Dyeing for New Work

Happy few hours spent dyeing some fabric and threads for my next two projects.

You can tell from the colours that it is a watery theme!  One will be inspired by Chichester Harbour and the other will be inspired by photos taken in Iceland by my Thread and Shutter friend Brian Baker.

It's the first time I've set out to dye very pale colours and I'm now worried that they will be too pale.  At least I will be able to dye them again!

Can't wait to get started......

Collage for a change!

Just for a change I have abandoned  fabric and threads and have completed a collage, still under the theme of "Seen From Above".

A few months ago I bought a Gelli Plate so have been experimenting and watching demos on You tube!   For anyone who, like I used to, thinks that you can do mono prints on a sheet of glass so don't need to spend, let's face it, quite a lot of money on a Gelli Plate .... well you're wrong! They are superb so if you need convincing try to get on a course or see a demo in person to be convinced.

Having produced a large stack of printed papers I had to do a collage so used the isle of Portsea as my subject.   We go to Portsmouth quite a bit so it seemed appropriate.

I started by painting an A3 piece of cartridge paper with orange acrylic as the background and then used various printed paper for different areas of Portsea, leaving small spaces in between all the pieces so the orange showed through.  I used the same orange acrylic to paint the edges of a canvas frame and then collaged blue printed papers as the sea surrounding the island.

To use up the left over pieces, I made some cards!

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.

 



Altered Books

Yesterday I spent a wonderful day creating Altered Books with Laura Kemshall at her Wooden House Workshop.

First of all the venue is superb, set in the very picturesque Shropshire countryside and we had the bonus of a lovely sunny day. It was a pleasure to be able to work in the Wooden House as there was everything we needed to hand with plenty of space to work in.  And the home-cooked cookies and muffins and the lunch provided were just a welcomed and tasty bonus!

Laura gave each of us a book to alter and we have each brought one or two of our own to work on.  She went through each stage, giving us time to work on our books before moving on to the next stage.  Working on two or three books at once meant that we could have one drying and still have another to alter.   We also have loads of examples of Laura's and Linda's altered books to look at and inspire.

Here are some examples of the books I was working on.  They are still "works in progress" so I will post more photos soon with any updates.

 

   

    

    

 

 

          

     

 

 

I can thoroughly recommend Laura's workshops - I for one will certainly be returning.

Seen From Above - One Inch to a Mile

I just love "Inchies" and sooner or later I make some to fit with my current theme.  And Seen From Above is no exception.

I started needlefelting various fibres, fabrics and yarns to create a fabric which I then cut up into inch squares.   These were first edged with blanket stitch and then embellished with hand stitches and beads and for some I added scraps of old maps.   The Inchies were then assembled and mounted on old OS maps which in turn were mounted on board and framed.

As some of the maps I used were old enough to have a scale of one inch to a mile, I didn't have to think too hard about the title.

 

 

The left overs were then mounted on maps and used to map greetings cards.

Seen From Above - 58 to 121

This time my piece of textile art in the Seen From Above series is a linear map that follows the route from my house to our caravan on the coast.   It's a journey I take many times and have come to know it very well.

The techniques I have used include hand stitching, painting, printing and applique.  The background was printed to resemble contour lines found on OS maps and then I illustrated various landmarks or features along the route.

 

 

The 'map' was stiffened with Vilene so that it fold up in four sections just like a real map.