Through The Window

This post is almost a word for word copy of the post that will have been revealed this morning over at the International Quilt Challenge blog and I have reproduced it here to save me re-writing a separate post for this blog (lazy mare!).  I think the photos should open if not please pop across to the Challenge blog for a better view.  I am trying to save time as I have a busy week coming up and am writing this post in advance.

As I said in my earlier post I was becoming fascinated with the quality of light that comes through a stained glass window and I particularly became fascinated with the cut through process that I had been playing with.  After I had made a piece 10" square for my Journal Quilt I have gone on to make an A3 sized piece for this challenge.  It is not the only piece I have made, more of that in a minute.

As you can see I didn't actually take this particular technique any further, mostly because I didn't have the time but I may well play with it some more when time allows.  You may notice that the quilt I made for the Olympics had a grey binding whereas I used black for this.  I wasn't sure whether the black would be too dark but I think it works.

I said in my previous post that I wanted to experiment with sheers and I have had a great time doing just that.  I took a selection of neutral organzas, silks and nylon sheers and used fabric paints tostamp and make monoprints on their surfaces.  I kept the monoprints neutral in tones of grey and was a bit worried at first that they might be too light to show up.  Sadly I was so busy working I didn't take any photos of the process.

The next step was to use silk paints to add colour to the pieces of fabric.  I decided on silk paint as I didn't have a lot of time, again.  Once the fabrics were all prepared I started to cut and piece them using a pojagi style of seam.  This is the result:

The photograph above was taken indoors with the piece laying on the top of my sewing table.  It is very slightly smaller than A3 size.  I then took further photographs outside.

After photographing the piece hanging from our driftwood I couldn't resist hanging the 'window' in the lilac tree where the sun was shining through this morning.

I have made a lot of mistakes with the stitching in this technique and a certain amount of drifting has occurred but I am so delighted with the way this has turned out.  The surface marks are really exciting me and I am really happy with my interpretation of 'Through The Window'.  I am quite tempted though to leave it out in the garden to let the sun shine through and see how it ages.

Been busy

I seem to have been very busy but I don't have much to show you as I have been working towards a challenge and the reveal isn't until next Friday so I have to contain myself.  However, following on from my last post I have made one of the stained glass window quilts for the 2012 Olympics competitors.

The quilt is A3 size and has lots of scraps of fabric of all sorts of texture in it to suggest the different qualities of light.  

The reverse of the quilt is the cross of St George, the English flag, although it's a little bit skew.  I just need to attach a label and hopefully make another before the December deadline. 

I can show you just a little taster of the project I have been working on for the International Quilt Challenge Group.

I have had great fun working on this, despite a little bad language when the machine ate the corner of the finished article! Grrrrrr!  Panic not, I was able to rescue it. Phew!

Some time ago my friend's elderly aunt passed away and when her house was cleared a part completed hexagon quilt with pieces of fabric was found with all its accompanying papers.  The quilt has now been completed and I was able to photograph it.

Isn't it a beautiful quilt?  Hopefully you will be able to click and zoom to see the fabrics that have been used.  Some of the fabrics are thought to be almost 100 years old and dates on the papers go back to 1915.  The papers were parts of letters and envelopes and some printed material.  I felt privileged to be able to look closely at and not least, handle such an old quilt and to examine these fabrics up close.  It is wonderful to see vintage quilts at the Quilt Museum but even more amazing to be able to handle a quilt that has survived a 100 years.

Finally, I'll leave you with a piccy of a gangster who found his way into my house this week ;-)

Al Capone, eat your heart out! LOL

Have a great week!

Windows, Chilford and Gorgeousness!

I have been having a further play with the reverse applique pieces I am working on for the International Quilt Challenge and made the small piece above on a sheer base fabric and it turned out much less bulky than the first piece I made.  I decided to bind the edge and used a black fabric to represent the lead in stained glass but I feel it is a bit heavy.

When it came to binding the 10"x10" square I decided on a grey binding and I prefer that to the heavier black.  I've put together two more A3 sized 'windows' and am going to continue working with them as I am enjoying this process.  One of them will become a Pennant for the Olympics.

I haven't started working with the sheer version yet, I had the idea of printing onto the fabrics and then painting with silk paints so hopefully I will find some time for that tomorrow in between the dusting and hoovering!

On Saturday I had a lovely day out at the Grosvenor Autumn Quilt Show at Chilford Hall.  I hadn't been to one of these Grosvenor shows before and I was pleasantly surprised, not least by the venue.  Chilford Hall is in a pretty rural location and its grounds are lovely too.  Saturday was  a foggy day so it was a bit chilly for wandering around and the light was poor for photos but we were very impressed by the sculptures and statues dotted about.  Hopefully if I come back for the Spring Show the light will be better and I can get some photos of the grounds.

The show was staged in two large halls with timbered rooves and painted ceilings and in another large room that was strung with tiny 'christmassy' lights.  There were some wonderful exhibits and just enough traders to keep us interested.

Just part of the beautiful exhibition space.

Susan Briscoe, South West Quilters, Stitch Witches, Frieda Oxenham and The Blue Tulips Textile Art Group were just a few of the exhibitors whose work I admired.

This beautiful piece caught my eye with its wonderful use of silks and bead embellishments.  It is part of Frieda Oxenham's Colour-Quilt-Collage exhibition and is called Foxfires, a name used to describe the Aurora Borealis.

A detail from another of Frieda's pieces (I apologise for the poor quality of the images, the light was terrible!)

Isn't this fabulous?  So much colour and energy!

Earthly Pleasures inspired by collage.

Marie Studholme Journal Quilts from 2009 inspired by Frieda's collection of postcards about Marie Studholme (1872-1930) who was an English actress and singer.  I particularly liked this piece for the way Frieda had mounted it onto tweed and used vintage fabrics, clothing and buttons. 

This piece above is La Rue du Soleil by Maryel Cowell who is a member of Stitch Witches.  This group had many beautiful imaginative pieces on show.

Adjacent to the previous piece was this piece above entitled Mont St Michel by Terry Donaldson. 

This stunning quilt is by Pam Bono who lives in Athens Georgia in the USA.  There were many more of her impressive quilts on display and you can find out more about them at pamsclub.com.

This piece fascinated me.  It is titled 'Beyond The Naked Eye' and is by Eva Thomas a member of Blue Tulips Textile Art Group.

No visit to a quilt show would be complete without a bit of shopping and I was fairly good stitcking reasonably close to my shopping list.

I couldn't resist the book by Bethan Ash which hadn't been on my list but it's images were so inspiring and I'm really pleased that I bought it.  The fabrics are destined for some more stained glass window play.

When I got home my lovely DH had been to the post office for me to collect a special parcel that had winged its way all the way from downunder: Downunderdale, to be precise who trades as The Thread Studio in Australia.

Above is part of the hoard, gorgeous mixed embroidery threads, dyed emu feathers, tangle tuff for texture and the most beautiful turquoise stone ready drilled for a necklace or to use as an embellishment.

Look at these wonderful embroidery threads for machine and hand embroidery and some very unusual silk fibres that will be fun to play with.  Why did I receive this wonderful parcel?  I was the lucky winner of a giveaway on the Thread Studio Facebook page when Dale reached 900 'likes'.  If you would like the chance to win a similar parcel pop onto Facebook and 'like' The Thread Studio but be quick the next giveaway is at 100 likes.  Not long to go!