Blimey - so much stuff!
We are currently turning an old, spare bedroom into a super hero pad for our grandson. Or rather my son is decorating; I am just driving to and from B&Q and paying. Unfortunately the bedroom wasn't really spare - it was full of stuff, lots and lots of stuff. Including lots of my 'quilt / art' stuff that I hadn't looked at, let alone used, in years. And a large pile of finished quilts. My son, very helpfully, carried everything out to the studio. Oh boy do I have a lot of 'stuff'! There was some stuff that was easy to throw out. A big box of painted papers (mostly created during a couple of City and Guilds courses). Two boxes with scraps of commercial fabrics left over from long forgotten projects. Some tapestries and cross stitches that I did 25 - 30 years ago that have sat in a box ever since. There was some stuff that absolutely had to be kept. A letter press and 4 boxes of type (left behind when our daughter left home), lots of books, some unfinished projects that I will complete at some stage (assuming I live to 110!) and many of the quilts. But not all of them. I should probably throw away more but can only bring myself to get rid of 3. One was a Hoffmann Challenge piece (do they still exist?), one was hideous when I made it and still is, and one from the above mentioned C&G course. It feels a bit strange but quite liberating. Have I crossed a Rubicon?
In honour of this momentus occasion I thought I would share a couple of my older pieces. The first is the last 'tradional' quilt I made. At the time I was a still a member of a local quilt group and the piece was a result of one of their workshops. I called it Slapdash because my points don't all match (sorry quilt police!). I only actually finished this in 2012 - it felt important to finish it, a like closing a door on a previous life. It is just over a metre square and I'm looking for a loving home for it.
The second piece is called London, England and was completed for a Quilters Guild challenge at Festival of Quilts in 2010. I made this after finishing my City and Guilds Diploma. I had spent nearly four years immersed in Gothic Cathedrals as a design source and needed some light relief. So I made this without using a sketchbook or creating samples. Do you like the very professional photography! I'm not only going to keep this, I'm going to hang it in my grandsons new bedroom - I think Thor and The Hulk would appreciate giant ice creams!
