Hello Again!

I'm rather embarrassed about the length of time since my last post.  Started off with the excuse that we moved to Dorset but that was now over three months ago so I'll just move on.......

We have settled well in our new house and as it was brand new, we were able to move in without any further work.   We have had the garden to do so that has taken some time recently but as it is quite small, I can't use that as an excuse.   I got my workroom sorted quickly too and the best thing is I have my own room so no more having to clear away when the grandchildren come to stay.

It's not massive but I managed to get all my things in and with less space, I have to keep it tidy. So far, so good!

My only regret is that my large Perspex table that I used with my Bernina is too big for the desk so at the moment I have had to resort to the small extension table that came with the machine.  I have seen that Cotton Patch do a similar one (a lot cheaper than the Bernina one!) but I am having trouble deciding which size to get.

I have been busy with a few projects......

... the first one was a quilt for a friend's new baby boy.   We are caravan neighbours so I went for a seaside theme.   Baby Paul has now arrived and Mum and Dad loved the quilt.

 

 

I have also decided to have another go at selling online, this time giving Etsy a go.  I will start with some of the items I already have ready and will also include some of my framed textile art.  I've also planned to make some mounted arrangements of inchies, something I have done in the past as part of my themes on rust and maps.   For these new ones I am going to have colour themes but choose colours that can relate to occasions and anniversaries.  So far I've done purple (just because I like it!), red (Ruby Anniversary) and white/silver (Weddings and Silver Anniversary); will go on to gold next.

 

For each set I started by creating a felt base on my Embellisher, incorporating various fabrics and fibres including organza, scrim, netting and silk.  I then added beads, buttons, sequins, ribbon, lace or hand stitches before finishing the edge with buttonhole stitch.

 

 

 

I have also done some work in my sketchbook, but not as much as I wanted to.    The first two pages are based on some of the many photos I have taken of beach huts we've seen since we moved.  I've included photos, some gelli plate printed deli paper, some stitched applique and some hand stitching.   I found the colours particularly inspired these pages.

 

 

 

The second page uses car park tickets as the background which I printed with the gelli plate, adding some cut lettering to finish.

 



 



 

Hopefully there won't be a long wait until my next post.

 

 



Another two Journal Quilts

May and June's Journal Quilts all completed and posted on Contemporary Quilts!

For May I was inspired by the bluebells that were abundant in the woods in Sussex this year.   I've always loved this time of year because of the bluebells so it seemed right to use them.

I started with a background of my own dyed fabric, one part green and the other a blue/purple mix.  To these I added small pieces of toning fabrics and machine quilted them in a random zig-zag pattern.  On top of this I machine sections of a photo of bluebell woods.

I then hand stitched both sections, using seed stitches for the green part and French knots for the blue section.   I also free machined 'Hyacinthoides non-scripta', the Latin name for Bluebells and hand stitched it to the quilt.

As with the other Journal Quilts I have done this year, I stitched beads around the binding.

 

 

 

 

 

In June I seemed to spend a lot of time in garden centres looking at various plants so it seemed only right to yet again have a flower-inspired quilt for June.

 

I started with a print of a vintage seed catalogue which I've had in my paper stash for some time - so long that I can't even remember where I got it from.  As it had delphiniums on it, I used a piece of my dyed fabric which I partly over printed with a blue floral design.  I then machine quilted a delphinium-like design all over the quilt before applying some lace, the seed catalogue and a "delphinium" printed sign which was hand stitched to the quilt.  A selection of blue buttons finished the body of the quilt and once bound, I yet again stitched various shades of blue beads.

 

 



Two more Journal Quilts

In the nick of time, my March and April Journal quilts are finished!

In March, in the UK we have Mother's Day and as my own Mother also had her birthday in March, I wanted to include her in this Journal Quilt.  

I chose blue for the colouring as this was one of her favourite colours and the photo I used is from her much younger days but it is a lovely photo of her which is the main reason I used it.

I started by monoprinting the background (using my new toy - a Gelli Plate) and then printing with the same wooden block I used on the Gelli print.   As I have planned to use text in all my quilts this year, I printed 'mother' in various languages and forms using foam letters and a variety of rubber stamps.    I  printed some paper at the same time and used these in stacks together with a printout of the 'mother' words which were stitched down with a button.   After binding, I stitched beads around the edge, similarly to the other quilts I have done this year.

As a late addition, I also included a photo of my daughter Clare as she was born on Mother's Day in 1977.

    

In April this year the daffodils all seemed to come out at once so I decided to use that as my subject for the April JQ.

The background is a piece of my own dyed fabric on which I painted the stems and leaves of the daffodils using fabric paints before machine quilting them.  The daffodils were made my layering painted Bondaweb on to yellow Lutradur and then free machining them in place.  Some yellow bugle beads were then stitched on.

A photo of daffodils was machined close to the lower edge and then, continuing the use of text, I wrote the Worsworth poem "Daffodils" around the edge.   Yet again, after binding, I stitched yellow beads around the edge.

 



Journal Quilts

I have yet again signed up for Contemporary Quilts Journal Quilt Challenge and for this year the only stipulation is that they have to be 12" x 6" and you have to decide at the beginning of the year whether you will work in portrait of landscape.   I decided to work in portrait and this year I am going to create mixed-media quilts.

I thought long and hard about a theme but as I was completely stumped on this, I will take something from the month to inspire my design.

For January, I went for the weather and although at the time we had not had any snow, I did have some photos I had taken a few years ago which I wanted to use.   I started with a grey background which I discharged snowflake designs with a thermofax screen. To this I added snowflakes printed on to fabric and paper using another thermofax screen and snowflakes cut from lacy paper, Angelina fibres and film together with one of my photos of snow and icicles in black and white.  I also wanted to add some text so I wrote 'let it snow' on some tissue paper and this became part of the design.  I edged the two long edges with some lace and after binding I stitched white beads in to the inner edge.

   

I used Valentines Day as the inspiration for February and created a design based on love and hearts.  The base fabric was started by printing a red design with a Thermofax screen but as it was rather too bright I placed some lacy paper over the top to tone it down.  The heart in the centre was made by bonding various red fabrics and threads with bondaweb and then bonding red organza over the top. This was then machine stitched to a piece of card which was in turn mounted to a piece of dyed fabric.  I again included some text which this time were the lyrics to "A Million Love Songs" which I printed on to hand made paper.   The tags at the bottom are painted price tags which I over printed and then wrote the words.  Finished with ric rac, buttons and beads which were again stitched around the edge after the binding was added.

 

 

 

    

Textile Art for craft fair

I have created some unframed textile art and felt art for selling at the craft fair I am doing this weekend.

The felt art is similar to work I have done in the past.  I first created a felt base using my embellisher and then added hand stitches in toning colours.   Buttons were added to finish.

        

         

I also tried out some new ideas for the textile art, with a mixture of patchwork, mixed media and fabric collage, all finished with hand stitching and some with buttons.

 

 

 

Both the felt art and the textile art are stitched to cream board and are sized to fit an 8" x 10" frame.  If any remain unsold after the craft fair, I will be putting them in my Folksy shop.

Final Rust Inspired Work

My obsession with rust is now coming to an end after nearly four years!

Corrosion - Inchies

 

 

 

This is 12 Inchies mounted in a frame.   The Inches were made by needlefelting various threads, fibres and fabrics to a background of felt.  After cutting, the edge of  each Inchie was finished with buttonhole stitch and beads, sequins and embroidery stitches were added to some, the others we left plain.

 



Corrosion - Something Hidden Underneath

 

 

This was started during the Play Day Jo and I had in February.  I painted both sides of two layers of Tyvek and machined them together with a layer of organza sandwiched in between.   I then applied a heat gun to melt some areas to expose the different layers.

 

I then machined the "fabric" to a background of dyed fabric.

 



Corrosion - Fragile State

This was another piece begun during the February Play Day.  This time a background of organza was decorated with painted bondaweb, foil, sequins and scrim.  I also included some thin, fragile foil threads.  It was then finished with hand embroidered stitches.

While I was at the Festival of Quilts I bought some of Fingerprint Fabric's panels.  One was of rusted ironwork so I bought two.

Corrosion - Fragmented Ironwork

For the first piece I cut the square into five pieces and reassembled them together with my own dyed fabric.    I then machine quilted in straight lines about half an inch apart.  My take on modern quilting!

For the second one I used the circular lines of the design to add lines of embroidery stitches, beads and buttons.  Again I used my own dyed fabric for the background.

Flotsam and Jetsam

For my birthday last November (goodness is it that long ago!), my Thread and Shutter friend Jo gave me a piece of felt she'd made together with beads, fabric scraps, threads, wire and pieces of bark.

I've pondered for far too long about what to do with it and during this time I have watched Jo work on a much larger piece of felt she'd made, stitching and adorning with all sorts of ephemera and odds and ends and as time went on I became more confused about what I wanted to do with my small piece!

In the end I made myself forget about Jo's work and just do what my instincts told me.   I cut it into strips and reassembled it and then felted the strips to a larger piece of felt.  I then felted fabrics and threads to it, stitched (only using herringbone) and added beads, wire objects, bits of shell and of course the pieces of bark.

I'm very pleased with the end result which I have called "Flotsam and Jetsam" because it reminded me of all sorts of things that we see washed up on the beaches during our many walks.

 

 

Some photos showing the detail:



 

Journal Quilts - June, July and August

Rather late getting these completed but they are now uploaded on the CQGB site.

The first one, for June, is part of a series I've been doing based on Arts and Crafts Movement and in particular the use of tulips. I've done a much larger version that is similar. Most of the fabric I dyed myself. The quilts for June - September must include some text so I simply free machined "Tulips" along the bottom.

The July quilt was inspired by the roadside flowers that have been in abundance this year. I kept wanting to get out of the car and photograph them but there was never a safe place to do so! This was a development of the postcard swap I did earlier in the month and I am much happier with the way this quilt turned out.

I printed the background with the names of various wildflowers and then added some dyed scrim which I loosely needlefelted to the background. Machine stitching was added, some it cable stitched with perle cotton on the bobbin. Hand embroidered stitched were added together with snips of silk, beads and buttons.

Finally the August quilt was inspired by a photograph taken of Hope and Eloise, my grand daughters, playing in the sea during their holiday with us.

I seem to take several photos of them taken from the backview looking out to sea and feel there might be more creations to come based on the same idea.

The sea was strips of organza and net bonded to a blue background and the pebbled beach was printed with bubble wrap. Both were machine quilted before the image was applied, stitching from the reverse and cutting back the fabric to the stitch line. The required text "On the seashore" is free quilted in quilt lines of the sea.