September Meeting

 

Our speaker for the 2nd October is Nikki Parmenter and her talk is entitled "Post Cards and Projects". This is an afternoon meeting.

She is a Cheshire based artist who specialises in mixed media, textile based pieces. She takes her inspiration from a variety of sources and she is particularly interested in the way in which ancient societies created a series of visual symbols to represent the things which were important to them. She investigates myth and legend and draw parallels between societies, showing that although many people have different beliefs we are all united by visual iconography.

​

She has exhibited widely both in group and solo shows both here and abroad  and has had articles published in magazines and on the internet. She also features in Kim Thittichai's book, 'Experimental Textiles'. Her work has won  prizes at The Ferens Open, The Potteries Open and the Grosvenor Open  Exhibitions.

​

She has received positive feedback from the galleries where she has exhibited as  she tries to make her work accessible to all age ranges and to people from different backgrounds. Viewers, especially younger people, respond to the visual  richness of the objects whilst others make connections with their own religious beliefs and feelings.

Her workshop on the 3rd October is Fantastic Flowers

A sewing machine, fabrics, soldering iron and glue gun are needed for this workshop. You will learn how to bond fabric together in order to create an intensely coloured piece of material which will be made into a 3D flower with a padded centre.

 

Our speaker for September was Jane Cobbett and she entertained us with a talk on the history of quilting from a reference to Mary Queen of Scots and her ladies, cutting triangles of fabrics to modern art quilts.  The inspiration in that period for the shapes used for patchwork were probably leaded windows and tiles.  She encouraged us to make a template out of a square of paper which produced an elongated hexagon.  This was how patchwork pieces were produced prior to 1860 when templates were first available. 

In the late Victorian period, the popular quilts were Crazy Patchwork which used all different types of fabric and was usually embroidered, Sun Bonnet Sue, which evolved into the crinoline ladies, and Red Work which could also be brown and blue but is still called Red Work. 

She also told us how seed sacks were used to make quilts in America and as a result manufacturers of the seed sacks created patterned sacks.  Four sacks would make a quilt backing and three would make a garment.  The fabric was very course but sugar and flour sacks were of a much finer quality. They were particularly used during the depression.

In the 1950’s the quilts were very much make do and mend and then in the early 1970’s became popular eventually evolving into the art quilts that are made today.

It was a very enjoyable evening and very informative.

Crazy Patchwork Tea Cosy

Cathedral Window Patchwork

Dresden Plate block made from Seed Sacks