August Journal Quilt

Had to do some last minute changes to the August Journal Quilt.   My original plan was to use the Art Nouveau designs from the Paris Metro stations but the photos I had prepared and taken on holiday with me proved to be not up to scratch so some last minute redesigning had to go on.

I used the Paper Cut Outs by Henri Matisse as the basis of my design and as we were away at the seaside, I used a seaweed outline as my Cut Out.  The shape was cut freehand from some commercial cotton and then the shape was applied to a hand dyed cotton fabric.   I hand stitched the shape to the background using a space dyed cotton perle and then machine quilted around the shape.

Two more Journal Quilts

Time is ticking on and I only have one week to get the August Journal Quilt finished and posted on Contemporary Quilts!

The June quilt, inspired by Charles Rennie Macintosh, has been finished for a while but only just transferred to the computer.

 



My daughter Karen recently visited Glasgow and was under orders to get me "something related to Charles Rennie Macintosh"!   I have always loved his work and would dearly love to go to Glasgow myself.   She returned with a plastic "thing" which was possibly a Christmas tree decoration as it had a hanging string attached.   I tried making a printing block of the design but with little success, possibly because I used rather hairy string!

I then tried printing with the actual token which was much more successful.   I decided to strip patch the prints to echo the chairs that CRM also designed.   The left hand print was beaded and then the strips were machine quilted in the ditch.

For the July Journal Quilt I used Art Deco as the theme and decided to use the Chrysler building in New York.   As time was running out, I painted the design on to fabric using silver and black fabric paint.

Everything went well until I started to quilt!   I began machine quilting around the triangle shapes, intending to then machine quilt the curves.   Unfortunately the silver paint has a slightly rubbery feeling so the top layer moved at a different rate to the backing.  Because of this I hand quilted the curves.   Not my finest quilting as the back shows, but I have learnt!   It may not have been as bad if I have used my walking foot but I didn't have it with me at the time.

The August quilt is nearly done so hopefully will be posted and uploaded in the next few days.

Festival of Quilts

Had a great day yesterday at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham.

As always we never quite get the balance of traders/quilts right, probably spending far too much time shopping and not enough time looking at the quilts.  Having done some serious shopping first, we did spend time looking at the quilts in the Contemporary and Art Quilt categories.   I'm sorry to those that like traditional quilts (and I do still go back to the comfort of a traditional quilt) but other people's trad quilts do not do a lot for me.   I can appreciate the craftsmanship that has gone in to the making of them but not much else.

Once again though I did question why some were included in the Contemporary Quilt category as they seemed far more traditional to me.   Looking at the winners in the Contemporary and Art Quilt categories, I think the judges thought so too and stuck to the published criteria.

I've picked out a few that caught my eye....

Christine Heath

Sandra Grusd

 



 

Kate Crossley

The winner of the Contemporary Quilt category was Tuula Makinen, a well deserved winner.  The photo does not do justice to the range of fabrics used, some of which were transparent.  It certainly put a completely contemporary twist to hand pieced hexagons.

 

 

 

 

The Art Quilt winner was Jill Exell's Flight.   It has all the elements I would love to achieve in my work and totally achieves all the maker wanted.

 

 

I also want to include Sandra Meech's Triptych that was shown in the Through Our Hands gallery. I've always admired and loved her work and one day would love to do a workshop with her.

 

 

All in all a great day and yet again I left saying "next year......".  Who knows, perhaps I will enter next year as I have so much time on my hands now.

Retirement Gift

Just wanted to share with you a gift I received from a very dear friend for my retirement.  Sue and I have worked together for over twelve years and have become very close - so close people think we are sisters!  And of course I am the much older one!!

Sue has always been on the crafty side and stitched this wonderful cross stitch hanging for me.  Just so right for me and I love the little sewing machine charm that is included too.

I know Sue and I will stay in touch and encourage each other with our craft projects in the future.

Festival of Quilts

Looking forward to visiting the Festival of Quilts at the NEC on Saturday with my daughters.  It's several years since my last visit so I have my shopping list ready!   Hope to get lots of inspiration from the quilts as well as all the goodies on sale.  It will be a long day but hopefully rewarding.  Watch out for photos and news at the weekend,

Journal Quilt - May

At long last I have finished my May Journal Quilt!

This was based on the Marc Chagall window in Chichester Cathedral which I first saw many years ago and even today, I just love to stand and look at it each time I go to the Cathedral.

I used the colours and layout of the stained glass with the pieces of hand dyed fabric raw appliqued on to a black background leaving a gap between each piece to give the appearance of the leading.  I have stitched each piece to the background and then added various embroidery stitching to each piece.   This was then machine quilted along the 'lead' lines before edging in more hand dyed fabric.

 

 

Beachcombing again!

Went for a walk again to the beach today and revisited the rusted wall at the entrance to Pagham Harbour which was the original inspiration for my Corrosion and Oxidisation work.  Despite the Council's endeavours to weld up the holes, it still has the same appeal to me.  Most of the work I have completed so far was very much based on the colours in the rusting metal.  Today it was the layers that I seemed to notice more so I must use this inspiration for future work.

On the way back I picked up more bits of rope and wood which must also be included in future work.