A group of internet artists from all over the place who have decided to give each other a challenge every few weeks, on a theme chosen by each in turn. We have different ideas and styles, but share a love of textiles, and want to have some fun.


Friday 29 July 2011

Greetings from Limerick

Hello everyone, my name is Paula Rafferty and it's my friend Claire's fault that I'm here, thanks Claire.
I'm a full time art/craft teacher working in the Irish Prison system and a mother of two. I also make quilts in my spare time.
My background is fashion, I trained as a fashion designer in Limerick School of Art and Design back in the last eighties. I specialised in stretch fabrics and ran my own design business for six years before returning to collage to train as a teacher.
I started quilting in 2002 after years of collecting fabrics and Kaffe Fassett books, due to the fact I joined a local quilt group.
Totally obsessed I've become with a purpose built studio at the side of the house which is bursting with my fabric stash, and is my haven when I need to escape!
I make both traditional and contemporary quilts, my traditional quilts I call my therapy quilts ( usually squares that I piece in random patterns )as I usually make several of these while or just after working on a contemporary piece ( lots of painting, dyeing, printing, etc and thinking).
I've no ideas yet for the challenge as I'm frantic trying to finish my collection for the Fashion Sans Frontiers fashion show for the Festival of Quilts in a couple of weeks.
Terrified and excited I am as I haven't made garments in a number of years but looking forward to seeing all the quilts and the shopping, there'll be no stopping me as I'm taking the car so no weight restrictions!
Delighted to be part of the group and cann't wait to get started,
Paula Rafferty

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Paula, thanks for the intro. Nice to meet you. That's quite a challenging job you have, and how wonderful to have a purpose built studio! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Paula Rafferty said...

Delighted to be part of the group Happy Apple.Tis a wonderful job, beats working in a secondary school any day, I get to set my own curriculum, so lots of quilting, dyeing , batik and printing along with mosaic.Having a studio is great except I'm an obsessive horder so I can barely get in teh door!!
Looking forward to the challenge, got some ideas brewing