Popular Patchwork article and Collage Exchange

I received my latest issue from Popular Patchwork (a British patchwork magazine) today and they have published an article written by the free-lance journalist Jane Rae about my work and more especially the quilts which were exhibited at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show back in May this year. Jane came to interview me back in April on what was probably one of the nicest days weatherwise of 2007. I was thinking about it today and wishing myself back in time as the temperature yesterday was -10C!

We sat outside in the sunshine and Jane managed to get a lot of information while we were just chatting away. It's a really good article and she has definitely gotten through to me!! Thanks again, Jane!

Jane also has a wonderful website where you can read about quilt related events and indulge in some Fair Trade quilt related items. Pay a visit and you'll love what you see!

I will be showing you a series of collages I've been working on during the last 2 weeks or so. They are for a special collage exchange, organized in New Zealand. You can read more about it here. I've been wanting to partipate in earlier exchanges but things always got in the way and somehow I never actually got around to making my collages in time. This time (for the 10th Exchange) I was really determined and in order to motivate myself even more I paid well in advance.
Rather than making them in fabric (which for me is the easy option!) I decided to go with images and paint, although I could not resist some stitching to mount the collages onto their final background. All the paint I've used in these collages are fluid acrylics from Golden together with a variety of mediums. The background was heavy watercolour paper which I primed with matte medium.

This one seen above, is called An Enduring Love Affair and the picture of the soldier features my paternal grandfather. It was taken during his military service in the First World War (in which The Netherlands, where he lived were a neutral country, but surrounded by warring ones). It also features an old map of Paris, a doily, and a fabric image, together with a vintage poem, which I have used in several of the collages.

After painting, the collage s were mounted onto a felt background and I added various other items by stitching and finally the entire collage was attached to a cardstock background by zigzag stitching on my machine.

Here is another one, called Belle Poitrine. It uses an old advertisment (from the French magazine Femina published in 1908, in my own collection) combined with an image from one of my vintage postcards. Also another fragment from that old French map. I've done quite a bit of foiling on these collages as well although that is hard to spot on the scan.

All together I made 13 collages, one to sell and one to be donated to a museum and the other 11 will be swapped and I will receive 11 back from various people, just like in a swap. Haven't quite decided yet which one I will put up for sale. I'll be showing you more of them in the coming weeks!