PATRICIA MACINDOE

patricia macindoe With English and Mediterranean ancestry that includes tailors, embroiderers and dyers, Patricia has always known the pleasurable frenzy of a fabric and stitch environment. Many years of living overseas has helped to shape a keen interest in world textiles and her appetite for 'cloth and the human experience' continues to grow.

Patricia, who graduated as a teacher in 1970, also graduated BA (Hons) Fine Art in June 2009. She is employed by Motherwell College to teach part-time in a Scottish prison and involvement with this ‘inside world’ is very important to her.

Patricia was a prize-winner in the 2002 Carrefour Europeen du Patchwork (Alsace) and her 'abhainn dhearg' (red river) was hung in the 2003 ConNections exhibition at the first Birmingham 'Festival of Quilts'. She is a member of Makepeace Quilters (Dumbarton) and the Quilters' Guild of the British Isles.

An accomplished speaker, Patricia enjoys talking about all things pertaining to cloth and is available to teach workshops on Natural Dyes (seasonal) and Boutis. She exercises an interest in bringing people who would not normally look at art or talk about art to do just that, in a group setting..

Interview with Patricia

With teaching part-time in prison, the STUDIO and LLQS do you still have time to sew?

Yes. It’s important to me and I stitch nearly every day – it’s ‘the air I breathe’ (line stolen from a favourite song lyric.) I often use textile and stitch in my sculpture too, so it is evident most of the time and I sometimes wonder if everything wrong with the world couldn’t be resolved by stitching so I’m working on the theorem.

What’s the technique that really grabs you at the moment?

It’s got to be Boutis. I love the way it ennobles the simplest of fabrics and the interplay of fabric with light. I carry small pieces in a pocket or handbag and stitch anywhere, anytime. It’s a real conversation starter – even when you don’t share the same spoken language as the person who is asking the questions! I've done some really innovative techniques – but they all live in the realm of my imagination. One day?

Patchwork or quilting? Or both?

I really do enjoy both but sometimes wonder if I’m actually a closet embroiderer because it’s stitch that really does for me. I just can’t get my points to meet as they should and you know something, it really doesn’t upset me. I must be a patchwork teacher’s worst nightmare.

Whose work do you find inspiring?

Apart from Boutis, old patchwork quilts that have wiggly bits here and there (you know what I mean) I’m inspired by Welsh, Durham, Provencal and the quilts from Gees Bend. I was privileged to visit the quilters 5 years ago and it was awesome.

What has been your favourite textile exhibition (other than LLQS)?

There are two, and they appear to sit at opposite ends of the colour and stitch spectrum: an exhibition of Gee’s Bend quilts, seen in Denver, Colorado in 2008 and the museum collection of boutis at La Maison du Boutis, Calvisson near Nimes, first seen in 2008 and again in 2009.

Contact Patricia at patricia@lochlomondquiltshow.com .