Kaffe and Camila: masters of dazzle

An eventful couple of days skidding across London from one textile event to another in a swirl of dazzle and inspiration, among them the Alice Kettle installation at The Queen's House, Greenwich  http://www.rmg.co.uk/queens-house/ - not to be missed;  and the first day of Kaffe Fassett - A Life in Colour at the Fashion and Textile Museum, Bermondsey, in the shadow of The Shard near London Bridge http://ftmlondon.org/ftm-exhibitions/kaffe-fassett/.

 

 

Suffice to say that anyone who lives colour and pattern as I do cannot fail to be excited by Fassett. Only my familiarity with his work prevented my jaw dropping to the (sparkle-encrusted) floor on entering this jewel-box of a show, but I was nonetheless thrilled at the way the foyer and corridor had been painted in broad stripes of orange, pink, turquoise, blue and red - a motif that even extended to the furniture in the gift shop (not for sale but easily replicated. Note to self: kitchen table and chairs need a revamp).

 

Among numerous knits, needlepoints, mosaics and paintings, my eyes were drawn, naturally, to the quilts and to how they were quilted - some of them seemingly on long-arm quilters like the Beast, although sadly not attributed to the individual quilters themselves (unless in the small print somewhere). And a beautiful job they'd done too.

 

 

Also grabbing my attention among the visual noise, a painted design for a fabric that has long been a favourite of mine. The large, free-floating flower heads - pansies, roses, carnations, tulips, primulas - have appeared in several guises and colourways, some enclosed in a foliage trellis, others against a spotted background. And in the exhibition I quickly came across them again on a needlepoint footstool, above right. The flowers are a dream to cut out for applique and they have played a part in many of my quilts, including the one below right (note to self: After ten years isn't it about time you finished it?);  and most recently in a starring role in one of my child's quilts, Pansy,  right.

 

It may seem a big leap in topic from Kaffe Fassett to the magnificent Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of the Kids Company charity http://www.kidsco.org.uk/  and I mean no disrespect to her dedication to underprivileged and abused children in focussing on her gorgeous clothing. I was delighted to see a picture of her in last weekend's Sunday Times magazine, swathed as usual in a riot of colourful prints including - yes - the very same Kaffe Fassett fabric draped across her shoulders.

 Amid all these photos, I would love to show the picture here, but I have a healthy fear of copyright lawyers. So may I simply urge you to google her images yourself for a textile riot extravaganza bonanza. (Note to self: how about a Camila-inspired series of quilts?)

 

 

Visit my website at www.valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk
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Handmade textiles for stylish interiors, off the shelf or to commission

email: valerie@valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk; 020 7515 0701; 07518 885960

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The group dynamic 2: Red Cross quilts

By somewhat of a coincidence, another group quilt crosses my path today, one of the many thousands of quilts made by the Canadian Red Cross and sent to Britain as part of the war effort. This one comes with a story that has not been lost over time: the owner remembers her mother going to a relief centre, having been bombed out of their home, clutching her coupons for household necessities and choosing this quilt, along with a blue one that has since been worn out and lost. She even records that it was last washed in 1991.

 

 

 

This example still has the official Canadian Red Cross label, but there are no other clues, as the makers were required to remain anonymous - a rule that was sometimes broken, with fascinating possibilities for today's researchers.

 

As a group quilt, it reveals its personality in the fact that some of the blocks are hand sewn and some done by machine; although could this simply mean that the maker got tired of handstitching half way through? The individual block design,  best seen at the top in the one that has orange squares in each corner, is transformed in each variation according to the placement of fabrics. And it is this element of patchwork that first captivated me many years ago. But in this quilt, there is no attempt to balance the design across the quilt, a reminder that in harsher times necessity and thrift trumped aesthetic considerations, resulting in an urgency and spontaneity that are impossible to reproduce but are perhaps hankered after in our more privileged, leisured and introspective lives.

 

Many of the Red Cross quilts that have survived have had hard-working, hard-washing histories not only on the beds of children and grandchildren, but wrapping up bikes in the garage, insulating the loft or consigned to the dog basket. There are probably hundreds - thousands? - still out there, and they are a piece of social history that is, at last, being recognised and recorded.


Visit my website at www.valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk
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Handmade textiles for stylish interiors, off the shelf or to commission

email: valerie@valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk; 020 7515 0701; 07518 885960

The group dynamic: a love-hate relationship.

Before I risk damaging irreparably several long-term friendships, I should make clear that these pictures are of group quilts that I love. And I don't really hate many - but being a journalist, I don't flinch from distorting the facts for the sake of a punchy headline. (That's a joke. Sort of.)

As well as making my own quilts, people sometimes ask me to use the Beast to do the quilting stitch on their own patchwork tops. And my current project is a very jolly strip-pieced group quilt. Why do I love it? Because as well as its bold design and colours, especially the unifying grid of red, it not only celebrates a joint effort but allows the personalities of the individual makers to shine through. I don't know all the makers who contributed, but I am having fun guessing which blocks my various friends have made.

The "rules" determined the basic design and size of each block, plus the use of the central red strip, but within this framework there is a joyful freedom: in some blocks the strips are narrow, arranged symmetrically and in relatively muted colours; in others the strips are almost randomly placed, their larger size allowing the frantic patterns and colours to shout. And it works! Not despite this variety but because of it.

To see how this was quilted, see later blog "The Beast is back" 


UPDATE, September 2015: Want to know where this quilt ended up - in The Guardian. Check out this link to see who owns it now!






I have a lovely quilt I bought, unfinished, in an American antique shop probably from the 1930s or 40s. This time the only clues to who made it are in the quilt itself. Again there is a common design, and obviously a collection of fabrics that was dipped into for all the blocks. But I can't believe it was made by just one person. Look at these two blocks:

Isn't that glorious? I hope they didn't give the maker of the top block a hard time. I like to think of her as a bit of a maverick, delighting in the crazy confluence of prints.

So, which group quilts bring me out in an allergic rash? The ones where the heavy hand of a (self-appointed?) organiser has stamped out all individuality, imposing such a strict design and choice of fabric that the separate makers can only be distinguished by the length of their stitches - or, even worse, where those whose stitches are not small enough have been "discouraged" from contributing.


It's a huge responsibility quilting such a lovely quilt - especially as so many makers have a stake in it. I am thinking of a design incorporating circles and squares. To use a cliche - and as a journalist I'm never afraid to - watch this space.


Visit my website at www.valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk
....................................................................................
Handmade textiles for stylish interiors, off the shelf or to commission

email: valerie@valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk; 020 7515 0701; 07518 885960

Showtime: the morning after

Phew. I'd forgotten that toxic cocktail of sheer exhaustion and a racing brain. Add a couple or four glasses of wine after a hectic three days and it's a pretty heady mix.  My 18-mile journey across London by car took more than two hours, but at least I didn't have to drive back to Ireland like one exhibitor...


But doing the Landmark Contemporary Textiles Fair http://www.landmarkartscentre.org/fairs.html was well worth it, and I'm so glad that I slipped under the wire just in time to nab a stand. Despite its small dimensions on paper my little space was far less claustrophobic than I expected. The proximity of a stone pillar - the Landmark centre is an imposing, very tall church building, although apparently never used as a church - enabled the putting-up of posters and the positioning of a chair so that it didn't block my space.

A good mix of interested shoppers, plus fellow textile-makers browsing for ideas and wanting to talk about feed dogs, broderie perse and The Beast. (He's back home, hopefully well again, but not yet out of his box, thanks for asking). Many interesting chats and conversations.

Crushing remark of the show (there's always one): "You've inspired me to go home and cut up my old clothes."


Visit my website at www.valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk
....................................................................................
Handmade textiles for stylish interiors, off the shelf or to commission

email: valerie@valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk; 020 7515 0701; 07518 885960

Glorious fabrics by Yasser Arafat*

 

I am distracted from my preparations for the Landmark show by an email from the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey about its forthcoming exhibition Kaffe Fassett - A Life in Colour. http://ftmlondon.org/  I have long been a devoted fan of this most wonderful colourist and creator of patterns, devouring his books on design, interiors, knitting (although I don't knit), needlepoint (although I don't do needlepoint) and of course quilts.

 

His book on mosaic sent me into a frenzy of buying and smashing china, although a project to cover my patio in broken tiles and crockery sadly progressed no farther than my kitchen doorstep, which used up all the mismatched pieces of blue-and-white china unearthed in the garden over the years. (Which I believe was used to firm the ground as it was being reclaimed from the low-lying marshy margins of the Thames. There's also a lot of oyster shell, but that's another story.)

Like my compost heap, which increases in size but never gets used, the growing pile of multicoloured shards in my shed convinces me that each time I throw out a broken mug or plate I am in fact creatively recycling.

I use a lot of Kaffe Fassett's fabrics in my quilts. As an experiment, I pulled a selection of his fabrics from my shelves at random. They came from my mauve, pink, blue, yellow, green and multicoloured sections. Some I have had for more than a decade, some I bought last year. But like Liberty fabrics, they mysteriously all work together. See top picture.


I would not necessarily choose this accidental assortment to go together in a quilt, but I think it would make an attractive one nonetheless. Like Liberty fabrics, or indeed anything lovely - think of a bunch of tulips with twigs of catkins - I reckon they look better with a rogue element included to add an unexpected edge.

* At a lecture at the Festival of Quilts a couple of years ago, Brandon Mably, Kaffe Fassett's assistant and a designer in his own right, told of how a rather posh woman phoned up a Piccadilly book shop after the publication of Kaffe's first book. "Hello, Hatchards?" she enquired. "Do you have Glorious Knitting by Yasser Arafat?"



Visit my website at www.valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk
....................................................................................
Handmade textiles for stylish interiors, off the shelf or to commission

email: valerie@valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk; 020 7515 0701; 07518 885960

Stop press: See you at the Contemporary Textiles Fair

With just a week to go, I am told I have a stand at the Contemporary Textiles Fair at the Landmark Arts Centre, Twickenham, next weekend - March 8 to 10. http://www.landmarkartscentre.org/whats-on/visual-arts.html  I've been going for several years to catch up with friends and keep up with new faces, but left it too late this year to secure a place for myself. So that is the good news. The bad news is that it is one of the four tiniest spaces, and it comes at the expense of an exhibitor who has had to drop out because of a personal loss. But I'm delighted to be there.
Now comes five days of frantic activity getting it all together. Check list: quilts, receipt book; posh new carrier bags (bright pink - couldn't get orange or blue); fishing line; broom handles; coffee flask...


Visit my website at www.valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk
....................................................................................
Handmade textiles for stylish interiors, off the shelf or to commission

email: valerie@valeriehugginsquilts.co.uk; 020 7515 0701; 07518 885960