19 March- Deborah O'Hare- 'Tales from the Scrap Bag'
A fascinating talk & ideas for work from literally the materials and fabrics that came  from a bag of bits & pieces- I am sure we all have plenty of these! Whilst Deborah's passion has developed along the patchwork route I think she really enjoyed the 'challenge' of talking to the embroidery ladies as oppose to patchworkers. She then talked us through how she adapted her work and the commercial links she has now has, as well as featuring in a series of publications.


On the following day a number of ladies enjoyed Deborah's workshop on             ' Striped Pieced Landscape' where we followed a patchwork theme but created our own designs, with often not a straight edge in sight & incorporated some other different fabrics, which Deborah herself may explore. Our work & a note from Deborah is as below.
http://quiltroutes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/landscapequiltingworkshop.html

  

 

19 February - Maxine Bristow from the University of Chester

Whilst Maxine Bristow works in the Fine Arts Dept. at Chester University she is also working on her PhD. She talked passionately about her previous work and her current, new body of work.
Her previous exhibitions have included the Whitworth Art Gallery and the Salt Mills in Saltaire, a good website to visit is www.clothandmemory.com.  One interesting aspect of her design is that she works on separate elements and has listed them in a way similar to an IKEA catalogue and she simply selects from this to make her next installation. She feels this format gives her the freedom of expression to explore her next body of work.