A few years ago I saw Anne Hellyer’s work displayed at the West of England Quilting and Textile Show at the UWE (University of the West of England) in Bristol so when I had the opportunity to go on a two day workshop I was keen to put my name down.

Anne’s distinctive “Painting the Town” designs incorporate hand painted textiles and free machine embroidery.

We started the day by choosing a design, winter townscape, snowy townscape or an individual choice. The hand painted fabric is ironed onto a background and then starts the fun of adding the doors, windows, plants and trees. Finally a backing is added and ribbons to enable you stand your finished work up with a night light in the centre.

Anne was extremely generous sharing her ideas and techniques and the two days of stitch, stitch, stitching went so quickly. The end results were so individual with each person choosing different coloured fabrics and adding their own special ideas including Rosemary’s super black cat.

Thank you Anne for a great workshop.

Anne’s kits can be bought on her website: http://www.paintingthetown.org.uk/
Please note – all the designs are Anne’s copyright

Report and photos by Ros

Liz Brooke Ward was the speaker for our November meeting. I first saw Liz’s work many years ago at Art In Action so I was interested to meet the artist herself, to hear her story and to see a wonderful selection of her work.

Liz explained that many years ago she chose rocks and stones as her topic for a City and Guilds course. During this time she also became interested in lichens and, although she has diversified considerably, Liz is well known for her circle in square designs using lichens as inspiration. Liz handed round a wonderful selection of her work and it was interesting to see her lichen design created using different techniques and materials. They included applique and reverse applique, free machine embroidery, hand stitched French knots, hand dyed fabrics, varying colour combinations and multi media.

Liz enjoys poetry and regularly includes text in her work. She loves experimenting with fonts and her son has created a font for her in the shape of a leaf.

In 2006 Liz was awarded the Charles Henry Foyle award for Stitched Textiles. Her work was entitled “On to the Eastward” and was her interpretation of a maelstrom.

Liz gives talks, has had articles printed in various publications, has been an artist in residence at Nature in Art and has exhibited her work at the Festival of Quilts and around the country. She is a member of the Contemporary Quilters Guild and showed us examples of a monthly challenge to create a journal quilt.