Walk on a windy beach

Today saw us walking to the beach by Pagham Harbour.  It was very windy but it did stay dry all the time we were out.

Yet again I found myself drawn to bits of marine rope that had been washed up on the high tide line.  I have quite a collection of these and know that one day I will incorporate them in a textile piece but not sure just what that will be.

 

 

In the photo are some piece of driftwood I also picked up together with some pebbles which have holes all the way through them.  I have a collection of both these - the driftwood has been collected for the same reason as the rope but the stones will join a large bowl of similar stones which are also known as "hag stones".



 

 

I also saw this lobster pot which has given me an idea for a Thread and Shutter challenge piece entitled "Trapped". I need to get started on this soon so I am going to use the lobster pot as the starting point.



A day by the sea

We spent a very pleasant morning at the Hayling Island Lifeboat Station open day.  Lots for the kids to do and the best selection of cakes I've every seen to go with morning coffee!  Both the Lifeboats were launched and a display of fast bypasses resulting in several wet spectators followed.

 

 

 

 

We then walked along the beach at Hayling Island where I managed to snap a few pictures for future inspiration.

 



A Quilt Gift to BEJS

As a parting gift to the school I have worked at for over 12 years, I created a quilted hanging depicting the five productions the whole school had performed in the past.

The productions had been Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, Tall Story, Jungle Book and Peter Pan.   There are so many memories attached to each event that I felt it a fitting gift to such a wonderful bunch of staff and children.

Before I left, an appropriate place was found to hang it so I must revisit in the future to see it in situ.

A new phase begins ......

Wednesday saw the last day of work and I am now officially an OAP!

I now hope to have more time for creating little works of art and who knows, I might even have more time to find an outlet for my work.

The first day of retirement saw me visiting East Surrey Embroiderers' Guild exhibition at Denbie's Vineyard just outside Dorking and I have to say it was a wonderful exhibition in a stunning venue.  Inspiration came again and again and I may even find myself going along to one of their meetings as the ladies there were so friendly and welcoming.   Once again I am drawn back to my embroidery roots.  The lunch there with two creative friends was also a great way to start retirement.

We are now on our summer break so I have every intention of posting photos of whatever inspires me.  I've also got sewing machine etc with me so I hope to have some time to create as well.

Journal Quilts

I am once again taking part in Contemporary Quilts annual Journal Quilt challenge.  This year we each chose our own theme and I decided on "Inspired by Art" with the intention of using some of my favourite artists.  

I have been busy each month, finishing them on time but it's taken me until today to get the photos taken!  This is mainly because I like to take the photos in natural light and by the time I get home in the week the light is gone and at the weekends I have forgotten!

The January quilt was inspired by Gustav Klimt's The Kiss and was created using sweet wrappers, foils, silk, metallic fabric with a layer of organza machine quilted over the top and then zapped with a heat gun.  The side panels were then printed with a block and machine quilted.

For February, I was inspired by Claude Monet's Waterlilly paintings which have always been my favourites. 

The background was monoprinted on to a piece of my snow dyed fabric.  I then added circles of various fabrics plus coils of yarn.  I put a piece of netting over this and machine quilted the whole quilt in circles.  The 3D lillies were added and details on the leaves was added using markal crayon.

Inspiration for March's quilt came from Paul Klee's Red and White Domes.  I began by fusing squares and rectangles of my hand dyed  and printed fabric which were then secured to a base fabric using running and zig-zag stitches.   This was then machine quilted.

 
For April, I was inspired by Wassily Kandinsky's Circles.  I pieced the grid of squares using hand dyed fabric and then bonded circles of the same fabric on each square.  I finished by free machine quilting in a circular design.

 

 

More to come.......

A day well spent

I spent a whole day this week painting and creating along side my friend Jo.   We meet each week to compare, discuss and encourage each other in our textile explorations and from time to time we put aside a whole day so that we can try out any new ideas or techniques.

I had been re-reading Kim Thittichai's "Hot Textiles" recently so wanted to try out some of the ideas from the book.

I was particularly keen to try layering some tyvek with organza so painted up a couple of sheets before layering them with some organza and stitching together on the sewing machine.  I then zapped them with a heat gun giving the following results.



Detail

I applied the heat from both sides but found what I thought was organza wasn't!  The orange fabric did not react to either the heat gun or a soldering iron except to burn.   Lesson learnt:  Don't assume something is what it looks like and try it out before including it!

As the overall effect was what I wanted, I left it as it was.   I haven't taken it any further yet as I'm unsure what to do as it is quite hard to stitch into.


I also tried layering painted bondweb on to organza, resulting in two pieces.

 

 

This first piece had foil applied to once the painted bondaweb was put on the organza.  I then added scrim and net scraps and attached them to the bondaweb.   I then applied a heat gun which of course shrunk and distorted the bondaweb/organza but not the scrim.  This gave a different effect which can be seen in the photos below. 

 

The next piece again had added foil and scrim and intended ripping some metallic fabric to add.  When I tried ripping the fabric all I got was the metallic threads which I added anyway.  I love the way painting bondaweb wrinkles into ridges which is transferred when you iron it to the organza.

 

 

 

 

 



I've since chosen background fabrics for each of these and will be adding stitches and possibly beads.

 Just to finish the day off I tried out a print making block I had bought some time ago and never used. It's one of those you heat up and then press something in to give an image to print.   I used some knitting needles to make some lines and as it was very quick and easy and gave a good result, I shall definitely be trying it again.



 

 

Now come the bit where all there beginning works of art have to be nurtured and worked on to produce finished works of art.   What this space for the results.

Reflection Quilt for Context Challenge

Last year's challenge for Context Group - the Contemporary Quilt/Textile Group I belong to - was "Reflections".   Our show and tell day was last week at our AGM.

Until about a month ago I was still very undecided just what to do.  Lots of ideas flying around inside my head but nothing strong enough to commit to fabric and thread.   I finally, in desperation  decided to use a photo of my friend and fellow Thread and Shutter member which shows the reflection of Welsh hills in a lake.

 

 

I took a small section and created a panel using merino tops which were felted to a background of dyed wadding.  I originally started to needlefelt the fibres but then my machine packed up (again!!!) so I had to wet felt the rest.  

 

Felted fibres



After trimming, I machined lines to add some detail, and then placed some trees by first machine embroidering some tree trunks and then using snippets of fabric with loose French knots.  I added some herringbone stitches, straight stitches and couched ruched knitted tape to give further detail.

 

 

The finished panel was then sashed with some fabric dyed especially for the hanging and machine quilted.