Summer rain in Birmingham

Yesterday I drove to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham.  Given my extreme discomfort in crowds and the decrepit state of my knees, it was the lure of seeing Pauline Burbidge's retrospective exhibition which was compelling.  There were in the end a couple of additional bonuses.
I also wanted to see my quilt Trio hanging in the European Art Quilt VII show, and was curious to see what excellent company it was keeping - including Alice Fox's Folding Wall piece. No photography was allowed, but I did sneak a snap from outside the stand.

I was pleased to see that the catalogue uses both detail shots, which show the stitching.  This lack of visibility of stitching in many quilt catalogues is a point which has bothered me for quite a while.  It became even more obvious in the Masters 2 exhibition at FoQ.  Martha Sielman of SAQA was there, but she was busy when I was at the stand, and I must admit that I do not want to be curmudgeonly while so many folks are having a good time.  My peeve is that so often the images of quilts are so small in publications that one cannot see the stitching, and that the work might as well be a painting, or a digital print.  Surely the whole point of quilts is that they are stitched cloth.  Sure, there can be conceptual quilts, but then as far as being quilts is concerned they are judged by the fit of the concept.
Anyway, ... I digress.
Pauline Burbidge's show has such impact.  It was just great to see the early pieces.  The first time I saw anything of hers was in Foyle's bookshop in the Charing Cross Road, London, in the 70s.  It was a place in which I always got lost, not least because one had to pay for purchases - to a cashier in a large cage - before wending one's way back to the department up short stairs, round twists, past endless piles of books on the floor, to pass over the cashier's chit to collect the book.  Encountering Pauline Burbidge's quilts in their temporary exhibition space was wondrously impactful amongst the Kafkaesque procedures.
I followed her career through notes in Crafts magazine until my next encounter, which was the Take 4 exhibition - another stunning show.  And I also went to see her more recent Quiltworks touring show which coincided with the Telos Portfolio publication.  I was lucky enough at the very beginning of this century to attend two quilt workshops given by Pauline Burbidge, so I was delighted that I had made the effort to get to the exhibition, and to hear her illustrated talk.  I am wowed by her development, and find her current work my favourite.  She calls her large studio quilts Quiltscapes because they are derived from the landscape.
How many of us have been entranced by the marks on sand as the tide moves over it.  So many of us have taken photographs, but Pauline has gone beyond the photographs to make beautiful work.  No photography was permitted at the exhibition, but I got the following details of her Lindisfarne work from Craft Scotland, and Ideas in the Making (which has an interview with PB).

 This would have been sufficient, but I also had the pleasure of seeing a display of work by Janet Bolton, another artist I've admired for many years.  Her book looks lovely.  My personal favourites are the very spare still life compositions such as Old Linen below.

And last, but by no means least there was a display of work by Anne Worringer. Her quilts are also mentioned in Margaret Cooter's blog of her visit to the Festival.  Anne's quilts are all about pattern, materiality, and the act of stitching.  I find the textural qualities of her work enticing.  She was very kind in permitting me to take several snaps of her pieces to remind me of my delight, and to try to share it a little.  She also has a book available through Quiltmania.

And the summer rain?  Well, as I was walking back up to my car the sky opened with a tremendous downpour and I was thoroughly drenched - and remained wet until I arrived back home some two and a half hours later.  But as my Greek grandmother used to say, good feeling quickly overcomes the odd rain shower in summer.