Artistic Iris Farrington will have two examples of her exquisite handiwork on show at Olympia next week during the National Quilt Championships.

Mrs Farrington who has lived in Sidwell Park, Benfleet for the past 16 years, retired from her job as an industrial photographer 15 years ago.

Always a keen seamstress she decided to do a City and Guilds course in embroidery, which she then followed up with a City and Guilds course in quilting and patchwork.

Now the woman who used to photograph engine parts creates delicate and intricate patterns with silk and cobweb-thin embroidery thread.

Her husband Peter works in advertising and marketing from their home, and embrodiery and quilting has given Iris an outside interest - something she feels is very important.

Of the two quilts that have been entered for the championship, one was made for her niece Kristina. Called Nymphaea, it measures 5 ft square and is a study of waterlillies in soft greens and blues. It took around 100 hours to design and execute.

The petals and leaves were all individually made before being stitched onto a background of hand-dyed calico, backed with wadding, muslin and more calico.

The material was then quilted through all thicknesses to give the impression of the movement of water.

The centres of the delicate flowers are crocheted. The border of the quilt is made from patchwork, hand-dyed in the sequence of Fibonacci, an Italian mathematician who evolved an equation for colour shades.

The work was based on a photograph Iris took while visiting Japan while indulging in another of her hobbies - travel.

Her other quilt is much smaller. Called Beside the Seaside, it too was based on a travel experience, invoking the sand, sea, sun and fun of Aruba in the Dutch Caribbean.

Grandmother to three, Iris has never won a competition before, although she has received a certificate of merit from the Essex Handicraft group.

Right now she is working on another project, which will be exhibited later this year as part of the 20th anniversary of the Quilter's Guild of the British Isles, of which she is a regional treasurer.

Then more than 1,000 quilts will be displayed at Lord's cricket club, and she is working on more water lillies, this time in red and white, to form part of the celebration.

Explaining the attraction of the quilting she said: "You meet like-minded people, and it's therapeutic as well."

As well as the labour-intensive quilting and travelling Iris still finds time to breed Shetland sheep dogs.

Nimble fingers - Retired industrial photographer Iris Farrington has gone from snapping pieces of machinery to creating exquisitely delicate pieces of quilted applique

Pictures: STEVE O'CONNELL

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.