Cambridge Quilters Meeting 18th March 2016

We were most fortunate to have a special visitor on Friday at our meeting. Janet McCallum came to give us an inspirational talk 'How I got to here' with a follow up workshop on Saturday. Here is a link to her website. Janet is a graphic designer and textile artist living in North Dorset.  Both her occupations complement each other very well indeed.  Janet is also the designer for the  Quilter Magazine for the  Quilters' Guild of the British isles. Find them here

What was really lovely about Janet's illustrated talk, is that she included many photographs of work 'in progress', ie.e various stages as the work evolves and changes. I very much work like this too, working from an initial drawing but discovering things on the way. 

Janet has been a quilter from the late 70s. Studying graphics at college she then went onto book designing. She told us that she was inspired to begin quilting by a TV programme and an exhibition at Somerset House.  Janet liked geometric patterns and used the book 'Perfect Patchwork Primer'.   

Early work with the Sarum Quilters where the group made quilts to hang on the wall in a local hospital  in the  Pathology and Genetics area.  Further work was inspired by roof tops in New York, pictorial landscapes, seascapes and much more.  I've included some of Janet's work below but 

Please respect  these images are copyrighted. 

This piece  called  'Loosen Up' was the starting point of our Saturday workshop....more later

For me, this piece was the 'must have' of the morning. It is called 'Hot Town' and depicts the view from the top of the Empire State Building. The pink fabric, wow!  A mixture of piecing and raw edge appliqué. This close up, taken by me, shows some of the quilting where straight lines have been combined with a long, wide zigzag stitch. Just shows that quilting doesn't have to be over complex.

This next close up, again taken by me,shows where Janet has stitched over large square sequins. I like to do this too but you have to watch out not to sizzle them with your iron.

 The next piece is called 'Pebble Beach' and was juried into the Fine Art Quilt Masters at Festival of Quilts 2013.

'Moroccan Inspirations', free machine quilted, raw edge appliqué, painted fabric and rust-dyed commercial fabric. 

 'Lotus'  designed for Beatrice Von Tresckow, inspired by some furnishing fabric

Many of us were left with the sinking feeling that we hadn't signed up to the workshop on the Saturday, but photos will follow, promise.