Festival of Quilts and back home again

Festival of Quilts has come and gone again for another year. We spend weeks getting ready and suddenly it's all over in the blink of an eye!

We were kept really busy on our stand - here I am with Laura - we're both chatting twenty to the dozen as usual. It was so great to meet up with people we usually only talk to by email from all over the world. You can just see a corner of Amelie's high chair in the background - Granddad seems to be  taking care of her.

She came every day and managed to charm everyone she met. My thanks to Linda Seward for this picture.

There were many exciting exhibits at the show. To get a flavour of the Through our Hands gallery that both of us were part of you might like to check out Laura's blog posts from the last few days.

It's hard to choose favourites from all that was on offer but one of the exhibits I loved was the Banjara work curated by Jan Petranek

I took this photo of the deserted gallery before the show opened and the rest of the photos were taken through the glass of the display cabinets so I'm sorry about the glare of the reflections!

Basic patchwork, usually worked in red and blue, is transformed with closely worked simple stitching to create beautiful patterns. I have collected a few of these traditional cloths myself over the years and will be having a go at my own version for DMTV very soon. If you liked the recent Kantha inspired project I think you'll enjoy this too. Get your cowrie shells ready!!

This detail of a rather distressed quilt was wonderful. It's not typical Banjara technique but no less lovely. The layers of cloth have worn away to reveal underlying colours. I can't believe how contemporary it looks. The worn layers look just like our textured and painted surfaces!

Yesterday was taken up with unpacking boxes and stock taking but today we're back at our desks and spending time with our online students. One of our recent Creative Sketchbook graduates has generously allowed me to share some of her pages with you. Thank you Pat!

Gorgeous observations of favourite objects!

And Sue, a subscriber to DMTV has generously sent me images of her wonderful rusted fabrics.

She's used them to create this intriguing polygon pages book. Thanks Sue - I'm pleased you were inspired by our videos.

I've spent a few essential hours in my studio today. It looked like a bomb had exploded in there. That's what happens when you get back from a show - everything is just thrown into the room as the van is unloaded. After 4 days at Festival we're all so exhausted we're satisfied if we can just empty the van and actually shut the door of the workroom before we creep off to bed. I must admit it was satisfying to have a reason to have a tidy up this morning and I've made the most of it by having a bit of a move around. Surprising what treasures turn up when you have a purge!

Thanks for reading this - I appreciate your company! Linda