Freedom returns

On Saturday my two Freedom journal quilts returned after their long tour abroad. At the time of sending them off on their travels back in October 2011 I couldn't use them for a blip picture as I had to keep them to myself till the first showing, so I'm making up for that today, now that they are back home. The two freedom quilts were made for the Textile Exhibition on the theme of Freedom organized by the German quilter Gudrun Heinz and you can read more about the tour on her website. I've written about the two quilts myself on a previous blog post here.

I don't recommend not looking at your own work for 3 years or more but in a way it's a salutary experience if it does happen, as you can see it with fresh eyes after such a long time. And although I might do things a bit differently now (which is just as well, as 3 years more experience have passed!) I'm still very happy with them, particularly the one shown above.

Here is where these two small pieces have been: Birmingham UK, Moscow Russia, Saint Petersburg Russia, Murmansk Russia, Praque Czech Republic, Einbeck Germany, Solothurn Switzerland, Gruenstadt Germany, Almaty Kazakhstan (imagine that!), Lipezk Russia, Karlsruhe Germany, Bremen Germany, Salzwedel Germany and finally Bochum Germany.

Included in this list are countries where freedom is not yet a foregone conclusion and just maybe this exhibition of textile art on that theme has made some visitors think.

These little quilts have done a lot for me. They ended up on the Bernina calendar, lead to an interview with me in a German quilting magazine and were featured in the book Connected Cloth.

Another travelling exhibition is off on tour, this time on the theme of Boredom and  it has already been to exciting places, such as Murmansk. If you follow this link and look at the third picture from the top you will see one of my contributions to that tour at bottom right.