Great Northern Quilt & Needlecraft Show, Harrogate 2018

The Solway Quilters had an enjoyable day out at the Quilt Show in Harrogate yesterday. A whole coach load of us went, so it was a jolly party that arrived just before lunchtime.

My friend, Margaret, and I started with the exhibition in the atrium, which included some beautiful work by a number of individual makers and groups. The following pieces really stood out for me:-

Summer Garden by Jane Rollason, sun printing and flower hammering on cotton

The flowered section is coloured by literally bashing the colour from flower heads directly onto the fabric. The sun printing, I was not familiar with, so, as a group, we may explore that in future tutorials. Apparently, as well as using pre-prepared fabrics, you can buy liquids to paint onto any fabric, which will 'bleach' where they are masked by a leaf, for example.

Elizabethan Flowers by Jane Rollason, silk patchwork, appliqué and painted

I really liked the bright, painted flowers 'popping' off the cream and gold background. The beaded border was a nice touch, and suggested the clothing worn by Elizabeth I.

Coastal Walks by Christine Vlietstra. "Inspired by images of the coastline". Strip pieced and raw-edge piecing. Cotton fabrics, hand and machine quilted.

This lovely abstract art quilt appealed to my love of the sea, lines and hand stitch. It had the lot! With a lot of contrasts in the colour palette of blues and yellows with a touch of red.

Scandinavian Jumpers 2 by Gillian Travis "This quilt won 2nd prize at FOQ in the Art Quilt category...".

This was one of my absolute favourites: the artist has used machine embroidery and freehand machine embroidery on felt. The shapes are cut out from the background so that the contrasting jumper shape is recessed to be even with the background, when slotted in and hand stitched in place. The background squares were printed with a lacy pattern. There was also a Breton jumper variation, with stripes. Too cute!

Silver Darlings by Lizzie Wall

This beautiful cushion had won the 1st prize in the cushions category, and you can see why! The technique is appliqué with broderie perse elements, used to great effect.

Flower Garden by Anne Senior

A charming hexagons quilt. I think this was made with the English Paper Piecing technique.

Postcard From Sweden by Liz Merckel. Designed by Jeli Quilts and based on a postcard from IKEA by Tom Frazier. 36 colours of Kona cotton with a half-square triangle block.

This really shows what you can do with plain colours and a single shape. There is a great deal of movement and interest in the layout of the colours: love it!

Homecoming: Return of the White Rabbit by Lizzie Wall. The White Rabbit returns home after his adventures in Alice in Wonderland.

See 'work in progress' images on Lizzie's Instagram account. Another very imaginative and beautifully-realised art quilt. I love the red squirrels along the top border. There is so much detail to see in this quilt that you could study it for hours.

There were so many beautiful quilts to see, but I can only show a fraction of them here.

After a tasty lunch in the cafe, it was on to the trade stands. There were thousands of different fabrics on offer, but I resisted most of them, buying some vintage and antique kimono fabric pieces from Susan Briscoe's stand. This talented author and teacher is holding courses in Edinburgh and Hartburn in the next few months. Details can be found on her website.

I also bought bronze-coloured charms to use on some 'Prayer Flag Brooches' that I am planning to make. Very sweet, miniature keys, a feather, a wolf, a spider, some bells and beads etc.

A fun - if tiring - day out was had by all :o)

Dumfries and District Embroiderers' Guild Trip to Durham Cathedral

A coachload of eager Guild members (and a few friends) enjoyed a fascinating day out to Durham Cathedral yesterday. [Please click on any image to see a larger version.]

(This photo was taken on an earlier visit, showing a view of the Cathedral from a walk by the river).

As you can see from this picture, there is work currently being carried out to one of the towers. The architecture is stunningly beautiful, with its huge vaulted ceilings, decorated pillars and stained glass windows.

Find out more about the history and heritage of The Cathedral on their website. An architectural floor plan of the building can be seen here.


We started out with a hot drink and biscuit in The Chapterhouse before beginning the tour of the Cathedral textiles with one of the two knowledgeable guides assigned to us. The textiles that were shown to us included kneelers and cushions; altar decorations; Episcopal vestments, such as copes, girdles and mitres; also decorative pieces (made to cover speakers!) and to decorate the pulpit.

There is a team of volunteer embroiderers or 'broderers' as they are known at Durham Cathedral. These people carry out repairs to existing textiles, make samples for future work and take on commissioned pieces for the Cathedral and its incumbents.

The most beautiful altar covering featured a patchwork of silk scallops, many of which were embroidered with animals, plants and symbols related to the area. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the main area of the Cathedral, but we were allowed to photograph and handle some of the samples of work. Here are a few of those samples...

The design seen at right was derived from the small amount of painted decoration remaining in the archway behind the altar in the Galilee Chapel. The design was worked in wool on canvas in a very dense stitch to provide a durable surface for long kneeler cushions.

Wool on canvas. Many of the motifs used in the textiles are derived from symbols and decorative stone carving, floor tile patterns, painting etc found in the Cathedral, or may represent St Cuthbert or the local area.

The gold-covered raised work is made from carpet underlay material held in place with long cross-stitches, covered with appliqued gold ?leather. The grass blades are held to the background fabric with Bondaweb or similar, then a variety of applique and decorative stitches are tested to find the best effect for the final piece. One of the copes featured this plant leaf design.

Pearl Purl thread used to form a raised edging to these scallop shells. The finished shells were applied to shields which cover the speakers in one of the rooms.

A design for one of 12 kneelers for the St Hild Altar. The abstract pattern shows the place where land and sea meet. The 'land' area is worked in a variety of embroidery stitches, and subtle colour changes give a feeling of depth to the piece.

After lunch, we toured the Open Treasure exhibition, which included historical artifacts and interactive installations. The highlight was the 7th century coffin and grave goods found with St Cuthbert's body in the shrine that the Cathedral was originally built to house back in 1093. The graphic screen showing the changes and additions to the building over the centuries was fascinating. Music through the centuries could be heard, and you could smell the scents and odours of the time (leather, beeswax, incense etc). One of my favourite pieces was the 'Sanctuary Knocker'. This was originally on the North Door of the Cathedral. Individuals could knock on it to claim 37 days sanctuary, after which time they would face trial or exile. A replica now hangs on the door, while the original can currently be seen in The Great Kitchen as part of the exhibition.

The 12th Century Sanctuary Knocker. Image Copyright Durham Cathedral

The Cathedral has a famous rose stained glass window, but this modern piece caught my eye. It is the Daily Bread Window donated by the local branch of Marks & Spencer in 1984. Image Copyright Durham Cathedral

Fowlers Yard was a final visit of the day. It is a series of units housing artists and craftspeople. Traditional embroiderer and head of the Cathedral Broderers, Tracy A Franklin has a unit here, where she teaches embroidery (a class of six American ladies were producing amazing pieces of work on their two week intensive course, when we visited). There are also mountains of embroidery supplies available - embroidery threads and wools, gold threads, notions, background fabrics and canvases. I attach scans of her business card for those that may wish to visit her studio.

The journey home afforded us some spectacular views of the Northumbrian countryside...

A very enjoyable day out!

Win £200 Worth Of Books About Textiles

Another great prize offered by TextileArtist.org

Follow the link below and answer one very easy question to enter!

Book Competition Entry Link

The giveaway closes 

May 17, 2018 12:00 am BST

Good luck everyone! :o)

Work In Progress: Stripy Scrap Quilt

After looking at my collection of small fabric scraps left over from other projects, I decided to make a quilt using as many of them as I could.

Scraps sorted into piles of dark, medium and light tones.

The 'rules' were that they would all be made into stripes and sewn into squares 5 1/2 inches across (to give a 5" finished square). The width of the strip depends on the size of the scrap, with some pieces being joined to form larger pieces. Stripes vary between 3/4 inch and 2 inches in width before being sewn together. I tried to make a variety of light and dark combinations so that I have something to play with when I join them into a quilt. Each square has a coherent colour combination within itself, but some of the resulting squares clash pleasingly with others. I haven't decided yet whether to make one large quilt or a number of smaller ones. I will wait until I have a large enough number of finished squares to arrange into a pattern.

Photo collage of some of the 5 1/2" squares

Austerity Britain #7 Rag Rug Wall Hanging

I finally finished a rag rug wall hanging folk art representation of the Union Jack flag that I have been working on for about a year, on and off. It is made from a variety of red, white, blue and cream coloured fabrics. I tried to use almost all recycled clothing and charity shop finds to make the artwork.

It can be wall mounted with a hidden baton (provided), or could be used as a small rug in a low traffic area.

The pieces of fabric are 3" long and are 'prodded' through a hessian background, giving a pile of just under 1.5".

This close up shows the texture and whorls of the cut ends of the fabric.

The wall hanging is available for purchase in my Fire Horse Textiles Etsy Shop at £149 + shipping.