"Local Landscapes" exhibition

So I've known about the theme of this exhibition for ages, and had lots of ideas swimming around but as usual two weeks before the exhibition and I still had nothing started!!

Had something completely different in mind but couldn't find the images to work from, they will turn up some day! Anywho's this is me making rubbings of manhole covers on the streets of Limerick  one sunday morning.

And this is my sweetie Isobel assisting, though how she can see anything with all that hair in her way is beyond me!!

Cotton fabric and a selection of wax crayons were the chosen materials, holding that fabric in place while we worked was fun!

And this is the result, I had done loads, just in case and had taken tons of photos as I went.

Paint was added.

The background fabric of this piece had been hanging on a design board in my studio for years ( maybe 9 or 10!!) So i had decided I wanted to do a piece based on the Tait Clock, one of the first landmarks in Limerick I had seen. My first visit to Limerick was in 1987 to attend an interview for Art College!

This piece is hand dyed fabric fused in place, heavily machine quilted and embroidered with writing. 

This piece is all photo transferred images, put together jigsaw style and machine quilted.

And this is the first of the "Savage Beauty " tryptic. Chose the title as I was still under the influence of the McQueen exhibition at the V&A.

Limerick to me is also a savage beauty, and the ground beneath our feet. There is a whole other world down there, beautifully constructed and abandoned by modern thinking. Magnificent cellars and underground sewers big enough to party in are filled in and covered up!

                                                
                    So for a finish I didn't make one quilt, I made five and all in a week, maddness!

Quilt on the left and second right are mine.

Here's a view of the exhibition on display, 29 quilts in total which are going to an Irish Festival in Milwaukee in August thanks to Penny Barnes.

And the last three on the right are mine.

Isobel and me at the opening!