isew.co.uk - Shows & Events

The following are just some of the upcoming shows around the country, previewed by Julie Bonnar in Sewing World magazine. Each month we will update the page with new shows, so if you have details of other shows do let us know and we’ll post the details here.

We've added a whole host of shows this month: Wrest Park Craft & Design Festival in Bedfordshire, Weald of Kent at Penshurst Place in Tonbridge, Stitch and Creative Craft Shows at Manchester Central and Sandown Park Exhibition Centre and the Origin London Craft Fair at Old Spitalfields Market in London

PLEASE NOTE: Whilst all details included are checked prior to posting on our website, we DO advise checking with organizers before travelling any distance.

Origin 2010 is relocating from Somerset House to the newly refurbished Old Spitalﬁelds Market in the heart of creative London. The London Design Festival is an annual event established to celebrate and promote London as the creative capital of the world. The Festival provides a platform for the creative talent at work and creates a unique opportunity to visit over 200 specific events and activities reflecting the diversity of world-class design talent. This uniﬁed event now takes place over one week, presenting more choice for visitors and increased opportunities for makers. Origin 2010 is presented by Tent London for the Crafts Council and attracts more than 19,000 visitors annually, Exhibitors are a mix of national and international makers, established names and emerging talen and includes ceramics, glass, textiles, jewellery and furniture. The new venue at Spitalﬁelds provides a more spacious environment with craft installations and interventions across the on a larger scale. The Crafts Council’s goal is to make the UK the best place to make, see, collect and learn about contemporary craft.

For more information, visit Origin 2010 at www.originuk.org or to find out more about the Crafts Council visit: www.craftscouncil.org.uk.

Weald of Kent
Penshurst Place
Tonbridge
10-12 September

This will be the second visit of the year to Penshurst Place for the Weald of Kent show with over 250 crafts people from all over the UK bringing together handmade gifts and treats, ranging from paintings to clothes; ceramics and jewellery. The Show Garden will be brimming with vibrant plants and accessories created by Chilstone and How Green Nursery, who will be on hand to offer inspirational ideas and tips. Experts from TV and Radio will offer their worldly expertise at the Antiques Valuation Marquee as usual. Just bring up to two individual antiques and learn about the history and value, free of charge to all visitors. There’ll also be a seated demonstration area where visitors can watch demonstrations in a variety of mediums and test products before buying lots of supplies. Be creative in the daily Quick & Easy workshops where you can turn your hand to drawing, painting and ceramics with guidance of the experts plus some rural craft demonstrations held by expert craftsmen with woodturning, wire sculpting, straw thatching and scarecrow making! Open between 9.30 am and 5.30 pm. Tickets cost: adults £6.00, seniors £5.00 and children under 16 free if accompanied by parent (otherwise £3). Buy tickets online at www.ichf.co.uk or from the Ticket Hotline on T: 01425 277988.

For more information visit the organisers website: www.ichf.co.uk.

Hever Castle and The Quilters’ Guild are hosting their 19th Annual Patchwork & Quilting Exhibition in the castle grounds. Members of The Quilters’ Guild from across Kent, Surrey and Sussex will be showcasing their talent with a display of over 200 patchwork quilts and wall hangings. Visitors will be treated to a vibrant array of designs from the traditional to the contemporary, including British and American styles, sampler quilts and wall hangings using innovative techniques in hand and machine work and appliqué. This year Dinah Travis, Pat Salt and the Horsham Quilters have been specially invited to exhibit their work.

Throughout the weekend, members of The Quilters’ Guild will be presenting a full programme of demonstrations on patchwork and quilting techniques, from basic construction to intricate needlework. Visitors will also be able to browse a selection of trade stalls selling designs, equipment, fabrics and haberdashery.

This year, members of The Quilters’ Guild from across the British Isles have been invited to enter the Hever Challenge and take inspiration from the theme of ‘My Favourite Artist’. Awards will be presented for the most outstanding entries and visitors are encouraged to vote for their favourite quilt from the entire exhibition to be awarded the accolade of ‘visitors’ favourite’. Gardens open at 10.30am; Castle opens at 12pm. Last admission 5pm; final exit 6pm. Admission costs adults £13.00; seniors £11.00, children £7.00 and Family ticket £33.00.

For more information visit the Hever Castle website: www.hevercastle.co.uk or tel: 01732 865224.

‘Sewing in Wartime’ and ‘Under African Skies’ Exhibitions
Quilt Museum
St Anthony's Hall
Peasholme Green
York YO1 7P
10 July – 16 October

Wartime quilts can divulge lots of interesting stories when it comes to Make Do and Mend. When bombing of British cities was at its height during WWII, Canadian needlewomen made and donated some 25,000 patchwork quilts for British war relief. These were often in red, white and blue or made from special ‘V for Victory’ printed fabric and were gathered by the Canadian Red Cross and distributed in Britain by the Salvation Army, the ARP (later Civil Defence) and the WVS (now WRVS). Many of those that survived will be on display in this exhibition.

'African Odyssey III' by Janice Gunner is part of the Under African Skies exhibition.

The second exhibition at this venue ‘Under African Skies’, is the story of a quilter’s 10-year journey to source African fabrics. Magie Relph spends up to eight weeks each year ‘on the road’ in Africa, riding crowded buses and the occasional horse-drawn cart, visiting suppliers to source new artisan producers. What started as a hobby has developed into a fair trade business (www.africanfabric.co.uk) supplying British quilt-makers and textile artists with unusual fabrics. Fabrics sourced by Magie include hand-dyed batiks, resist dyed Indigo, Kola nut and Indigo and traditional mud cloth as well as wax prints and Shwe Shwe Indigo. This exhibition includes a selection of quilts made with African Fabrics and also the fabrics themselves. The Quilt Museum is open between 10 am – 4 pm Tuesday to Saturday (and Mondays as well between April-September). Admission costs: adults £6, concession £5 and children £2.

Horrockses Fashions: Off the Peg Style '40s and '50s
Fashion and Textile Museum
83 Bermondsey Street
London
SE1 3XF
9 July - 24 October

Horrockses Fashions was a manufacturer of one of the most popular ready-to-wear labels of the 1940s and 1950s and best known for their sought after full-skirted dresses which were also worn by HRH The Queen. Although they were produced in considerable quantities, the firm maintained an air of exclusivity for their brand using good quality fabrics, custom-designed floral patterns and prints plus Parisian styling. Horrockses print by Alastair Morton at The FTM

Horrockses print by Alastair Morton at The FTM

The importance of fabric design on cotton was key to Horrockses Fashions' success; they acquired designs from well-known artists such as Graham Sutherland and Eduardo Paolozzi, which were applied to the parent company's high quality cotton sheeting reserved exclusively for Horrockses Fashions.

The exhibition focuses on the range of the firm's production including glamorous evening dresses, vibrant summer frocks, sophisticated housecoats and beachwear and follows the story of the Horrockses' dress from initial fabric and fashion design, to production, promotion and consumption. Ticket cost: adults £6.50 and seniors, students and concessions £3.50, under 12s enter free.

For more information visit The Fashion and Textile Museum's website: www.ftmlondon.org or T: 020 7407 8664.

Photographing Fashion: British Style in the 1960s
Fashion Museum
Assembly Rooms
Bennett Street
Bath
BA1 2QH
Opens 27 March

This exhibition is a must for those of you who love fashion and photography. Displayed will be forty black and white photographs from the Fashion Museum’s Sunday Times Fashion Archive to celebrate British fashion from the fashion designers, the models, the photographers, and the fashion editors in the 1960s. The display includes pieces from Mary Quant and Jean Muir.

Open times are 10.30 am – 5 pm daily. The display coincides with the publication of a book of the same title, which is available in the Fashion Museum shop.

For more information visit the Fashion Museum website: www.fashionmuseum.co.uk or T: 01225 477173.

Embellished: the Art of Fabulous Fabric
Harris Museum and Art Gallery
Market Square
Preston
Lancashire
PR1 2PP
ongoing until winter 2010

The Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston will be showcasing highlights from its spectacular collection of textiles in this exhibition. To include some of the finest examples of embroidery, printing and weaving, will be used to explore how the clothes we wear turn us into walking works of art. Many of the exhibits are hidden treasures from the museum stores, which have never been seen before including an 18th century gown in Spitalfields silk, believed to have been designed by the famous eighteenth century textile designer Anna Maria Garthwaite and a wall hanging from the 1890s designed by the artist Walter Crane and printed by the silk dyer and printer Thomas Wardle. Also you’ll be able to view textile patterns and techniques from delicately embroidered florals to bold geometric prints plus Chinese slippers to Horrockses dresses plus the secrets of warps and wefts, stitches and sequins, pigments and dyes. Adding a little bling to this exhibition is a section devoted to fabrics embellished in glittering gold. Museum opening are 9 am – 5 pm Monday to Friday.

Visit their website: www.harrismuseum.org.uk or T: 01772 258248 for more information.

Art & Love Exhibition
The Queen’s Gallery
Buckingham Palace
19 March – 31 October

This exhibition is set to challenge the popular image of Queen Victoria focusing on the period of Victoria’s marriage to Prince Albert, from the time of their engagement in 1839 to the Prince’s untimely death in 1861. The exhibition will include paintings, drawings, photographs, jewellery and sculpture, Queen Victoria emerges as a romantic and open-minded young woman, a far cry from the dour widow of 40 years with which we are so familiar. Among the highlights of the exhibition will be Queen Victoria’s Costume for the Stuart Ball, 1851. This si the the most sumptuous and glamorous of the Queen’s surviving clothes, this dress was worn by Victoria at the Stuart Ball at Buckingham Palace. Such was the Queen’s love of music and dancing, on her 19th birthday she did not leave the Ballroom until ten to four. Tickets cost: adults £7.75, students and seniors £7.75, under 17 £4.50 and special family ticket £22 (2 adults and 2 children). Price includes an audio tour. Open daily 10 am – 5.30 pm (last admission 4.30 pm).

For more information and advance tickets from www.royalcollection.org.uk or tel: 020 7766 7301.

Miyoko Tokunaga kimono (Japanese Sashiko exhibition)

Japanese Sashiko Textiles Exhibition
touring between:
27 February - 10 April
Collins Gallery, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
and
31 July - 26 September
Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery

This is the first major British exhibition of Japanese Sashiko Textiles, launched at York art gallery this month and supported by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, The Arts Council (Yorkshire) and Renaissance Yorkshire. The show and subsequent national tour presents traditional and contemporary textiles and garments, designed to decorate and protect the wearer both physically and spiritually and investigates the two major aspects of Japanese Sashiko.

Sashiko patched coat (back) (copyright Ogi Folk Museum)

Sashiko patched coat (back) (copyright Ogi Folk Museum)

The exhibition also focuses on the stitched patterns and what they represent spiritually. For example small stitched symbols (talismans) were hidden on the inside of the garment to protect vulnerable parts of the body. With over 75 garments from museum and private collectors plus related objects, videos and photography for Sashiko fans this is sure to be a very striking and informative exhibition.

For more information, www.sashiko.org.uk.

These previews are written by Julie Bonnar for Sewing World magazine, a monthly magazine published in the UK for anyone interested in sewing with a sewing machine. For further details of Sewing World magazine, visit: www.sewingworldmagazine.com or tel: 01684 588500.



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	Show Previews The following are just some of the upcoming shows around the country, previewed by Julie Bonnar in Sewing World magazine. Each month we will update the page with new shows, so if you have details of other shows do let us know and we’ll post the details here. We've added a whole host of shows this month: Wrest Park Craft & Design Festival in Bedfordshire, Weald of Kent at Penshurst Place in Tonbridge, Stitch and Creative Craft Shows at Manchester Central and Sandown Park Exhibition Centre and the Origin London Craft Fair at Old Spitalfields Market in London PLEASE NOTE: Whilst all details included are checked prior to posting on our website, we DO advise checking with organizers before travelling any distance. Origin London Craft Fair Old Spitalfields Market London 23 – 29 September Origin 2010 is relocating from Somerset House to the newly refurbished Old Spitalﬁelds Market in the heart of creative London. The London Design Festival is an annual event established to celebrate and promote London as the creative capital of the world. The Festival provides a platform for the creative talent at work and creates a unique opportunity to visit over 200 specific events and activities reflecting the diversity of world-class design talent. This uniﬁed event now takes place over one week, presenting more choice for visitors and increased opportunities for makers. Origin 2010 is presented by Tent London for the Crafts Council and attracts more than 19,000 visitors annually, Exhibitors are a mix of national and international makers, established names and emerging talen and includes ceramics, glass, textiles, jewellery and furniture. The new venue at Spitalﬁelds provides a more spacious environment with craft installations and interventions across the on a larger scale. The Crafts Council’s goal is to make the UK the best place to make, see, collect and learn about contemporary craft. For more information, visit Origin 2010 at www.originuk.org or to find out more about the Crafts Council visit: www.craftscouncil.org.uk. Stitch and Creative Craft Show Manchester Central 3-5 September and Sandown Park Exhibition Centre Esher Surrey 17-19 September For experienced crafters, beginners or visitors simply looking for a new hobby – there are two venues to visit the Stitch and Creative Crafts Show this September. Manchester Central provides the first opportunity after the summer to restock on all your favourite craft products and source those hard to find supplies all under one roof. Both shows will be brimming with the latest in sewing, embroidery, knitting, patchwork, quilting, dressmaking, tapestry, scrapbooking, ribbon craft, papercrafts, stamping, beading, painting, decoupage, crochet and more stitch and creative crafts. The theatres will offer the chance to watch and learn new techniques from the experts. Book in advance one of the new sets of workshops from Stephanie Weightman of Create and Craft. At Sandown, Sue Munday will be holding workshops and stitching creatively with free machine embroidery and autopatterns plus a series of workshops featuring popular felting techniques. Tickets cost for both shows: adults £7.50, senior and concessions £6.50. Open 10 am – 5pm (closes Sunday at 4pm). For more information visit the organiser’s website: www.sccshows.co.uk. Weald of Kent Penshurst Place Tonbridge 10-12 September This will be the second visit of the year to Penshurst Place for the Weald of Kent show with over 250 crafts people from all over the UK bringing together handmade gifts and treats, ranging from paintings to clothes; ceramics and jewellery. The Show Garden will be brimming with vibrant plants and accessories created by Chilstone and How Green Nursery, who will be on hand to offer inspirational ideas and tips. Experts from TV and Radio will offer their worldly expertise at the Antiques Valuation Marquee as usual. Just bring up to two individual antiques and learn about the history and value, free of charge to all visitors. There’ll also be a seated demonstration area where visitors can watch demonstrations in a variety of mediums and test products before buying lots of supplies. Be creative in the daily Quick & Easy workshops where you can turn your hand to drawing, painting and ceramics with guidance of the experts plus some rural craft demonstrations held by expert craftsmen with woodturning, wire sculpting, straw thatching and scarecrow making! Open between 9.30 am and 5.30 pm. Tickets cost: adults £6.00, seniors £5.00 and children under 16 free if accompanied by parent (otherwise £3). Buy tickets online at www.ichf.co.uk or from the Ticket Hotline on T: 01425 277988. For more information visit the organisers website: www.ichf.co.uk. ‘My Favourite Artist’ Patchwork & Quilting Exhibition 3 -5 September Hever Castle and The Quilters’ Guild are hosting their 19th Annual Patchwork & Quilting Exhibition in the castle grounds. Members of The Quilters’ Guild from across Kent, Surrey and Sussex will be showcasing their talent with a display of over 200 patchwork quilts and wall hangings. Visitors will be treated to a vibrant array of designs from the traditional to the contemporary, including British and American styles, sampler quilts and wall hangings using innovative techniques in hand and machine work and appliqué. This year Dinah Travis, Pat Salt and the Horsham Quilters have been specially invited to exhibit their work. Throughout the weekend, members of The Quilters’ Guild will be presenting a full programme of demonstrations on patchwork and quilting techniques, from basic construction to intricate needlework. Visitors will also be able to browse a selection of trade stalls selling designs, equipment, fabrics and haberdashery. This year, members of The Quilters’ Guild from across the British Isles have been invited to enter the Hever Challenge and take inspiration from the theme of ‘My Favourite Artist’. Awards will be presented for the most outstanding entries and visitors are encouraged to vote for their favourite quilt from the entire exhibition to be awarded the accolade of ‘visitors’ favourite’. Gardens open at 10.30am; Castle opens at 12pm. Last admission 5pm; final exit 6pm. Admission costs adults £13.00; seniors £11.00, children £7.00 and Family ticket £33.00. For more information visit the Hever Castle website: www.hevercastle.co.uk or tel: 01732 865224. ‘Sewing in Wartime’ and ‘Under African Skies’ Exhibitions Quilt Museum St Anthony's Hall Peasholme Green York YO1 7P 10 July – 16 October Wartime quilts can divulge lots of interesting stories when it comes to Make Do and Mend. When bombing of British cities was at its height during WWII, Canadian needlewomen made and donated some 25,000 patchwork quilts for British war relief. These were often in red, white and blue or made from special ‘V for Victory’ printed fabric and were gathered by the Canadian Red Cross and distributed in Britain by the Salvation Army, the ARP (later Civil Defence) and the WVS (now WRVS). Many of those that survived will be on display in this exhibition. The second exhibition at this venue ‘Under African Skies’, is the story of a quilter’s 10-year journey to source African fabrics. Magie Relph spends up to eight weeks each year ‘on the road’ in Africa, riding crowded buses and the occasional horse-drawn cart, visiting suppliers to source new artisan producers. What started as a hobby has developed into a fair trade business (www.africanfabric.co.uk) supplying British quilt-makers and textile artists with unusual fabrics. Fabrics sourced by Magie include hand-dyed batiks, resist dyed Indigo, Kola nut and Indigo and traditional mud cloth as well as wax prints and Shwe Shwe Indigo. This exhibition includes a selection of quilts made with African Fabrics and also the fabrics themselves. The Quilt Museum is open between 10 am – 4 pm Tuesday to Saturday (and Mondays as well between April-September). Admission costs: adults £6, concession £5 and children £2. For more information visit: www.quiltmuseum.org.uk or T: 01904 613242. Horrockses Fashions: Off the Peg Style '40s and '50s Fashion and Textile Museum 83 Bermondsey Street London SE1 3XF 9 July - 24 October Horrockses Fashions was a manufacturer of one of the most popular ready-to-wear labels of the 1940s and 1950s and best known for their sought after full-skirted dresses which were also worn by HRH The Queen. Although they were produced in considerable quantities, the firm maintained an air of exclusivity for their brand using good quality fabrics, custom-designed floral patterns and prints plus Parisian styling. The importance of fabric design on cotton was key to Horrockses Fashions' success; they acquired designs from well-known artists such as Graham Sutherland and Eduardo Paolozzi, which were applied to the parent company's high quality cotton sheeting reserved exclusively for Horrockses Fashions. The exhibition focuses on the range of the firm's production including glamorous evening dresses, vibrant summer frocks, sophisticated housecoats and beachwear and follows the story of the Horrockses' dress from initial fabric and fashion design, to production, promotion and consumption. Ticket cost: adults £6.50 and seniors, students and concessions £3.50, under 12s enter free. For more information visit The Fashion and Textile Museum's website: www.ftmlondon.org or T: 020 7407 8664. Photographing Fashion: British Style in the 1960s Fashion Museum Assembly Rooms Bennett Street Bath BA1 2QH Opens 27 March This exhibition is a must for those of you who love fashion and photography. Displayed will be forty black and white photographs from the Fashion Museum’s Sunday Times Fashion Archive to celebrate British fashion from the fashion designers, the models, the photographers, and the fashion editors in the 1960s. The display includes pieces from Mary Quant and Jean Muir. Open times are 10.30 am – 5 pm daily. The display coincides with the publication of a book of the same title, which is available in the Fashion Museum shop. For more information visit the Fashion Museum website: www.fashionmuseum.co.uk or T: 01225 477173. Embellished: the Art of Fabulous Fabric Harris Museum and Art Gallery Market Square Preston Lancashire PR1 2PP ongoing until winter 2010 The Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston will be showcasing highlights from its spectacular collection of textiles in this exhibition. To include some of the finest examples of embroidery, printing and weaving, will be used to explore how the clothes we wear turn us into walking works of art. Many of the exhibits are hidden treasures from the museum stores, which have never been seen before including an 18th century gown in Spitalfields silk, believed to have been designed by the famous eighteenth century textile designer Anna Maria Garthwaite and a wall hanging from the 1890s designed by the artist Walter Crane and printed by the silk dyer and printer Thomas Wardle. Also you’ll be able to view textile patterns and techniques from delicately embroidered florals to bold geometric prints plus Chinese slippers to Horrockses dresses plus the secrets of warps and wefts, stitches and sequins, pigments and dyes. Adding a little bling to this exhibition is a section devoted to fabrics embellished in glittering gold. Museum opening are 9 am – 5 pm Monday to Friday. Visit their website: www.harrismuseum.org.uk or T: 01772 258248 for more information. Art & Love Exhibition The Queen’s Gallery Buckingham Palace 19 March – 31 October This exhibition is set to challenge the popular image of Queen Victoria focusing on the period of Victoria’s marriage to Prince Albert, from the time of their engagement in 1839 to the Prince’s untimely death in 1861. The exhibition will include paintings, drawings, photographs, jewellery and sculpture, Queen Victoria emerges as a romantic and open-minded young woman, a far cry from the dour widow of 40 years with which we are so familiar. Among the highlights of the exhibition will be Queen Victoria’s Costume for the Stuart Ball, 1851. This si the the most sumptuous and glamorous of the Queen’s surviving clothes, this dress was worn by Victoria at the Stuart Ball at Buckingham Palace. Such was the Queen’s love of music and dancing, on her 19th birthday she did not leave the Ballroom until ten to four. Tickets cost: adults £7.75, students and seniors £7.75, under 17 £4.50 and special family ticket £22 (2 adults and 2 children). Price includes an audio tour. Open daily 10 am – 5.30 pm (last admission 4.30 pm). For more information and advance tickets from www.royalcollection.org.uk or tel: 020 7766 7301. Japanese Sashiko Textiles Exhibition touring between: 27 February - 10 April Collins Gallery, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and 31 July - 26 September Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery This is the first major British exhibition of Japanese Sashiko Textiles, launched at York art gallery this month and supported by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, The Arts Council (Yorkshire) and Renaissance Yorkshire. The show and subsequent national tour presents traditional and contemporary textiles and garments, designed to decorate and protect the wearer both physically and spiritually and investigates the two major aspects of Japanese Sashiko. The exhibition also focuses on the stitched patterns and what they represent spiritually. For example small stitched symbols (talismans) were hidden on the inside of the garment to protect vulnerable parts of the body. With over 75 garments from museum and private collectors plus related objects, videos and photography for Sashiko fans this is sure to be a very striking and informative exhibition. For more information, www.sashiko.org.uk. These previews are written by Julie Bonnar for Sewing World magazine, a monthly magazine published in the UK for anyone interested in sewing with a sewing machine. For further details of Sewing World magazine, visit: www.sewingworldmagazine.com or tel: 01684 588500.

Show Previews