Biogriffy

I have just realised that I didn't show you this very special book that I received a week or so ago from my very special friend Dilly the gween wagon. You can see what Dilly had to say about it here.
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As you might expect from Dilly her book came wrapped in very pretty pink tissue. I was very excited to read Dilly's life story!

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Dilly's story started in the adoption centre. I love that she has drawn all her friends.

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This is a bit later in the book and tells of Dilly's adventures with her new daddy.

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Lovely drawings Dilly!

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I think Dilly's mummy helped her make this lovely book and I am going to keep it very safe as it's a first edition! Thank you Dilly, you made me smile with your lovely book. :o)

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Along with Dilly's book came this lovely card from Dilly's Mummy who makes and sells cards.

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If you check Dilly's blog today you will see that she has a special visitor staying with her and her brother Bob. Dilly always makes me smile especially on days like today when I have had to go to the doctor unexpectedly and feel low. Some new pills should hopefully sort me out after a bit of a fright this morning. Would you believe? I got my wonderful DH to come home from work as I was a bit frit and he didn't complain. I am so lucky to have this special man looking after me. I'm still waiting for the results of an ultrasound that I had on Monday but I do know that I don't have gall stones or kidney stones so that's good news.

Knitting and Stitching Show

Before I start telling you about my day at the K & S Show you might like to click here and have a look at Helen Cowans blog of her day at the show. She has taken some great photographs which will give you a much better feel of the Show than my few. Ruth Issett's stand, which you can see on Helen's blog, was an explosion of colour and gave me lots of ideas to try.

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Art:Cloth : 4 + 4 was, I think, the only stand which actually invited you to take photographs.

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Claire Benn, of Committed to Cloth, was stewarding the stand when my friend Gill and I arrived and was very generous in sharing her work methods which in this instance, revolved around Breakdown Printing. This technique, she said, is a lot simpler than it sounds, and, following on from the shibori and discharge dyeing that I have been doing, I found the effect really exciting. (For some reason I managed to not take a photograph of Claire's work. Oops! I think I left my brain on the coach!)
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The artwork above is by Jane Dunnewold and is titled " War Time Prayer for the Children & the Flowers". This is a large wall hanging and the child images are life size, I think they are actual body prints. I particularly like the flag-folded background which I can see echoed in my recent shibori foray.

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This piece is by Jeanne Beck and is entitled Parables II. You can see a detailed view here. The surface is intriguing and I will be looking further at this artist's work.

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Have you been and had a look at Helen's blog? I don't have many more photos of the exhibition itself. (I hope you go back to Helen's blog and have a look at her beautiful work when you have time).

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This exhibit has been talked about a lot in blogland this year and I was pleased to be able to see it myself. It is of course the Hyperbolic Crochet Reef.

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You can see there are so many gorgeous textures in all these different pieces of crochet, made by people from all walks of life. The piece was even being added to by visitors to the show as I was looking.

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Part of the Exhibition featured the Knitted Textile Student Awards and I was particularly taken by the piece above which was so colourful and employed both textile and mixed media.

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Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn had a large stand with their exhibition titled "Seeing Double". I was fascinated by the detail in Jan Beaney's work revealed in this photo above.

I spent a very pleasant couple of hours at the show in the company of Sandra Wyman who blogs as The Dyers Hand. We had met originally at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham and I was pleased to meet her again in Harrogate. We had arranged to meet at the Ario Stand which obviously meant that I indulged in a little shopping before she arrived! :o)

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I finally succumbed to "Finding Your Own Visual Language" which I am looking forward to getting to grips with.

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After my chat with Claire Benn about Breakdown Printing I had to invest in her book above.

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I didn't buy any fabric or threads, but I did indulge myself as you can see. I had been saving some money especially for the show and I also had a lovely win in a lottery when I was on holiday so I didn't feel so guilty.

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The day ended with a beautiful evening

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and a ride home on the coach with a promise from Sandra that we will meet up again in the new year and have a girl's day out in Bradford which has a good supply of fabric and textile shops!

PS .For clarity I would just say that not all the purchases were made from Ario.

Harrogate Show and Julia

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I apologise for the quality of this photograph but the light was in the wrong place. I thought Maggie Grey would like to see this tribute to Julia Caprara so I have nipped in to post it now and will post the rest of my photos of the Knitting and Stitching Show tomorrow. So many colourful tributes to Julia.

Take It Further October

I'm a bit late but I've finally finished my piece for the October TIF challenge. The original challenge was discussed here and I said at the time that I had an idea for something connected with the chaos.

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Instead of starting with new fabric I went through all my bit bags and used my embellisher to make this new piece of fabric out of all the scraps of cloth and fibres. The base was odd pieces of a thin wadding type of cloth which I needlefelted together and then embellished felts, sheers, organzas, cottons, wool fibres, threads and prefelted offcuts onto. To bring the piece together I covered the whole fabric with a brown coloured chiffon scarf and embellished all over from the front and back until I felt that the surface was balanced.

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I decided to make a bookwrap with the finished fabric and decorated it with beads, finishing off with blanket stitch.

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The lining is a type of plastic stiffener material which I have painted with Lumiere paints. Fortunately I was able to stitch through this lining. You may have spotted the deliberate mistake! I thought I would use velcro to close the wrap but unfortunately I stitched it on before I put the lining in so there had to be a little judicious snipping to reveal the velcro pad! Ooops! Well, I am a beginner! (I have since blanket stitched round the hole you can see so it's a bit tidier). This is now going to be a Christmas gift for one of my friends.

Wrist Cuff (or something else if you prefer) Giveaway

15 more measurements needed! Draw on Friday!!

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Jackie Cardy who blogs as Dogdaisychains makes the most magnificent wrist cuffs and brooches by combinings velvet with tweed, silk or other fabrics and embellishing with machine embroidery. If you pop across to her blog here and scroll down to 'Market Research Survey' you will find details of a giveaway she is offering in return for a small favour from you. It doesn't involve any pain, just a little dexterity with a tape measure to help her with a survey she is conducting. Jackie needs at least 100 people to give her their wrist measurement to make her survey meaningful so please be lovely bloggers and pop across and help her. Thank you, I knew you would! While you're there have a look at her beautiful work. It's gorgeous!

Nature's Marks Experiment

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Yesterday I was looking in at Dale Rollerson's blog in Australia and read that she was thinking of putting a piece of fabric out into the garden after she had worked on it a little to see what happened. This set me thinking. I had had an idea for some time to put a canvas panel in the garden to see what marks the elements would make on it but had never done anything about it. The idea started when I saw this piece of hardboard laying about at a venue I went to.

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So, spurred on by Dale and Maggie Grey, I have put 4 surfaces out into the garden to see what the weather can do to them. They are, clockwise, canvas with rusty blades, silk, cotton, and satin (I think). They are in different areas of the garden so I'll see what difference that makes too. Dale has been working on her fabric before putting it outside and may stitch on it first. As it is summer in Australia the effects on the two sets of fabric will surely be different. If I can find the time and energy tomorrow I think I will prepare another piece of cloth in a similar way to Dale and put that out too. Good job we don't get too many visitors, they'd think I'd completely lost the plot! I probably have!!!! LOL

Swaps

The postman's been busy chez nous this week. I've been involved in a swap on the Yahoo group Fiber Art Traders and between yesterday and today I have received my 3 bookmarks from my swap partners. I have to say I am amazed at hopw quickly the post is working at the moment. Maybe they're practising for Sssssh! You Know What in December!

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This first bookmark is by the lovely Leilani Pierson who has been published in Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine. She also sent me some pink yarn. Hmmm! I wonder who likes pink? I can think of one little pwincessy wagon!
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This gorgeous Happy Harvest Indian bookmark is from Norma who lives in Green Valley Arizona. Doesn't that sound a beautiful place? Norma has sent me some very seasonal 5" squares too. Thank you Norma.

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Last but not least is this pretty autumnal bookmark from the lovely Lori.

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All of my art books are going to have very useful bookmarks now so I won't have to worry about losing my place!

Julia Caprara Tag

I don't usually work this quickly but I have actually finished my piece for the Julia Caprara tribute at Harrogate next weekend.

I had to cut the prepared background down to tag size as I reread the instructions which asked for the size to be no bigger than a postcard. I have taken a technique from Julia's new book and worked with complimentary colours orange and blue using one stitch only, detached chain stitch. The surface was gradually covered in stitch using threads of different weights and textures, some of which are metallic. Every time I ran out of thread I changed to another colour or texture.

I backed the tag with this piece of placemat using just these few stitches to hold it together. I thought about stitching the back as fully as the front but I think it would have made it too bulky. I have finished the tag off with an 'inspire' and a 'joy' button as Julia's work is so joyful and she has and continues to inspire so many, including myself. Hopefully I will be feeling ok enough to go to Harrogate on Saturday so that I can attach it to Julia's barbed wire artwork.

Beautiful Bookmark

I have just completed a swap with Robin from the Yahoo group UK Embellisher Swap and today Robin's very pretty and unusual bookmark arrived together with a friend!
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As you can see the bookmark is a plaited cord with 2 needle felted flowers with bells at one end and a needle felted plaque edged with dyed muslin and another felted flower at the other. You may be wondering why there is a pig and what looks like a straw with the bookmark?

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Don't let your imagination run too wild! lol

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Ta Dah!

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The straw was needed to inflate the piggy who looks much happier now! The bookmark looks lovely in my current bedtime reading. I have bought the series of books by Alexander McCall Smith which were serialised on telly as the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I didn't see the series but I am thoroughly enjoying the books which are written in a wonderful lyrical style.

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Thank you Robin for your very lovely bookmark. I will enjoy using it and I love the colours. Your parcel cheered me up today when I came home to it after a visit to the doctor's. I have been in pain all week and he thinks it may be my gall bladder! Wonderful! I have to go to the hospital for a scan. Grrrrrr!

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Oops! nearly forgot to show you the bookmark I made for Robin.

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It looks very plain next to Robin's!

Julia Caprara

I will probably get sued by Twisted Thread but I thought I'd risk it to flag up the tribute they are preparing to Julia Caprara. I copy below in full the content of their newsletter which came to me today.

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"Help us commemorate Julia Caprara's life in stitch when you visit Harrogate.

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The run up to Harrogate is normally such a joyous time but Julia Caprara died on the 24th October. She was a great friend, a consummate artist and teacher, as well as a massive inspiration for so many of us. Alex Caprara has kindly given his permission for us to stage a retrospective to mark Julia’s contribution but we do not intend to mount that exhibition until 2010 in order to do full justice to her work. Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn have kindly agreed to curate this exhibition. However, back in 2001 and inspired by the terrorist attacks in New York, Julia created a special piece for The Knitting and Stitching Show which comprised a ball of barbed wire – the idea being that visitors to our events could add their stitched thoughts as a gesture to the victims and their families. Julia’s only regret about the piece at the time was that the barbed wire was fresh, bright and new. She wanted that ageing patina she associated with World War I sites! Well, we have found that ball of barbed wire and, over the years, it has acquired that very patina that we know Julia would have loved.

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We intend to place the ball in the entrance to Hall M at The Knitting and Stitching Show and, if you will be visiting and knew Julia, (or knew of her through her books, her art or teaching), we would love you to stitch or write a message for her and attach it as you come in. She loved colour – so please don’t be timid. Black and white was never her thing! Should you not be intending to visit Harrogate, you can still contribute by posting your message to us at Creative Exhibitions Ltd, c/o Harrogate International Centre, Kings Road, Harrogate, North Yorks HG1 5LA but please ensure that it arrives NO LATER than Thursday 20th November when the Show opens.

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Please keep the size to that of a postcard at maximum. We intend to present the messages to Alex after the show closes. Finally, please don’t think you have to put your thoughts into words. Julia would never have thought you needed to be that literal! Incidentally – you may be aware of our website name – twistedthread. That name was inspired by the original barbed wire ball which is why the request I make is such a personal one. Andrew Salmon"

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I never had any contact with Julia other than seeing her work at the Festival of Quilts. However, I have never forgotten the impact her work made on me so I am going to make a small sewn piece to take with me when I go to Harrogate on 22nd. I've made a start tonight and have made some backgrounds about the size of a bookmark (there's a bit of a theme here this week!)so I shall have to get busy with the needle.

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I've bondawebbed silks, chiffons and organzas to a loose weaved background and I'm going to work in blue and orange detached chain stitch, changing colour and/or thread type each time the thread runs out. If I'm a bit quiet you'll know what I am doing! (I'm using the piece on the left).

Let There Be Light

The BBC screened a fascinating programme in the Imagine.... series presented by Alan Yentob last night. Yentob explored the relationship between artists and light and met artists who use light as their inspiration or medium, including the American artist James Turrell, who I had not previously been familiar with. For the next 7 (now 6) days, this programme is available to view over the net here at BBC iplayer (I hope the link works). IMHO it is well worth a look as some of the light effects were fascinating and he also gives a glimpse into Turner's watercolour sketches.

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While I have been Googling for James Turrell I have found that there is one of his Skyspaces in the UK at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park ! I have never been to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park but it looks as though it will have to go on my list of places to go very soon. I knew of it, of course, but it had drifted to the back of my consciousness.

Lovely Awards

Oh my! I have seen these awards going around the blogging world recently and I am honoured and humbled that people have chosen to give them to me. I have to thank Susan and Liz for sending me the Blogging Friends Forever award. Do go and check out their blogs if you don't know them already as they both are talented ladies. As you might expect from me I am going to be a very naughty blogger and not pass these awards on. I find it so hard to select people to pass the award on to and most people, that I would nominate, have received the award by now. If your name is in my sidebar you definitely deserve this award and if you are reading this and don't know a name in the sidebar go and have a look. There are some very talented artists there.

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The second award is the Kreativ Blogger award which my lovely friend Helena has sent me. Helena has a lovely blog with lots of variety including photography and drawings. You can also find a link there to the very cute and funny Dilly's Castle not forgetting (how could I?) my favourite bear Bob T Bear Esq. Thank you very much for this award Helena. I'm going to be just as naughty and not pass it along but I do appreciate you nominating me. I am not worthy!

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Another Dyeing Workshop

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This Monday saw us at another dyeing workshop, just one more to go now. This week we were using various methods to take colour out of our fabrics. The fabric above and the piece below were both cottons. The top piece had been dyed commercially previously so I cannot speak for the content of the dye. I used bleach after folding and wrapping the fabric to achieve the effect above which I am really pleased with.
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You may recognise the blue fabric above from last week's shibori session. This received another stitching and gathering treatment before bleach was applied. I much prefer it now.

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This fabric is the same as the cotton at the top and was brushed randomly with Discharge Paste which had been mixed with fabric paint. The discharge paste took the original colour out but, instead of turning orange, it dyed the cloth yellow, the colour of the fabric paint. Phew!

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This is a piece of linen which was stamped with a block which had been brushed with thick bleach. As you can see the first stamp had too much bleach on and is indistinct. The clearer stamp was the second stamp off the block.