Post Weaving

Spring has sprung and summer is on the way. I did a course with India Flint last August where I made a large very beautiful quilt top. Due to my weaving course, I didn't get chance to finish it. So the plan is now to pick it up and carry on.

Samples from a very hot pot

We dyed 9 large squares of fabric and hand sewed them together, I need to dye a backing cloth and layer it up, I feel quite inspired since the quilt show last week.

Loch Lomond Quilt Show

After 10 years this was the last Loch Lomond Quilt Show, for people not familiar with the show it's set up in about 10 churches. It's the first time I've visited many of them. The quilts were beautiful. Some had obviously taken months or even years to make in the case of the huge Baltimore quilts. In one of the churches a group of ladies from Japan were demonstrating sashiko and there was a large display of sashiko quilts some brought from Japan.

I was very impressed by the entries for the mens competition, they were very different but in a good way, they had strength and masculinity, with a good eye for composition. There was a lovely range of indigo quilts and amazing pieces using a hand sewn quilting technique called boutis, which is a white on white originating as it's name suggests in France.

Here are some of my favorites 

The following pictures are of the stained glass in Renton Trinity Church, they were designed and made by Oscar Paterson a world renowned stained glass artist and dedicated in 1912, I was particularly struck by the colours and how warm and intense they were. 

A Really Good Book

I haven't seen this book before, I don't know how I've missed it. I noticed it in Waterstones on Saturday, for once it's a book not aimed at total beginners, there are no projects - just weaving drafts with which to experiment with. It is filled with the most gorgeous photo's of contemporary weaving.

Weaving is nearly finished with the finals in June. All I can say it's better that I'm being marked on my weaving as opposed to my sewing skills. I'm making cushions, they're not my finest moment.