Wednesday 8 October 2014

It's a Small World after all

'It's a small world after all, ...'  Those of you with small children will know this Disney song, and apologies for the fact that it will now be going round in your head incessantly for the next week/month, but these words came home to me this summer in a big way.

I have been visiting Chris Jurd's Patchwork Fundamentals blog for a while now.  Chris is a quilt teacher based in the Blue Mountains near Sydney and shows her own work and the fabulous work of her pupils.

She mentioned that she was doing a trip, taking in the UK, and long-story-short, she came to see me and my pots!

So, in honour of her visit, I made her this large quilt bowl depicting one of her own patterns on its inner surface.



Whilst she was in my studio looking at my work, I casually asked her if she liked this one and whether there was room in her suitcase for it to fly back to Australia.  You should have seen her face!

Top: mapping out the design onto the wet clay.  Bottom: all the usual trimmings
I had to make sure I got the lines and points as perfect as I could on this one!
We had a lovely time together and I was even brave enough to show Chris my first (and only) quilt ... and she even found some positive things to say about it, as all good teachers do!  

We parted,  and then a few weeks after Chris had landed back home, this arrived in the post for me - in the same pattern as the bowl!

Just beautiful!  You can't tell the size here but it's about 2ft diameter.
I'm not afraid to show close-ups of Chris's lines and points as they're absolutely perfect!

Her quilting is better than mine, but as she says ... her pottery isn't!  Lol!

I even love the back of this piece, and especially love the quilt-label she made!



'Though the mountains divide
And the oceans are wide
It's a small world after all'


Blogging, to me, makes the world a smaller and friendlier place.

Thank you so much Chris!  I will treasure it.

x Cathy


17 comments:

  1. How lovely, and what a gorgeous gift. One of the things I love most about blogging is how easy it is to connect with like minded people all over the world, even better when you actually get to meet them in person too.

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  2. What a fantastic connection! Eleanor xx

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  3. So glad you like it cathy! It was great to meet you and see your beautiful work too.
    Any plans to visit your sister?

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  4. What wonderful wonderful gifts to each other!!!! How amazing to have a friendship like this, both of you are so talented and so great that you shared. xx

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  5. How good is that??!! What a lovely connecting gift on both sides of the world. I love it Cathy. You have so many blogging friends now through your beautiful bowls etc. - different talents with a shared love of patchwork. Lots of love xx

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  6. Wow! Brilliant story! I think that the connections made through blogs are amazing, it's been a real revelation to me since I started blogging in January. What a beautiful gift to treasure! X

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  7. What a beautiful and artful exchange; both pieces of work are stunning and the friendship within makes them even more precious. xo

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  8. Such a great pattern, which works beautifully both as a ceramic and as a textile!

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  9. What a lovely story and such beautiful gifts.

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  10. How lovely, such beautiful gifts and memories :-)

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  11. Such a lovely gift, and the original bowl is incredibly beautiful also.

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  12. Chris is a great teacher with a very distinctive style. You can walk into any show down under and say "that is one of Chris'". What a lovely thing for you to do, and what a fantastic thank you from Chris!

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  13. How lovely the bowl is and what a lovely idea Cathy! I bet you were as surprised as Chris was to receive your bowl when that lovely patchwork came in the post!
    Gill xx

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  14. Beautiful gifts given and received - Blogging makes good friends doesn't it. xx

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