Fibre East and arty comfort blankets!

Fibre East! WOW, what a great place for felters!

This newish exhibition, held in Thurleigh in Bedfordshire is only in it's second year and bills itself as 'A celebration of British wool and fibres' Truly it was!

I have never been to Woolfest in Cumbria or Wonderwool in Wales but this was close to home for me and was a great chance to see and find wool fibre produced by British farmers in the most exciting and colourful products. It was also so good to support small makers who were so committed and enthusiastic about their breeds and products. 

I talked to lots of felt artists, spinners, weavers  and dyers. It is amazing to see what you can do with wool.

The display of balls of fibre above was HUGE! the pile was almost as tall as me! The colour blends are beautiful. there were lots of baskets of fibres and pick and mix selections of gorgeous Wensleydale and other scrummy curly fibres which I find so difficult to source. It was good to choose by feeling and looking at the colours which you cant do if you are buying online.

One of the things I absolutely loved were the recycled wool blankets which had been space dyed. I dye these sometimes but it was so nice to pick and mix colours that someone else had chosen because we all make colours in our own  way and sometimes it is nice to step into someone else's colour scheme.

Having said that I picked a lovely teal/lime green that is one of my favourites. I have bought a new sketch book (addicted! can you tell?) and it is short but very wide. It obviously needs a cover of its own!

The dyed blanket is thick, soft and colourful. A lovely arty comfort blanket! I also bought....
to decorate it all with! Isn't it all delicious? There are curly wool fibres, handspun wool rovings, space dyed cotton threads and some rough handspun and dyed yarn that has a great matte tweedy feel to it.

And here is what I did with it all.....My newest sketch book cover!

 I am so pleased with the textures on this front cover. I am going to do something completely different on the back cover but with the same colours and supplies. Of course I am going back to Fibre East next year!

Fibre East and Quilts 4 London

Last Saturday I went with Catherine to Fibre East in Bedfordshire. We were representing Quilts 4 London and we went to present some beautiful Pennants, made by members of the Great British public to some of the Mauritian Olympics team.

It was a grey and soggy day outside but the smiles from the team as they chose their pennants would have brightened the dullest of days. What lovely people! I wish that the makers of the pennants could see how thrilled they were with their gifts.

I managed to get no useful photos of Catherine Hill because I don't know what I'm doing with my new phone, but she and Irene Heathcote are joint project leaders of this wonderful project which inspired the talent of artists of every kind to make over 17,000 pennants to be presented as a personal gift to members of the Olympic and Paralympic teams. There is also a dedicated team of committee members, co ordinators and willing? partners who really have worked tirelessly to make this project succeed.

You can read more about the adventure here:  http://www.quilts4london.org.uk/

Many of the makers, aged 2-90+, had not made any kind of textile art before and we were stunned and  thrilled by the array of amazing work which came to us. We really believe from the many stories we have heard, that most of these makers will be textile enthusiasts for life and have discovered skills they never would have tried if it were not for this project.

For us, we have had quite an adventure! We have met some wonderful people and made some really firm friendships along the way. It has been an amazing journey but we will all need a celebration and a good long rest when it is all over.!