Productive Day Dyeing

I spend a morning this week dyeing - no particular reason, just fancied doing it!

I normally use the plastic bag method but decided to give low immersion/tray dyeing a go this time.  

The first batch started with lemon yellow and I then added red and turquoise.  I think I overdid the "pressing to make sure everything was covered" as it did end up looking more brown that I wanted.  Once washed it didn't look so bad.

I then dyed batches of turquoise with a splash of cobalt blue; magenta with a splash of purple; and finally orange with a splash of red.  Very happy with the results of these.

To finish off I used up all the left over dye with the result of a blue, red, purple mix.

At the same time I dyed some threads - soft cotton, perle and a skein of stranded.

I have a project in mind for these so keep watching!

Review of 2014 and looking ahead to 2015

I have a mixture of feelings about how 2014 was creatively for me so I thought I'd start by reviewing the targets I made for the year.

1.   Add regularly to my Folksy Shop - I suppose the definition of "regularly" is what is appropriate here!   I have added several times through the year but instead of a slow "drip feed" which was my intention, I tended to add in bulk.   I know this does not have the best effect of attracting customers but it was really a result of my lifestyle.

 2.   Set up an Etsy Shop - this didn't happen!   I spent a lot of time considering it but in the end I thought it was yet another thing that would take me away from the creating!

 3.   Submit my work to a local gallery for possible selling - this has been probably the most successful aspect of 2014.   I had an exhibition of my Rust collection at Green Tree Gallery, resulting in a sale of the largest piece which gave my confidence a big boost.  I also started selling smaller items in two shops near Chichester - Rose Green Art and Craft Gallery and Birdcage Barn Craft Emporium.  Both are going steadily, although a little slowly.  

 4.   Work in my sketchbooks at least 2 or 3 times each week - again not really achieved but I do use my sketchbook when I am working on a new piece of work.  Again it takes time away from the actual creating!

 5.    Post regularly on my blog - well I've posted 26 times through the year so an average of 2 a month is an achievement.  Unfortunately there were a few months when I didn't post anything.

 As I said before, my feelings about the year are mixed.   I am really pleased about selling my work in galleries and I hope this will continue and expand in 2015.

However, I spent much of the year making items to sell, particularly for a craft fair that was not successful, and the net result is I have not created the textile art that is my first love.    This is all the more significant when I think about the exhibition Thread and Shutter have booked for November 2015 and the fact that I have very little completed so far.

Some serious thinking has been done so my targets for 2015 are:

1.  Make smaller items alongside larger items - when making a quilt, prepare smaller similar pieces that can become smaller mounted textile art, postcards or cards.

2.  Use the smaller items to sale on Folksy and outlets currently used.  Also review all the pieces of textile art that I have and add them to the items for sale.

3.  Attend at least one workshop with an artist who inspires me.

4.  Meet with Thread and Shutter at least once a fortnight, as well as outings to exhibitions, shows etc.

5.  Continue with regular blog posts, at least two each month.

I'm excited about the coming year and have already begun to put some of these targets in place.  Organising an exhibition is always a good way of focussing the mind.  My problem is not letting myself getting side-tracked by other crafty things I see and want to try out!

Let's get going!

Two small quilts

I'm making the most of the free time I have before the Christmas rush arrives!

I've recently signed up for DMTV and have been inspired by some of the videos I have watched.   If you have never seen or heard of these excellent videos, have a look at Design Matters website which is run by the very talented Linda and Laura Kemshall.

I have long been an admirer of their work and inspired by their use of quilting which is often much more dense that I would ever do!   I also love the printed fabrics that Laura sells under Fingerprint Fabrics.  I have purchased some in the past at FOQ and have recently bought a couple of pieces of map fabrics for using in my "Seen From Above" series.

One of the videos I was inspired by was about using your own printing blocks to create first papers and then fabrics to use in collage.

So using the map fabric - an old map of London - and some simple stamp made with foam blocks, I created two collages in my sketchbook which I then translated into small quilts using my own dyed fabrics which I had printed.   The use of a rectangle for the stamps was to reflect the buildings which would be seen on a map of a different scale.  

On the first one I quilted around the rectangles and then bit the bullet and did some much more dense free quilting on the map area.  I left a couple of areas unquilted for variety.   As with my earlier quilt in this series, I quilted the title of the quilt on the right side which I intend to do with all my creations in this series.



Seen From Above - Suburbs I

     

For the second one, I again quilted around the rectangles first and then machine quilted vertical lines over the map areas.



Seen From Above - Suburbs II

     

Each quilt measures about 12" x 16".

My take on a "Modern Quilt"

I have become intrigued by the "Modern Quilts" that have become popular over the past few years, in particular the debate that has taken place between those for and those against.   I stand on the fence as I have never liked to think of myself in any particular box; I'd rather do what I want to do whether it's a complicated quilt (not many of those these days!), a simple quilt, a piece of embroidery, a piece of felt, or a combination of any of these - and more besides!

I do love the simplicity of these newer quilts and with that in mind, as well as my "Seen From Above" theme, I designed a quilt which uses the plan of our house.   It was definitely useful having an in-house draughtsman who could come up with an accurate drawing, although I did made a few changes to simplify the design.

The background for this quilted hanging was created slowly over the summer and was based on the ideas of Valerie S Goodwin from her excellent "Art Quilt Maps".   She first creates an opaque layer by sewing irregular shapes of fabric to a background using the stitch and flip method and then hand stitching any raw edges which gives the background some texture.   She then goes on to add paint and a translucent layer but I didn't feel brave enough on this piece to go any further so I just left it with the random shapes background.

To this I bonded the shapes from the plan of our house which were cut from some red fabric I had dyed myself.   The quilt was then machine quilted in vertical straight lines using a variegate cream for cream areas and a variegated red over the red shapes.   I also added red quilt lines horizontally over the red shapes.

I used the faux piping method to bind the quilt, using the same red fabric for the contrasting piping.
I finished by machining the title on the side using the red thread.

    

Having had this quilt in my head for so long I am pleased that it has turned out just how I imagined it!

Wonderful workshop with Maggie Grey

Last Saturday Maggie Grey came to visit Context to give her talk entitled Stitches, Straps and Layers.   She also did a mini workshop for us in the afternoon.

The talk was very inspirational and I seemed to be making notes all the way through as I got ideas from what she had shown us.   As well as seeing all the work on the screen, Maggie had brought loads of samples and sketchbooks with her so we were able to see "in the flesh" much of the work included in the talk and in many of her books.   She was very generous with her knowledge and told us how she had put together her creations and where we could get the supplies for ourselves.

In the afternoon Maggie (and her 'willing' grand-daughter!) had put together for us some strips of silk rods which had been machined together on felt and were the basis for us to put together with insertion stitches.  We first buttonholed around each of the four strips, added any additional stitching we wanted and then, after stitching the pieces to soluble fabric, we joined the pieces together with stitching of our choice.  Mine were joined with a combination of faggoting stitch and herringbone stitch.

Maggie's husband Clive also came with her and he showed us how to make "twirlies" with wire which we used to decorate our strips.

Mine is all finished now but I want to mount it on a gold foiled background and as gold is the only colour I haven't got in my foil box, it will have to wait.   This is what it looks like for now and I will post a photo when it is finished and mounted.

 

 

As I said, I got lots of ideas so watch out in the coming months to see what I create!

Quilt for Indiana

A friend of mine recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and as I made a quilt for her first baby I wanted to do the same for this one.  Luckily we knew it was going to be a girl so I could get it ready for when she arrived.

Now that I have given it to her, I can share it with everyone else.

 

 

I was really stuck about how to quilt it as I didn't want to cross the rectangular blocks.  Following some great advice from a group of friends, I used a combination of their ideas.   I appliqued the kites so that their tails went across the blocks and then the smaller blocks were tied on each corner where there was no quilting.

 

 

     



My friend loved the quilt but baby was too busy sleeping to make any comment!

Inspirational day out

On Tuesday I went with Jo and Jacquie, my Thread and Shutter friends, for a lovely day out at Hall Place in Bexley.   We all have birthdays around the same time so make a point each year of having a day out to celebrate.

Hall Place has a lovely bright Galley which this week had an exhibition of work by Textile Studio.  There was a wide variety of various textile work including embroidery, patchwork, felt, mixed media and knitting, so something for everyone.   I found many of the pieces very inspiring and it triggered off several ideas that I hope to incorporate in my Seen From Above series.  While we were there one of their members, Brenda Parsons, was stewarding and just chatting with her was an inspiration in itself.

Following a visit to the café for a celebratory lunch, we walked around the gardens and greenhouses which were again most inspiring.    We all agreed that we would return another day and another season.