Knitting And Stitching Show 2009

Most of this week's blog is about the wonderful Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace. I would love to have shown you much more of the exquisite work on show but, for obvious reasons these days, people are reluctant for their latest designs to be photographed. There are lots of stories around in the textile design world particularly of unkind individuals ripping off whole portfolios of work and presenting them as their own. It seems to be happening more and more these days. Very sad reflection of our times.

I have had very little time for drawing this week so not much to show really. This is an unfinished pen and ink of our lovely cat Georgie who, for the past two years, has been chasing heavenly mice in that big cats home in the sky. He was a huge cuddly bundle of fur and this was his favourite position for sleeping. I will draw him on patterned fabric but didn't get a chance to do it this week.

Relaxing

Here are some gorgeous paintings by Cuban self-taught artist Jose Garcia Montebravo. I love the way he paints his birds. Beautifully colourful and stylised. You can find lots more of his work here at the Indigo Arts Gallery.

Infanta Del Pajarito

Gallo Para Eleggua

Gallo Con Platano

I made my yearly pilgrimage on Thursday to the wonderful Knitting and Stitching Show. It is a vast exhibition that I spent six and half hours looking around and still didn't see all that I wanted to see. Quite a few people make it a two day visit and I wish I could do that. I travelled by coach which is by far the easiest way. Unfortunately owing to a serious accident which closed off three miles of a very busy local road and the coach driver forgetting to collect two travellers and having to go back for them, we were an hour late in setting off. Our driver promised us an extra half hour at the show but he still managed to make up the lost time and get us there at the usual time. He probably felt he couldn't rescind his offer of the extra half hour though, bless him. We weren't complaining!

One of the first stands I visited was Richard Box. He needs no introduction to people interested in textile crafts. I admired his beautiful series of hare oil paintings, some of which you can see at the rear of his stand, and he told me he was an artist and art teacher before he became involved in textiles. He always produces wonderful work and has authored several books. You can read a bit more about him here. You can find more of his work if you enter his name into a search engine.

I loved these paper thin porcelain and paper vessels by Katie Almond. They are lovely whimsical pieces with quirky decoration. You can see more of her work on her website here.

This is Gilda Baron at her stand at the exhibition. She is a very well known textile artist, embroideress and teacher. Her work is always colourful and vibrant and her stand was very popular. You can see Gilda's website here.

These gorgeous items of knitwear are created by Patimarkorn Tangsakul. She has a wonderful sense of design. You can view more of her work at Red Shed Textiles here.

This is a detail from Harriet Smith's lovely knitwear. The neckline is heavily embelished with pieces of ceramic and other items.

Stunning knitwear designs by Anna Wilkinson

These are applique and embroidered cushion designs, the bottom two pictures being postcards. The colours were jewel bright and gorgeous. These are the work of Carol Dixon. I love the retro look.

One of the stands at the show

A view of the market hall where the traders were. There were lots of amazing stands but so little time as usual.

This is a detail of a beautifully designed and made quilt by Laura Kemshall. It has a limited palette but the detail is quite exquisite. It is called Pearl Essence. I am a great fan of Linda and Laura Kemshall's work and I have a copy of their book - The Painted Quilt - which is lovely. They have a website here although Laura's part is not completed. Nevertheless there are lovely things to be seen.

Detail of Mother Earth quilt by Helen Godden. This quilt was enormous as you can see from the photo below. It was difficult to get a good photo as I had to stand back a long way. The colours and shades and design were gorgeous. This monumental work must have taken ages to create and it was certainly getting a lot of attention. Here is Helen's quilt gallery on her website and also check out her blog on the side menu.

Lisa Connolley is a graduate illustrator and designer from Wales although she actually hails from Ireland. She had some beautiful work on display. These are two of her embroidered images. Very contemporary and quirky. A very nice girl to chat to, I hope she does well in her career. She has certainly made a good start. If you want to see more of Lisa's work and what she gets up to on the design scene you can check out her blog here.

One of my favourite stands at the show was definitely Victoria Lindo's gorgeous applique embroideries. They are funny, witty and quirky. I fell in love with all of them. She told me that for some of the coloured shapes she uses pieces cut out of postage stamps. Although she hasn't updated recently, probably because of work commitments, you can read a bit more about Victoria on her blog here.