Preparing for a Talk

I am super excited to be the guest speaker at the Peaceful Nights Quilters Guild on Wednesday.

I've been preparing during the last few days, digging out art work and quilts from the cupboards.

It is nice to go through some of the things I haven't seen in a while. Many of my quilts are packed away. All of my art work is rolled up and sits on top of a cabinet.  I never see it.

So it's been a treat to enjoy those pieces.

I am glad to be sharing some of them with the members of the guild.

The theme of my presentation is Inspiration- where to find it and how to translate it.

My presentation is more like a lesson that a talk about me and my work, although the audience will learn about me and the way I work while I speak about the pieces. I want people to go back to their studios inspired and ready to create THEIR work, to have THEIR ideas brought out in textile, be it traditional or contemporary.

This is open to anyone. If you are interested, come along!

Velvet Colours

The stain glass windows at the Cathedral in Tours are stunning!

They say they are some of the best in the world.

Cathédrale Saint-Gatien de Tours, classical Gothic façade, built between 1170 and 1547.

The façade has lost its ornate statues which were
destroyed by the Protestants during the religious wars.

There is some Renaissance architecture as well seen in one of the towers (right).

What an inspiration for a patchwork design.

Look at the colours and shapes of the glass.

The red windows reminded me of Austrian quilter's work, Birgitt, that I met recently in Vienna.

Birgitt's quilt was made for her daughter. It is entitled, "Life is Colourful".
She designed it herself.

Her quilt is hand pieced and hand quilted.

detail

The label on the back was embroidered.

The embroidered design is an angel
in a tree.

African Billie Zangewa

Billie Zangewa creates silk tapestries. She was born in Malawi, raised in Botswana, studied in Grahamstown, South Africa, worked in Johannesburg and exhibited in New York.

I was introduced to her work at Art Paris Art Fair at the gallery MAGNIN-A.

Christmas at the Ritz, 2006
120 cm x 111 cm
embroidered silk
There are better images on the artist's and gallery website

She comes to textile art from a fashion background. Fabric was her medium then and it is now.

She sews together snippits from her life. She often places herself in the image- a self-portrait in a captured moment.

Artist is in the right hand corner
(sorry about the reflection in the glass)

A captured moment like a photograph.

I love the way she has bits missing in her background fabric choice. That seems to be in all her work.

Simple stitching, beautiful choices of colour and fabric. It's like painting with fabric.

(notice the absence of the word patchwork)