There was a lot of lovely work on show at Malvern, but the ones I liked the absolute best were Gillian Travis’ Indian quilts. I think this is probably because my own work is going through such a figurative phase. I loved the vibrant colours and the clever techniques
Nice use of block printing over the finished piece, here, for example, and I like her substitution of foil for glass shisha mirrors. I also really liked the use of a small mini-quilt on the side of the main piece picking up a design element:
The figure here is a very clever layering of black tulle. This is the ‘detail’ quilt
I also admire the machine quilting in metallic thread, which really isn’t as easy as it looks here.
Her book with Pat Archibald, Dual Journeys in Stitch is absolutely gorgeous and had the weird effect of making me want to reach not for a needle but my sketchbook. I did say that I wouldn’t use many photos as people are increasingly nervous of having their international property stolen, so she has a lovely blog, website and facebook page, so there is plenty of opportunity to see the work. Here’s one more quilt to finish the post:
