Autumn Sunset

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I went outside to water the garden this evening and this beautiful sunset greeted me so I went hareing back indoors for my camera.

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Can you see how delicate and feathery the edge of this fanlike cloud is? It's beautiful! And over so quickly.


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You will notice that I will be conspicuous by my absence in blogland for a while. I'll miss keeping up with you all but a break is called for. See you soon!

Blackberry Way Revealed

Have you been humming "Goodbye Blackberry Way" since my last post? I keep hearing The Move song in my head.



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Well, my blackberry dyed fabric is all dried and ironed and I have a very mixed bag of results.

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At first I didn't think this piece above had taken any colour at all but it is in fact a very delicately coloured, almost luminous shade now. I tied it with thread which was probably a bit on the thin side and I can't really understand the difference in colour between the exposed areas and the tied as the tied areas have a blue haze compared with the exposed fabric.

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The fabrics above show the variation in colour that came from the blackberries. Not much purple or pink in sight. The two bluey grey fabrics are cottons and the fabric at the centre bottom is silk dupion that started out as cream but is now a greeny beige. Surprisingly the calico and muslin have both gone this vaguely green tinged colour. I can see these being used in some landscapey piece some time in the future although I may use the tie-dyed piece as a background and play with some printing on it.

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I have some frozen fruits of the forest in the freezer that my DH doesn't like so I think I'll have a go with them and not use soda this time. Maybe I'll even manage to get some purply colours!

Blackberry Way.....

We have been having very dull days in this part of the UK while other areas have been bathed in sunshine but today the sun finally broke through so DH and I went for a walk along the local canal. DH had heard that there were several families of swans on the canal so that was our quest for the afternoon. Fortunately, we hadn't been walking all that long before we came on the young family quietly feeding.

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This pair had 4 cygnets and were only mildly interested in us, probably because we hadn't taken any food for them. It was a lovely warm, idyllic afternoon and while DH was busy framing and focussing his camera on the swans I clambered about in the hedgerow gathering these:

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Fortunately I had taken a carrier bag along for the purpose as I had been inspired by Carolyn's recent dyeing experiments with blackberries. I managed to pick a couple of pounds of blackberries and while I was quietly gathering I was treated to a close encounter:

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There were lots of dragonflies all along the canal this afternoon. I think they are absolutley beautiful creatures. Their wings make an amazing sound when they whirr past.

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Not a bad collection of berries!

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Once I got home I put the blackberries onto simmer for about 20 mins and then excitedly dropped in a selection of fabrics, lace and threads. That was when I got a big shock! As I lowered the fabric into the solution it turned first green and then a bluey grey! Not what I was expecting at all.

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This is the fabric steeping in the liquid once it had been strained. As you can see it bears no resemblence to Carolyn's beautiful pinks and reds. I think I know what I've done. I had the great(?) idea of wetting the fabric with a soda solution before putting it in the pan. I don't think the blackberries or the aluminium saucepan liked the soda. Anyway, we shall see! I was disappointed to start with but there is time for the dye to work some more yet and if I do end up with shades of grey it will still be useful and maybe I could overdye it. Watch this space!

September Journal Quilt -Autumn Jewels

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I am pleased to say I'm ahead of the game with the September Journal Quilt for the Quilters' Guild Contemporary Quilt Group. This month I wanted to practise the granite stitch we had used at the workshop I did with Gina a couple of months ago. I bondawebbed fresh ivy leaves to a base of silk dupion and then bondawebbed a burgundy coloured chiffon over the ivy leaves.


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The next step was to stitch around the leaves and along some of the vein lines and then to cover the background area with granite stitch. I have to say I found this quite difficult. I couldn't seem to get a very smooth action and many of the supposed circles are extremely spiky. In the end I worked at this for 20 minutes at a time and then changed activity as I found it hard work. Probably just me! I think I probably used the wrong stitch. Maybe granite stitch is better used in small areas or for edging? Once the machining was finished I added some beads and a binding.

Boat Auction

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Do you remember many months ago I told you about Joanne B Kaar's project in Caithness? Joanne and Lynne Taylor in Dunedin New Zealand decided to collaborate on a joint exhibition in two locations to commemorate the maiden voyage of The Westland ship from Scotland to New Zealand in 1879. If you click on the link and scroll down a little you can see the fantastic exhibitions that these two enterprising and hardworking ladies have put on in their respective countries.

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As part of the exhibition Joanne asked for people to make paper boats which would be auctioned to help raise funds for MaryAnn's cottage, the inspiration for the research and exhibition. Boats flooded in from all over the world and there are some beautiful pieces of work, some by professional artists who you may know. The auction runs until 24 September and there are still plenty of boats up for grabs. You can either bid for a specific boat or, if the choice is too hard, make a bid and Joanne will send you a boat or boats at the end of the auction. Click here to see the boats, there is some wonderful work, just keep scrolling to see it all. And don't forget to make a bid. Go on! You only need to bid £2 to join in! And it's all in a good cause to preserve history and keep MaryAnn's cottage open for future generations!

This and That

Some weeks ago I showed you the Little Gems that I won at the Festival of Quilts. I decided that I would adapt one of them to use everyday when I'm sewing and turned it into a small pot to collect all my cut threads that usually end up on the floor.

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The pot was quite simple to make. I took the Little Gem and put it right sides together and hand sewed with an overstitch (whip stitch?) and then flattened the sides out and squared the corners off so that the pot would stand up. I'm really pleased with the pot and it makes a very attractive addition to my sewing area instead of sitting in a drawer. Also it's collecting a wonderful array of threads which I'm going to use initially to decorate some paper beads I've been making.
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I had a panic at the beginning of the week and set to to make this Ruby Doll for my niece's birthday which I thought was this week. Having made this little lady I realised this morning that her birthday is next week! Doh! Oh well, at least I'm ahead of the game. All I've got to do now is remember to post it! (It's ok, I don't think by brother and his family are into blogs. fingers crossed anyway. My niece is too young to read blogs but hopefully not too young to enjoy my Ruby Doll).

Rust Play (again)

After setting up the sundyeing the other day I also set up a collection of fabrics with rust dyeing. We recently took down a very old shed for a friend of ours and she kindly allowed me to scavange lots of interesting rusty bits for my collection! Yum! The warm weather was the ideal time to have a play.


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I wet the fabric first and then shook white vinegar all over it (in a cat litter tray) and wrapped each fabric with a collection of metal. You may be able to see that one of the objects was a metal wheel on a stem (top left) along with washers and nuts. I also threw in a handful of salt crystals to see what effect that had. Once wrapped the parcels were placed in a sealable plastic bag and a little more vinegar and small amount of water added. Not very scientific but I can never remember what you're supposed to do and luckily this time it worked fine. I think the salt resulted in a quicker reaction than would have been the case without it.

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As you can see I've got some exciting results! If you click on the image and enlarge you may be able to see that I used wing nuts, nuts and bolts, washers, nails, screws and some flat angled pieces of metal. The fabric in the bottom left corner is bamboo cloth which I bought from a well known doorstep household sale company. (Ok It's Betterware! No affiliation).


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As usual I don't yet know what I will use this fabric for but I may have a go at overdyeing some of it. Some of the marks are reminiscent of landscape textures so they may well be incorporated into that type of work.

On the Silk Road

Yesterday was Lincolnshire Embroiderers' Guild monthly meeting and the guest speaker was Jane Davies who I mentioned in my last post. Jane is a very relaxed and interesting speaker and had brought a selection of her slides from travels in Uzbekistan which focussed on the inspiration for the distinctive textiles from that area. In addition Jane had bought various examples of Uzbek textiles reflecting the traditional styles and techniques of the area.

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The square piece which you can see in the photograph above is typical of suzani embroidery. The motifs are entirely stitched. In many cases the stitch is a couching stitch but instead of couching a thick thread with a thinner one only one thread is used throughout. The patterns are traditional and have symbolic meanings, often relating to hospitality, prosperity and joy. Many formed part of a girl's dowry and would be started by members of the family when a daughter was born to be continued by the girl as soon as she was old enough to learn to sew.

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Some of the designs, like the vine-like edging above, were adopted from influences from further afield brought by travellers along the Silk Route. Chain stitch and buttonhole stitch were often used but couching was the most popular.

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As you can see from the sample above the couching involved a lot of stitching and a design also built up on the reverse. Often these suzani were split into several pieces and worked on by various members of the family to be reunited and sewn together on completion. If discrepancies in colour or slight variations in the design arose so much the better as the final suzani should not be perfect.
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Today I went back to Lincoln for a workshop with Jane and she again showed us her suzani sample and works which had come out of her study of suzani designs and the architecture and images that inspired it.

Couching

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The workshop today went ahead in two parts. This morning we concentrated on investigating the various ways of couching. My rather insignificant looking sample is in the centre above. I worked with several different weights of thread and touched on filling a shape. I think I've ended up with a Christmas tree! You will see that we used two styles of couching stitch, the Bukhara method which involves a short upright stitch and the Romanian method which involves a diagonal stitch. It's surprising how long these little samples take and the design possibilities are endless. I can see how texture could be achieved by combining layers of this style of stitching in thick and fine thread.

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After lunch we explored the possibilities of using the suzani designs as inspiration for applique work. Jane had provided some patterns for speed and I have to confess I took this route to save time. The green piece above is the start of my sample. I have used dupion silk throughout and am couching a perle variegated thread around the edge of each piece. This time a fine thread is being used to couch the thicker thread down.
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Both the Bukhara and Romanian couching methods offer endless design possibilities and the action of stitching is very relaxing and meditative. A very pleasant way to spend a Sunday.

Gifts in the post

I have been looking in at Gail's blog for some time and she recently had a giveaway. Gail has been working on a series of 52 projects inspired by Jeanne Williamson and her book 'The Uncommon Quilter' and is very close to completing her own 52 projects. (You'll have to excuse the fact that my photos have loaded the wrong way round with the postcard second).

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I am very intrigued by this photograph above which features an image from Gail's recent holiday in Italy. I think it is taken from an altered book and I really like it. I shall have to keep it somewhere safe to incorporate into my journal of Italy if we ever get there! (We should have gone on a coach trip this year but it was cancelled).

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This very appealing postcard features Gail's images of Portofino which I have recently found out was the inspiration for Clough Williams Ellis beautiful Italianate village, Portmeirion in North Wales. It's a beautiful card Gail, thank you so much. I am in awe of the fact that Gail has managed to complete 52 projects, all very different and she has made a point not to give up on any piece. Whatever problem she has faced has been overcome and I'm sure there has been lots of learning along the way. I am very tempted to follow suit but I don't think I would have Gail's dedication. It would be a great way of developing skills tho, wouldn't it? I am a bit tempted......

Sun Dyeing

Well, here are the results of my sun dyeing from yesterday. I didn't take any photos of my procedure but I soaked the cotton in water to wet it through thoroughly and then sprayed it again to keep it wet before I painted it. I used silk paints and either squirted the paint on or brushed it on and then sprayed with water again to make sure the whole piece was covered in paint.

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This first piece as you can see, had ferns laid on it but, as my ferns are young I didn't have enough leaves so I placed bizzy lizzy flowers and geranium leaves on it too. The ferns didn't all lay flat so some of the images are a bit ghostly but I rather like that. The flowers and geranium leaves have left a crisper image and I may add a very light wash to knock them back a bit once I have heat set the fabric.

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This second piece I really like! I prepared the fabric as before and then laid on a plastic doilly, the sort Mum used to put cakes on, a metal heart shaped ornamental hanger-thingy and then sprinkled drawing pins all over. As an afterthought I lay a number and letter stencil on top and this has partially worked. It would have been better if it had been completely flat, I think it was cockled up on some drawing pins. Finally I scattered sea salt crystals everywhere. ~

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This box of loveliness (potentially) is rust dyeing. I have wrapped various fabrics, cotton, calico, bamboo cloth around all manner of rusty bits and soaked it all in white vinegar, a handfull of salt and a little water - very scientific! You can see it's cooking very well in the sunshine but I shall have to be patient till about Monday as I have a busy weekend ahead if I can keep up with the pace. It's our Embroiderer's Guild meeting tomorrow and Jane Davies is the guest speaker. Hopefully I will be doing a workshop with her on Sunday. I may be a lifeless wreck by Monday! But it will be worth it!

JQs on display

You've seen these Journal Quilts before but they are soon to be on display at the Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft Show at Exeter later this month. (Well, hopefully they will if I've prepared them correctly). They will be on the Quilters Guild Contemporary Quilt Group stand if you are going to the exhibition. I'm sure you can see there's a bit of a theme going on here! lol It's not intentional but these colours always seem to creep in and take over. I have never had any of my textile work on display anywhere before so I am really excited, even though I won't be able to go and see it myself.

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The sudden appearance of the sun today has had me rust dyeing and sun dyeing so I'll show you the results soon.

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After I had collapsed from exhaustion from sundyeing and gardening today I sat and watched one of the demonstrations on the Surface Design Association Conference DVD that I bought at the FOQ. If this extract is anything to go by this is an amazing DVD and excellent value. I watched Kathyanne White demonstrating her methods for transferring digital images to various surfaces and learned so much from this hour+ long demo. I actually bought the DVD for Kerr Grabowski's Deconstructed Screen Printing Demo and also for Jane Dunnewold's work with soy wax which I have yet to watch. I thought the DVD was expensive when I bought it but it certainly has a wealth of information on it.

Bits and Pieces

Has it been a week already since I last posted here? Where did that go? I've been pottering about in blogland and pottering about at home, trying to sort my workroom out to make room for printing experiments and there's been a little sewing going on.

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Over at MixedMediaATC_UK Yahoo group I have been hosting a Dotee doll trade and my own doll is now on its way to its new home. I cheated just a little bit as the fabric, face and beads came from a kit from my friend Dot in Australia who is the originator of these addictive little dolls. However, the design of the doll is mine and I have added some extra beads.

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This little lady is known as a Ruby doll, which I have made previously and is now on her way to my stepmum in Devon as she is recuperating. The head and arms and legs are made with my own hand dyed fabric.

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Finally for this part of the post I have been doing a little dyeing with blueberries which I saw on Carolyn's blog a couple of weeks ago. While Carolyns' fabric went a lovely purple mine have gone bluey colour. The fabrics I dyed were scrim, calico, net, a silky curtain fabric (the red stripe is already on the fabric), bamboo cloth and yarns. There is a hint of purple in the calico but the bias is towards the blue.

Disintegration

Seth Apter's disintegration project came to a conclusion on 1 August when there was a reveal of everyone's efforts with their 'disintegrated' bundles. Unfortunately I didn't manage to join in with the reveal at that time and have only now managed to make a start on my piece.

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I previously showed my opened bundles in a post here.

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After a lot of pondering I decided to make use of a child's board book that I had already started altering. So far I have collaged the front cover and one page inside.
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The centrepiece for this page is a photograph which I am really pleased with. The emulsion has been altered by being exposed to the elements and some of it has been transferred to other surfaces which I will use on later pages. Some of the elements of the collage show hardly any alteration other than a little discolouration whereas the key has rusted beautifully (I think it may have been a bit rusty to start with). I am still considering whether to extend some of the lines from the photograph onto the adjoining papers. At the moment I can't decide whether that would be in wax crayon or some other medium.

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The first and only inside page I have completed so far is based on a collage of various papers, doillies and corrugated card which I had already made on the page. I selected a piece of painted tissue from the disintegration bundle which just shows a small change in its appearance where it has acquired a few damp marks. I stamped with a feather on the tissue with indigo (fabric) paint and then with gold. Once dry I glued the paper to the page.

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I have plenty more papers and rusty bits from the bundles so I will continue to add to this book over the coming months and I'm almost certainly going to prepare some more bundles to put outside over the winter for more disintegration.

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While I've been writing this post I've been watching a recording of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. I keep promising myself that we will go one year but we've never made it yet. (Well I am quarter Scots). If you click the YouTube link you'll be able to find more performances from this year's Tattoo. It's giving me ideas for a quilt challenge next year for which the theme is 'Summer in the City'. There is so much colour and music in the tattoo that it may give me a starting point. That is, if my hands will allow me to sew. I had terrible pain problems making the dolls and have had to work on them in short sessions. It's really depressing when fine movement and gripping is so painful. Almost everything I do during the day results in pain in my hands to a greater or lesser extent . I could swear but I'd better not! Oh, go on then! It's a b****r!