Nella and I drove down to Birmingham last Friday in Freya’s VW Beetle and it was probably the longest that trip has ever taken. There were roadworks, hold-ups for an accident and a ridiculous volume of traffic since many British holiday makers are staycationing in the UK. We made it in the end, picked Freya up from the train station and heated soup using the microwave that I took for Nella to be able to cope with the food situation. The girls explored Birmingham and visited the show, which they enjoyed.
It was a very different FOQ to normal. The traders and galleries had all been given extra space and there were far fewer visitors, almost none from outside the UK. The attendees enjoyed the more leisurely and spacious experience but it felt surreal without the usual busy-ness. I did not see many familiar faces, I did not go out to socialise in the evening but I enjoyed the show more than I thought I might. Face masks were worn and social distancing was observed, unlike in the hurly-burly of English service stations where it would seem the Pandemic is now a distant memory.
My classes went well - it turned out that I had not completely forgotten how to teach;) The Sunday morning session only had 2 pupils so they had an almost one-to-one experience.
Rainbow Warriors did not win anything but Kaffe Fassett was spotted filming it, possibly for a lecture, so that was cool. There was the usual discussion between friends about whether some of the winners were the absolute best out of all of the quilts. There were many that were terrific. I think the current trend with judges is that they favour simplicity. The winner of the contemporary category was a subtle double wedding ring in hand-dyed fabrics, quilted simply with one-inch horizontal lines. My quilt had so much more going on because I don’t believe in “less is more”! I am always baffled by the judging comments. It is interesting that one judge might award me “Excellent” in all tick boxes, whereas another judge won’t award any higher than “Good”. I freely admit that I don’t enter just for the pleasure of taking part… I want to win;) Mixed judging comments make me question my ability since I feel that if I am not now getting “Excellent” as a matter of course then I must be going wrong somewhere.
As usual, visitors to the Fine Art Masters gallery were heard to utter, “Oh?!” as they observed more conceptual pieces of textile art. Too be fair, some of the stuff was really interesting but let’s be honest - the only time I was ever juried in was when I came up with something quirkily ironic, rather than my finest work:P
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