Ardingly Quilt Show Exhibition

The Mother and I went to the Ardingly Quilt show at the weekend. It's probably one of the best shows in our area (without having to go up to London) and they pack loads of stands in there stuffed to the brim with fabrics, kits, patterns, bits and bobs, haberdashery.... Really it's the one time of year that I purchase fabrics for myself and my stash (other fabrics are usually gifted) so I'm like a kid in a sweet shop! 

I love an assorted bits/remnants bag, as does The Mother - there she is above, rummaging. And I did purchase a lovely bag from here full of Makower prints. From other stalls I acquired several fat quarters, some samosas (folded fabric in a triangle), fun shaped sequins, different sized remnant pieces and a kit that I have purchased for 'research' purposes as it looks fairly similar to a Stitchscape and I was intrigued to see what was included and how much details was written in the book. 

Upstairs there is an exhibition of quilts and, as well as the traditional designs all neatly long-armed or hand quilted, there were a couple of exhibitors this year that we absolutely loved! 

This one is Claire Tinsley, who only seems to have a Facebook page, although interestingly is also the founder of the shop I purchased the research kit from! She had some really interesting techniques which The Mother and I loved, very painterly but also quite experimental - the piece above is potato printed! Lots of reverse applique too which was very different to all of the other quilts on display. 

You were allowed to photograph the pieces but I also wanted to include the information that she herself had given for each piece so I've written the captions below each set of photos for the quilts I photographed. Her words are in italic.  

Going Dutch 

2000

This quilt was made for a quilt competition entitled 'Traces of Travel Brought Home'. I didn't have much time to make this quilt, so thought a quick way would be to potato-print the veg for the top. I machine quilted around the shapes and cut back to a batik underneath. It came first, which surprised a lot of people. "Paint on a Quilt!!!!!"

Beneath the Trees

2001

A home-dyed calico top painted with acrylic paint and printed with potato. It is layered up with purple echo lamé. After machine quilting around the shapes, the top layer was cut back to expose the lamé. 

Woodland Seasons

2010

I designed this quilt for the quilt festival where we had a stall. It shows off three rather beautiful strata batiks. I have used bonded appliqué and it is machine quilted. 

Hibiscus Trellis

2009

This quilt and 'Orchid Star' were made to go to the Caribbean, which explains their rather bright colours. Batik patchwork with bonded appliqué hibiscus flower. The shading and details are painted with acrylic ink. 

These Are A Few of My Favourite Flowers

2005

The design is supposed to show flowers in my garden as seen through a wire fence. The flowers are bonded appliqué which was then painted with acrylic ink. I used batik fabrics for the background and flowers. It is machine quilted. Winner of the National Quilt Championships, Sandown 2005. This quilt also came second in Europe and was exhibited in Paducah, USA. 

Poppy Love

I started this quilt while teaching 'Layered Landscapes' in Edinburgh. Bonded pieces of batik are layered as if painting with fabric. The poppies are painted with acrylic ink and it is machine quilted. 

A Moment of Reflection

2019

This is my design using strata batik for the background. The trees are bonded appliqué. I used organza over the lower half to represent the light on water. It is machine quilted. 

Deep Down Deep Where the Fishes Sleep

2003

A home-dyed calico top was painted with acrylic paint. It is machine quilted and then cut back to the batik fabric that resembles water. The sea background was then machine quilted with silver thread. 

Forever Flowers

2019

This is my favourite quilt. The title is from a poem and represents our garden. The flowers were painted over time at shows to demonstrate acrylic ink. Needless to say, I had to paint a lot more to complete the design. It was quilted on my Gammill. It won a 1st at Malvern and a Highly Commended at the Festival of Quilts. Look and see how many bees you can see. 

Flower Border

2022

I began to make this quilt when the first Lockdown came along. Our garden was our sanctuary and inspiration. The wall is part of our walled garden. Flowers now fill our borders as well as the quilt. Bonded, painted flowers on a batik background. It was quilted on my Gammill. 

I hope that you can see how different these gorgeous quilts are to your traditional quilts!! Your mind might leap to the flying geese, log cabin, pinwheel or star quilts (which were also there in the exhibition) but Claire's were something else!! And the gorgeous piece with the ferns and leaves was right smack opposite the doorway as you walked in, almost glowing with brilliant green! Really lovely. 

The other designer/maker I liked was Vendulka Battais, who runs workshops and makes kits if you are interested - I've linked her website here. Her entered theme was Wildflowers and whilst the subject of several of the pieces was the same, her play with colours made them different and interesting. She said in her biography that she "didn't have the time or patience for intricate small embroideries, so was looking for a way to do most of the work on the sewing machine and only add some detail by hand."  

It's a little different to my working approach - the dust on my sewing machine is about an inch thick and I pretty much sew everything by hand! Perhaps I should dust it off though and create some quick quilted backgrounds. 

As before I've popped her captions below each piece in italics. 

Allium and Lavender

This is one of the first compositions I made. the shades of grey are a perfect background for these large allium flowers accompanied by lavender. My class or kit samples are usually simpler, but I really enjoyed adding the seed beads into the centre of each flower; it really lifts them up. 

Cow Parsley in Mustard

Grey is a great companion to lots of colours and mustard yellow is definitely a great choice. As the colour was used only in the flowers of the cow parsley, I then decided to have fun with the binding as well and pieced it from a few greys and just a touch of the yellow. 

Dandelion in Bloom

Dandelions are such happy flowers! It seems fitting to use the traditional colours to do them justice. Their leaves may have required more skills in free-motion quilting, but the flowers are as simple as straight stitch. 

Allium in Waves

In this wall hanging I was exploring the different ways of creating a background. Organic wave piecing is quite easy and very effective. This is also the only hanging I have properly quilted with free-motion quilting, rather than adding lines. This is to show that neither of these is better or worse, and there are lots of options. 

Daisy on Canvas

I wanted to make a composition with daisies, which required landscape orientation to achieve the richness I wanted. To show a different way of finishing, I decided to stretch it onto a canvas for a change. 

Cow Parsley in Winter

I have joined the strips with curved piecing, and I was exploring the shapes of the cow parsley with Bondawebbed organza. To add the texture, I have used nice fluffy knitting yarn for the embroidery to add more volume as it's a large piece and small French knots could be otherwise lost. 

It's a great show to go to and possibly you might find some inspiration from these ladies - definitely go and check out their websites/pages for more of their work!