This stunning quilt (measuring 4ft 3” x 7ft 9”) depicting the Ring Cycle was created by renowned quilter Linda Straw.
We are raffling this fabulous work of art. Raffle tickets are £20.
The more raffle tickets you buy, the more chances you will have to win this amazing prize, while supporting opera at Longborough: all proceeds from the raffle go towards our work.
The draw will take place on 22 May 2024 (Wagner's birthday).
Good luck!
Linda Straw is a quilter and artist in a class of her own, though her techniques have been passed on, via her workshops and talks, to many fellow quilters. Eschewing the traditional patchwork form in abstract designs, Linda’s brilliantly-coloured quilts are narratives informed by literature, music and her love of history, medieval in particular.
Her work is in collections around the world; there are multiple references to the Linda Straw technique in quilting books and magazine articles.
Linda explains her technique as ‘working the machine as if it’s a pen’, manoeuvring huge swathes of fabric around the pin-point needle of her sewing-machine and sewing mainly from the back of the work. Her materials are silk and velvet, usually brightly-coloured. Small images, based on medieval illuminations, get in the corners and odd spaces of many of her works.
THE WAGNER QUILT was made as a commission for a fiftieth birthday present and depicts, from the Top, from Left to Right –
Valhalla; Ride of the Valkyries; The Rainbow Bridge; Three Norns; Brünnhilde in Ring of Fire; Gibichungs; Siegfried forging the Sword; Rhinemaidens; Waltraute; Siegmund and Sieglinde; Fricka in ram chariot; Fighting giants.
In between the scenes are various devils, spirits and enchantments inspired by medieval illuminated books.
Along the bottom you can spot that Gerry Wakelin gave the quilt as a 50th birthday present, on 11 May 1986, to his partner, Ivor Samuels. Linda Straw reminds us that was also the year that Halley’s Comet appeared!
Entrants must be aged 16 or over.
