish Creative Grids had a stand as I always went to them for new 'must have' equipment. 

As always there were several feature displays. 'Inspired by Hockney' by the LINQS group from Lincolnshire caught my eye.  They used the work of David Hockney as their inspiration; his work, titles, subject matter, colours, etc.   This quilt based on Hockey's trees really spoke to me. Made by Karen Lane this piece is called 'Three Tall Trees' and was based on a photograph taken in Woodhall woods. Lots of stitching with appliqué, fabric painting and both hand and machine work.  I could only photograph a small part of this quilt. 

Their website here is worth a visit with more about their inspiration....

I was also drawn to the work of Val Thomas who is a member of South West Quilters. For the last 15 years or so, Val has been interested in depicting 

fantasy in her quilts . She dyes her own fabric  and I really admired the intense free machine quilting done with invisible thread. 

 I only photgraphed two of Val's quilts which were based on fantasy castles. Procian dyes in a coffee jar combined with permanent markers

I was also quite taken with the retrospective exhibition of Christine Porter's work. Sadly one of my favourite quilts had a 'Do Not Photograph' sign so I shall just have to try to describe it.  

One large square quilt entiled 'Birds of Paradise' had a design of eight stylised  peacocks arranged in a circle. They were very colourful and achieved with  the technique of  raw edge appliqué. Not easy with such large motifs.  The entire quilt was quilted in straight lines of different colours edge to edge but in every direction possible. I plan to try this out sometime! 

I've recently started teaching again and must blog about this sometime. I'm teaching a lovely 12 year old girl who is able to come to my studio on a week day as she is being 'home schooled'. We've really had some fun exploring how to use a sewing machine to make notbook covers, pencil cases and bags. 

Somehow, I've also ended up teaching fab group of ladies at Coleridge School on Radegund Road, Cambridge.  This is a brand new class for beginners. The original teacher had to bow out and I was thrown into the 'deep end' at very short notice. More of this another time but I've really enjoyed going back to 'basics' with them. Been busy making log cabin and courthouse steps samples not to mention dozens of 'flying geese'. 

Finally, I attended the auction for the new Arthur Rank Hospice appeal. All Cambridge Open Studios participants were asked to create a heart. I've blogged about making mine before now. Happy to report it sold and went to a good home. Oddly enough, I met the new owner at a Sale Day for Cambridge Quilters and she told me how much she loved it. A happy end to the project with COS artists raising close to £9000 for the appeal. 

Cakes with a WOW factor at NEC exhibition

Between private teaching and my new day time class at Coleridge School, life has been a bit full of late. So it was a welcome change to take a day off textiles to visit the International Cake Show and Christmas Crafts Event at NEC yesterday. 

This trip was, in fact, a birthday treat for my friend Lynda. We go back quite a while. We both taught at the same school; me in textiles and Lynda in the food room.  So this trip, with something for both of us, was perfect. 

In brief, the cakes on display were stupendous!  Lots of different categories. In some, the baker can model over a dummy cake (made from polystytrene) but in others, the entire cake must be edible.  Some cakes are allowed supporting rods, others not.  Each entry was a work of art. 

This cake was about two feet high.

Edible cake tea set - yes this included the tray

Thai lady- prize winner in the branded fondant icing section 

Chinese Garden- Gold Prize winner in the branded fondant icing section 

BFG in sugar

 These last two, were each part of a full sized sugar tableau depicting Aice In Wonderland.