These Are a Few of My Favourite Things - Tony Collins

A unique insight into the creative world of Jill McNeilly capturing some of the best examples of her art. Jill once said ' A day without sewing, painting, or even just simply sitting and thinking in my work room at the top of the house, is quite unbearable.' Jill's output over fifty years has been considerable. She has created vibrant free-style embroidery on dozens of glorious quilts, wall hangings and cushions each demonstrating how you can add colour and personality to your home, and at the same time producing useful household comforts. Her innovative cloth journals demonstrate how you can tie together fragments of family history using old photographs and words. The illustrations demonstrate the unlimited possibilities for fabric cards using jewellery fragments, old sepia photographs and French magazines. She was inspired by the cloth doll project for 'Women in Distress', organized by Brenda Hutchings, and has made and sent a dozen to America. Since then, she has continued to make her own style of doll each with individual features. Her artistic flair is underlined by her creative use of accessories such as tiaras, bows and sparkling jewellery. Her bags and fabric brooches show how easy it is to add colour and personality to your accessories. Her examples of re-working demonstrate some of the great range of materials one can use, including old lace, pearls, diamante and mother-of-pearl buttons etc. If all this were not enough, Jill has produced some fine paintings, many of natural subjects especially flowers and insects, but it is her free-style abstract metallic iridescent canvases which provoke the most attention. People often ask 'What is the picture about?' Jill replies with slight embarrassment 'I don't really know, I suppose it's not about anything other than what it says to you!' Illustrated with fifty-five full-colour photographs, the book brings alive the colourful world of this artist's imagination.