This is not just about me giving you news but is also the name of the quilt about which I'm telling you today. I should have done it earlier as the little quilt (8 x 12") was on exhibition at the Swiss Quilt Festival earlier this month but somehow I overlooked this and was only reminded when I received the CD of all the quilts in the exhibition
Textile News today. This exhibition will be travelling around Europe for the next two years or so and you can read all about it on the website of the organizer
here. There is an English language option (the original site is in German). I also participated in their exhibition last year, called Textile Experiments, that's still travelling at the moment.
The theme for this year's quilts was Textile News and for some reason this made me think immediately of the British satirical TV program Have I got news for you! and that in turn brought to mind the many ways news can be revealed: letters, a bill, gossip in the pub, taking off a mask. Revelations can also come by music, time, telephone, while in the bath, newspaper article etc. And then there is the ultimat bad news in the shape of the grim reaper? I combined as much as I could in this small work and you will recognize the techniques used from my Journal Quilt Flames of Passion which was selected for exhibition in Houston last year and is still travelling through the U.S.
Materials used are: 100% cotton commercial fabrics, wadding, Mistyfuse, beads, sequins, charms.
Techniques used: raw-edge applique, machine quilting, hand embroidery and beading
It's always a joy to welcome home one of my quilts after it has been on a grand tour and they don't come any grander than the travels this small journal quilt, called Have I got news for you!, has been on. It left home in September 2008 so it has been well over 3 years since I saw it last which also gives me a great opportunity to look at it with fresh eyes. And although it could definitely be improved upon and I would do certain things differently, I'm still really pleased with it. It was for an exhibition called Textile News and you can read all about it on the website of the German quilter Gudrun Heinz who organized it. She was kind enough to also provide us with a map and a list of the places where the exhibition has been, and apart from many places in Europe such as Germany, Switserland, Luxembourg, and Italy, it has also ventured as far as Russia (Murmansk and Moskau) as well as Hungary, the Tsech Republic and for it's last venue Bulgaria. How I wish I could have travelled to all those places with it!
Maybe it was because of where this little quilt has been that the landscape at Macbiehill today reminded me of the Russian steppes, or at least how I imagine them to look like as I've never been there in person: dark, desolate and deserted. Grasses sticking up out of the snow. Shame we don't have reindeer here in the Scottish Borders, they would be a great finishing touch!
Another view of the edge of the woods and the grasses in front. We were very happy to turn around here although walking into the wind was even colder. The two dogs are now recovering from that ordeal in the chairs by the fire!
