Material Things - by Gill S

An Exhibition held at Standen House and Garden, National Trust

Standen House is for many reasons well worth a visit. The house is set in some stunning countryside in West Sussex and houses some fine example of arts and crafts architecture and decorative design, it is a treasure trove of things from long ago. The house that is warm and welcoming - very much giving visitors the feel of a loving family home. A conservatory provides a place to take a breath and relax for a while where you are invited to sit in a comfortable wicker chair and take in the array of cacti, geraniums and other hot house plants before continuing the tour of the house.

At the present time Standen House is host to the Material Things XVII exhibition celebrating the work of Wendy Dolan and Louise Bell. Anyone with an interest in quilting, appliqué, embroidery and sewing will love the opportunity to look at the creative work on display and the chance to be inspired or purchase some of Wendy and Louise's work.

At the time of our visit Wendy was working on another piece of artwork, but generously stopped to talk to us and share her expertise. Wendy talked through how she begins by gathering a variety of fabrics with different textures to build a base to work on. Wendy will usually have created a design and have an idea of colours she wants to use as well as the design before hand. Wendy dyes her own fabrics to get the results she wants. She is very skilled at free motion machine stitching and recommended using a basic sewing machine as long as it has the ability to drop the teeth or feed dogs. Once this is done, she uses either a free motion quilting foot or a darning foot, the stitch length is set to zero she can control the length and direction of the stitching to create her pictures. Interestingly Wendy uses an embroidery hoop to manoeuvre her work as it gives her more control while stitching. I must say she did make free motion stitching look very easy, a complete contrast to my own attempts!

We were also able to look at the beautiful quilting by Louise Bell on display. This included full sized and child sized quilts, cushion covers, wall hangings and much more. The subjects depicted were varied but each piece of work followed a different theme.

The whole visit was very inspiring and I would highly recommend a visit before the exhibition finishes on Sunday 2nd June.