More quilts and more variety at the Newark Quilt Show

In this final post from the Newark Quilt Show I’m sharing many more of the fabulous quilts on display, and I think they’re somewhere in between Alicia Merrett’s modern quilts and Carolyn Forster’s traditionally scrappy quilts, but still just as amazing and beautiful in their own right.

Many, like the Jubilee quilt below, are made from scraps collected over many years - so that brings me some solace!

JUBILEE, JANET BEVAN

The bold quilt below is by Australian artist Brenda Wood and reflects her love of colour and shapes in her local environment, and as the blurb said truly does take an ‘in-depth and close up look at shape, colour and texture.’ For me it’s the attention to detail, even on the binding - it’s not just plain black, but some has that barcode pattern which brings further interest.

FLIGHTS OF FANCY, BRENDA WOOD

The quilts by Gillian Travis were full of colour and full of memories from her travels - both of which looked amazing!

BURANO WINDOWS, GILLIAN TRAVIS

There were also quilts by the Pearoom Quilters based in Lincolnshire who responded to the challenge to produce a piece reflecting time in any way, using the log cabin block as their starting point. Unsurprisingly when you ask creative people to approach something like this, there were many interpretations - here are some of my favourites:

SUNDAY AFTERNOON, DI BELL

NUMBER 7, MARY JACKSON

ALL THE SEASONS’ COLOURS, SALLY WARREN

MAY TIME BY PAM BUNKER

There were so many in this part of the exhibition I could have chosen to share though, and narrowing it down to four quilts was hard enough.

But that wasn’t all, there’s another quilt that is absolutely stunning coming up…

THE COLOURS OF LOVE, HELEN BURNHAM

Helen made this as a wedding gift for her mathematician godson and his wife of Indian heritage - who have generously lent it back again according to the card alongside it. I do wonder just how much they’ve seen of it as I’m sure this one is in demand from all the quilt shows!

AFRICAN KELS, JANET BEVAN

One of the things I took from the quilts on display is that a quilt can be anything you want it to be - bold, bright, modern, traditional or anything in between. Whichever it is it’s most certainly made with love, and by someone who loves to create.

So often we focus on the small detail forgetting the bigger picture - I’m sure there’s a life lesson in there too!

Alicia Merrett's wow factor quilts at the Newark Quilt Show

In my first post from the Newark Quilt Show, where I admired Carolyn Forster’s quilts, I promised to show you more of the quilts on display, however I realised there were so many more that I wanted to share that I’d need to break them into smaller sections and do that over at least a couple more posts.

So in this post I’ll share something completely different to Carolyn’s quilts, but no less amazing. Here Alicia Merrett’s quilts were grouped under the title ‘Ways of Seeing’ and it’s obvious that she loves colour and texture. Alicia says that ‘beauty and feelings are important’ to her and she tries 'to convey them in her work, searching for the ‘wow’ factor’.

Alicia says her current work is ‘mostly abstract and is the result of experiments with photography, iPad apps and computer design’. The digital paintings are played with, altered, changed and distorted often with several layers being superimposed. The final designs are printed on fabric, then layered and machine stitched.

It’s a completely different approach to the quilts I shared in the previous post, but I think it’s fair to say that Alicia has definitely succeeded as her quilts definitely have the wow factor and are also beautiful works of art.

ALICIA MERRETT: DECODING THE RAINBOW

As you’ll see the rainbow is Alicia’s main source of colours, for the quilt above she says that ‘it seems as if the rainbow has an almost undecipherable code hidden within it, defiantly asking us to discover its meaning’ and so the computer code like letters accentuate that. Maybe that’s why we’re fascinated with rainbows, we’re trying to understand them as well as admire their beauty.

Alicia describes this next quilt as a ‘magical kind of Urban Jungle’ to me it has a hint of moroccan spice to it, but as for other pieces of art, we each interpret them differently and they can be many things to many people.

ALICIA MERRETT: URBAN JUNGLE

I really like this next quilt, though it’s hard to chose an absolute favourite from any of these. I think this one appeals as it is so dramatic, and so different - and once you know it’s called Eye of the Storm, that almost pulls you in too. Look closely and you’ll see the quilting is exquisite, but it also has a serious meaning the card alongside it reminding us we all need to take action, governments and individuals, as there is no Planet B.

ALICIA MERRETT: EYE OF THE STORM

Though her work Alicia also explores colour further as waves of colour transmitting through the air which become particles when on the fabric. I don’t know about that but this interpretation does make for a fascinating quilt.

ALICIA MERRETT: WAVES OF COLOUR

I also enjoyed the smaller quilts on display purely for the colour, the contrast and their designs, as well as the amount of work that’s gone into creating these. Of the four below, the Colour Burst quilt (top right) is my favourite, I think that matches most closely to how colour explodes for me.

ALICIA MERRETT: HILLSIDE VILLAGE AND COLOUR BURST QUILTS

ALICIA MERRETT: LITTLE BOXES AND DANCING SQUARES QUILTS

This last quilt which I’m sharing is one that I think you could look at for a while, and it’s the sort of image that could take your imagination in different ways depending on your mood. Knowing this is titled ‘The Colour of Nature’ initially leads me to see a garden pond with flowers, lily pads and frogs - though I suspect this isn’t quite its intention, and you may see something else entirely.

ALICIA MERRETT: THE COLOUR OF NATURE

But isn’t that the beauty of these magnificent quilts, they allow your mind and imagination to roam?

Admiring Carolyn Forster's quilts at the Newark Quilt Show

Last Friday I went along to the Newark Quilt Show held at the Newark Showground which is just a short drive away - I think it’s probably the closest-to-me quilt show I’ve ever been to, closer even to those at London’s Excel and that alone was a treat. I’d also not been in to the Newark Showground, though have driven past it several times - it’s on our list to go as they look to have some great shows on there, and the Newark Air Museum, which is also on our list, is also close by.

But they’re for another today, this visit was all about the quilts. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect size-wise, but I knew there’d be some quilts on display and some suppliers also present. Thankfully the show was clearly signposted and I followed a slow trickle of cars into the ground and to the parking area.

I was pleasantly surprised, while the hall wasn’t huge it was plenty big enough and the central section was dedicated to the quilts on display - and there were many. Suppliers, around 60 or so, were positioned around the edge of the quilts on display, and like every other show I’ve been to (and not just craft shows) the aisles were full of people making their way through the plentiful stalls.

You’ll know that I’m a long time admirer of scrappy quilts, and have many plans to make my own - even if many of those plans don’t quite come to fruition every time! And so I was keen to see the ‘Stash Busting Scrappy Quilts’ by Carolyn Forster that were on display.

I took many pictures because they were so lovely, and as future inspiration for myself and while I took pictures of the whole quilts, it’s the details that really appeal to me and so I’m only sharing partial shots of Carolyn’s quilts here.

CAROLYN FORSTER: VINTAGE LINEN QUILTS

The Vintage Linens Quilt is a great way to reuse embroidered linens, especially those with a stain or two - though it needs some bravery to cut those up. I’ve acquired a few old tablecloths myself and I can see this being a good way to get them out of the cupboard and in use. Carolyn has used fabrics that compliment the embroidery to form a repeating block which I think works really well.

The Triplet Block Quilt is one that really caught my eye, I’m not sure I’ve really seen this block much before but spotted it in a couple of Carolyn’s quilts and it’s one that looks really effective repeated over a whole quilt too. I agree with Carolyn that the fabrics here give the quilt a summery feel, but hadn’t spotted that the block is set in alternating directions, until I read the card pinned alongside.

CAROLYN FORSTER: TRIPLET BLOCK QUILT

After that I did spend perhaps more time than actually necessary looking at how the blocks I liked were constructed, and without being mean or taking anything away from Carolyn’s work, they often are what appear to be quite simple shapes. I say what appear to be quite simple shapes, as we know that not everything is always what it appears to be, and there is real skill in not only the sewing but the fabric choices and layout.

Carolyn acknowledges that in the Beach Houses Quilt saying that ‘the simple shape belies the fact that the sewing can be quite challenging. All the rows need to be set0in with the often-dreaded Y-seam!’

CAROLYN FORSTER: BEACH HOUSES QUILT

Beautiful though isn’t it?

The Scrappy Crosses Quilt was another favourite of mine, this was inspired by a vintage quilt. Carolyn says that in this quilt she ran out of the original fabric for some of the centres of each block, but the good thing about scrappy quilts is that most of the time no one notices the substitutions. That’s so true, and a good lesson as I think often we’re so focussed on getting it right, when really a small deviation doesn’t really matter at all.

CAROLYN FORSTER: SCRAPPY CROSSES QUILT

The Hexagon Lozenges Quilt using big hexagons, which is great for stash busting! The quilting design suggests smaller pieces have been used, but look again and it looks like this would be one that would grow quickly, and be relatively simple to do.

CAROLYN FORSTER: HEXAGON LOZENGES QUILT

In the Diamonds and Stars Quilt for me it’s the plain fabric that becomes the star (quite literally) with the patterned fabric playing a supporting role - though the yellow floral fabric in the centre of the picture below looks pretty special. This quilt is based on a 60 degree diamond and an old fashioned block which is simple and effective.

CAROLYN FORSTER: DIAMONDS AND STARS QUILT

There was a good reminder alongside the Curtains Quilt that anything goes, and quilts don’t have to use dress-weight cotton. This one uses old curtains and curtain fabric off-cuts and I’ve no doubt that it would keep you just as cosy as any other quilt.

CAROLYN FORSTER: CURTAINS QUILT

Carolyn started, and finished, the Maple Leaves Quilt during the first Covid lockdown and was inspired by one in the book ‘Unconventional and Unexpected’ by Roderick Kiracofe which gave licence for unusual choices. I love its boldness and larger prints, and I know I’ve plenty of larger prints stashed away which I could use in a similar way (one day!)

CAROLYN FORSTER: MAPLE LEAVES QUILT

So much inspiration here for me, and hopefully for you too - my planned project list is perpetually growing! But if I get close to anywhere near through that list I know I’ll have some beautiful quilts - both fabric and yarn-based - and will have plenty to choose from!

There were plenty more quilts on display at the show and I’ll share my favourites in a separate post soon.