is that okay
that's perfect yes okay
so we've been friends for some time
now through through our shared
love of quilting yes
very much so yes and last year you had a
beautiful piece that was accepted in the
Vlieseline Fine Arts Gallery at the festival
of quilts that's right it was my Haiku
quilt when I'm listening to the radio
I have Radio 4 on and it was John Cooper
Clarke and he was talking about Haikus
and how he'd discovered them and how he
enjoyed writing them and he was reading
them now I would love to be able to
write but I can't I'm slightly dyslexic
but on the m25 journey each day that
week I was thinking you know what Haiku - I can
do that in quilts I could do that
in pieces so I started making tiny
little blocks and in the end, so I had a five
seven and five row and I put a purple
full stop as well at the end and I kept
posting them onto my Instagram saying oh
another another word for the poem and he
got people really intrigued sort of poem
poem and yeah I was really pleased by
the outcome it was a fun thing to do
just to sort of think of words as fabric
as opposed to actual letters so yeah
yeah and it was very it was accepted
into Quiltcon and then I submitted it
to the fine art textile and I was
accepted there which I was really
chuffed with didn't think it was that
sort of I didn't think it was arty
enough but obviously the judges liked it
they've got accept it had good feedback
so I was really pleased with that -
you have some very good feedback because
they offered you a textile gallery so what
is it like having your your work on the
poster being the poster girl for the
festival of quilts - Bazarre! -
funny enough two or three years ago
perhaps I've got a warped sense of humor
I didn't but two or three years ago they
contacted me and they used one of my
small pieces in their calendar and I
jokingly said well as long you can use
the image as long as you don't have
staples through the middle meaning like
a playboy image but they didn't quite
get it so now when they contacted me
following my collage quilt which I'll
I'll say how I came about to doing that
in a moment well then they contacted me
and said that they would like to use
that I had to be a very grown-up I just
say thank you very kindly I think what
sort of implying about playboy images
and things but yeah I couldn't believe it really - and then also
very generously fingers crossed because
obviously the gallery had to being
postponed to next year I presumed that
they'd obviously start again with images
and things but no they're going to carry
that image for the poster and the
coloring and things right through to
next year so very lucky very chuffed it
came about by five years ago four years
ago five years oh I loose track, a very
dear friend of mine Kristen in Brooklyn
haberdashery who had become very
friendly with and she contacted me to
say that there was a project going on in
America been going on two or three years
before I sort of joined if you like or
you know I didn't been joined just sort
of tagged along it's called the hundred
day project and it's run by two ladies
one lady is now stepped away from it two
ladies in California and it starts in
April ends in July and it's a hundred
days of putting something onto Instagram
and it could be hundred days of baking a
cookie
be hundred days of poems could be 100
days of stitching so it's absolutely
everything I thought well I can't really
do stitching because I work full-time
um in my day job and so I couldn't
really dedicate the time to do stitching
every day but I've always ever since the
young child loved cutting and sticking
playing around with paper
I've got endless boxes of paper which my
husband despairs at but they all come
in useful now and again so that first
year I did a hundred days of paper
collage it's just 15 minutes of fun each
morning and it literally takes me 15
minutes or so and then if I don't like
it doesn't matter because tomorrow's
another day and I might like that one
anyway this particular one I did on day
57 of the first year which is this one
and I started calling it macaroons
because I thought it looked a bit like
macaroons and I kept playing around with
it and I made it up with calico behind
and used Alison glass fabric I really
didn't like it
it wasn't punchy enough so I put that to
one side I've got it somewhere and
then I put it together with Kona cotton
but charcoal so it's not exactly black
and yeah that's ended up being mr.
macaroons I have a little tiny Bernina
which is next to me so I just do
straight line quilting on all my quilts
but I knew I wanted something abstract I
knew I wanted it rather than just
straight lines so the first year at Quiltcon
I came across a lady called
Christine Perrigo and she does amazing
machine quilting Long Arm so I
contacted her sent her pictures and sent
her pictures of where I wanted the lines
and I sent it out to her she lives in
Denver as that would have it we were
actually going to Denver that year on holiday
so we sort of slid past her house and we
picked it up so that was a real treat and
she's she's quilted three three or four
three or four of mine now on the collage
series
so yeah she does a beautiful job I've
been going to Quiltcon for last five
years now I've been an avid quilters
guild member since 1984 and I support
them in every way I can and always enjoy
attending festival of quilts and things but
I've also joined the modern guild in
America and I got one year a magazine
you know it was all about their
exhibition and I said to my husband I
said oh I'd love to go I would so love
to go and he said where will it wiII be and  I said next one is Savannah he said I
don't fancy going there and I said I
didn't fancy taking you I said I want to
go on my own so I did and I met up with
a very good friend who was introduced
years ago which we've become firm friends
Pat and her and I shared the room and it
just blew me away
it was the excitement, admittedly it's a
much smaller exhibition 
there's only about three or four hundred
quilts
they're all juried to get in I was very
lucky I've had a quilt accepted each
year last not last year the year before
I actually had five courts accepted
which I was really blew me away but the
first year I had a quilt and I want to
tell a little bit of a funny story
but I went off to find it as you do
whenever you put something into an exhibition
you march off to make sure
that it's hanging straight so you're
happy with it and I was absolutely
delighted where it was hanging and then
I turned around and there was a beautiful
quilt of Abraham Lincoln and it was made
by a lady called Kim Soper and I just
went holy moly it was just
it it just blew me away
it was amazing but anyway we became good
friends
and the funny thing is it became she got
visitors choice and I always tease her
that my quilt had equal number of
footfall past it just happened so  he was
looking at her quilt and not looking at my quilt so we
said that we all share the award but yeah
her work is beautiful but it was it
just opened my eyes to admittedly it was
all modern but it just opened up my eyes
to a different way of thinking of
displaying and making quilts more as art
pieces on the wall than on the back of
the sofa where all my live normally and
it was the opportunity of meeting so many
amazing quilters that you can read about
in books or magazines and so yeah it was
lovely
this is Serendipity and this was the
quilt that was first accepted into Quiltcon
and it was made in an improv
style I got a lot of the fabric I
printed myself and various pieces
I'd collected and I also got a scrap bag
from lady Leslie in Australia and what I
did was I cut them all up into pieces of
various sizes all rectangles and squares
I put them the other side of my sewing
machine and I pulled two pieces through
if they fitted lengthwise
they got sewn together if they didn't
they got thrown back so I'd do that
I'd hand press it and I'd throw it back
the other side of my sewing machine and
then I carried on until I got a full
size really and then I just did straight
line quilting so that was the first
piece I had accepted into Quiltcon and it
was a good exercise to do I did keep
squaring it up because I don't like my
mind I prefer straight lines so it was a
good exercise to do and I enjoyed that
and I made
another one the following year and that
was accepted as well
one quilt I've just recently finished
and this was hand quality I went to an
exhibition on Bauhaus at the William
Morris gallery down in Walthamstow it
was a very little exhibition it was
quite interesting you had a couple of
Anni Albers
weaving but it also had a color palette
that had been painted just randomly by
Kandinsky and the whole time I looked at
it I just thought of linen so I
came home and I made, I came home
and made that with all just the random
pieces of the linen so just all my scraps
which replicated his color palette of it
was one of his teaching exercises of use
of color which goes over my head I just
pick up the colors I like I don't I
don't do all this color theory anyway
but one little thing about it I was so
chuffed and I hung it up on one of the
shelves to take a good photograph for
Instagram and the windows were all open
and it was blowing in the wind and it
looked really nice and in the background
I had James Taylor sweet baby James
playing and so anyway I posted it on
Instagram and I put it's always a
good day if you're listening to James
Taylor and blow me down he sent me a
message to say keep quilting Sarah looks
good I couldn't believe it then sorry a
little bit of boasting I'm so sorry then
he put it on his Instagram which was so
kind of him so I did save my bit that he
said thank you and it is on my Instagram
on my little stories so James Taylor like
this that's my claim to fame I
can go to my grave happy now that James
Taylor knows my work, another piece going on
the collage I've always liked  Gap mainly
because of the blue
I just love blue I love indigo  and
any form of blue and there was a big ad
in one of the color supplements so I tore
it out and it just said gap across it
so what I did was I folded it all up and
just randomly cut it and stuck it down
and then I pieced it together as Blue
and White quilt so that's that but I on
this one it was the very first time I
did actually quilt as you go
so the back is quite you know all panelled
which I like but I want to revisit that
idea again because it was nice just quilting panels
another one is another collage quilt which
again was a paper collage and then this
was one that Christine quilted so she
really did the most beautiful work on it
that was Reflections that was a quilt I
put together three or four years ago now
it was exhibited at Quiltcon and it was a
combination of various Japanese linens I'd
picked up quite a lot from Eternal
Maker and also the Draper's Daughter I
will pick up a piece of fabric if I like
the image on it I'm not bothered about
the whole piece it's just maybe that
particular triangle I want and I'll end
up buying a fat quarter just for one
triangle amazingly the quilters guild
contacted me and they acquired that for
their permanent collection as one of the
first modern quilts that they took into
their permanent collection so I was
accepted and also Helen Howes her piece
was accepted but they very kindly are
going to lend it back to me for the
gallery next July I might try and squirrel
it back home but I don't think so, I do love it though - so if people come
and pop by your stand your textile
gallery stand next year what sort of
quilts are they going to expect to see -
a whole mix match really I want it very
much to be very much a part of me as
opposed to an art gallery because I'm
not an artist I'm a quilter that plays
around with fabric and I've separated
the gallery into three parts one will be
hand quilting so there'll be a lot of
pieces that I've put together with the
densely hand quilted you know very much
like these pieces so there will be a wall of that
there'll be a wall of collage to quilt so
there'll be the framed paper collage
together with the quilt that it
represents and then there will be a
mixed match of Reflections and a few
other you know I've got Happenstance a few other
big pieces of mine that I've done in
linen so I've got a few other ideas up my
sleeve but I'll share those nearer the
time - so during lockdown have you been
doing a lot of stitching - yes I have I've
always got a needle in my hand
I'm always itching to stitch I love
using linen fabric so I've constantly
been putting things together her the first I
did I love flying geese these need to be
basted before I can quilt them but I did
a flying geese piece in blues and then
the odd little color just to break it
up and they're 40 inches square but
while I was making that I
automatically
I really like black and linen so I
quickly went on and made one in black
linen
which I called Arthur because it reminds
me of Guinness
my lovely elderly aunt Madge in North
Wales always insisted on drinking each
night before bed so this was either
going to be called Madge or called Arthur so I've got
to get those tacked and then I think I'll
just hand quilt those because I've
really got back into hand quilting and
heavily hand  quilting which I really
enjoy and in my hand quilting I always
put two red stitches don't ask me why it
just happened so with all the offcuts
I've been putting together little
cross quilts which I really like doing
so that's from a selection of places and
then on odd little pieces I've always got
something I make up from my scraps so
I've got a whole sort of pile that I
take out in the car if we do go for a
drive or you know sit in front of the
television or whatever and they're tiny pieces like that so yeah
I've always got something on the go for
a bit bigger pieces  which I'm just doing
the binding on this piece which is a
just a drunkards path variation so yeah
a little bit busy yes - do you do you have
things like architecture or certain
artists that have influenced the kind of
pattern styles combinations that you put
together - yeah I grew up my father was a
graphic designer
so I grew up in a house full of art
books and magazines and and all sorts of
things which has always influenced me
especially with colour he used to put
red in everything I've always liked
Bauhaus and their inspiration and also
architecture very much Frank Lloyd
Wright I love the clean lines he uses
and I like the fact that you know he
gets his points perfect and that's what
I try and do but very much with the
Bauhaus is
the weaving so Anni Albers but the
person before Anne Albers was a lady
called Gunta Stolzl and I
absolutely love her work along with Anni
Albers but a Gunta is really
punchy for me and again looking at her
work i've whatever i look at whether
it's graffiti on the street or magazines
i always break it down into a quilt pattern in 
my head of squares or triangles and
try and figure out how people have put
things together and how i can replicate
I don't ever want to copy but sort of
do my own thing so it's a jumping
board really of going into different
design but I did and I have been doing
about the last got several years now a
Gunta piece which I took from one of
her drawings from one of my Bauhaus  books which I have many and I
pieced it out this was before I
discovered linen so this is all
different it's Roberta Horton a lot of
it is Roberta Horton fabric right back
from the 80s so I just made up a series
of squares and triangles and I'm slowly
quilting it densely just to replicate
her weaving really but to be honest I never
really want to finish it because I talk
to her quite often with this piece and
some days you know there's months where I
don't even pick it up and then there's
others I'll pick up every every evening and I
just chat to her and check how she's
doing if she'd be pleased with it so
it's a real it's a real tactile piece
it's become really soft now and I'm
really not bothered about technique I
used to be when I first quilted I used
to hide all my knots with it but now I
really like having all the knots and
working because we put so much work into
a piece so why not see all your knots
and how many bits of thread you've used
so I hope she'll be pleased with it
but it will eventually get finished
yeah so that will be on the stand because
I'll be sitting quilting that - it's been
an absolute joy talking to you today
Sarah - well thank you Katie
likewise I always enjoy your company
thank you and thank you for your support
and enthusiasm with my work
it's very pleasing to me thank you
Check out my playlists for more inspiration. Thank you for watching. Katie : )
