Festival of Quilts 2

For those of you who have never stewarded or had any opportunity to get into the NEC before 10am, it looks a bit like this. If you have never volunteered to steward why not next year? You can get into the NEC from 8.30am for total uninterrupted views of the quilts.

I promised to share some of the children's work. Over the four days the projects were, Book covers, Bunting, Xmas decorations, Halloween masks, Seaside wall hanging, Recycled blanket/jumper art pictures, Embellished wrist bands and these wonderful "go green" bags features below. Each session we had between 14 and 18 children, the youngest only 5 but determined to use the sewing machine independently.  It is also great to see children returning each year to spend a day with us. These will be our quilters of the future, who knows in 10 years time someone might go up for an award having started with us.

I did manage to great away for a lecture by Jane Dunnewold which was very inspirational. It was entitled Mining for Meaning and Jane used both images and poetry to illustrate her talk. One  poem was by an American called Mary Oliver. I have googled her and found 87 poems but can't remember which one Jane used. A good point was to master the tools/media you have. I know in the past I have been guilty of buying some new product, coming home and not giving myself the opportunity to play so it sits in a box, I loose the instructions and never use it. I have Jane's new book, Art Cloth: A Guide to Surface Design On Fabric and after my City &Guilds is finally completed I am giving myself permission to play and make things for me. I have just found checked out her new blog, which is about being creative.

Just by flicking through her posts I found this which said a lot to me -

"Ask yourself  "What if?" And don’t be discouraged if the answer isn’t immediately forthcoming. But start by asking the question. Play with the tools. And open your brain to the possibilities. Your hands might quite possibly follow." Jane Dunnewold 2010