Scottish Quilt Championships 2015 – part 2

There was just so many quilts that were full of artistic talent as well as technical skills that I thought I would just put up a couple more of my favourites.

This is a close up of the Margaret Watt’s Sea Fruits, inspired by the diet of sand eels that puffins live on. I love he colours and the sculptural quality of this quilt.

This one by Jennifer Welsby caught my eye because of its depth. The horizon is a long way away and you need to look past the celtic knot to see it, which almost makes the knot irrelevant. I found that it was the sea I was looking at – a bit like looking through a fence to see the view.

Overall there were far too many good quality, well executed and thought-out quilts for me to show photos of them all. These two just illustrate the high standard of most of them.

Scottish Quilt Championships 2015

These are held every year in Edinburgh and I visit it whenever I can. This year I managed to visit on the Saturday (26 September) with my camera and a list of goodies I want to buy if I got the chance.

However, I felt quite disappointed. There was not the same buzz as usual and for a Saturday afternoon it was very quiet – in previous years I have avoided the Saturday because it was so busy it took the fun away. This year was very different. There was not the same range of sellers and many of the ones that were there were selling the same kind of fabrics, kits and gadgets. Although I did manage to get hold of some of the things on my list, I didn’t spend as much as I thought I would. There weren’t really any of those gadgets that catch us all out – the things that we didn’t know we needed until we see them on one of these stalls!

The quilts on the other hand were as wonderful as they always are. Although there didn’t feel as if there were quite as many as usual what there was was of a very high standard.

This one by Hazel Ryder caught my eye – I suppose because of the name I have given this blog and because I am a cat owner. It basically sums up a cat’s attitude to its own comfort.

Craft Scotland Conference 2015

I attended this conference on Friday 2nd October at the Glasgow School of Art. It was organised by Craft Scotland which is a body that acts as a platform for the wider craft industry in Scotland from individual makers through to funding bodies and educators.

I’m not quite sure what I expected as this was my first time despite being involved with crafts for many years. However, I was very pleasantly surprised – it was well organised with a good selection of speakers, all makers of one kind or another. What I found interesting was that despite their very different practices they all seemed to have similar ideas about seeing how items could be used differently or using unusual items within their art/craft practice.

In the afternoon there were breakout sessions that ended up being a lot of fun. This is the ‘vehicle’ my group created using various items including a serving tray, a bracelet and a plastic funnel among other things.

It was a long day, but well worth going. I plan to attend again next year.

Just catching up

Not really managed to get into the routine of blogging yet so here’s a brief catch-up on my work so far.
Back in September I started at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee on the MFA Art Society and Publics course. Not having a great deal of formal art education I was not sure what to expect but what I’ve found is the freedom to develop my work in the way I want to go.

I mainly work in textiles including weaving, embroidery and crochet.

This is a piece I made a few years ago just because I loved the serenity of the swan in the original photo. It is made using hand dyed and also commercially printed cotton, free machine embroidery and a variety of other techniques.

I don’t think I’m going to get much chance to produce many more of this sort of thing this year.

First Post

Hello

This is the first blog post to this site. I am studying at the moment and I thought it would be an ideal time to start recording what I do via a blog. I am studying at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art for a MFA in Art Society and Publics and so far am loving it, although there is a lot of work to get through. By next August I have to be ready to exhibit a body of research and some artwork to support my study. Hopefully, I will then be awarded an MFA and will be released onto an unsuspecting public. :). More about my work in my next blog post.

So keep checking back to see how my studies are going and if you are also studying something similar I would love to hear from you.

Julie