And another!

Last week was a busy one. There was Alwoodley Quilter's AGM on Tuesday,(will the committee heed our pleas for some inspirational workshops/speakers!).
Wednesday I had my first session of accupunture at the Jade centre with Louise. I wasn't sure what to expect, but was very impressed and returned home very relaxed and a bit less itchy!
Thursday Sandra, Chris and Val came round and we spent a very happy few hours talking about the process of designing from a source. Inspirational photos were very abundant as was the lovely food they had brought with them. My DH made us some of his excellent curried parsnip soup with cheesy croutons. Always a treat! After lunch we all set to with paper, scissors, coloured pencils and paint and had a throroughly happy hour or two before they departed.
I am enjoying these sessions with our little informal group, but ideally Sandra and I would like to set up a larger group and include members of the Contemporary Quilt group. This is a hot topic around the country at present with lots of local groups starting up and was raised at the Contemporary Quilt Group AGM in London which Sandra, Julie and I attended yesterday.

The meeting was held at the American Church in Tottenham Court Road and after the business was finished and we had had lunch and mingled a bit, Jo Budd gave us an inspiration talk about her work and how it has developed. It was wonderful to renew my aquaintance with friends I hadn't seen for a while and to meet new people. There was a lovely buzz around the room and some lovely work on display which gave us plenty to talk about.

Here are Sandra and Julie squinting against the bright sunshine waiting to go into the meeting. We were in the shadow of the GPO tower and I couldn't resist taking a snap. What memories this brought back!

Although the meeting itself was very enjoyable, the venue had it's problems. There were a lot of other activities going on and so there was some noise from outside. The room was also quite hot and stuffy which did detract a bit from the enjoyment of Jo's powerpoint presentation.

I don't think I will venture down the same path as Jo, but her work is stunning with some smaller pieces as well a some very large ones. I have to confess to not having been too impressed with her exhibits at the Quilt Exhibition at the V&A last year, but I think now that this may have been partly due to the fact that they were not very prominently displayed. In fact I think we almost walked past the side gallery where they were hung without realising they were there. Having heard Jo talk about them I would now like to see them again. I feel priviledged to have had the opportunity of seeing her work, hearing her talk about it and be able to admit that perhaps I was wrong about it!

Life has some hard lessons to teach us!

I was also priviledged to meet Helen Parrott especially since I was lucky enough to get a place on her workshop at the CQ summerschool.
All in all a truly grand day out and a good journey home as we found that more CQ friends were travelling in our compartment. I'm not sure what the other passengers thought of our conversation, but we enjoyed ourselves!

A grand day out

Although I've been a member of the Quilter's Guild for some time, apart from a few visits to the Museum in York, I haven't done much in the way of Guild activities. So, with some feelings of trepidation, I decided to go to our Regional Day on Saturday. I have admired Ineke Berlyn's work for some time and she was the speaker for the day and I didn't want to miss the opportunity of seeing her and hearing about her work.

The meeting was held in a church hall in Kirkheaton near Huddersfield which isn't a part of the country I know very well, but the directions were good and we found it with out difficulty. Parking was a bit iffy because there weren'y many spaces left and the overflow car park was a very muddy field that noone really wanted to venture into. So we bunched up and parked where we could!

Everyone was very friendly and there was a lovely buzz about the day. Ineke's talk was so inspiring and she is very generous and happy to talk about her work and share her methods. This lovely quilt is made with transparent fabrics printed with ammonites. Ineke also brought her sketch books and these were truly wonderful. She works in her sketch books a lot before deciding on a final design for her quilts. I must say that I don't do anywhere near enough work of this kind and so I've started to address that. It's a good way of using up all those old magazines, photos etc.

After lunch we set about hand stitching some little blocks that will form part of a group quilt next year. We had been asked to take some blue fabrics in dark and medium shades. Even with all my stash, I was a bit doubtful that my fabrics were suitable, but as usual, they were and I needn't have worried. In fact, everyone had taken lots more fabric than I had, so there would have been plenty to go round! I didn't get mine finished on the day, but here are some that were!

So, a truly grand day out and I came home with Lutradur, a new book and lovely memories!