GROUP QUILT - FOOTPRINTS
Hilary, June, Jackie, Grace

Hilary: The start of this quilt was my small feet. I used computer-printed skeletal drawings, and I scanned my feet to create tracks. I also used a phrase found in a gardening catalogue: Walk softly, Mother Nature is at work. The small prints are mice. These were then either printed directly from the computer on to fabric, or transferred from photocopies using solvents. The starting point was several of these pieces sewn together and cut across with strips inserted. 

June: Round one, and perhaps not very brave at this stage. Hilary had started with genetic inheritance and so I continued by printing chromosome symbols and adding photo transfer words - Mother, Father, Child. I cut diagonally and added more fabric keeping to the original pale colour scheme. 

Jackie: I decided to follow my initial instinct, which was to show the way in which man has not 'walked softly' through this natural world of ours. I chose watery fabrics and added words expressing the damage done to the world.  

Grace: I felt that the piece was getting a bit too political, and so I went back to the idea of feet. I saw a picture of an X ray in the Daily Telegraph, and used it by enlarging it, and then I added the big shoe, made in silk scrim and red fabric. I then added lettering, both appliqued and stencilled. 

Hilary: I finished it by adding a bitmore fabric, and then using my boot and my foot, printed directly on to the piece. I quilted it by machine, in some areas using dissolvable thread for the trapunto work.

INDIVIDUAL QUILT - SHOES

Hilary: My piece reflects the variety of shoes, and uses many techniques from cyano print to computer printing and applique. The shockingly small shoes for bound feet are full size, whereas the other shoes are smaller than actual size. The skeletal feet are about a size six. The information on finding the right shoe at the Hampshire Museum services exhibition was so appropriate that I used these words in the quilt. There are also poems and nursery rhymes about feet and walking. I feel I have only scratched the surface of our relationship with our feet and shoes.