That's all folks

Well, for now at least.

The Orientation tour is over and the work's all back at home. A big thank you to Minerva for being such excellent hosts for the final outing of this exhibition and to everyone who came to see the quilts. Linda sold two pieces which is wonderful news.

As individuals SiX members each have lots in store for the coming year, but we are planning another outing as a group so we'll be back with details on that as soon as they're confirmed. In the meantime I hope you'll enjoy keeping up with us all on our own blogs. You'll find links to them in the side bar.

And just in case you don't already know about them, I'm going to give two ventures a bit of a plug:

Art Textiles: Made in Britain
Set up by our very own Hilary Beattie, this is an exciting group of British quilters and textile artists who'll be exhibiting together in support of the Quilter's Guild of the British Isles and especially to assist with funds for the Quilt Museum in York. You can follow the goings on at their Facebook page. Although quite new it looks already like a really lively group.

Through Our Hands
This one's all down to me and Annabel. Through Our Hands provides exhibition opportunities and a portfolio website for our featured artists. There's also a free e-portfolio catalogue that you can download, a Facebook page and an online magazine where you'll find news and information about all sorts of art and textile related things. All in all, lots to see. Here are some links:

The website http://www.throughourhands.co.uk/

The Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/throughourhands.co.uk

The magazine http://www.throughourhandsmagazine.blogspot.co.uk/

The free e-catalogue http://issuu.com/laurakemshall/docs/throughourhandsissue1/1?e=3297033/4684399

Meet The Artists

We had a lovely day on Sunday at Meet the Artists at Minerva. Thank you to all the team at the gallery for your hospitality.

Here are a few photos just to set the scene. As you can see, the usual suspects were chattering away!

The exhibition continues all summer - see the sidebar for info and links.

Come and See Us!!

Don't forget, tomorrow it's Meet the Artists at Minerva 13

(High Street, Llanidloes, Mid-Wales, SY18 6BY)

Me, Linda, Annabel, Hilary, Steph, Edwina, Ineke will all be there to chat and answer any questions about the work and Hilary will be demonstrating some of the techniques that she uses in her quilts.

As well as the work by SiX, also on display will be work by another exhibiting group called Cauldron and a collection of Canadian Red Cross quilts. It ought to be a lovely so if you fancy a ride out in the beautiful Welsh countryside do come and see us.

Bye for now!
Laura

Quilts gone - SiX just hit the deadline again!!

Just a quickie after reading Edwinas' last post about delivering the work to Minerva. Edwina forgot to photograph her quilt as she was so last minute, I forgot to put and names and prices on mine, for the same reason. I think we in this group could really be called the Last Minuters .. we all seem to do it! Anyway, I've sent my information off now and I did remember to photograph mine (what a good girl) I'm going to post two on here and two on my own blog http://hilarybeattie.blogspot.co.uk/ so if you are visiting the gallery, you can opt to keep some as new on the day, or if not - hop over there and see the others. Each are about 24" x 19" (I think - I did forget to write it down!). If you don't want to see any right now, then look away NOW .....

I've really enjoyed these pieces and will definitely be continuing the series, although not for SiX, as we move on next to our gallery for Festival of Quilts next year. But I am personally doing a gallery for next Springs Fashion and Embroidery at the NEC, which I am calling 'The Shape of Nature' and I think a few moons would go down very nicely in there!

Hope to see lots of you at Minerva - it looks lovely form Edwinas' photographs and I'm looking forward to sharing some collage design ideas with you there - Hilary x

Quilts delivered

Yesterday I drove over to Llanidloes to deliver a boot full of quilts to Minerva for the Summer Exhibition that opens next week.

It was a pity it was a cloudy day as it can be such a beautiful journey across to west Wales.
As usual, my final quilt was completed the night before and I was so eager to pack it up for an early start that I quite forgot to take any photographs, so no excuses, you must visit the exhibition to see all of these new pieces of work which all of the members of Six and Friends have produced since our last exhibition at the Bramble Patch.
I had a sneak preview of the other two exhibitions, a selection of traditional Canadian Red Cross Quilts and beautiful work by the textile group Cauldron. There will certainly be enough work on show to make a visit worthwhile.
The Arts Centre has had a facelift and is looking very smart and ready for summer visitors.

We hope to see many of you at our Meet the Artists event on Sunday 21st July between 1 and 3pm.
See you soon
Edwina

It's nearly time!

All the work is now delivered to Minerva Arts Centre, Llanidloes for the final exhibition in the Orientation tour. This will be the largest collection of work that we've put together with everyone adding brand new pieces. Minerva is a wonderful venue in a lovely town and we hope that you'll be able to visit during the summer. If you're free, why not come on Sunday 21st July? Everyone except Catherine will be there (we're letting her off as coming from Vancouver is a bit of a trek) to chat and answer questions about the work. We'd love to see you.

You'll find all the dates and details over in the sidebar.

They Bloom Brightly in his Garden - Laura Kemshall

three moons - will be four

Maybe you already know, but if you don't I am currently writing  book, which I hope to be published by FOQ - which is a tight deadline and has kept me busy. So those moons I told you about last time have had to take a bit of a side seat for a week or two. But time is passing and we are very close to the next SiX exhibition, so I've got them back out and been working on them this week. There will be four and they will be called Many Moons as a group. Each will also have it's own title within the group - so here is progress so far on

 

'Hunters Moon'

 

 

 'Steadfast Moon' 

 

 

and of course 'Eastern Moon'

 

the moons in these are very closely quilted with metallic thread and do glisten. Hard to capture this on camera, but maybe this close up shows it a little

 

 

They will b joined by 'Lucky Moon', when I get a delivery of metallic thread. Each moon took a whole reel, so I have run out! In the meantime, I could not resist seeing how these pieces might look, transformed for a thermofax screen

 

Pretty flipping gorgeous I think, and I foresee a series two based on these. If you would like to see how the others turned out, then I am going to post them on my own blog http://hilarybeattie.blogspot.co.uk/ so do pop over and have a look. I still need to add some hand stitch, bind and mount the original moons first though.  If I get them done in time to photograph, I'll post final images - if not, then you will just have to visit Minerva! I can't remember if I mentioned it - but I am going to do a demo on July 21st as part of the Meet the Artists day at Minerva. I'll be running through how to make background collages like these and also those on the Oriental Pot series. Hope lots of you will come - I think most of us are going so it will be a good day - Hilary x

New Workshops

Hi everyone,

I know it's been ages since I posted! I'm using the blog today for a bit of shameless self promotion - to tell you about my new workshops this summer. I'm really excited about these new classes and I hope you'll be tempted to sign up. They're aimed at all skill levels so no matter what your experience come along and have a fun filled creative day.

The first class is called Pages to Print. On that day we'll experiment with lots of hands on techniques like collage, printing, mark making, rubbings, you name it, to create some exciting design ideas on paper. You will then be able to choose your favourites and we'll print them for you to fabric using our wide format digital printer. Included in the workshop price is half a metre of fabric and I've found that it's possible to fit 3 generous sized panels (each about 47cm square) into that amount of fabric. These panels will be perfect for inclusion in your next quilt, stitched textile or to make a set of cushions. Best of all, the fabric will be completely unique to you!

The second class is called TXT Message and we'll have fun playing with different methods to add text to fabric. Before the class I'll ask you to send me a page of your handwriting and we'll print this to fabric for you so that you'll have a piece of unique fabric to work with. We'll combine the digitally printed handwriting with monoprint, stencilling, rubbings and more. You'll go home with a collection of fabrics and hopefully lots of ideas about what to do with them!

I'd love for you to join me for these workshops. We'll be providing coffee, tea, cake, a light lunch and some materials as well as the half metre of digitally printed fabric. You can find out more details and how to book on my blog. Here's the link. If you've got questions about either of the workshops just email me anytime.

Thanks for reading!
Laura
xx

A welcome return to the East

Heavens! - it has been absolutely yonks since I posted on here - and for good reason ... it has been that long too since I finished my last piece for the Orientation exhibition. Some of the group made extra pieces for the Bramble Patch show, but I just didn't find time. But I knew I would make some new works before we moved to Minerva in the summer, and I have finally reached the point on the calendar where it says 'make SiX pieces'. I'm hoping it will actually be a series of six pieces as it happens, but for the moment I am working on the first four. The series will be called 'Many Moons' and has been percolating in my head for a while now. I knew almost from the first mention of the theme that I wanted to do some cranes flying in front of a moon. I made a sample for my C+G course with Design Matters, which featured birds in front of a moon/sun and I do like that imagery:

 

 

Just as an aside - I couldn't resist seeing how this image would transfer to B+W for a possible thermofax screen ... this will definitely be getting made!

 

 

I also considered  moon gazing hares in front of ... yes, a moon ... I have used this image in silhouettes before and have a couple of bronze ones in the garden. But the birds stuck with me .. I have been making swans recently -  also seagulls and osprey. Magpies also attract me as I see them as a lucky symbol for me. So I decided that I would do a series of various birds, with moons on collaged backgrounds.

 

So next up was some quick sketches, using a selection of  books as inspiration sources for imagery and composition from the east:

 

 

 

 

 

Apologies for the awful photos - it was dark when I took them! I hope you can see enough though. I started with a square format in mind, but realised I was struggling to put my moon in an interesting position. It needs to be fairly big and was ending up almost in the middle - not a composition I like. So I changed to a longer format and sketched up four favourites, with the moons happily over to the sides.

 

Background collages came next - using the sketches as guides.

 

This one will be the moon with bamboo to the left ... I shall quilt the background before  appliqueing the bamboo and moon.

 

 

This will be the grasses and moon

 

 

checking colours for grasses and possible moon .. if you look in the top left of the table you can see where I have been paper cutting some possible patterns for moons

 

 

This one will be the willow to the left

 

 

and the willow to the right .. in each I am again checking the fabrics I plan to use for applique, work ok

 

 

Perhaps I should say that the patterned cloth in the background in each is my ironing pad - not part of the work. I am so used to it, I really don't notice it, but it might be confusing!

 

So now I need to machine quilt those backgrounds then I can apply the applique and choose final moon colours and patterns. When that is done - I shall start considering my bird shapes. I'll try to keep you up to date as I work.

 

Hope it is not too dull to see step by steps - I know I love to see how people get from A to B and onwards ... Hilary x

 

 

Onwards...to Wales!

As soon as one exhibition closes our minds turn to the next.  The Minerva Arts Centre is the venue for the final outing of Orientation hosted by The Quilt Association. We're so pleased to be able to show our work in this lovely spacious gallery. Not only will the current work be on display, but to fill all that extra room we'll be making new things too.

We hope that you'll join us for a special Meet The Artists afternoon:

Meet the Artists

Sunday 21st July 2013, 1pm-3pm

Minerva Arts Centre

High Street

Llanidloes

SY18 6BY

Normal admission charges will apply. For more details please visit The Quilt Association website.

If you're not familiar with The Quilt Association and all of the work they do both in the documentation and collection of antique quilts, but also the exhibition of new work then do take a look at their website. I hadn't visited the site for a while and it's all been revamped. There is lots of information about the quilt collection including lovely images. I particularly liked this quilt which I'm sure I've seen on display there at a previous summer show. Along with the images is all the information that they've documented. This quilt is thought to date from around 1880.

If you can't come to the Meet the Artists day then don't worry, the exhibition runs from 8th July - 7th September so there's lots of time to visit. Also on display will be a collection of Canadian Red Cross quilts. Hope to see you there.