Stitchy club today and we had as a guest speaker Stuart Hillard,
who was a semi finalist in the first Great British Sewing Bee.
Sorry the pics are hazy, I must have had a thumb print on the lens I
think!
Well what a delightfully personable guy he is and his was a lively,
fun talk.
He was an accomplished designer and stitcher before the Bee but had little dressmaking skill and had in fact been told the show would cover patchwork, applique and other varied skill sets.
But at a final stage in the selection process the programme makers changed tack and it became dress making centred.
Who knew!
His quilts that he brought to show us were fabulous, some were designed especially for Popular Patchwork a magazine he writes regularly for.
He has a book out now too 'Sew Fabulous' worth seeking out!
But one of his WIPs, a log cabin with black squares in, was my personal favourite.
He used a black square at the centre of his blocks, as symbolism from the Underground Railroad quilts, although there now seems to be dissention as to whether this quilt symbolism is truth or myth.
I prefer to hope it is based around truth, that there were quilts hanging out to 'air' giving hope and solace to fleeing slaves.
Members who had been on Deb Ohare's workshop last month displayed their finished pieces - cough, cough, mines not included : (
(My creative gene is still buggaring about and my mood goes up and down like a fiddlers elbow, sorry Deb!)
Maggie Tomlinson one of our members had shown this unusual and lovely family tree hanging. It combines crazy patchwork and hexi's in a way I've not seen before with family faces printed on fabric.
How lovely to have such a nice guest speaker.... it must have been fun! I like the log cabin quilt too... it is beautifully pieced! :)
ReplyDeleteooooh - you KNOW I like that crazy patch piece! What a novel thing to make it into a family tree. Love it!!!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you had an interesting meeting with lots to "oo and aah" about. I think the tank top is a signature look for Stuart. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how much Stuart charges for the talk.....but is worth double...he packed so much into the allotted time frame...full of humour and information...with a smidging of almost gossipy tit bits....entertaining and entrancing...magic !
ReplyDeleteThat family tree hanging is fascinating! Thanks for sharing the pictures. We've got some men in our Guild and we've had some male quilters do trunk shows. I find that their aesthetic can be different from that of women. Very interesting stuff!
ReplyDelete