24h of inspiration

A great London 24h again, starting off with a performance of Dracula in dance at Wilton's Music Hall, a very atmospheric venue for this production.  The focus on this photo was affected by the clouds of dry ice vapour.

b

The dancing was really inventive, and the experience was enhanced by sitting next to 2 young men who attended the performance dressed up as Dracula.

Next day, a tortuous journey up to Alexandra Palace, to the Knitting and Stitching Show.  

Blue moon in the sky?

Well worth the trip,especially to see: the quilted coracle; several of the  winners from Festival of Quilts; quietly embroideries from Tilleke Schwarz; the paintings, embroideries and quilt from the collaborative work of Nicola Jarvis and May Morris.  The 3D embroidered pieces of anatomy by Sally Hewett were intriguing and uncomfortable at the same time.

With my thread supplies replenished, finished off with an hour in the National Portrait Gallery to see the exhibition of portraits by Laura Knight, and wonderful contemporary portraits by Jonathan Yeo and Dean Marsh.

Spring is springing to mind

  

Watercolour pencils on calico, stitched with Empress Mills floss

Best friends give you their copies of current magazines – with no pages missing!

Am I sad that a theme of spring makes me think about drying washing outside?

Seasonal stitching - cold and frosty

This is an A4 journal quilt inspired by frozen beaches in Scotland in the winter of late 2008. Made for our quilt group challenge, where we are making a journal for each of the 4 seasons. I Based this on the BQL challenge for January last year.

This is so far removed from my preferred colours that it was definitely a challenge.

Layered, random oval shapes were stitched to sand coloured squares and then pieced together. Hand and machine quilted with a hand made cord of floss thread from Empress Mills. I left the wadding showing at the side.

Inspiration photos are in the next post as I still can't work out how to load photos properly on here. Any help would be appreciated.