update from Amanda

The exhibition is in progress, so while we wait to hear the responses of visitors, work continues on our current projects. My Stitching the Legend pieces are in the 'thinking' process. Who knows how long this will take - while I meditate on the work so far and make decisions about the next step my fashion icon outlines stare at me from the wall of the room where I work waiting for inspiration to hit.

Until I have further news here are a couple of photos of the fabric collage that I made to accompany the dress in the current exhibition. Photographs of my model have been transfered onto composted cotton, applique has been added and the resulting quilted piece stretched around a frame. The colours are muted yet earthy, the message is gentle but potent - 'Respect the Planet' - Let's take care of this wonderful, unique place we call earth.

more Cavan exhibition photos from Jan

Finally back looking at the pictures I took on the current exhibition in the County Cavan Museum in Ballyjamesduff I thought I'd share the following from the exhibition. When we were in Ballyduggan, County Down in March of 2010 one exercise we all did was to do a self-portrait as a single line drawing which was quite entertaining and both Frances and Amanda managed to get their drawing moved to a composted fabric and included in the exhibition as seen here:

Here are two of Esters rock pieces; one with the rocks as separate pieces incorporated into the wall hanging and one that was one piece of fabric that with the use of just threads she created the same effect - most amazing when you sit and really enjoy the work done:

The final series of Will Tell pieces that I did were done with the original design (using only arrows - palms depending on how you see it) that incorporated fabrics from the Escheresque series and while not as striking as the red/yellow series has a unique quality with the different fabrics and threads used in the quilting of these A4 pieces:

Cavan county museum exhbition starts

Well finally we've gathered all our pieces and have hung the exhibition at the Cavan County Museum from the 1st of September 2010 through the 30th of September 2010! I'll be adding pictures over the next week or so of the pieces but thought I'd start tonight with a shot of each of our primary walls (except I forgot to take one of mine). Amanda had her pieces centre around the bull rushes that we see during our residence week in Ballyduggan. She used techniques like dress making using stamped fabric and fabric painting/stitching them as a wall piece; all of which have been done on composted fabric.




Ester has included a few larger quilts so we have one wall that contains all her rock wall hangings that each contain their own unique style. I hadn't realized that some of them were created from one piece of fabric and the stitching was what defined the rocks vs the ones that had individual stones (of various sizes and fabrics). In the next few days I'll add along some of the bigger quilts which include fabric from her son's early shirts along with detailed pictures of the rock series.




Frances has continued on with the Making it New theme to include a series of watercolour techniques for the 4 seasons of the year along with heartfelt depiction of the disasters that have hit the waters of the world with the Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska in 1989 and more recently the Gulf Oil spill caused by a catastrophic uncapped oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Finally my favorite project involved taking a quilt I had started in 1973 when I started a Grandmothers Garden pattern (long before I knew what quilting really involved) made of scraps of fabric my 4 sisters and I used to make clothing in our teens. I have since taken it apart and put it back together and loved the memories as I worked. For anyone actually attending the exhibition you'll see almost all my entries are hexagons (the framed piece includes hexagons that are only 5/8" big) and hopefully I've outgrown that phase at this point!