Ancient Trinitarian church at Ingham

There is an amazing 14th century church at Ingham, near where I live, with a wonderful tomb of a knight and his lady. Although it has been vandalised since 1380, and their arms have been broken off it is thought that they were lying hand in hand. There are very faint coloured lines just visible on the side of her dress. They would have represented the rich embroidery that would have decorated her dresses in life and there are good explanations of how beautiful the tomb would have been when first made and newly painted.

Contemporary v Modern part two

Generally speaking I believe Contemporary work is made as an emotional response to something - the environment, illness, struggles against adversity, close observation of something, historical events, and the like. Whereas Modern quilts are more playful, with an exploration of colour, line, pattern, scale, and made without any  deeper meaning attached... Just because I enjoy doing them!

My Quilt Eccentric Crosses was made because I had become interested in Modern Quiltmaking and saw lots of different Crosses quilts on line. I had a pack of Oakshott eighths and cut them into squares using the strips left over at the ends to make the crosses. They are free cut in slight curves, through both layers of fabrics RS up. I was playing with the colours so that each square had a different colour in the cross. I laid them out and only felt the need to move one square before I was happy with the layout.

Adding wide borders of uneven widths completed the modern look 
and super quilting by Mandy Parks helped us to a 
Judges Choice at this year's Festival of Quilts.

Below is another of my Modern quilts, Modern Wheels. Again, beautifully quilted by Mandy Parks in an interesting modern pattern. This came about because a group of local quilters wanted to do a block of the month in one of the new patchwork magazines, designed by Lynn Goldworthy of Lily's Quilts. I liked the wheel block but thought the rest uninteresting, so I just worked on that. 

Modern versus Contemporary Quiltmaking

I've belonged to the Quilters Guild Contemporary Group for a long time, and have been part of the setup of the new Modern Group.

I would class my Contemporary work as Art. It involves a great deal of mind as well as method.
I made a piece for the Stretching Art Challenge in America called Illuminated Letters and this is what I wrote about it for the submission.

Stretching Art Challenge 16 Illuminated Letters

SAT16: Hidden by Heather Hasthorpe http://www.stretchingartandtradition.org/SAT16/H2-1.html 

Artist: Heather Hasthorpe, Norfolk, UK  

Letter H Half-Understood

Inspiration 

I made a sketchbook based on books and writing for The Sketchbook Challenge and spent a lot of time considering how meaning is conveyed through text and imagery. I have now collected a variety of printed text in different languages, most of which I cannot read! I am using these partly for their value as pattern, but also holding in mind that the meaning is obscured both by my lack of knowledge, and the fracturing that the technique produces.

Technique explored

I am using an image transfer method I first saw at Houston being demonstrated by Claire Benn, which I have further explored and developed following workshops with Christine Chester. I have screen printed medium to attach papers to fabric, using thermofax screens.

Techniques used

Image transfer, layering, machine quilting, facing, appliqué 

This is the quilt

More on this in the next post..

More from Hever Quilt Show

Jackie Norris Who is the Contemporary Quilt
Coordinator came with me and found herself
looking after the CQ Journal Quilts.

I sent a picture of the stall to my husband who responded with, "Nice pic, here's one of me"

And there he is in all his shooting kit...

Well you do need to keep occupied when retired!

And I've taken up dressmaking again, lovely pattern seen at the Festival of quilts, and some nice stripey linen from Wightmans in Bungay which cost less than the pattern!!

Hever Quilt Show

I spent a happy three days at the Hever Quilt show demonstrating and showing the Modern Quilt Group sixty degree challenge from last year.