Where ’d the summer go?

The weather is absolutely awful here (East Midlands) so I thought I’d post these sunnier photos just to make us all feel better. (Well, it helped me.)

or this little chap

Did it help? Do you feel sunnier inside now? (Just stay away from the window – reality is hard and who needs it anyway.)

I’ve never written about my visit to the Bramble Patch to see the Thr3fold live exhibition/demonstration day with Laura and Linda Kemshall and Catherine Nicholls. Wow!

There was so much to see and so much more to take in. It was quite informal so you were able to talk to Laura, Linda and Catherine about the quilts that were hanging on the walls. There were ‘samples’ – maybe examples is a better word of the bags and cushion covers that are demonstrated in their thr3fold journals.

There were some gorgeous quilts being beautiful and thought provoking hanging on the walls. There were various samples showing different stitching/quilting approaches. Throughout, there were demonstrations of methods for painting fabric and and examples and demonstrations of screen painting approaches. It was a completely fluid, apparently unchoreographed day with people who are clearly very comfortable with each other. I was sorry to have to come away early but I had to be back to pick the children up from school, you know how it is.

The 'thr3fold journals' are amazing. They’re called ‘thr3fold – the journal of creative vision’, and that describes them very well. They're a work of art in themselves with beautifully detailed pictures and explanations. The latest issue, 3 (I couldn’t not could I?), explores screen printing onto fabric, talks about design and transfer printing onto fabric and there are some lovely projects to do and video demonstrations of techniques on the accompanying CD and templates to use. They have a website for the journal here. (Sorry! this is beginning to sound like an advert, but they're just so lovely.)

What I really love is that the three of them clearly have an amazing amount of talent but all of the techniques they demonstrate appear quite accessible to mere mortals (me!) at one level or another. You could imagine (I've a good imagination.) all the different ways to use the stitching, painting techniques, screen printing and endless other approaches to create something truly magical even if like me your drawing ability doesn’t extend much beyond leaves.

It was a totally inspiring day and I’ve carried part of it home with me in this journal. One happy bunny!