My Gallery at the Festival of Quilts

This wall hanging, entitled Orange Leaves, is going to be exhibited in my gallery at the Festival of Quilts at the Birmingham NEC. The show is on from August 7-10, and I have been given a large gallery there (B30). Entitled "Ultimate Quilt Artists," the gallery will show the work of 27 British quilters who were featured in the book, as well as my own work. Please do stop by and say hello if you are visiting the Festival this year!

Here is a detail of Orange Leaves, showing discharging, fabric painting and beading. I used deColourant to discharge (or take away) the dye from the orange fabric on the left using a carved wooden fern block. I then used a fine fabric marker to delineate each leaf and add the spores. Those are orange bugle beads sewn up the central stem.

The photo above shows how I attached the quilt to the foam board backing on which it is mounted. I finished off all the edges of the quilt, and cut the foam board so it was 3"/8cm larger all around. I then glued a lovely, slubby black linen fabric over the foam board using a spray fabric adhesive. I wrapped the fabric edges over the board and glued them to the back. Then I carefully centered the quilt on the front of the foam board, pinning it to the board as shown here. Using a sturdy needle, invisible thread and a thimble, I sewed the quilt to the foam board invisibly. This took quite some time, but I'm pleased with the result.