Retrospective 2

Back in the late 1980s, I was one of the original members of the East Grinstead branch of the Embroiderers Guild and during the time I was a member we had an exhibition at Hever Castle.

We spent some time before the exhibition drawing, painting and photographing at Hever for inspiration for the work we were to exhibit.

Some of the piece I created are still in my possession and definitely on my list of "will not be disposed of"!

The first is yet again a piece of canvas work.   The bag was based on a tudor bag design and comprised of two circles that interlocked.  The canvas work was worked with fabrics and threads that I dyed myself but also included some machine stitching as well.  The strap and tassels used the same dyed threads.

I loved this bag when I made it and I still love it as much today.

 

Another bag I made for the exhibition was inspired by the tiled roofs of the Tudor Village that is behind Hever Castle.

The "tiles" were made from dyed silk that had been embellished with machine embroidery which trapped fragments of other fabrics.   The tiles were then cut with a soldering iron and then stitched to a base fabric before the bag was constructed.   The strap was made by machining over a cord base and the button in covered in the same fabric as the tiles.

Once again, I love this bag as much today as I did when I made it.

Retrospective 1

One good thing about moving is having to look through old work that hasn't seen the light of day for some years.   The down side is some of it has to go!

I've surprised myself at how ruthless I've been but made sure anything that went was photographed first so I so have something to remember.

Back in the 1980s I did City and Guilds Creative Embroidery Parts 1 an 2.  It was my first experience of any formal training in anything connected to art and textiles and it blew my mind!   This was really the beginning of the journey I'm still on and I don't think it's an exaggeration that it changed my creative soul.

Looking back over the work I brought back some happy memories and several surprises too so I thought over the next few weeks/months I would share some of this retrospective work.

This first collection  consists of canvas work which I loved and, as you will see, I did quite a few pieces.   I also tended to work in primary colours at this time, which again is apparent.    The first few ones were based on tulips.

And of course, in true C&G tradition, the design board that went with it!

 

 

The next group are other various examples based on canvas work.

 



 

Threads woven over netting



A view from a window

 

Black and White with canvas detail



Detail

   

Dyed threads worked on canvas

   

Detail

  

Stitches on canvas using various fabrics and threads



Detail

    

The final piece was inspired by a day spent dyeing thread and fabrics which hung out in the garden to dry one sunny summer's day.

 





Goodbye 2015 and hello 2016

Looking back at 2015 is rather mixed.  Creatively I have achieved a lot, culminating in the Thread and Exhibition in November which was a great success. But looking back at my targets, so many have not been achieved.


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.  For each of the main pieces, I made greeting cards which can be mounted or framed as small pieces of textile art

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.  Very little success with Folksy this year so I have really abandoned it for now.   I still continue with one of my outlets in Pagham but sales are small but as it does not cost me anything, I will continue for the time being.   I pulled out of the outlet in Chichester as despite the owner working really hard on my behalf, I did not achieve any sales. 



 3.  Attend at least one workshop with an artist who inspires me.  Sadly this has not happened this year.  I did look at various venues and artists but nothing in the right place at the tight time.




 4.  Meet with Thread and Shutter at least once a fortnight, as well as outings to exhibitions, shows etc. This has again been difficult as we are not at home for much of the time from March - October.   We did manage to visit some exhibitions together which is always enjoyable.

5.  Continue with regular blog posts, at least two each month.  Looking back I achieved this many months but some months it was only 1 blog.  This was balanced with some months with 4 blogs so I'm giving myself a tick for this one.


Looking forward to 2016 is very exciting for me as we are moving to Dorset later this month/early February.   This is of course tinged with sadness for the friends I leave behind but I see it as a chance for new beginnings and already I am thinking about new things to do.   With this in mind, I'm setting myself smaller targets for the year......

1.  Sketchbook - work in a sketchbook at least twice each week.  With this in mind I have made a list of media, techniques and tools to use with the intention of choosing one at random as the starting point for each day.   I intend to only spend an hour on each page, not always aiming for a finished piece of work.

2.  Join a local group.   There is an Embroiderer's Guild that meets nearby so I will start with that and see where it leads.

3.  Make quilts for Project Linus.  As I pack ready to move, any quilts that have not sold or used and are no longer needed will be donated to Project Linus so I intend to keep my self busy once we've moved by using up any fabric that is not required and make some more quilts.

4.  I'm also sorting out my textile art as I pack and selecting some pieces that I think may sell.  This time I am going to try Etsy and see if it is any more successful.


Whatever happens next year, I will have loads of new places to inspire me so lots to look forward to.

Final JQ for 2015

My final Journal Quilt for this year is Christmassy in design and came about through a need to make the best use of my limited time and combine the quilt with making Christmas cards!

My cards this year include a monoprinted gift tag which has been foiled and embellished  peel off stickers so I have also included a smaller version of these tags on the quilt.

The background of Christmassy fabric was first machine quilted in a simple star shape using a twin needle and metallic threads.  The tags were then stitched on with a bow to finish.   As in previous months, I stitched matching beads around the seam of the bound edge.

Simple, quick but I think effective!

 

 



October and November JQs

Just a little bit behind on my Journal Quilts but managed to catch up so I now only have December to get done.

October was inspired by the colours of Autumn, always my favourite time of year as I just love the reds, rusts and golden brown colours that appear around us.   I used my own dyed fabric and strip-pieced the background, simple but effective!   The leaf stitched on top has the words of John Keat's Ode to Autumn, a favourite poem of mine since school days.  The machine quilting echoes the shape of the leaf.

As with previous quilts, I have bound the edges with the same fabric and stitched beads on the seam.  I bought some beads at Ally Pally this year to use on this quilt and they were stitched on the top and bottom edges.

 

  

 

 

For November it had to be fireworks - not that I'm a huge fan but it seems everyone who lives around us is!

I started by foiling a piece of my own dyed blue fabric.   I used some powdered glue that I have had for years and only just started to use.  As the foil only adheres to the particles, the result is much more speckled than be achieved using something like bondaweb.    I used some different colours to represent stars and sparks from the fireworks.

I then free machine embroidered firework bursts, adding some 'firework' words to finish.

Yet again I bound the quilt and stitched beads on the seam.

 

 

    

 

Glacier River

For each Thread and Shutter exhibition I always like to create some pieces of work that are directly inspired by Brian's photographs.  Luckily he travels to some exotic places and as one of his more recent holidays was to Iceland, I used two photos on Jokulsarlon, a glacial river he visited.

 

The first piece was a felted panel for which I used wool and silk fibres, Angelina fibres, silk and cotton scrim.   I needlefelted the various materials together into a sheet of felt and hand stitches were then added, along with beads an sequins.

The panel was then stitched to a hand dyed cotton background which had been machine quilted with icicle shards.

 

 

    

 

The second creation is a quilted wall hanging  which uses the actual photos.   These were printed on to cotton fabric to form two larger panels within the quilt as well as smaller patches throughout alongside my own dyed and printed cotton fabric.  

Icicle crystals were then machine quilted and further ice shards were also quilted before finishing with foil, beads and sequins.

 

     

 

Chichester Harbour

Now our exhibition is up and running I can catch up on the things I had to let slip as I was hard at work getting work finished.

Chichester Harbour is a place we visit on a regular basis so I became very aware of the variety of activities and landscapes that can be seen, depending on where you are.

 I started by creating panels to depict sailing, the birdlife, oysters which were once harvested at Emsworth, the dunes of East Head, the quay at Bosham, yachts at the Marina, feathers from birds, and of course the water.  

 

I used a variety of techniques for each panel including a photo printed on fabric, gelli plate printing, printing with stencils and machine embroidery and quilting.

 

These panels were then collaged with plain dyed fabric to form a hanging that was machine quilted.  Hand stitching, beads and shells were added to finish

 

   

 

 

   

 

   

 

 

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