SAQA Primal Forces Earth quit: "Tights Come Down"

You have no idea how thrilled I was when I received the emails to say that I had been juried onto this exhibit, I let out such a roar the dog and cat hid!

This quilt is part of the SAQA  Primal Forces: Earth exhibit and is the first of a three-part series to premiere at the National Quilt Museum over the next six years. The first will be Primal Forces: Earth (Wind and Fire will be the other exhibitions).

On the left you can see a pictures of Doolin Caves in Co. Clare which contains the largest stalactite in Europe, called “the great stalactite” It is 7.3 metres (24ft. approx.) in length .

This stalactite took thousands of years to form and is still growing, all from a single drop of water.

I adore caves, there’s something so primal about being underground and witnessing the magnificence of nature, imagining how it was formed, and then how it was discovered. 

 

These pictures show a view from the inside of the ancient lift that you descend on to get to the bottom and also some more views of the stalactite

This is my finished piece, in which I wanted to express my awe of this natural growing, flowing form, the otherworldly delicate but imposing beauty it emits .The image you see  was created in photoshop, a computer programme, I played around with my photo and then had it digitally printed. I sandwiched it up and densely quilted It on my juki machine. 

The title of this piece is taken from a phrase I learned in school to help remember the difference between Stalactites and stalagmites- tights come down

 

I have been playing with this technique for about 1 ½ years now and have created about 20 pieces so far, ranging in size. 

 

This next slide shows my pieces for the EQA Picture Exchange project which will be revealed later this summer. 3 of my pieces have already been shown on thequiltshow.com blog as advertising for the project. The whole collection will be available to see online soon.

This is another piece I made using this technique- called “I Look within to see” which is presently on display in Australia as part of curator Brenda Gael Smiths Vison 2020 exhibit. 

This labour intensive  quilting, fills my need for mindful stitching, it’s like a type of meditation. And I love it 

 

Here are the first quilts I made using this technique and are a selection from a series of 9 quilts I made on the theme Interchange Threads Connect for a special group exhibition which the South African guild invited the Irish and German guilds to participate in and as the Irish Patchwork Society’s International Rep. at the time, I had the privilege of bringing the quilts to the show.

I just found out that this quilt was bought by a private collector, woohoo !