Got back Sunday evening about half eight after a wonderful weekend at the International Quilt Festival of Ireland and I had a ball. I arrived Friday morning to the Festival with all my bags and baggage to get ready for teaching. There were some teething problems and I'm glad I didn't have a class Friday morning but over the three days I taught four classes; stained glass and foundation piecing and I have to say the students were wonderful. But more about that later!!
I had brought thirteen quilts from my students at the Education Centre in Limerick Prison for a special exhibition which was a great success and here's some photos of it;
Jim West have a wonderful idea for the layout of the exhibit to draw you in and block you in and the room was dimly lite to add atmosphere. These photos were taken when the lights were still on.
This is one of three quilts from the same pattern but all using different colourways.
This quilt and several others were made for Heart Children Ireland a charity set up to support children attending Crumlin hospital and are part of the Henry Bear project which they run. The idea being that every child attending the heart hospital receive a quilt on their first visit to the hospital and then take it with then every visit, a comfort blanket. They get loads of baby quilts and girly ones but are sort of ones for teenage boys, so that's what we make.
Another Henry Bear quilt based on the drunkards path black, the blocks with the curved pieces were all hand pieced and this is one of four quilts using the same block but combined in different ways.
A group quilt made by woman, the background pieces were hand dyed and batiked by the students.
Some art quilts.
A grand prize winner and a first quilt.
Paula I didn't get a chance to talk with you as you were at classes but I'd hoped to let you know that this exhibition really impressed me. At first I was confused by the lack of light....but then I got it. I was interested to read about your work in the prison and would love to hear more about the work. Although patchwork and quilting is mainly taken up by women, when men get their teeth into it, they always seem to be really good at it. I'd love to hear more about what these men think about the craft.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind comments Ester, I find it easier to work with the men, i think it's because of the type of female prisioner we have at the moment. Once the lads get over their fear of the sewing machine and get the hang of it and finish something small there's no stopping them, you should see them with the embroidery machine. Six of the quilts in the exhibition were made by the same person, I have him hand piecing now, but he'll only hand piece curves, straight lines are too boring!! Most of them admit that they would never sew on release which is a shame but it does help them pass their sentence and connect with loved ones (most of what they make is for family)and gives them a chance to see that they can do things they never thought were possible.
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