Looking back at 2015 is rather mixed. Creatively I have achieved a lot, culminating in the Thread and Exhibition in November which was a great success. But looking back at my targets, so many have not been achieved.
1. Make smaller items alongside larger items - when making a quilt, prepare smaller similar pieces that can become smaller mounted textile art, postcards or cards. For each of the main pieces, I made greeting cards which can be mounted or framed as small pieces of textile art
2. Use the smaller items to sale on Folksy and outlets currently used. Also review all the pieces of textile art that I have and add them to the items for sale. Very little success with Folksy this year so I have really abandoned it for now. I still continue with one of my outlets in Pagham but sales are small but as it does not cost me anything, I will continue for the time being. I pulled out of the outlet in Chichester as despite the owner working really hard on my behalf, I did not achieve any sales.
3. Attend at least one workshop with an artist who inspires me. Sadly this has not happened this year. I did look at various venues and artists but nothing in the right place at the tight time.
4. Meet with Thread and Shutter at least once a fortnight, as well as outings to exhibitions, shows etc. This has again been difficult as we are not at home for much of the time from March - October. We did manage to visit some exhibitions together which is always enjoyable.
5. Continue with regular blog posts, at least two each month. Looking back I achieved this many months but some months it was only 1 blog. This was balanced with some months with 4 blogs so I'm giving myself a tick for this one.
Looking forward to 2016 is very exciting for me as we are moving to Dorset later this month/early February. This is of course tinged with sadness for the friends I leave behind but I see it as a chance for new beginnings and already I am thinking about new things to do. With this in mind, I'm setting myself smaller targets for the year......
1. Sketchbook - work in a sketchbook at least twice each week. With this in mind I have made a list of media, techniques and tools to use with the intention of choosing one at random as the starting point for each day. I intend to only spend an hour on each page, not always aiming for a finished piece of work.
2. Join a local group. There is an Embroiderer's Guild that meets nearby so I will start with that and see where it leads.
3. Make quilts for Project Linus. As I pack ready to move, any quilts that have not sold or used and are no longer needed will be donated to Project Linus so I intend to keep my self busy once we've moved by using up any fabric that is not required and make some more quilts.
4. I'm also sorting out my textile art as I pack and selecting some pieces that I think may sell. This time I am going to try Etsy and see if it is any more successful.
Whatever happens next year, I will have loads of new places to inspire me so lots to look forward to.
Sunday, 3 January 2016
Saturday, 12 December 2015
Final JQ for 2015
My final Journal Quilt for this year is Christmassy in design and came about through a need to make the best use of my limited time and combine the quilt with making Christmas cards!
My cards this year include a monoprinted gift tag which has been foiled and embellished peel off stickers so I have also included a smaller version of these tags on the quilt.
The background of Christmassy fabric was first machine quilted in a simple star shape using a twin needle and metallic threads. The tags were then stitched on with a bow to finish. As in previous months, I stitched matching beads around the seam of the bound edge.
Simple, quick but I think effective!
My cards this year include a monoprinted gift tag which has been foiled and embellished peel off stickers so I have also included a smaller version of these tags on the quilt.
The background of Christmassy fabric was first machine quilted in a simple star shape using a twin needle and metallic threads. The tags were then stitched on with a bow to finish. As in previous months, I stitched matching beads around the seam of the bound edge.
Simple, quick but I think effective!
Friday, 27 November 2015
October and November JQs
Just a little bit behind on my Journal Quilts but managed to catch up so I now only have December to get done.
October was inspired by the colours of Autumn, always my favourite time of year as I just love the reds, rusts and golden brown colours that appear around us. I used my own dyed fabric and strip-pieced the background, simple but effective! The leaf stitched on top has the words of John Keat's Ode to Autumn, a favourite poem of mine since school days. The machine quilting echoes the shape of the leaf.
As with previous quilts, I have bound the edges with the same fabric and stitched beads on the seam. I bought some beads at Ally Pally this year to use on this quilt and they were stitched on the top and bottom edges.
For November it had to be fireworks - not that I'm a huge fan but it seems everyone who lives around us is!
I started by foiling a piece of my own dyed blue fabric. I used some powdered glue that I have had for years and only just started to use. As the foil only adheres to the particles, the result is much more speckled than be achieved using something like bondaweb. I used some different colours to represent stars and sparks from the fireworks.
I then free machine embroidered firework bursts, adding some 'firework' words to finish.
Yet again I bound the quilt and stitched beads on the seam.
October was inspired by the colours of Autumn, always my favourite time of year as I just love the reds, rusts and golden brown colours that appear around us. I used my own dyed fabric and strip-pieced the background, simple but effective! The leaf stitched on top has the words of John Keat's Ode to Autumn, a favourite poem of mine since school days. The machine quilting echoes the shape of the leaf.
As with previous quilts, I have bound the edges with the same fabric and stitched beads on the seam. I bought some beads at Ally Pally this year to use on this quilt and they were stitched on the top and bottom edges.
For November it had to be fireworks - not that I'm a huge fan but it seems everyone who lives around us is!
I started by foiling a piece of my own dyed blue fabric. I used some powdered glue that I have had for years and only just started to use. As the foil only adheres to the particles, the result is much more speckled than be achieved using something like bondaweb. I used some different colours to represent stars and sparks from the fireworks.
I then free machine embroidered firework bursts, adding some 'firework' words to finish.
Yet again I bound the quilt and stitched beads on the seam.
Thursday, 26 November 2015
Glacier River
For each Thread and Shutter exhibition I always like to create some pieces of work that are directly inspired by Brian's photographs. Luckily he travels to some exotic places and as one of his more recent holidays was to Iceland, I used two photos on Jokulsarlon, a glacial river he visited.
The first piece was a
felted panel for which I used
wool and silk fibres, Angelina fibres, silk and cotton scrim. I needlefelted
the various materials together into a sheet of felt and hand stitches were then added, along with
beads an sequins.
The
panel was then stitched to a hand dyed cotton background which had been
machine quilted with icicle shards.
The second creation is a
quilted wall hanging which uses the actual photos. These were printed on to cotton fabric to form two larger panels within the
quilt as well as smaller patches throughout alongside my own dyed and printed
cotton fabric.
Icicle
crystals were then machine quilted and further ice shards were also quilted
before finishing with foil, beads and sequins.
Chichester Harbour
Now our exhibition is up and running I can catch up on the things I had to let slip as I was hard at work getting work finished.
Chichester Harbour is a place we visit on a regular basis so I became very aware of the variety of activities and landscapes that can be seen, depending on where you are.
I
started by creating panels to depict sailing, the birdlife, oysters which were
once harvested at Emsworth, the dunes of East Head, the quay at Bosham, yachts
at the Marina, feathers from birds, and of course the water.
Chichester Harbour is a place we visit on a regular basis so I became very aware of the variety of activities and landscapes that can be seen, depending on where you are.
I used a variety of techniques for each panel including a photo printed on fabric, gelli plate printing, printing with stencils and machine embroidery and quilting.
These panels were then collaged with plain dyed fabric to form a hanging that was machine quilted. Hand stitching, beads and shells were added to finish
.
Tuesday, 3 November 2015
Thread and Shutter Exhibition
Once again Thread and Shutter are holding an exhibition at our local theatre, The Hawth. We would love to see as many people as possible at our Meet the Artists days so hopefully you can make it.
Thread and Shutter
We return to The Hawth for our
third exhibition of new and exciting textiles and photos.
There will be hand and machine
embroidery, quilts, felt, mixed media and collage together with inspirational photos.
22nd November – 11th December 2015
at The Hawth, Hawth Avenue,
Crawley,
West Sussex, RH10 6YZ
Monday - Saturday 10:00 - 20:00
Meet the artists:
Wednesday
25th November 10:00 - 13:00
Saturday
28th November 10:00 - 16:00
Wednesday 9th December 10:00 – 13:00
Admission Free. Free
car parking. Disabled access.
Wednesday, 14 October 2015
Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace
Once again I made my way to Alexandra Palace for the Knitting and Stitching Show which really is one of the best shows and a must for anyone interested in any textile art. This year I was once again joined by my daughter Karen and for the first time Granddaughter Eloise joined us.
I spent the morning looking at the Galleries with my Thread and Shutter friend Jacquie and what a treat we had. There is always a great variety of textiles from the 'normal' to the 'bizarre' and everything in between.
My favourite had to be Kate Jenkins and her Kates Plaice, The Stitchmongers, a creation of fishy food in knitting, crochet and stitch. If you missed the fishmongers counter it was probably because there were crowds in front of it! I managed to get a few photos just to give you an idea.
Another of my favourites was Sue Dove whose had hand stitched creations made me really envious. She also had her sketchbooks to look at and to say a loved them is a bit of an understatement!
Her work had a freedom I strive to achieve myself but rarely succeed. I spent some time talking to her and her words of wisdom just about convinced me that I should accept that I have my style and maybe I will not be able to change it. I was left feeling that I will spend more time working on sketchbooks for a while and see where it takes me.
Unfortunately photos were not allowed but you can find examples of her work on Pinterest.
There was of course many other exhibits that took my eye and of course many suppliers that took my money, but these two had the greatest impact on me.
I spent the morning looking at the Galleries with my Thread and Shutter friend Jacquie and what a treat we had. There is always a great variety of textiles from the 'normal' to the 'bizarre' and everything in between.
My favourite had to be Kate Jenkins and her Kates Plaice, The Stitchmongers, a creation of fishy food in knitting, crochet and stitch. If you missed the fishmongers counter it was probably because there were crowds in front of it! I managed to get a few photos just to give you an idea.
Another of my favourites was Sue Dove whose had hand stitched creations made me really envious. She also had her sketchbooks to look at and to say a loved them is a bit of an understatement!
Her work had a freedom I strive to achieve myself but rarely succeed. I spent some time talking to her and her words of wisdom just about convinced me that I should accept that I have my style and maybe I will not be able to change it. I was left feeling that I will spend more time working on sketchbooks for a while and see where it takes me.
Unfortunately photos were not allowed but you can find examples of her work on Pinterest.
There was of course many other exhibits that took my eye and of course many suppliers that took my money, but these two had the greatest impact on me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)