here comes the Exxon Valdez

At last! The piece is finished and titled 'Here Comes the Exxon Valdez.' It is a warning to us all of the havoc brought on by the greed of oil companies, by our own thoughtless use of petrol and by moronic statements such as those from Sarah Palin, "Drill, baby, drill." And, to my delight, the quilt placed second in the wall quilt category at the recent Tinahely Quilt Show.

Ester: stitching the legend

When faced with the challenge of creating new work based on the theme of 'Stitching the Legend' I begin by looking at what is on my doorstep.

I moved to Co. Galway in 2005 and by coincidence our new family home is not far from Tuam where my mother grew up. The front of my house looks towards a hill called Knockma, of which I knew very little.

Local folklore says it is a fairy hill, and that Finvarra, king of the Connacht Fairies and Queen Maeve of Connacht are buried there.

Archaeologists believe it was a significant ceremonial area dating from Neolithic times. There are four stone cairns at the summit and there may be passage tombs. Several new tombs and the remains of a hill fort were also found on a nearby ridge.

One of Galway's 'tribes', the Kirwan family, built its base at Castlehacket, at the foot of Knockma in the 18th century. It seems that the monuments at Knockma were 'remodelled' around that time and that other field monuments nearby were destroyed, without excavation, by farming. Today, local quarrying poses a further threat to this landscape.

I often walk on Knockma, where there is now a signposted 'Golden Mile' walk. This photo shows the view from the summit looking back towards my home. There is something magical about this landscape where the surrounding plains stretch towards Loch Corrib and the Maam Turk mountains in Connemara.

june update from Amanda

It's the start of another creative season for The Textile Art Forum. Our new theme is Stitching the Legend. As usual, each of us will interpret the theme in our individual way, exploring concepts that catch our imaginations and spark creativity.

For myself the theme keeps me in my beginnings as a clothing designer and I plan to explore images from the work of three legendary fashion design icons: Schiaparelli, Dior and Quant. Their distinctive design silhouttes are the starting point for my work this season.

Each of the Forum members has a piece of matching tea-dyed cotton, a reel of metallic thread and an 18" canvas to make a signature piece which describes the flavour of this year's theme. These are my first pictures - my idea in the raw - paper-doll like figures dance across the cloth, capturing the essence of their era with a connecting timeline linking them together. There isn't any stitch on this yet, but there will be soon...

update from Frances

During the residential retreat in February at Ballydugan I played around with this wall quilt, using my hand-dyed fabrics and a sort of cathedral windows and bargello combination. Then it sat on the shelf. When the April oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, I knew that I needed to finish this piece and dedicate it to the lost sea creatures, to the birds of the air, to those who lost their lives on the oil rigs and to those whose lives will be forever altered due to this rape of the environment. I also wanted to raise awareness of the greed that propels companies such as Shell, BP, Exxon, etc. The quilt's body is almost finished with the quilting process (lots of lumps and rumples to sort out), and I am now experimenting with black and white organza to use as symbols for the oil gushing without stop, killing without end. Titles: "Drill, Baby, Drill" as a reminder of the moronic Sarah Palin and her disregard for the environment; "Here Comes the Exxon Valdez" as a memory of the attack on the ice columns of Alaska; "Coming your way from BP" as a statement that what the oil companies have wrought can never replace the nature they have shredded. Sadly, there are too many titles.

time for an update from Amanda

It's been a while since I posted...I'm wrapping up my work for the 'Make it New' theme, printing out photos of the Bullrush dress and tranferring them onto fabric, tying up other loose ends and framing. My Black and Blue series of prints have been finally finished. After some months of considering their purpose they clicked into place as a message bearer regarding the oil spill in the Mexican Gulf... eco-friendly prints using water based inks on natural cotton, framed with petrol blue silk, they seemed appropriate for adding text and saying how I feel about events. 'Respect the Planet'

An update from Jan

It's hard to believe it's been almost a month since we left Ballyduggan but finally I'm feeling like some of my projects are really wrapping up. I've complete the wall hanging of the 4 small William Tell series and it needs to be quilted but after getting some backing material that will be accomplished this week as I'm home nursing my dog who got her pacemaker last week. I've also almost finished the grandmothers garden quilt after deciding to add some half-blocks where I thought I was only going to use calico. My goal is to also have this on the machine for quilting within the next couple days. Time will tell. Here is an "in-progress" view of the William Tell series.

Amanda's update

What a great week at Ballydugan! Friendship, inspiration and time to work uninterrupted were appreciated by us all. The bullrushes at Ballydugan lake remain my inspiration for current pieces of work, including a landscape painted with inks and fabric paints and a set of 12 mini sample pieces, printed and stitched then set in black boxes.