Festival of Quilts and French Retreats.

Spent the last month finishing of some pieces for the Wild exhibition at Festival of Quilts with Art Textiles Made in Britain. This has included the making of a group piece Shards.

This is a picture of some of my piece in progress..(I look forward to seeing how they change when hung amongst the other artist's pieces) I will be there Saturday and Sunday as I am teaching a Summer School at West Dean the week before.

June and July saw me travelling backwards and forwards to France, (not the World Cup I may add but congratulations to the French team) where I ran workshops for the Alpine Experience in the Alps and then went then on to Limoges with Crafty Retreats at the end of July. Images for both workshops are below..thankyou to the participants for allowing me to share the pictures.

In Stitch-Sketch-Books at Alpine experience we looked at the connected our references to some of our favourite books to the world around us to create pieces inspired by that connection. Sketching, was indeed part of that connection and here are some details of work in progress.

 Joanne (Lovely combination of image with print and floral lace)

 Andrea (flowers connected to text about flowers on a birthday.

 Suzanne (Loved this decorative frame for an austere looking man.)

Marjorie (family memories in progress with drawings based on flora connecting her to her native Scotland)

 Dee (unfolding book form against the mountain landscape)

Anne (discovered the connection between drawing and mark making to stitch taking a country diary beyond its original framework)

It was blisteringly hot at Crafty Retreats. 

Still the French know how to cool down and party with family in the evening:

Cas Holmes Sketches and stitch drawings Mallety.

This visit included an inspiring look at Aubusson tapestry creation (which in 2009 was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity) where I saw this copy of a tapestry created in the style of mille-fleurs , meaning a thousand flowers (I refer to this in my next publication Textile Landscape ) Thankyou to Christine for her excellent tour through the history of the tapestry weaving.

This little video of the course Places Spaces Traces walks your through our week. 

I plan to do another workshop with Crafty Retreats in the future.
Finally, I was delighted that Bird Cage found a new home in California last month. It is one of a continuing series 40 Yards  which looks at things within 40 yards of my house. You can see more here

My next European trip is a creative art experience and workshops with Arts and Cultural Travel in October.

See you at Festival of Quilts