Two Journal Quilts

I have pushed on with my Journal Quilts hoping that I will have them ready for the Thread and Shutter exhibition in November.

Continuing the "Inspired by Art" theme, the October quilt was inspired by the Henri Rousseau painting "Tiger in a Tropical Storm".   I used bonded applique and free machine embroidery to create the foliage for which I used a variety of dyed fabrics including velvet.  This was then machine quilted in diagonal lines to give the impression of the rain.

 

 

The November quilt was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night".  I monoprinted the 'swirls' in blue ink on to yellow background. The lines were then picked out with machine couched dyed threads and machine quilted lines in gold and yellow.   Some star sequins were added to finish.

 

 

 



 

 

 

Workshop with Kim Thittichai

Spent a wonderful day yesterday with Kim Thittichai  at a workshop organised by  Context.  We were creating "Hot New Jewelled Surfaces for Stitch" by painting bondaweb and Vilene Spunbond, combing the two, adding foils, glitter, sequins (basically anything that sparkled!) and then cutting it with a soldering iron and reassembling in to another surface.  On top of this we also zapped with a heat gun for create even more surfaces!

As I said "wonderful".  Any of you who have met Kim will know how creative she is but she is also very entertaining and it was delightful to spend a day with her.

Now for the end results:

 

 

This is coloured Spunbond with painted Bondaweb applied to it and then gilding flakes, square sequins and foil added to it.

 

 

 

 

This is some Hot Spots applied to some Spunbond and then foil applied.

 

This is painted bondaweb applied to some organza and then gilding flakes, threads and tiny sequins added.

The second part was to take two of the pieces, back them with Bondaweb and then cut shapes from them using a soldering iron.  I took the first two pieces and cut some strips with wiggly outlines and then applied them to some heavier Spunbond that we had painted earlier in the day.  I had also applied some painted Bondaweb to a piece of black cotton so added some of the cut Spunbond to this too.

 

I'll definitely be adding some stitching to this last piece! 

 

 

Another piece of organza was prepared in the same way as before but with some skelton leaves this time:

 

 

 

These pieces were them "cut" with a heat gun and reassembled together with some plain organza.

 

 

 

It's difficult to see the crunchiness of these pieces from the photos, but once again I will be stitching in to at least one of these.

 

 

Not only did I come away with pieces I can work on but also loads of inspiration and ideas for future pieces.  

 

Check out Kim's website for more details of her workshops and the lovely supplies she sells.  http://www.kimthittichai.com/index.html





September Journal Quilt

Finally got the chance to sort out my Art Nouveau inspired Journal Quilt!

It was inspired by the various art nouveau designs used on the signs and railings of the Paris Metro that I've always loved, particularly when I saw them in real life.   Rather than play around with the images, I printed them on to fabric and used them as they were.

Words challenge 3

The third of the Word challenge is now complete!    This one is "I Wish ....." and started from my wish for a slimmer body (a wish that seems to have been a life long wish!).

It incorporates sizes, including size zero, matchstick mannequins complete with chocolate wrapper dresses, a tape measure, a variety of womanly silhouettes and some of the words from The Beautiful Souths' "Perfect 10".