After reading the section on photography and ideas about what to photograph I decided to start bringing my camera to work. This course is already opening my mind. I walk to work from Moorgate in the mornings mainly because I hate taking the tube in the morning from Kings Cross. Before it was just head down trying to get down the pavement without having anybody run into me. I am now starting to be more observant and have realised how interesting the City can be. I see sculptures on the buildings that I never really noticed before. The reflections in the Heron Tower on a sunny day are beautiful and I didn't realise how close I was to the Tower of London. I went out several days at lunch time and took photographs. Always before I would be sat at my desk having lunch or down in our cafe. This will give me a reason to get out in the fresh air if you can call London air fresh, but at least to stretch my legs.
I am going to look for one of those books on turning photos into fabric art when we go to the quilt show at Chilford Winery in November. I am looking forward to that and to seeing a few owners of the quilt shops I buy from as I count them as my friends.
Below are a few of the pictures I have taken already in London.
A few pictures of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. I like the textures of the stone on the walls.
My husband and I went on the 8th October to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace. I had planned on subscribing to Quilters Guild of the British Isles again and found their booth. The art quilts displayed were particularly impressive. I especially enjoyed Mere Kats which I understand won awards at the Festival of Quilts 2011 which unfortunately I was unable to attend. The expressions on the faces and the detail with stitch was most impressive.
I had been thinking about signing up for City and Guilds Patchwork and Quilting for a long time as I wanted to attain at least a diploma. To my great delight I instead found the booth for the OCA and after meeting the delightful Jacqueline Jeynes I signed up for the BA (Hons) in Creative Textiles. I have not done any disciplined studying for well over 25 years, aside from reading books about making quilts so initially this was a bit intimidating when I saw the course work.
I have for a few years now been interested in expanding from traditional quilts to art quilts. Two of the books I had been studying before I signed up for the course are The Painted Quilt by Linda & Laura Kemshall (2007) and Contemporary Quilts Design, Surface and Stitch by Sandra Meech (2005). I particularly like Sandra Meech's approach to design from inspiration in photography. She travelled to the Canadian Arctic to visit the Inuit communities. I lived in Anchorage, Alaska for 7 years before moving to England and always wanted to use my photographs from living there in some form of quilt art. Although I find her "how to" instructions useful, I am not particularly drawn to abstract art.
Laura & Linda Kemshall's book is particularly useful being more figurative and will help me as I work through developing my sketchbooks. I bought some markal paintsticks a few years ago and was unsure how to use them, but their section on applying colour after quilting is inspiring. I would also like to find places to take rubbings so will do a bit of research to see if there are any places close to where I work in London that I can do that.
