A friend of mine (Natalia) with a love of maps decided to come along to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC to see 'Tread Lightly' It was her first quilt show, and I think it made an impression. She is studying art and kindly took some pictures for me. Being a non quilter helps I think, as she has captured more of the feel of the show than I ever do. I think I am too hung up on the technicalities of the quilts. Here are my favorites from her pictures. I've picked most of these because they show people interacting with the quilts, smiling and generally enjoying them, maybe laughing at them, but happy. It is great having someone lurking in the show to take these pictures.
I hope the pictures also give some impression of the scale of the show. The halls are huge, and this year things were well spaced out so you didn't have to wait to get to most of the quilts. There were about 1500 competition quilts hanging, which took up about half the exhibition space. This year they had also put down a very pale carpet. It looked great and somehow made everything seem more proper. It is a joy to see our work displayed in such a well thought out space.
I chose this particular picture of the nudes largely because it is a great photo of the boat above them. I loved this boat and was thrilled to be able to by a card with a picture of it on. It was made by Diana Brockway from Wales. She had one of the galleries at the show and her work is just fantastic. She is so good at depicting wood, both as object and as trees. I suspect it is her influence that has me photographing all kinds of wood. I feel a need to have a go at quilting something wooden.
This is the rose fully quilted. The rose is all sewn in pink and the background fill is green. Sadly it is so subtle that the camera isn't picking it up. On the other hand the camera can see stains coming through from the wadding. This is the second time I have had this problem, but this is a different wadding to last time. Is this just something that happens if you use white fabric in a quilt? If I am going to make any more pale quilts I guess this is something I will have to investigate and address. I suppose if I used a bleached cotton wadding that would probably be safer. If anyone has any suggestions, or experience of this I would love to hear from you. I can test every available product but I would rather not.
2 comments:
tThe photos are great. I like that she's stepped back and got all the people looking in the frame as well. I'm always right up close waiting for them to move so I can get the quilt.
Did they not use the dog bowl, er, I mean the planet stand, for Tread Lightly?
Yes, not being a quilter, she was interested in the way the people were taking in the quilts, and she has got some great pictures.
I think the word you are looking for is plinth. No they didn't. Tread lightly lost a lot of air in transit and was quite happy sitting without it. They did call me to put more air in but I still left it a little soft so it would stay balanced.
The new owner is planning on using it's plinth though. She understand that it is in no way a dog bowl no matter how much it might look like one :)
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