artreach quilting bee

In the past few weeks, I have mentioned that I have been working with Northwood Artreach, running crafty workshops for the community. The outcome needed to be a group art piece which could be displayed, so with the present popularity of quilts, not least due to the fantastic V&A exhibition, I decided to make a quilt-like wall hanging, with inspiration from Tracey Emin's beautiful textiles artwork. Finally, we have finished our own version of an art quilt, with each individual contributing a beautifully crafted square based on our initial inspiration of Winter Colours.

I had a fantastic time with these lovely folk and am glad I could help bring out their creative side. Some of them may never have done any textiles work before, while others had not touched a knitting or sewing needle in years, but were inspired to begin making for themselves again after the class.

I am very impressed with the diversity of colour, texture and technique used and the individuality of each contribution and the final piece has come together really well. The picture (above) shows the initial arranging phase of the final quilt. I will post a final picture hanging in situ asap. It will be displayed in a community theatre very shortly, which is fabulous for the quilters!

artreach craft workshops

Here are some photos, courtesy of Joy, from the workshop with Artreach in Northwood last weekend. We made crochet flower necklaces and simple floral corsages, while other groups made hand sewn brooches or painted silk greetings cards.

Here is Susie Johns, who it was a pleasure to meet again, showing her groups how to paint beautiful designs onto silk.

And here I am reintroducing a mother and daughter to the delights of crochet.

Lots of fun was had by all and I have since begun a series of mixed media workshops with the group, aiming to create a colourful textiles wall piece, or 'quilt' around the theme of snow days. Will post pictures here when it is completed in a few weeks time.