Today my neighbour's wedding coincided with Oast Quilters' Open Day so I missed the morning talk and gathered in an ancient church for the very touching and happy wedding service. As we waited for the service to start I contemplated the medieval beams with the marks made by long dead masons and thought about how our quilts continue as an expression of us after we are gone though not for several hundred years I imagine. This thought was echoed by Phillipa Naylor who was the afternoon speaker at Oast and most of whose talk I heard. She said how it was a comfort to think of her quilts as a record of her life after she had gone. The photo I took obviously didn't have flash and is incredibly dark so I don't show it here. Her quilts are phenomenal tours de force with masterly curved piecing, threads constantly changed to match the fabrics top and bottom, seams sewn concave curve up and turned over to ensure this is always the case and hundreds of sequins and beads sewn on by hand. The focal point though is her masterful quilting incorporating trapunto work. She said she itches to get down to the quilting - I sense it looming. She also said how she wanted to make these masterworks which take a long time and massive effort rather than churning out lots of quilts. I guiltily knew myself to be one of the latter sort.
http://www.east-riding-artists.org/philipa_naylor.php
On this site are shown a couple of details of her work; click on the images for a proper close up detail.
