Valtopina Embroidery Festival

I was in Umbria earlier this month.

Photo of a poster of Valtopina, Umbria.

I visited an annual embroidery/ hand-work festival.

Official opening of the festival with the Zimbabwe ambassador
and italian government officials present

I wanted to see how this festival had evolved from when I exhibited my work there several years ago. Next September, I will be co-curating with Joe Lewis a textile exhibit for this event.

There was some felted works.

Licheni by Giulia Rizzo from GIfelt

There was a quilt booth full of hand stitched and quilted works.

Mrs. Stephenson stands in front of her log cabin quilt.

I bought a crocheted ring and wore it every sunny day in September!

My ring made by Luisa De Santi. Her book looks great!

I loved the contemporary embroidery by (please check back as I have misplaced her business card)

details of the embroidery

I loved a textile work by men from a maximum security prison!

I especially liked their hand-made label!

translated it says, Let us not imprison creativity.
Let us give more room to the ideas and fantasy.
The men who worked on this project signed with pride!

This year, Zimbabwe textiles were exhibited.

Dorcas Shumba is a fashion designer.
She uses traditional fabrics from her native Zimbabwe
to create her contemporary clothing line.
At the moment she is doing a PhD in New Zealand in
International Development.

I am leaving Italy and going to South Africa. I hope to have some interesting textile things to report to you while I am there.