MIXED MEDIA

Catching up with friends and an English Country Garden

2012-01-26T17:39:00.000Z

For longer than I care to remember I have been promising to go and see the lovely ladies at Art and Stitch in Peterborough but never seem to have managed it with everything that was going on last year. Happily today, on a beautiful sunny winter's day, I gathered my sewing things and hopped on a train for the short journey to Peterborough.

Since I last went Angela and Pam who run Art and Stitch had moved premises in a bid to confuse me but their efforts were in vain and I tracked them down. I was greeted with a very warm welcome and a cup of tea! What more could you want?

The main shop includes the workshop area and as you can see is a wonderful space to work in. (The blinds were closed against the brightness of the sun during the morning as it was blinding the ladies).

This is the view from the other end of the room. Thursday is social sewing day and it certainly was a very sociable experience. The ladies made me very welcome and I am going to try and go on a bit more regular basis if I can - at least more regularly than once a year!

I took some hand sewing with me and made really good progress. I am going to add some kantha style stitching to the background and will probably finish the edge with satin stitch.

This piece is 8" square and is on a theme of the English Country Garden. As you can probably tell it is made with some beautiful embroideries from cushion covers and doillies that I found in Grace's house. It seemed sacrilege to cut them up but then again they will only sit in a drawer otherwise and I don't think Grace would object too much if she was alive. She always encouraged me in all my arting and probably knew her textiles would take on new identities once I got near them lol. I have to admit to this being inspired by the work of Susan Lenz whose blog I have followed for a number of years and who I have met when she came to Nottingham. Susan does a lot of work with re-purposed textiles and has made some beautiful pieces with textiles like these including 'Anonymous'.

If I can get this piece finished and in the post over the weekend it may become part of a larger exhibition piece with the Contemporary Quilt Group at the Quilt Museum in York later this year. Nothing like leaving things to the last minute!

If you live anywhere within reach of Peterborough I can heartily recommend Art and Stitch for shopping, classes in all sorts of stitch related topics, friendly people to chat to and a warm welcome, not to mention some raucous laughter!

All topped off by a sunny train ride home.

Bugs and quilts

2012-01-22T22:44:00.001Z

It's been a bit of a busy old week and pretty eventful, not least because my very dear friend of over 20 years has moved across the Pennines to the very lovely county of Cheshire. She has moved into what is known as the Textile Triangle so we are both very excited by the prospect of lots of expeditions and lots of inspiration in the coming months and hopefully years. I'm looking forward to visiting her new home which has far reaching views across the hills around Macclesfield and a beautiful woodland garden.

A week or two ago, before her move, my friend had a surprise package from her daughter who I have mentioned on the blog before. This time the package contained the latest designs that her daughter had made for Makower fabrics.

Isn't it lovely? There are lots more designs on the Makower site here. Not surprisingly it is called 'Bugs'. I made a baby quilt with M's original Farm Corner design for our grand-nephew and I think I will make a quilt for the new baby due in April with this fabric. It's so bright and colourful and agian has so much detail in it. There is a free quilt pattern on the Makower site and I was delighted to discover it is designed by Hilary Gooding (the quilt as opposed to the fabric) who is a very lovely lady who I know from the Contemporary Quilt Group.

Yesterday I spent a very busy day making a quilt to go on my Mum's bed at her care home. I bought a fleece at Sainsbury's a couple of weeks ago with the thought that I could use it as a backing and do away with the wadding. I had a sudden flash of memory that I had bought a panel a year or two ago and put it away for when inspiration dawned and yesterday was the day. After a bit of measuring and improvisation I have pieced the top and only have to attachit to the fleece. Sadly I have not photographed it yet but I am keen to get it finished this week so I'll share it soon.

Meanwhile, something I can show you. As part of the Journal Quilt challenge for 2011 I started a close toned piece a few months ago with the thought of stitching it as a slow cloth in the manner of Jude Hill

I tore strips of various fabrics including fabrics I had printed at Summer School, my hand dyes, silk dupion, vintage broderie anglaise, embroidered curtain fabric, vintage cotton and ribbon and also a piece of laminated fabric ( fabric made by adhering pieces of newsprint). The fabrics were woven together and then I added various hand stitches. You will notice that I couldn't resist using some of Jude's feather designs and for some of them I have used the rayon threads that I won from Dale. The rayon has a lovely sheen but is a bit tricky to stitch with. I added the yarn at the bottom (for some unknown reason) and then added buttons as this was going to be my January JQ but I've since used the Barcelona one instead. I plan to trim the wadding on this and back it onto a piece of black felt.

Tomorrow will be another busy day. DH put some shelves up in my studio and I am going to be knee deep in sorting out the chaos in there so that I can move out some of the chaos from the house that should be in the studio. Wish me luck!

Playing With Red

2012-01-16T22:31:00.000Z

I had been thinking about not doing the Journal Quilts with the Contemporary Quilt Group this year as I found it hard going last year to keep up with this challenge. In fact I have cheated a bit with the final one and used the Barcelona one I made some time ago.

As all the Journal Quilts for the last 4 months of the 2011 challenge had to include buttons in one incarnation or another I have added a decorative button that came from my friend Grace's button collection and which reminded me of the elaborate ceiling bosses at the Parc Guell designed by Antonio Gaudi. I have blogged about this JQ previously and as you can see the lettering was made from crazy piecing.

As I was saying, I had almost made up my mind not to make any Journal Quilts this year but then I received the CQ Newsletter and read that the requirement this year will be based on colour. The first four each have to be 75% red with only 25% made up of other colour/s. It was while I was looking at the Strathmore Online Workshop that I had the idea to work on fabric instead of paper and I had a great time printing onto a length of cotton.

Now I know this doesn't look very red yet but it is redder in real life than the photo shows. I used fabric paints in Maroon, Orange, White and Black and printed and stamped using plastic food packaging, sponges, stamps made from heat treated foam pressed onto buttons and teaspoons and spraying Brusho Shimmer Spray over metal doillies which were then turned over and printed with. (I used artistic licence in using maroon and orange as they are already shades and not true reds and it was all I had!)

I have cut 4 x A4 pieces from this cloth and will work on each piece in a different way to fulfil the challenge. So far I have thought of overdyeing with red and then working into the piece again, painting and doodling to create layers as you would on paper, cutting up the base fabric and adding in other shades of red in a 'cut and come again' way to make an A4 quilt, embellishing with stitch and beads in shades of red, and possibly overlaying pices of fabrics and sheers again to create layers in a clooagey way. I don't feel I'm much good at doodling but I am excited at the way this challenge has started out and the printing is great fun so I think I am going to enjoy myself. Of course, I may have to think of other techniques to use when it comes to the remaining 8 months of the year and their colours which I think are yellow and then blue. I can see yellow being a bit tricky!

I forgot to say, the dots on the fabric were made by printing with the dried ends of asparagus stems tied together with elastic bands and dipped in paint! Lots of fun.

Of course what I should be doing is making my piece for the International Challenge Group that is due to be completed by late February. The theme is 'Archi-texture' and I have some ideas but no real plan. I may be MIA for a while getting it done!

St Ives again and Erosion Bundles

2012-01-12T22:33:00.000Z

You don't need to panic, I'm not going to post yet more pictures to turn you green with Cornish envy ;-) At the last minute before Christmas I decided that I should make my good friend a St Ives based wall hanging, partly because she is a very special friend and partly because she is about to move away from just around the corner to the other side of the Pennines. Why is it we always have these good ideas at the very last minute when we have had weeks or months to think of it? Must be the creative mind (that's my excuse anyway).

Despite the pressures of working at full tilt and fighting with my machine I managed to complete my self imposed challenge.

You have probably seen a smaller version of this before in a workshop I did with Gina Ferrari down at Art & Stitch some time ago but this piece is about A3 size. I used many of the processes we used with Gina to make the various textures in this piece and I'm happy to say my friend was delighted with it. She has it hanging above her bed. You can read more about the process from the original workshop here.

While we were down in St Ives we met up with the very lovely and talented Carolyn Saxby for a lunch of toasted cheese crumpets (my DH's speciality when in St Ives) and cream cakes supplied very naughtily by Carolyn. Carolyn and I always like to have a beach ramble when we get together but this time our ramble was cut very short by a great deal of liquid sunshine, otherwise known as pouring rain. As a result we decided to meet up another day and have a look round some galleries and try for another beachcomb. In the event it was too cold for a beachcomb and the light was fading by the time we left the Millenium Gallery (sadly their website seems to be down at the moment) but we did agree to start a joint project with the items we had collected previously.

A couple of years ago we both took part in the Erosion Bundle project run by Seth Apter and Carolyn made another Erosion Bundle last year which she opened when we were in St Ives in April. This year as there is no longer an official Erosion Bundle Project (last year's was run from this blog) Carolyn and I are making our own bundles and opening them on 1 April. I prepared part of the bundle while I was in St Ives using seaweed and various papers and since I've been home I'veadded to it and made 3 more.

I've used an assortment of papers including failed computer printouts,

fabrics of all types and paper marked with watersoluble wax crayons,

photographs, rusty nails, cutoffs including hand made papers from old projects and various painted papers and fabrics.

All 4 bundles are now sitting in various positions in the garden with great hopes for their disintegration over the coming months but hopefully not for too many creepy crawlies! Since I've made the bundles I've thought of lots more things I could have put in them so there could well be another one going out there soon. At least they won't need weeding! Or maybe they will!

Journal Quilts and New Year

2012-01-08T15:13:00.000Z

Nearly a month ago now I said I would be back by the end of the week with an update on my Journal Quilts inspired by Cesar Manrique. Where did the time go? Where it always goes, it flew away! Anyway the quilts are finished so without further ado.......

This is 'Herself'. See any resemblence? I took one of our holiday pics and printed it out on A4 paper and then traced the main shapes and used the drawing as a guide to the main fabric pieces. I used my own hand dyes for the background and face and the shirt is an oil stick rubbing over the sole of my new sandals which then had a loose wash of lumiere fabric paint. My dear friend Carolyn Saxby who we recently caught up with in St Ives (more of that later) suggested that I bead the background and I'm pleased she did. The free machine embroidery is very very rough but I think it suits the style of the whole piece so I didn't worry how badly I was doing it!

Well, if you've got 'Herself' you should probably have 'Himself', so here he is.....

Scary or what?! I followed the same procedure as before and used my hand dyes for the face and backgrounds. DH likes to wear his silk tie waistcoats so I made up some fabric to resemble them. Boy, was that hard! I bonded the fabrics onto a base but it wasn't easy combining the shapes. What do you think to the beard and moustache? I butchered a crocheted doily to get the effect. As the JQ had to include buttons I used them to describe DH's spotty bow tie. For both quilts Kaffe Fassett's fabric came in very useful for the eyes.

I had great fun making both of these and I'd really like to have a go at something similar on a larger scale.

As you no doubt guessed we disappeared to St Ives for New Year and despite the best efforts of the weather to blow us away we had a lovely relaxed week with some beachy walks and full enjoyment of the beautiful views from the flat we rented.

This was the view in one direction towards the harbour and the Island.

And this is the view the other way across The Malakoff towards Godrevy Lighthouse and the coast beyond Hayle.

You would not expect to see such a glorious sky at this time of year would you?

We had a real mixture of weather while we were away, from glorious sunshine to howling gales and lashing rain.

I've got lots of lovely photographs to play with and add textures to.

St Ives is the third most popular place to spend New Year's Eve and the place was jumping! Sadly it threw it down with rain for the celebraitons but it did ease off in time for the fireworks. We wimped out and watched the whole proceedings from our flat (apartment).

You should be able to see the crowds on this rather blurry photo.

The fireworks were stupendous and very noisy!! I don't think cannons going off would have been any louder! YouTube have several videos of the spectacle but I think we had the best view as we were high up and could see all levels of the display. Sadly YouTube will not give me the code to embed the video here.

As I said earlier I met up with Carolyn while we were in St Ives and I'll bring you more about that next time.

Meanwhile, thank you all for your lovely Happy New Year messages, I cherish them all. We are already a week into the New Year and it will no doubt have all the high spots and low spots that every year brings but I do hope for all of us that there are more high spots than low. Happy Creativity! ♥

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T08:26:00.000Z

The dawning of a New Year! I hope that 2012 is a happy, healthy, creative and rewarding year for everyone doing things that you love with the people you love.

I'll be back soon. Gone beachcombing!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T22:22:00.003Z

I'm almost too late with my message as by now most of you will be enjoying your seasonal festivities but I would like to wish everyone the best that Christmas can bring, happy times with family, peaceful times in contemplation, time to relax and recharge your batteries and the day that you would wish for yourselves tomorrow.

Our own Christmas has started well. My Mum has been with us today and my stepdaughter and her fiance came to visit this afternoon. Tomorrow will be spent fairly quietly with Mum and then DH's sons will be here in the evening so all in all a gentle family time.

Thank you all for your Christmas wishes here and on Facebook.

Merry Christmas and I hope Santa is good to you :-) See you in 2012!

Good News and More Canaries

2011-12-18T22:14:00.000Z

I'm pleased and delighted to be able to tell you that we have at last completed the sale of my mother's house in Essex. We are having to sell it to pay for her care in a care home and have had a roller coaster ride over the past 6 months when the first proposed purchaser had to pull out. Happily we have been lucky enough to find another buyer and the sale has completed. What a great Christmas present for us all, although it is tinged with sadness as this was my mother's home for 49 years and my own home from the age of 9 until I went to college at the age of 18. At least now we can feel confident that the money is available for Mum's continuing care.

As is usual at this time of year time is rapidly disappearing and it's taken me over a week to follow up on my blog about our holiday in the Canaries. As you might expect from an artist I was always on the lookout for interesting textures and patterns in our wanderings ashore. These houses in back streets in Madeira and La Palma caught our eye.

I particularly like the house in the third image which not only looks as if part of it is upside down but has some lovely textures that invite stitched interpretation.

These wonderful tree trunk and seedpod shapes also caught our eye. The seedpods were about 10" long!

These amazing painted faces adorned doors in Madeira.

So much inspiration for future work!

It's amazing what unexpected sights you do see wandering about on a sunny autumn afternoon in the Canaries. We wondered what we had come across when these characters walked down the street:

It was a very surreal experience to sit in the sunshine and watch as all these people in turn came out and told their stories. Apparently we had come across a Festival of story telling and dance performed by La Mascara Theatre Group with the Vigord Jazz Dance Group. My DH has a good selection of more detailed photos here.

I leave you with a photo of two collages by Cesar Manrique (excuse the reflections as they are under glass). These two charmers are providing me with inspiration for my next two journal quilts which I really should have finished by now, especially with Christmas coming up. I have a busy week coming up but hopefully I will be able to show you progress on my versions by the end of the week.

Lanzarote 2

2011-12-09T22:21:00.001Z

This spacey looking view was taken at Manrique's former home. It's actually a coloured glass ball marking the edge of a path.

Instead of a traditional garden Lanzarote is covered in all kinds of cacti and succulents. You can probably tell by now that the sculpture above is one of Manrique's.

The walls that you can see above provide shelter for plants, most particularly grapevines which are an important crop in Lanzarote. At night the humidity is attracted to the hollows and is channelled to provide moisture to the plants.

Just like at Jameos del Agua the rooms at the Manrique Foundation are built in collapsed lava chambers.

Large picture windows give a view out to the lava field that the house is built in. If you click on the photo you should be able to see the folds of lava where they have cooled mid-flow. I have only seen volcanoes on the tv and as awesome as they are it amazing to see the evidence of their arrested flow looking as though it could be coming towards you.

Manrique collected many artworks in his life and many are housed here at the Foundation. This glass piece above is by Adolph Luther and concerns concave and convex surfaces.

More inspiration in the garden.

Lanzarote

2011-12-08T20:49:00.001Z

You probably don't notice anymore when I don't blog as the gaps are getting bigger but this last gap has been for a pleasurable purpose. DH and I have just had a holiday to the Canary Islands onboard P&O's ship Arcadia. I have never been to the Canaries before and I didn't know what to expect but I have been pleasantly surprised. We visited Madeira and 4 of the Canary Islands and it was wonderful to be in some lovely bright and warm sunshine.

The highlight of the whole trip for me was a tour we took on Lanzarote. I had always thought of Lanzarote as being a resort destination for a rowdy holiday, I had not appreciated what a fascinating place it is. The tour we took was focussed on the influence of Cesar Manrique, an artist and sculptor who was born on the island and who had a great influence over the island's development and growth. The first stop was Jameos del Agua a restaurant and concert venue built in a volcanic bubble. To begin with Jameos del Agua sits in a surreal landscape of volcanic rock covered in succulents giving the appearance of anthills.

The lobster is one of Manrique's sculptures which pepper the island. On arrival you go down a curving staircase into a fabulous grotto. Grotto only goes part way to describing the scene before you and the atmosphere it conjours up. I have never walked down inside a volcano before so all the different colours and lava formations were fascinating.

The entire place imbued a feeling of peace and calm, maybe because of the gentle music playing and the sound of birds singing, or because of the greenery all around.

Once you are down on the floor of the volcanic bubble you are surprised by the view through to a neighbouring bubble via a volcanic tube and a beautiful pool of water. The water is a beautiful turquoise and is the home of thousands of tiny white blind crabs no bigger than my finger nail.

All the tiny white specks above are crabs. They are unique to this location. Although there is hardly any rain on Lanzarote water dripped through the rock into the pool at one side.

When you can bear to tear yourself away from the first cavern and walk along the narrow walkway you come up another sequence of stairs through a beautiful garden and out into another roofless volcanic bubble and into this stunning garden and pool. The pool is deceptively deep and the blue and white colours sparkled in the clear light.

All too soon we were taken onto the next location connected with Manrique, the Manrique Foundation which had previously been Manrique's home.

More of this location another time. I took a lot of video so I'll try and load a bit on here if I can.

Sadness

2011-12-05T21:39:00.001Z

I have heard today of the premature death of Sarah Lawrence of Craftynotions (in the UK) who we all know well from Quilting and Stitching shows around the country and from her publications. This sudden and unexpected loss of such a vibrant lady is a shock and a very sad day. My thoughts are with her family and friends to whom I offer my condolences.

Through The Window

2011-11-25T12:00:00.000Z

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

2011-11-20T20:17:00.001Z

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!

2011-11-07T21:31:00.001Z

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!

Through The Window

2011-10-28T22:42:00.002+01:00

I think I mentioned before that I have recently joined a group that calls itself The International Quilt Challenge group. Our second challenge which is due for completion and reveal on 25 November is titled 'Through The Window' and I have been giving it a lot of thought over the past few weeks. My immediate, and probably obvious, first thought was 'Through the round window.....' as in Play School.

Similar to the last challenge, as soon as you start thinking about windows you see them everywhere (well, they are aren't they?) and you start thinking about every interpretation of 'through' and 'window'. A window to the past, a window through time, windows of the soul, window of opportunity, looking in through the window, looking out through the window. Window - an opening allowing a connection between one space and another, light pours in through the window, a surface that reflects light and its surroundings. A window can be many shapes; it can be clear, frosted, reinforced, mottled, distorted, etched, of many colours.

An abstract painting that I made on the subject of looking back through time which was made with a window cut from a photograph incorporated into layers of torn watercolour paper with crayon marks added and manipulated in Photoshop.

Inevitably, and to cut a long story short for the moment, my thoughts turned to stained glass windows, which I love for the light that they allow to pass into the room. The window above is part of the stained glass in Chester Cathedral and I have used part of it previously in a watercolour sketch (still need to find that).

In our local parish church we have a beautiful stained glass window by John Hayward entitles Christ Walks on the Water. With the Quilt Artist's eye that I now have I can see several ways of interpreting this window.

Over the years, and particularly in the past these stained glass windows were a way through which people who could not read learned the Bible stories. Over the years stained glass windows have become more abstract and convey their meaning in other ways.

As a way of finding my way into this challenge I thought I would play about with cut through fabrics, especially after reading an item by Naomi Renouf in the June 2010 issue of Workshop on the Web that I found on my computer.

I've started by layering scraps of fabrics onto a background and securing them under a layer of organza with stitching running at right angles to the run of the fabrics. Subsequently I cut through the channels deciding as I went along how far down to cut.

The next step is to machine at right angles to the first lines of stitch opening up and catching down each cut layer to reveal what lies beneath. (detail above)

I am quite pleased with the result so far. I feel it has some of the movement in the window in St Wulfram's church and I am excited to work it on a larger scale.

I have been trying to decide whether this would work with a more transparent feel to it so that light can actually shine through and I've made a further piece but have not achieved that transparnecy yet. Once you start thinking and looking there are a lot of ways of interpreting (light) through the window and I'm glad I've got a few more weeks to work on this project.

I have been trying to track down a link to a programme that brought home to me the power of stained glass some time ago and I can't find it. I think it was a clip of (?Rolf Harris/Michael Palin?) in a chapel with stained glass windows designed I think by Chagall or maybe Matisse. My overriding memory is of the presenter standing in the chapel with light from the window pouring over his fingers like water. For some reason the image took my breath away and brought a lump to my throat. Such is the power of light through a window.

Roman Blinds 2

2011-10-25T17:20:00.001+01:00

Thank you for your comments yesterday, I still have a few to reply to by email but as ever I do appreciate you taking the time to comment. As I've been busy trying out arrangements today i thought I'd get on and show you what I've been doing.

Yestrday evening I trimmed all the blocks to 8" squares. Sadly I had my opinion that I am not a traditional quilter reinforced as one set was slightly wonky so if anyone has a serious perfection gene please look away ;-)

As you can see I cut off the timiest slivers from each side to square the blocks up. Ideally the 45 degree angle should lay along the diagonal stitch line but I was adrift on a few.

Having trimmed all the squares up I then had a play with potential layouts.

First of all a basic layout (excuse the untidy and scruffy bedroom)

This keeps the 7 designs in their straight lines. Did you spot the deliberate mistake How did I miss that!

Layout 2, still in design lines but with what I call windmills.

Layout 3, diamonds.

Layout 4, Flying Geese.

Layout 5, a central star with blocks still in a uniform design arrangement.

Layout 6, central star with the blocks mixed up a bit.

And finally, layout 7 with the blocks mixed up and a small adjustment made to the arrangement compared to layout 6.

I don't think there's a lot to choose between 6 and 7. I don't like layout 1 or 4 but I do like 5 and 7. Because there are 6 rows and 7 designs of block you could play forever to balance the blocks so that you don't get obvious duplicates throughout.

I have pinned together in rows the blocks from layout 7 but I am not going to sew them yet as I have to decide whether to add sashing anywhere and I also need to select fabrics for borders to make the quilt big enough for a bed. I may yet change my mind about the layout too!

Roman Blinds

2011-10-24T19:06:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago at my monthly quilting group Trudi, who blogs as 'Quilting Prolifically' gave a workshop on piecing Roman Stripes (not Roman Blinds as I keep calling them!). Probably for the first time ever I have actually come home and finished off the project and made something with the blocks.

This cushion, which is a bit overstuffed until I can get the proper pad for it, is made with my Roman Stripes made from 2 commercial fabrics and my hand dyed greeny fabric and my hand dyed background fabric. As I ended up with 9 blocks I played about with them until I had an arrangement I liked.

The evening must have hit my inspired button as I couldn't wait to have a play with a collection of batik strips that I had bought last year and which were reclining in my drawer begging to be used. The first step was to sort the 2 and a half inch strips into group of light medium and dark and then to select groups of three to join together along their length.

Once you have joined each set of three strips you need to cut a 'backing' strip from your background fabric, the width and length of the joined strips. These two pieces are then sewn together with right sides facing. (Sorry I forgot to photograph that step). This is my background fabric:

Once the fabric sandwich is made the fun starts!

Take your quilting ruler and line the 45 degree line up along the bottom edge or line of stitching of your block. (The arrow above shows that I lined mine up with my stitch line). Once you're sure it's straight cut along the edge and discard the end piece.

Next slide the ruler up so that the 45 degree line lays along the top edge or top line of stitch and cut again.

You will end up with a triangle which opens out to reveal the backinground fabric and magically makes a square!

How good is that?! Continue along the strip and every subsequent strip until all your squares are cut and you are left with some excitingly shaped scraps! More photos to come!

I have currently got 42 blocks to play with and because of the width of strip I used my blocks will finish at about 7.5 inches so I have enough for a top which I will probably add borders to to make a bed quilt. At the moment I am trying to decide whether I could possibly make these up in a Quilt As You Go fashion. Any advice anyone?

Ally Pally

2011-10-09T21:33:00.003+01:00

was great fun and despite the vagaries of travelling by (delayed) train I enjoyed the day, not least for the enjoyment of the wonderful views over London and the beautiful building that is Alexandra Palace.

First task on arriving was to sit in the Palm Court and have some lunch and I couldn't resist taking a few photos of the reflections in the huge mirrored doors. Also in the collage above is the amazing Great Hall which towers above you. The stained glass window at the far end looks beautiful and I'm sure would inspire many a quilter.

The first thing that greets you as you hand over your ticket and walk into the exhibition is the Battle of Prestonpans Tapestry.

The tapestry was created by more than 250 embroiderers from across Scotland and tells the story of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. It is over 104m in length. The tapestry was designed by Andrew Crummy who designed each one metre panel which would then be brought together to form the whole tapestry. My photograph shows only part of the tapestry.

I had decided to concentrate on the textile hall as my time was limited and there was plenty to see. Immediately on entering the room I was stopped in my tracks by the Textile Study Group. This group of artists produce exciting and inspirational work and this exhibition is accompanied by a postcard from each artist's personal collection and an explanation of how it has influenced the development of their art practice.

This beautifully delicate piece titled 'In Decline' by Shelley Rhodes spoke to me with its subtle colours and variety of marks. If you click on the photo you should be able to read about her inspiration. Ruth Issett's work needs so introduction and was as brilliantly colourful as Shelley's was delicate.

I didn't make a note of the title of this piece but love it for its colour and vitality. It should be on prescription!

Gwen Hedley's piece was close to my heart:

This is just a part of the piece which as you can see is bound parcels of found objects from beaches. Gwen's statement says that 'mark and message are more significant than medium'. It is titled 'Excerpts from a Visual Diary'.

The Textile Study Group exhibition was accompanied by a book 'Individual and Collective' sponsored by an Arts Council grant and at £5 it is an absolute steal!

(Oops! Is that shopping I see there?)

After a chat with Mary Sleigh (no photo sorry) I went in search of Dale Rollerson and spent a very happy time indulging my shopping gene!

Dale's stand was very busy so we only had time for a very brief chat but I enjoyed the beautiful colours that abound in the fibres she had on sale.

Prefelts, beautifully dyed scrim, sari silk, threads, inspiration pack, silk weaving ends and gorgeous copper buttons all came home with me, not to mention a pack of sponge letters and numbers for printing. I think I benefitted form the exchange rate Dale was using. Thank you Dale :-)

The cornerstone of the exhibition was dedicated to the memory of Beryl Dean who was an exceptional ecclesiastical embroiderer. Photography was not allowed of the main part of the exhibition but I did photograph a piece made in collaboration with Alice Kettle which was allowed.

Do go and Google Beryl Dean and have a look at the images for her as her work is amazing and timeless.

Chungie Lee's beautiful and diaphanous Pojagi (Po-jah-ki) fascinated me and I loved Jilli Blackwood's wonderful layered and hand embroidered clothing and hangings. I wish I could be as free and expressive.

There was much more to see in the exhibition and I did manage to get round all the Halls but I kept well away form the majority of the trade stands as I didn't want to exhaust myself.

The final highlight of the day was the walk back to Alexandra Palace railway station on a crisp and sunny autumn afternoon. The view from the terrace of Ally Pally is wonderful with the whole of London spread before me. I was particularly struck by the contrast of urban habitation set against the modern skyscrapers in the background.

Also to be seen in the distance was the skeleton of the 2012 Olympic stadium.

If you click on the image above you will see the triangular shapes of the stadium. Not long now till the Olympics!

This was my first visit to Ally Pally and it lived up to expectations and helped to give me a lift. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the exhibition and the enthusiasm of the young students who were keenly gathering ideas and inspiration and interviewing the exhibitors with much more confidence than I had at their age.

It was interesting to see the impressive Victorian building that is Alexandra Palace and to be reminded of its history in the pioneering days of British Broadcasting.

Thank you, everyone, for your lovely messages of support and encouragement. I appreciate the support of this wonderful community and I know we will get through these trying days. We are making progress and I have a lot to be thankful for, not least that my Mum is safe and we can spend time together. Small steps will make progress and my mood will improve I'm sure.

Light and Shadow

2011-10-04T22:57:00.001+01:00

Where to start? Have you noticed how it gets harder to start the longer time there is between posts? Added to that I have been slipping into a slough of despond and coupled with Blogger being difficult I really haven't the patience to blog, but here goes!

I was recently invited to join a new challenge group and we have just completed our first challenge. There are 16 of us in the group with members from across the world and it looks like being a really exciting experience.

Annabel set the first challenge as Light and Shadow and after and initial panic and some brainstorming I eventually settled into exploring the effects I had photographed on a visit to the Eden Project in Cornwall.

The biomes which house the plants are made up from hexagonal shapes and I was taken with the striking shadows cast on a massive rock at the back of the biome.

My initial thought was to manipulate the image in photoshop and I was quite surprised and excited by the effects.

I finally settled on the image above and decided to work it on my embellisher which has been sadly neglected if not ignored lately. I used part of an old blanket as a base and used prefelt, silk scarf, chiffon, wool tops and carded wool to build the design.

I felt (no pun intended) that the large dark area on the right was a bit overpowering as I had used a piece of pre-felt for the shape so I pulled bits of it off and needle felted some lighter wool from the back. Overall I am quite pleased with the final effect although I may add some stitch and I still have to decide how to finish the edge.

The International Quilt Challenge Group is a very illustrious group and I feel a bit inadequate in such experienced company but I have enjoyed the experience of this first challenge. I probably should have mentioned that my piece is A3 size. The next challenge, due in November, is 'Through The Window'. I have had a few thoughts about possible interpretations but I need to find some time to sit down and work them through. 'Through the Window' could have many interpretations, both literal and not so literal so I shall have to stir the old reluctant brainbox into life and hope for inspiration.

I should own up to feeling very low lately. I don't like to bring personal stuff to the blog, especially negative stuff, but I am down in a bit of a hole at the moment and blogging and facebooking are both feeling like hills to climb (not to mention tackling the tip that is my house at the moment!). The sale of my Mum's house fell through today (we need to sell it to pay for her care) so you can understand that that felt like the final straw in a rubbish year but a bloody good roar and a couple of soaked hankies has helped me get a few things into perspective and it's not the end of the world. Onward and upward! (A trip to Ally Pally on Thursday to meet Dale Rollerson who will be there from Australia should be a helpful pick-me-up!)

So Lucky

2011-09-19T20:43:00.002+01:00

Just a few weeks ago I entered a giveaway on Kathleen Loomis's blog and was amazed and delighted to find I had won! My prize is a stunning book published by Lark Crafts.

The book has arrived really quickly direct from the publishers and it cost them a fortune to send so I am really grateful.

As you can see from the back cover the book includes work from forty leading contemporary international quilters. I have only had time to dip into the book but it looks very exciting and I can't wait to relax and have a really good browse. Kathleen will eventually be writing a review of the book. I hope she's received her copy by now!

Here's a little glimpse at some of the inside pages. I've kept the images small to respect the artists' copyright.

This is such a beautiful book that I may have to buy Volume 1!

Kathleen runs a very interesting, inspiring and thought provoking blog so do pop over and visit.

Ok So Who Stole September?

2011-09-18T21:27:00.001+01:00

There was I saying we're suddenly in September and before I can look round we're nearly through it! I have been very remiss in not blogging but I have several excuses/reasons which I won't bore you with. The main reason is that I have been having very aggravating problems with my internet connection and also with Firefox. I have now resorted to Internet Explorer so let's see if I can get a post up on that.

Where to begin? I have been trying manically to catch up on two projects that I should have been well on with by now. The first is the Journal Quilts for June to September for the Contemporary Quilt Group which is part of the Quilters Guild of Great Britain. (Have you voted yet for them in the Lottery Awards?) I have kept going round in circles trying to decide what to do and made a start on some pieced letters but found it took an awful lot of time. for what it's worth I'll show you my effort.

I used some randomly pieced squares that I had made previouls but found it taxed my little brain to devise the letters. In case it's not clear to you the quilt above should spell out 'Barcelona'.

Having decided this was going to take too long I got a sudden flash of inspiration after reading Quilting Arts for August/September and this article by Jennifer Solon.

Jennifer's method is to make collages from paper and fabric onto a felt base. Collage I can do so I set to and had a play.

Sadly I forgot to take any photos before I cut my base up (I started with a 20"ish square and made 4 separate collages over a bondaweb surface. Above is one of the collages before I trimmed it down with some of the adjacent collage to the left.

This is the JQ for June and apart form satin stitching the edge it is finished.

This one is centred around a fabric postcard that I received in a swap and I am just going to satin stitch this one too (after adding a backing).

The two final quilts shown above need further work and I am planning to add some paint and maybe some printing. I have to have them finished by the end of this week as I won't have full computer access next week and the deadline is the end of the month.

I have really enjoyed making these collages and have Jennifer Solon to thank for getting my creativity moving again. I did say after FOQ that I was going to make a collage a day but I haven't even managed one a week since then!

As well as leaving my JQs till the last minute (no change there then) I have to complete a challenge piece for a new group I have joined. The theme is 'Light and Shadow' and while I had plenty of ideas written on a mind map my first effort has had to be shelved as it involved a lot of hand stitching and my hands complained. That piece will now have to be a long term, sew for half an hour every day or so, project. Instead I have decided to work with my embellisher which is much easier on the hands and I am making progress. Fingers crossed I may just be ready for the reveal on Friday.

The trouble with not blogging for a fortnight is you forget what you've been doing (it's my age!) I did have a very sweet surprise though on Saturday. The very lovely Dilly sent me a funny card to cheer me up. How did she know?

Dilly is a very speshol wagon (dragon) and lives in Colchester with Bob T Bear Esq. Don't you love the magic of blogland with friends who think of you when they have their own worries to contend with? Thank you Dilly :-) Mweah!

I have been spending quite a bit of time trying to sort out the chaos that is my home and workroom and I think I can actually see light at the end of the tunnel. I had great plans to spend the summer dyeing and printing but the transfer of Mum's belongings and Mum herself put those plans on the 'back burner'. There's nothing like clearing out someone's house for making you look at your own quagmire and we have been ridding out cupboards and shelves to try and create some more usable storage space. I doubt I will get it sorted completely this month but I'm getting there.

Well, while I'm winning I'll hit the publish button and hope Blogger doesn't eat this post. If you are waiting to receive some lace doillies from me I haven't forgotten, I will be getting them in the post soon. I have been having trouble getting my comments posted on your blogs so apologies for that. Apparently Blogger thinks I'm not qualified to log in even though I already am and have been reading the blogs. Go figure!

PS Downton Abbey is back! Yay!!!

PPS By the way, did you see the Lottery show last night? In case you didn't and in case you haven't voted yet would you please go here and vote for the Folding the Quilts Project in the Final of the National Lottery Awards. The Quilt Museum in York is through to the final and is in the running to win funds to promote its educational and volunteer project. This is not just a project for quilters but can have far reaching benefits in the wider community. If you've already voted, thank you! The vote closes midday on 26 September so click here and vote!

OMG It's September Already!

2011-09-02T21:53:00.000+01:00

One minute we're enjoying Festival of Quilts in August and the next time you look round it's September! Mind you, it has been ushered in with some very pleasant warm temperatures here in the Eastern half of England.

When I last blogged over a fortnight ago (!) I hadn't quite finished writing about the Festival of Quilts I still had one or two things more to say about the exhibits at the exhibition and of course about shopping! Alongside the quilts that are the main feature of the exhibition there was a section dedicated to Quilt Creations. This amazing cabinet was attracting a lot of attention.

Entitled 'Box of Delights' the cabinet was made by Kate Crossley who comes from Oxford.

The cabinet is made of paper and fabric mache with hand and machine quilting and includes found objects (innumerable), beads, wire acid etching and printing.

If you click on the photos you should be able to see just some of the amazing work that has gone into this work. Sadly I have not been able to find any online presence for Kate. As I've been scouring the catalogue looking for the artist of my next photo I've discovered that Kate entered at least three other pieces. Busy girl!

Other quilts I enjoyed were

'Rock Face' by Patricia A'Bear from South Africa. This is two quilts, one hanging in front of the other and comes from studying rock paintings and looking beyond them to the rock formations beneath.

This lively quilt featuring African fabrics, I think by Helen Conway. (Forgive me if I'm wrong).

Cute cats! Sadly I can't find the maker's name.

You may have noticed in an earlier photo I was wearing this name badge. Laura and Linda Kemshall challenged people to make a name badge and in return, on turning up at their stand with said badge, they were giving out a small gift. I was lucky enough to receive these beautiful hand dyed threads which are now waiting for a project, something watery comes to mind.

I didn't do a huge amount of shopping but I did treat myself to the ironing pad/cutting board that the other items are sitting on. The board is a birthday gift from my stepmum :-)

I did succumb to some fabric including some lovely silk noil to print on and dye when I can find the time and energy.

I had a fantastic time at FOQ and as usual I cannot wiat for next year to do it all again. I won't have to wait too long for another quilt show though as I've just booked onto a coach going to the Grosvenor Show at Chilford Hall in November.

Before I go can I just ask you to click on the logo in the right hand sidebar and vote once more for the Folding the Quilts Project which is in the Final of the National Lottery Awards. Thank you so much ♥

FOQ 2

2011-08-17T19:57:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Linda who blogs as Blue Eyed Girl I have made the above mosaic using a programme called Photoscape. Many thanks Linda, I shall have some fun with it :-)

I've seen a few blogs saying that they thought the festival was quieter than usual, maybe because of the financial situation worldwide and the unfortunate social unrest in the preceding days. That may be so but the aisles appeared to be thronging to me and I heard a good selection of international voices including some American, French, German, East European, Dutch and Irish. I do love the international flavour of this exhibition and the music of tongues other than my own.

Saturday morning the Rise and Shine Breakfast was held by my Region 10 of the Quilter's'Guild and was well attended with everyone enjoying a selection of demonstrations and hands on mini projects and a gae of quilt bingo!

The tombola themed on 'Put 'Em Ins' attracted constant attention throughout the 4 days and was a great success. I won a fabric bowl and a little box that I think is probably supposed to hold a cotton reel but I used it for my small change!

The detail shown above comes from a quilt called 'Yellow Roses' by Margit Nenning from Austria. Margit describes it as a 'Memory quilt, old bedclothes of my mother,aunt,friends and myself, sewn with traditional stars in a contemporary way'. It rang a chord with me as I am full of thoughts of using the linens I have from mum and Grace. The textiles are mostly old white cotton fabrics and old embroidery from the Voralberg area of Austria. Margit won the Contemporary Large Amateur award at FOQ 2008. (page 16)

Gillian Cooper's installation has been shown on several other blogs and was very striking. Perversely what I liked as much as the figures was the depiction of clouds on the sheer fabrics.

This is just a small part of a Guinness Book of Records entry by a group of international quilters (I think) which was over 6 metres in length. Very stupidly I didn't write down the details so I'll just have to leave you to enjoy the quirky houses. The quilt has successfully been accepted for the Guinness Book of Records.

This jolly helter skelter was made by Luke Daymond for the age 12-16 age group. Sadly it didn't win a prize despite the fact that Luke did everything himself and also included lights that worked. The quilt was made under the title 'All the fun of the Fair'.

I love Gannets for their beauitufl plummets into the water and so I couldn't help but like this entry in the Miniature Quilts by Sandra Wyman.

I've been told I have to include my own quilt so here it is with the proud artist alongside. My quilt arrived back with me this morning along with the judge's comments and I'm pleased to say they were kind to me. I've been blowing my trumpet on Facebook so I'll show you the judge's comments in case you've never seen what they look for:

Between 'excellent' on the one hand and 'good' on the other I am more than happy with the comments and I'm beginning to see my quilt with fresh eyes.

Yet again I'm having trouble with Blogger and with my browser so I'll be back later with a little more.

FOQ

2011-08-16T09:57:00.002+01:00

Where to start? As usual Festival of Quilts has been a wonderful experience and I have taken way too many photographs. Several friends have already blogged their visits so there are a lot of images already out there in blogland. I shall do my usual thing of burbling on and see where we go.

The first thing I made a bee-line for was Carolyn's beautiful St Ives inspired quilt. The quilt is titled 'Seaside Cottages' and is made from beautiful silk fabrics which have been painted and dyedand is embellished with heat distressed chiffons, found objects, beads and hand embroidery. You may be able to see the very delcate embroidered fabric that Carolyn incorporated into the quilt and she has included digital images of views of St Ives and beautiful cobbled streets. I'm a St Ives devotee but this quilt is a delight with so much to look at. (If you follow the link to Carolyn's blog you will be able to read a little about her journey with this quilt. You'll need to scroll down a bit).

Next port of call was Annabel's wonderful 'Life, Measure of Time' quilt (left above) which was attracting constant and interested attention. It had been hung next to another quilt including figures titled 'Do You Remember' but was attracting much more attention and discussion (despite my photo above). You can read Annabel's own story about her quilt here. Very deservedly Annabel won a 'Highly Commended' for this quilt. From my own point of view I was blown away by the power of the painting of the female figure. This lady stopped me in my tracks as I arrived to view Annabel's work.

This is Sandra Wyman's 'Digging For Bait' which I love for its piecing and the light it describes.

I liked this quilt for its surface texture. It's entitled Crack't and describes the patterns and plants on stone. It is by Ruth Brown from Hull. I have just had a revelatory moment and think that this may be the work of Ruth Brown who lives in the Humber Estuary and trades as Stone Creek Silk. The surface was created from breakdown printing.

The Tentmakers of Cairo were attracting a lot of attention and their work is phenomenal. You have probably seen other views of their stand elsewhere and all of the pieces on sale were ridiculously cheap by our standards. Sadly, because their work is associated with funerals in Egypt tourists are not directed to see them when on holiday so they do not command a price sommensurate with their skills in their own country. I watched this man working for a short while and the speed he stitched at was phenomenal! I wish now I had taken some more detailed images but the stand was heaving!

This stunning piece of silk is by Regina Benson, one of the professional exhibitors. This stand had me mesmerised! Regina often starts with black cloth which she discharges, sometimes over snow. You can read her own statement below.

Another of Regina's pieces discharged on snow. You can go to Regina's website here.

An artist I had not met before was Mary Lloyd Jones who is a renowned Welsh artist. Why had I not seen her before? Her work is so exciting and inpired me so much.

You may not be able to see it clearly from my photos but Mary's work includes text both ancient and modern and has a very painterly quality.

Back to the general exhibition this quilt is titled 'Rock Face' and is in fact 2 quilts one hung in fron of the other. I love it for it's colours (not surprising!) and its design. It is by Patricia A'Bear from Gauteng South Africa.

I was asked on my last post about the artist using re-purposed household linens and ephemera. The artist was Jennifer Hollingdale and her work is beautiful and quite poignant. she makes use of old linens and old packaging, some of which she has had made into printing screens so that she can repeat the image. She then combines the screened image with found objects like pins that would have originally gone with the packaging.

Blogger is now sulking so I'll continue next time :-)

Reminders of a Bygone Age

2011-08-14T20:55:00.000+01:00

I should have posted these photos before I went to the Festival of Quilts but I ran out of time so excuse me if I just catch up before I start posting about the FOQ extravaganza.

We have been in the process of sorting out my friend Grace's house as she hadn't any family to do it for her. In the process I have come across some very interesting things from the past that will be sure to find their way into some art work.

As you can see I've found a mountain of these crocheted doillies, many more than I could use so if you would like some do leave me a comment. Grace would love to know that they were being put to a creative use.

These silk flags were given away with cigarettes back in the 1930's (we think) and have been hidden away from the light and thus are still lovely and bright, if a little dusty.

These beautiful flowers were given away by Kensitas cigarettes in the early 1930's and I almost discarded the little pieces of paper as I didn't realise they were hiding these beauties. Fortunately I had a second look and you can imagine my delight and surprise when I opened the first and found the jewel like colours inside. Sadly there is not a full set but there are quite a lot of doubles and trebles so I may well use a few in an art quilt. While I was at the Festival of Quilts I saw several pieces that inspired me and suggested a use for some of the things I have found so I may use some of these beautiful woven tags. (More of that in my FOQ posts).

Aren't these embroidered linens beautiful? Some of them show signs of a lot of use over the years.

This little gadget looks like a variation on the old cardboard rings that I used to make as a child to make pom poms.

Sadly we are having to clear the house tomorrow with the help of a local charity so, in the light of my new inspiration, I have been round there again today to make sure I haven't missed anything and have rescued some more linens and sewing paraphenalia. I just need to collect about 12 woollen blankets tomorrow before the clearers go in! My friend who took us for the natural dyeing a few weeks ago has a use for them so they won't end up as rags.

I've just spent 3 days in Birmingham at the Festival of Quilts and am still processing all the photos I took so I'll post about my trip soon. It was a fabulous show and I met up with lots of people, not to mention fellow bloggers!

It was wonderful to put flesh and blood to virtual friends. Pictured here are, from left to right, me, someone I don't know (sorry missed her name), Carol McFee (Textiel Tales), Carolyn (Loves Stiching Red), Mags (DigitalGran), Jackie Cardy (DogDaisyChains), Gina (Fan My Flame), Chrissie Galley, then two ladies standing who I don't know and Sue Krekorian (seated) (Magic Armchair Traveller). Sandra (The Dyer's Hand) and Penny arrived after this photo was taken and most of the girls had drifted off to continue their viewing and shopping so escaped being captured for posterity.

Finally, after a hectic few days you would have thought that I would have had chance to relax at home to day but, no, after going to Grace's house this morning I went into town to meet up with some old friends, some of whom I haven't seen for 37 years! 37 years!!! Where did they go?

This motley crew trained to be teachers in the 70's and most of them made it (except for me!) It was lovely to have a catch up. :-)

Thank you's

2011-08-01T22:40:00.000+01:00

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who left me 'Happy Birthday' messages here and on Facebook. I felt really spoilt having so many lovely messages. That is one of the wonderful benefits to participating in the network of blogging and communicating via Facebook.

I had a lovely day on my birthday. My friend Ann and I repeated last year's birthday visit to the Quilt Museum in York. The two exhibitions on at the moment and until 29 August are 'Celebrations' and 'Made inYorkshire' and both are interesting and stimulating. Sadly no photography is allowed but do go and see the exhibitions if you get the chance. I was particularly struck by the work of Carol Coleman who is a textile artist and whose work defies belief. You can see an image of the piece displayed at York here. If the link doesn't work just check out Carol's gallery.

The work of Caroline Dunn also impressed me. Her mixed media textile pieces are layered and include stitched detail and have a beautiful atmosphere to them. If you follow the link and scroll down you will see some of her work including the piece with crows which is in the exhibition.

As you might expect birthday outings call for a little retail therapy. My dear DH gave me some money to treat myself with and it would have been churlish of me not to make the best effort for him ;-)

I didn't go too mad, did I? I couldn't resist the batiks and I am planning to use the postbox fabric for a pennant for the Olympics. If you haven't heard of this idea yet there is still time to join in. I will be adding a link in my sidebar to the Quilts 4 London site where you can find full details of how to make a pennant which will be given to one of the competitiors in the London Olympics 2012. I haven't decided what I will do yet but it is top of my to-do list.

My dear friend Ann thoroughly spoilt me with her birthday present:

She made me this beautiful sewing pouch which will be a pleasure to take with me whenever I want to take a portable sewing project. It is so beautifully made and has some beautiful beaded details. I believe the pattern came from a Popular Patchwork magazine. And what about that gorgeous batik?!!! The piece on the left is so vibrant and I will have to find a special project for it. Maybe another Round Robin, which is where I used the last piece Ann gave me.

The crowning glory of my birthday was a very special card from my mum. My DH made her one of his lovely photo cards for me and expected that he would have to write it for her but she took the pen and wrote me the most beautiful message. I have to admit it brought me to sobbing tears as the last time she wrote a card, for her brother, she got the words all jumbled but this time everything was in the right order. My DH tells me the only word she asked him how to spell was 'my'!

Since last week we have been busy clearing some of the things from my friend Grace's house so things have been very hectic. I have found quite a lot of vintage linens and lace so I will show you those another time. It is a sad task but we keep finding things that bring back happy memories amongst the sad moments and I have found some wonderful photographs dating back more than a hundred years.

I can't resist showing you this beautiful embroidery

Sadly I don't know who the embroiderer was. Grace would have been 27 at this time and busy working but maybe she stitched it. Funnily enough we never really discussed embroidery when she was alive so it may have been her mother's work. More to come next time!

Natural Dyeing

2011-07-26T21:10:00.000+01:00

Time seems to zip past me in a blur these days, probably something to do with the fact that I have been frantically working on my quilt for the Festival of Quilts. Happily I put the final stitches in last night and it is even now winging its way to the Shippers who will take it to the NEC. I shall contain my excitement (not) and show it to you after the exhibition,mostly because I can't be bothered to go and fetch my camera and upload the photo I took this morning! Lazy beggar!

When I wasn't working on my quilt I have been to another workshop. This one was tutored by my friend Angela who blogs as Fenland Textiles. We had a really lovely and leisurely day so that while I started out feeling a bit stressed by the end of the day I was tired but relaxed and had some lovely fabric samples to boot!

The day started with Angela introducing the natural products we would be dyeing with and these were madder, weld, cochineal, brazilwood, logwood, cutch, dandelion and birch bark.

Each of the dyestuffs were boiled up and then simmered until the colour looked strong enough (technical term) and then we had to cleverly drain off the liquid, remembering not to let it go down the drain! The dye was then returned to the pan and the fabric and yarn samples simmered further. By the end of the day we each had a group of samples of each colour. Angela was a star for preparing 8 packs of 9 samples of various fabric, lace, yarn etc. That's a mountain of small squares and acres of yarn tied with little snippets of cotton.

Angela had brought some samples of ready dyed fabrics and yarns to give us an idea of where we were heading

Our own samples were hung up to dry over lunch

and we dyed just as much in the afternoon session but I didn't get chance to photograph them before they were packed away to take home.

The results above are, clockwise from top left, cutch, cochineal, brazilwood, weld (bottom right), birchbark, daffodil, logwood and madder (centre). The daffodil came out a very delicate colour and the logwood is a gorgoeus colour. I should point out that all the fabric and yarn had been mordanted by Angela before we started.

I am used to dyeing with Procion dyes which give you a trong colour but I really like these gentle hues and may well investigate dyeing from natural sources further.

Angela has prepared a proper dye book from her own samples and I still have to do that with mine. I do hope to use the dyed fabrics in a project so I keep a permanent reminder of the workshop. I should say that the workshop took place at Unique Cottage Studios near Spalding.

I thought you might like a little news of my mum, not wishing to bore you but I do like to share good news. Mum is doing really well and has had another visit from some very special friends from home.

Doesn't she look happy! Mum coped really well with the visit and enjoyed the conversation, just taking a little time out when she couldn't quite keep up with everything.

As you'd expect when friends get together food played a part. We went out to a local pub for Sunday lunch and mum decided she would share a dessert with her fiend. We tried to tell her that the pud would be too big but she assured us she could eat it ;-)

What do you think? ROFL Mum's eyes nearly popped out of her head! And the laughter went on and on :-) Fortunately there were three willing volunteers (well, sort of willing) to help her work her way through this mountain (which of course is obscene bearing in mind what's happening in Africa).

All in all a wonderful day full of laughter and memories. It is wonderful that people should take time to travel all the way to Lincolnshire to visit Mum.

What was that? "Get off your lazy butt and phtograph your quilt!" Oh, all right then. I don't think there is anything to stop me showing you my entry to FOQ as it's not a juried show and I am definitely not in line for any of the prizes.

Not the best quality photo but you get the general idea. The quilt is a turning nine patch which I then cross cut so it's a disappearing 9 patch, hence the title 'Turning, Disappearing'. It incorporates altered digital images printed on organza and I quilted it with a wavy pattern. I don't mean to gripe but I am disappointed in it because I wanted to be much more adventurous but circumstances prevented that. I am at least relieved that I have met the target and it's now in the post so there won't be a gap on the wall with my name on it. If you're going to Festival of Quilts it's number 330. The fabrics are nearly all my own hand dyes.

Momoyama

2011-07-12T21:35:00.001+01:00

Despite the fact that my entry for the Festival of Quilts still isn't made I have been indulging in some displacement activity. My excuse is I've runout of Extravorganza and I'm waiting for a delivery. So last Thursday I went to my monthly quilt group and joined in with a day of bag making.

The book was based on a pattern from this book and despite finding the cutting instructions a bit confusing the bag went together smoothly. (You can look inside the book here.)

The pattern confused me because it seemed to be referring to the front focus piece as the back.

The back was pieced to include some of my hand dyed fabric and I decided to use a pattern stitch from my machine for some of the top stitching.

These dangly details on the sides (otherwise known as ties) were probably the hardest part. My DH had to help me turn them through! (I've just realised the toggles belong to another pattern so I could have just left the ties plain, or maybe stitched a large bead or button on. They were fun to make though despite the turning problems).

Several ladies finished their bags on the day but I had to spend the best part of a further day finishing mine. You can see another version of this Momoyama bag on my friend's blog here. Wendy made her bag without the aid of a tutor or a safety net ;-)

PS You may have noticed a photo of Belstead House where we had our Summer School at the top of my sidebar. Plans are afoot to close this excellent Learning Centre next year and a petition has been organised to try and change the Council's mind. I think we are all aware of the sad lack of resources available to adults wanting to increase their learning so please consider clicking the link and signing the petition. The deadline is next Tuesday 19 July.

Summer School

2011-07-09T22:06:00.000+01:00

It hardly seems possible that a week ago I was enjoying a wonderful weekend in the company of some lovely ladies who share my passion for Contemporary Quilting or textile art. Belstead House in Ipswich was the venue for a whole weekend of hard but stimulating work with Jo Budd. Other classes being held were with Linda Maynard for Screen Printing and Helen Parrott for hand stitching. My class with Jo Budd was titled 'From Microcosm to Macrocosm' and would involve painting and printing fabric with a view to producing abstract textile pieces.

I have to confess to being apprehensive about the whole experience but I needn't have worried. Jo was a very sympathetic and supportive teacher and my fellow classmates were all very friendly.

On Friday night, after a very enjoyable dinner and a welcome drink, we adjourned to the classroom for a very hectic time making marks with different types of binders, both opaque, white and clear, on different weights of fabric. These were left to dry overnight and would form a starting point for applying dyes on Saturday morning. Sadly I didn't photograph this stage of proceedings and anyway, it would have been a very boring photo as some of the marks were barely visible.

On Saturday after a hearty breakfast, yes, even I ate a cooked breakfast, we got into the business of applying dye mixed with a binder to the prepared fabric and then moved on to making monoprints.

You can see that our workspace was a hive of industry with none of us really knowing where we were headed.

To help us view all of our pieces we each had a display board or sheet of insulation board.

This was my board. You can see the results of the 'resist' technique at the top of the baord. I still have to wash those pieces out so Iexpect they will look much different when I've done that.

After dinner on Saturday we adjourned to the gardens for a review of existing work that we had all brought with us.

The yew hedge provided an impromtu display wall.

Sunday morning saw us up bright and early and back in the studio ironing the fabrics we had printed the day before (before breakfaast, I might add!). Then the real work began (not that we weren't exhausted already!).

Jo was keen that we should all work in natural daylight so work stations were moved to take advantage of any available daylight, including the garden.

I had really looked forward to this final part but I found it soooo difficult! My planned method of constructing a layered seascape didn't seem to work and eventually I threw everything back down onto the work bench and started again.

These were my second attempts:

While I felt that a lot of my fabrics had similar marks these three above, together with a sheer overlay on the lower right area, looked as though they would work. With Jo's input they grew into this:

It made quite a difference widening the view and I don't know why I didn't try this myself.

The arrangement above became split to give this

and I have a couple more possible compositions to work with. The idea now is to use stitch both to bond the pieces to their base fabrics and also to provide surface interest and texture. You may have a while to wait as I have to finish my quilt for Festival of Quilts first.

A quick glimpse of the screen printing room.

and of the hand stitching room. We were all so busy that there was very little time to look at everyone else's work although there was provision in the schedule for this.

Well, I have more to bring you up to date with but I'd better save it for another post or you will be nodding off! I apologise for the randomness of image size when you click on in this post but I've got a new laptop and I am also working with Photoshop Elements 6 and I'm not familiar with all its eccentricities, most particularly how it stores it's photos. I seem to be saving countless copies of things in various folders. I've also taken so many photos lately that I just havn't had time to re-size them all.

Been 'n gone 'n Back Again!

2011-06-30T18:11:00.000+01:00

Where does the time go? I just cannot find enough hours in the day at the moment and it's not going to get any better any time soon. But I'm not complaining. Happily good things are happening at the moment.

Last week we had a lovely break away on the Isle of Wight, just off the south coast of England. We went away with our local coach company so there was no driving to worry about and we could relax from the off. And boy, did we need it. Despite our earlier holiday in St Ives we both needed a good rest. We stayed at the Melbourne Ardenlea Hotel and enjoyed using its pool which we had to ourselves each time we went in. Very decadent!

We had a very leisurely week, which was just what I needed, but we did get out and about and of course, there were photo opportunities.

First port of call was Osborne House which was the favourite holiday home of Queen Victoria. While our friends toured the house DH and I spent time in the gardens looking for patterns and textures.

I think these dragons were friendly!

All around the terrace gardens were these beautiful ornate stands of magnolia.

Inspiration for quilting patterns?

I do like views through interesting shaped windows. This was in the Swiss Cottage in the grounds of Osborne House. The house was built for the children of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert but was used by all the family.

Not wonderfully exciting but I have plans for this textured planking in Photoshop.

Equally this fern design on a garden bench is due for some playtime.

This beautiful beach in Shanklin was the scene of a pleasant couple of hours of beachcombing . There had been many falls of the cliff face and as a result there are lots of different types of stone on the beach.

There is potential in these pics for some design work.

Not quite up to the standard of Alum Bay, the cliffs at Shanklin have distinctive layers of colour.

Speaking of colour, how about this gorgeous stone?

This beautiful shell is embedded in a large rock and it was about10" (25cms) across. How many years had that been held unseen until the stone fell and shattered on the beach?

The highlight of the week, apart from having a lovely swimming pool to ourselves, was a reunion with my best friend from school! I had not seen L since 1974! Can you believe it? We had kept in touch loosely for a while after I left school to come to college in Lincolnshire but life pulled us in different directions and although we each knew where the other was we never got round to meeting up until now when I decided to contact L as she lives near the Isle of Wight.

It was amazing to catch up and spend a delightful couple of hours over tea and cakes (and a beer for the men!) in a lovely cafe/pub. The years fell away and we just picked up where we left off. We both hope that it will not be another 37 years before we meet up again! (don't think we've got that many years left!)

And finally, I am beside myself with excitement!!! Tomorrow I am off to Belstead House near Ipswich for a weekend in the company of very talented ladies and the most amazing tutor! I am going to Contemporary Quilt Group Summer School and my classes are with Jo Budd who I have spoken about before. Her colours are wonderfully subtle and she creates wonderful textures with her use of dyes and stitch:

I wrote this about her exhibition at Festival of Quilts in 2007:

"An artist called Jo Budd had an exhibition of large textiles which you can see in the background of this photo:

Her work is beautiful. I think work spanning different periods were on display here. The piece you can see here looked like very fine materials which had been dyed and had been stitched by hand to provide surface texture. The edges of the fabrics were frayed where they overlapped. I thought her work was inspirational with great textures and I will be looking into her work some more."

It has taken me 4 years to get the chance to work with her and I am so looking forward to the weekend. Mind you, I will probably be totally horizontal by the time I get back on Sunday evening. Our schedule shows that the evening work session goes on till 21.45! Eeeek! Someone has mentioned wine though so there is some hope! ;-) I'll be back some time next week to show you what we get up to.

Yvonne Brown

2011-06-18T21:14:00.001+01:00

Today I've had some time out and spent a very rewarding day in a workshop led by Yvonne Brown at Long Bennington, a village not far from my home town. I was offered the place at the last minute and I'm really pleased I accepted it as Yvonne had lots of ideas and has sparked my creativity again.

Our task for the day was to decorate fabric paper to make a book cover and Yvonne had generously prepared all the fabric paper for us in glorious jewel colours. As ever I found it a bit daunting at first to start designing and working on my piece but with one or two tips from Yvonne I got cracking and was soon lost in combining stitch and beads.

First of all, the books above are Yvonne's to give us some ideas.

It's very difficult to photograph metallic and irridescent colours but you can see here the wide array of covers made and in the process of being made by the ladies today.

True to my usual form of working slowly I didn't get mine finished but you can see how far I got above. It will come as no surprise to see that I kept well within my comfort zone and worked on a gold base with turquoise and orange! I still have to add another row of beads and sequins on the front (to the right) and I intend to add 2 more rows of blue themed beads to the spine. The back is decorated with a piece of pale blue metal shim that Carolyn gave me earlier this year with a small rectangle of painted lutradur and another of fused angelina on top. I had fun using some of the decorative stitches on my machine that I haven't tried before. You will be able to see from some of the following photographs that several of the ladies managed to finish their bookcovers.

There is so much variety in these covers and the green and gold cover on the right above is really beautiful, having a look of Tudor England about it.

These two covers are still in their early stages.

As is this one. The flowers are made by machining small snippets of silk velvet and will eventually have beads added as will the letter 'M'.

More beautiful work and a look at the spine of the Tudor piece at the top of the photo above.

There is no mistaking the work of Tina in the piece at the top above. You can never have too much colour, or bling! The cover underneath Tina's is Joan's work and she was infected by Tina's bead enthusiasm (I hope I've attributed that correctly!). I was delighted to meet Joan as she has been a Follower of this blog for 2 years! It's lovely to know you're not burbling away to yourself all the time ;-) Hello Joan! It was lovely to meet you today and we're sure to meet up before too long at a Guild day. Joan, if I've put your name to the wrong cover please leave me a quick comment, or a sharp kick! ;-)

This is a quick view of our industrious corner of the room, all hard at work with a cup of tea not far away. Well, you have to have a cuppa, don't you? The chocolate biscuits were good too!

We're rapidly getting to the close of voting for the 'Unfolding The Quilts' project which could mean that the Quilt Museum in York will go through to the finals of the National Lottery Awards and at least earn some much deserved publicity if not funding. If you have already clicked on the link in my side-bar, thank you very much. If you haven't had chance to vote yet please do click the big blue box on the right and you will be taken to the relevant site to cast your vote. Or you can click here. Voting closes at noon on Monday 20 June. That's the day after tomorrow!

Last but not least, I couldn't resist snapping these little shoppers at the supermarket in the week

Duck a l'orange? ;-))

Have a good week everyone!

Catching up Again

2011-06-16T22:45:00.002+01:00

I seem to be doing this a lot lately, cramming everything from the last couple of weeks into one post. To be honest I'm finding it hard to get round to blogging. Don't get me wrong, I'm spending loads of time on the computer (too much!) and keeping up with all the blogs I follow but I can't seem to find the interest to blog myself. I shall have to get a grip!

Well, what can I tell you? Last Saturday was Region 10 of the Quilter's Guild Area Day which involved a bit of a journey up to Ludford in the north of Lincolnshire. Sadly (and probably an indicator of my current state of mind) I didn't take any photos but it was an excellent meeting. The guest speaker, who also held a workshop on the Sunday, was Gail Lawther who was talking about the inspiration behind the 35 quilts she has completed after spending time in New Zealand.

I treated myself to Gail's book which features all the quilts she talked about and also instructions for making your own version of some of them. I was amazed that this beautiful book was only £10!

Happily Lis, who blogs as Piece n Peace, has blogged about the day here and it was lovely to meet up with her on the day. We have only been cyber friends before. Lis had the forethought to get a photo of both of us together unlike me! Lis also attended the workshop on the Sunday and has blogged about it here. Gail was a very enthusiastic speaker and kept us all entertained and I know her workshop was excellent on the Sunday. I have a Practical Project booked with Gail at the Festival of Quilts in August so I will get my chance to experience her teaching expertise then. Keep your fingers crossed that nothing crops up this year to stop me going.

What else can I share with you? On Sunday we had a lovely day with my Mum. 5, yes5, of her friends, all of whom are over 70, travelled up from Essex to see her and what a party we had!

Doesn't my Mum look happy?

These are my Mum's special friends and I am so grateful to them for making the journey on a terrible rainy day. We had an afternoon of laughter, 8 of us squashed into our tiny lounge but it was a fantastic uplifting afternoon all topped off by a cream tea and strawberries and cream :-) Mum is thinking quite clearly at the moment so we have been able to have some proper conversation which is lovely. Everyone commented on how much better she is looking, that vague look is not there so much.

While I haven't been doing much practical stitching I have been working on my quilt for Festival of Quilts and have been preparing some digital images.

This is a blend of a road map of West Penwith and a previously altered image of St Ives harbour beach.

I really like this, if I do say so myself! I layered an image of a flooded dinghy over a manipulated photo of The Sloop pub in St Ives.

I think I applied an 'ink outlines' filter to this image of seaweed.

This image combines a photo of the Island in St Ives with an image captured of text on panelling at the Eden Project on our recent visit. It is quite a simple manipulation but I really like it.

I don't think I've shown here the start point for my entry to Festival. I actually started this quilt last year but didn't finish it as I had other inspiration and abandoned it. I have committed myself to working with the blocks I made at that time and have to work to a finished size of 45x45cms! Gulp! That's huge! What possessed me?! (Amendment added Friday 17 June: I meant 45 inches!!! Help!)

Here's a look at the raw material

This is the top laid out on the bed. My plan is to include digital images from my photos printed on Extravorganza and possible other fabrics and then somehow to unite the whole thing with stitch and maybe embellishment. The whole thing has to be with the organisers by the end of July and I'm away for a week before then and I've got a weekend at Contemporary Quilt Group Summer School which I am very excited about but which will probably lay me low for a week getting over it! Either that or I'll come home with a completely different idea for my entry ;-)

Well, I'm really tired so it's time I went. I'm rapidly approaching my 4th blogging anniversary, where did the time go? The tradition is to have a giveaway so I will have to get my thinking cap on as I don't have a stock of anything.

This is my Cornwall

2011-06-07T15:26:00.000+01:00

Well, it would be if I could only make the move! However, my heart definitely lies in Cornwall as you probably already know and this morning the postman brought me a wonderful book written by a true Cornishman who knows the area of Penwith like the back of his hand.

The book features Harry's intimate knowledge of the area where he was born, knowledge that he has delighted in sharing with locals and visitors alike on his minibus tours. My DH and I took one such tour in 2006 on a very misty, mizzly day in June and were introduced to the hidden secrets of the land around St Ives.

Harry's book is illustrated with photographs and fine drawings and paintings by his wife, Ann.

Sadly Harry has had to undergo surgery which now prevents him from leading his tour groups but his place has been taken by Russell Peake. A man of many talents, Harry has also written many songs celebrating this beautiful county and you can click on the link below to enjoy just one of his tunes.

I can't resist showing you just a few of the images from our day out with Harry. I can't believe it was 5 years ago!

DH practising devining in Towednack Church.

Harry telling us all about the history of the Iron Age settlement at Bodrifty in a very murky setting.

Also at Bodrifty a beautiful twisted thorn tree (could it be blackthorn?). As we left this atmospheric site my DH managed to slip over into a very soggy patch of ground and spent the rest of the day with a wet btm!

This barn is actually the remnant of a Norman Long House.

.The barn in the previous photograph was down a long track which took us to this arrangement of stones known as Men an Tol.

Finally, this is Lanyon Quoit, the remains of a long barrow.

If you want to know more about all these locations contact Harry and order his very informative book. (I don't have any affiliation with Harry other than having enjoyed hearing his stories and his music).

I have a lot of catching up to do here on the blog and have missed sharing several things with you so I'll try and have a catch up soon. We have just got back from making the final clearance of Mum's house so while I am worn out again at least we won't be travelling back and forth to Essex or have the stress of dismantling Mum's life. Please keep your fingers crossed for us that the house will sell quickly so that we can secure Mum's care.

PS Thank you to everyone who has voted for 'Unfolding the Quilts'. If you haven't voted yet there's still time, just click the link in my side bar. Many thanks :-D

Please help!

2011-06-02T21:33:00.000+01:00

The Quilt Museum in York, UK, is hoping to benefit from Lottery funding and has been short-listed to the semi-final of the National Lottery Awards. You can help by voting and getting The Quilt Museum through to the final of the Lottery Awards with exposure on national TV. The Quilt Museum have explained it so much better than I can so I'll let you read what they have to say:

"Our project “Unfolding the Quilts”, based at the Quilt Museum and Gallery, has reached the semi-finals of the National Lottery Awards, the annual search to find Britain’s favourite Lottery-funded projects.

The Heritage Lottery grant supports our work with volunteers and in education and outreach. The grant has enabled The Quilters’ Guild to open the Quilt Museum and Gallery, creating wider public access to our collection of over 800 historic and contemporary quilts.

Over 30,000 people have visited the Quilt Museum and Gallery since opening in 2008 and this would not have been possible without the support of volunteers stewarding the exhibitions, helping with education events and working behind the scenes. Volunteers have been able to learn about the Collection and learn new skills. Others have practiced their own sewing skills making items in support of exhibitions.

The Museum and Gallery’s education programme has enabled over 7000 adults and children to learn and develop practical sewing skills and to learn about the history, art and craft of patchwork and quilting. We have worked with a wide variety of people including school groups, children and young people, young mothers, people in hospital, elderly people in care homes and others from across the community.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

We are competing against nine other projects to be voted the

‘Best Heritage Project’ and if we reach the final, our project,

- and the Quilt Museum and Gallery – will be featured on BBC 1.

This would be tremendous publicity for quilting and for the Quilt Museum and Gallery. "

So please, click on the button in my side-bar or here and make your vote and get all your friends to vote too. We're all being encouraged to get back to traditional skills including 'Make do and Mend' and if you have any interest in anything remotely connected to stitching, textile arts or quilting the Quilt Museum needs your vote! Voting is open until midday 20 June but don't wait, vote now! Thank you :-)

Creativity at Last - Journal Quilts

2011-05-24T18:04:00.001+01:00

I cannot believe it but I have actually managed to complete all 4 of my Journal Quilts for the Contemporary Quilt Group and before the May deadline too! How did I do that? Amazing!

This year the criterion for the quilts is that they must measure 10" square and incorporate a set motif. For February to May (we started late this year so the year will run to next February) the requirement is to include a circle or part thereof. For the remainder of the year we have to make 4 to include text and 4 to include buttons. of course, there is nothing to say that you can't include all 3 requirements in all the quilts!

I decided that this time I would try and work to a theme with the hope that the quilts can be hung together as a whole when they are all made. I wanted to use Gaudi and his mosaics as my inspiration and have tried to keep that in mind while I was working. This first quilt was started in February but was the last to be finished because I couldn't decide how to quilt it. I used and exercise from Jae Maries book "Contrasting Elements" as my starting point and made templates to cut out the shapes and holes. Before I started I bonded sheers and voiles to a hand dyed orange fabric and a commercial check fabric and cut segments and circles from them. With a bit of fiddling I cut holes from layered fabrics to reveal the fabrics beneath and bonded the segments and circles on top. All the edges were stitched with a decorative button hole stitch. It took me until this month to decide how to quilt this little quilt and I have slowly used a seeding stitch over the surface. Slowly because this sort of work makes my hands very sore.

The edge has been finished with a facing, which I have never tried before, but which was quite easy to do. My thanks go to Laura and Linda Kemshall for their video tutorial.

Quilt 2 was made by layering fabrics and free machining roughly flowery shapes to isolate areas that I could then cut down through to reveal the layers below. The dark blue fabric is a satiny fabric. I then layered a voile with text on it over the top and free machined from the back with metallic thread in the bobbin as my machine did not like the metallic as the top thread. This quilt was faced with the yellow fabric in the quilt.

This quilt came form an article in Quilting Arts magazine (I think). The circle shapes were layered onto satin and held in place with glue stick glue. With some difficulty I free machine quilted the piece with the metallic thread after overlaying a dark blue chiffon. Again the edge was faced but with a cotton this time as I thought satin would be too slippery.

This final quilt is growing on me (pardon the pun!) I bonded a fusible to the reverse of the fabrics I was planning to use and drew out flower shapes. I then cut out the petals to leave the negative shapes between them which I overlaid on a contrasting flower before free machining all the flowers down. The edge was finished with a facing and I think I quite like this way of finishing a quilt.

I think I have drifted away from the Gaudi theme a little but I have tried to unite the quilts by using the same fabrics throughout.

For the next four months we have to incorporate text into the quilts. If I intend to hang my quilts together I cannot have them all looking so busy so I will be looking to keep the next four a bit simpler and hopefully life will not be so difficult and I will be able to make one a month as intended. I am definitely going to have to have a dyeing session before I continue.

While I'm in the mood I'll show you what I've been up to today. You can tell, can't you, that catching up on housework is well down the list of priorities? lol Emma who blogs as 'A Little Bit of Everything' has been encouraging me to get to grips with the Thermofax screens I've had for over a year so without further ado I headed for the shed this morning before I could get distracted elsewhere. After a tentative start I had a great time printing on paper and fabric and managed to get wonderfully messy!

The prints above are on pre-painted watercolour paper.

These prints above are on music paper, hand made paper and calico.

I like this best of all. It is printed over previously worked watercolour paper, quite possibly a drop sheet from stamping and spraying. I like the partial feathers which have come from picking up ink on the back of the plate from previous prints.

I really like this piece on thick cotton which had been dye painted some time ago. I'm going to have a play with this in Photoshop to see what I can come up with.

I think these are printed onto hand made paper (dark) and calico (light).

All of these pieces are purely experiments and I am looking forward to playing with dyes as these were all done with textile inks and I was feeling under pressure worrying about the screens drying out.

Thank you for spurring me on Emma :-) I just need a sink in my studio now to save me running backwards and forwards to the house to wash my screens out!

Finally ( I know, you get nothing for weeks and then I can't shut up!), I leave you with a pic of my DH in his wasp killing get up.

You can tell he didn't intend to get stung, can't you? The silly things were nesting in our blue tit box so they had to go.

On the Plus Side

2011-05-19T21:42:00.000+01:00

Despite the sadness of today there was one highlight that made the day easier to bear. My lovely stepdaughter came up for the day and we had a few hours to enjoy her company.

Don't let the photo fool you, she wasn't in Australia! I am very proud to call this beautiful girl my daughter and I'm probably embarrassing the heck out of her with this post but, what the heck! Sometimes things just have to be said! :-) Thank you L for making today easier.

While I have not been getting much done I have been finding a few minutes every day to hand quilt my Journal Quilt for the Contemporary Quilt Group. No photos yet but I almost have the four required quilts finished in time for the deadline of 31 May. I just have to face all four. I've not faced a quilt before so this will be a new adventure. Fortunately Laura and Linda Kemshall have a video tutorial on their Design Matters site so I hope to be able to make full use of that.

Time I went and stitched a bit more. See you soon and thank you again for all your warm words.

Sleep Tight

2011-05-19T21:01:00.000+01:00

On a lovely sunny day we have said our goodbyes to Grace today and I think we did her proud. About 25 of her friends got together for the service and a few refreshments afterwards and many memories were shared. It is sad to say goodbye to someone special but we all have lots of happy times to think about and I think Grace would have been pleased with her send off today. Hopefully she's raising a glass of 'Grouse' and looking back on her long life. Cheers Grace!

Thank You

2011-05-15T21:43:00.000+01:00

I have been very touched by all your words of comfort and friendship since Grace passed away. Thank you so much everyone for your messages and emails. This last week has been a difficult one but we have now pretty much organised Grace's funeral which she wants kept 'as short as possible'. Friends will gather on Thursday to say their Goodbyes and remember happy times.

We seem to be surrounded by loss just lately. My sister-in-law lost her father just before Grace died and I heard yesterday that the lady my Mum used to cruise with died suddenly last week. I told Mum about Grace but I am tempted not to mention her cruising friend unless she does. Although it does seem that her dementia cushions the emotional impact of such news.

I am having problems blogging at the moment which I suppose is understandable. I feel overwhelmed by everything and am trying to maintain a sense of proportion. I'm not saying this for sympathy but because I know many are struggling equally with loss and grief. This last week I have struggled to think properly and have even been confused as to whether it is my Mum or Grace that had died. I suppose that is because I am also grieving for the parts of Mum that we have lost. I am conscious that I have suffered with reactive depression in the past and I don't want to go there again.

Today I decided I should try and do something positive so that I could feel a sense of achievement and not feel so overwhelmed by all the stuff in my life. I know housework isn't important at such times but you should see my house! Well, no you shouldn't, it's a tip! This morning DH and I had an albeit short session tackling the burgeoning growth in the garden and when rain forced us indoors (Hooray for rain! We need more!) I had a great time ruthlessly throwing out all the fabrics and old garments that I will never use in my textile work (Oh no I won't!). We have about 7 bags to go to the Charity (Thrift) shop and I now have space in boxes and drawers to put away some of the fabric that's laying around and cluttering up the place. Hooray for me!

I never did finish telling you about our Cornish holiday or all the wonderful textures we found and I still have to bring you photos of my gorgeous great-nephew at Easter so I will try and get back to being a good blogger soon. Meanwhile I leave you with a pic of our lovely nephew practising his walking.

Thank you all again for your friendship and I should say welcome to people who have started following recently. Hopefully normal service will be restored before long.

Our beautiful friend

2011-05-09T21:51:00.002+01:00

June 1911 - 09 May 2011

Our very special friend Grace, who has been very unwell for the last 2 weeks, closed her eyes for the last time this morning and is now at peace. Her constant wish over the last few years was to not reach her 100th birthday, she felt she had lived long enough. Today her wish was granted and she slipped away before we had time to say 'Goodbye'. Our hearts are heavy but happy that Grace has her wish. I have learned so much from this beautiful lady who has shared so many of my adventures from her armchair and always shared a laugh and her lovely smile. Sleep well Grace xx

Daniel O'Donnell and this particular piece is Grace's favourite.

The Happy Couple

2011-04-28T23:15:00.000+01:00

Britain has gone Royal Wedding mad this week and tomorrow Prince William and Kate Middleton will be getting married in front of a worldwide audience. The home where my Mum is living is having a Royal Wedding party and watching the proceedings on the telly followed by a garden party lunch so I will be going along to share the party with my Mum and the lovely ladies. I've been rooting around for something red, white and blue to wear without much success so I shall just have to content myself with waving a small flag or wearing DH's velvet Union Jack hat.

I don't like to confront politics and such like on my blog but I do think the Royal Family work very hard for this country and with all the pressures of living in the public eye I would wish the soon-to-be-newly-wed couple a long and happy life together. Britain excels at pomp and circumstance and everyone is getting very excited so I'm sure tomorrow will be a colourful spectacle which I will enjoy on the telly (I have kept away from all the prequels airing on the tv all week). If you're getting into the spirit and enjoying a street party or family get together, have fun!

Sketchbook fun

2011-04-27T20:36:00.000+01:00

Only, I didn't call it a sketchbook because that word scares me so it's a workbook. :-) I took some supplies with me to St Ives (well, quite a lot actually) with the intention of playing and we hadn't been in the flat long before I set my stall out,

I started off a bit tentatively as I haven't played about much with mixed media for ages but eventually I got going and really enjoyed myself.

This first rather ragged effort was sparked by the bath mat and as you can see I made a mistake at first and had to adjust to give a double line break between the large bubbles. I can see this transferring to fabric fairly readily.

This is collage with scraped paint and stamped circles.

I had fun with this little indian block stamp and added some watercolour and the lyrics of a very old song that came to me (Burl Ives sang it I think. Oops! No, it appears it was Frankie Howerd)

On a theme of fishes I came across some dried beech leaves that I'd forgotten about and, as they reminded me of fish shapes that's what they became, along with some foil sweet wrappers.

I had seen a painting in the Sloop Inn in St Ives by Doris Lindemann, a local teacher I had had a workshop with several years ago and thought I'd have a go at something similar. This started out with an orange base colour and then I worked very quickly over the top to get the energy of wave movements and tried to scratch through to reveal the colour underneath. I wasn't altogether successful as my acrylic paints dried very quickly. After this I had a hankering all the holiday to work in oils.

I've forgotten exactly what I did here but it involved rubbing a metallic wax crayon over a molding mat, painting over, adding graphite and glueing on some of the beads that Carolyn gave me. I stitched the page to the next page adding beads as I went and added some collage on the right.

This was a Sharpie doodle in front of the telly.

I was quite pleased with my little sketch of St Ives out of the window and I love my doodle on the right. Much better than the first one I did that I'm too ashamed to show you.

This is an exercise I've done before and concerns edges and hard and soft marks. It works quite well turned so that the layers run horizontally like a landscape too.

Not wonderfully successful but these two above were fun.

This page was really fun to do. I wrote instructions on small pieces of paper and then put them in bowls and picked out one piece at a time and did whatever it said on the paper. I did structure it slightly by grouping the papers so that I chose base instructions first (collage, paint, stamp, resist, print), then colour and finally embellishment. Of course, I assumed paint or collage would come out first but, oh no, resist! was the first instruction. That made an interesting start. Then stamp, so the feet went on in 'blue' which was the colour I picked randomly. 'Paint' resulted in picking a choice 'complementary' from the papers and then collage followed. Other instructions picked out were 'draw' and the implement picked out was a Sharpie. Finally 'Spray' came out of the embellishments bowl. I really enjoyed this way of working and I will definitely do it again.

This is my next favourite page. I worked from an exercise in Jae Maries book, Contrasting Elements, and it is collages made up of paper napkins, monoprints on various surfaces from Sally Maccabe's workshop last year, hand made Indian papers, paper lamination, wrapping paper, fabric, scrim and some meshy stuff that I've forgotten the name of.

This is my favourite page. I have long fancied doing a fun portrait in fabric and I had a whale of a time putting this page together. The background is some fancy tissue paper I bought at Paperchase in London. The face is some paper lamination that I did some time ago. The doilly hair and yarn eyebrows came from Carolyn's gift as did the 'necklace' and the mouth and body are batiks. I think I really must have a go at this in fabric, maybe as a Journal Quilt.

Back to Eden

2011-04-26T22:06:00.001+01:00

There seems to be a conspiracy to keep me away from blogging just lately. First Blogger won't post my photos, then our internet connection repeatedly keeps dropping out (should be sorted tomorrow......or else!) and on Saturday sadly our dear friend Grace, who is 99, was suddenly taken very seriously ill so we have spent a lot of time at the hospital. Happily today she has surprised everybody by turning a great corner and is bouncing back yet again. The medics are astounded that she is pulling through. Fingers crossed that she continues to make progress. She is laughing and joking with the nurses today when only yesterday we were summoned at 8 in the morning as they thought she was not going to survive a crisis. She is one remarkable lady!

Anyway, back to Eden. Needless to say I always have my eyes open for pattern and texture when we are out and about and Eden was no exception.

This beautiful skeleton leaf caught my eye.

I think this is a leaf of a banana tree. (remind me to come back to the banana)

"Follow the yellow brick road".

These wavy lines were a non-slip surface.

This was the shadow thrown onto the quarry sides by the roof panels.

On the subject of bananas we saw this catchy little sign

I'm easily amused ;-) They had a display area where children and any adults who fancied it, could press buttons and get music to play and I had a lovely time dancing around to a little number entitled "Bananas in Pajamas" .........you had to be there! Actually I Googled it for you and found a clip on Youtube but I thought I'd spare you. ;-)

I had a really lovely day meeting up with my dear friend Carolyn who many of you know already. We swapped some gifts and as usual Carolyn was sooooo generous and I have come home with some beautiful goodies to play with.

These goodies include Carolyn's eco-dyed fabrics, lots of beautiful threads, some of her yummy hand made beads, commercial beads and a beautiful heart shaped beads in my favourite colour, turquoise. I have already used some of the threads in some artwork that I did on holiday.

A bonus gift was these lovely fingerless mittens that Carolyn had made for both of us. Fingerless to leave DH's fingers free to use his camera and mine to leave fingers free for picking up treasures on the beach. Carolyn knows us too well!

We had great fun opening up Carolyn's bundle for the Erosion Bundle Project and there were some gorgeous treasures to be found.

Can you believe that these Sycamore seeds actually germinated inside the bundle?

Carolyn tells you more about the contents of the bundle on her blog but she achieved some wonderful colour bleeds through the various layers.

I shall look forward to seeing what is eventually made from all the different pieces of the bundle.

We rounded off our day by visiting a couple of art galleries in St Ives. Porthminster Gallery just below our flat had an exciting and varied exhibition of paintings and ceramics by several artists including Matthew Lanyon, Tony Scrivener, Margaret Lovell, Sarah Perry and Jenny Hirst. My DH particularly liked a painting by Jenny Hirst called 'Estuary'. I very cheekily took a photograph of the windows which I hope they will forgive me for showing here (I figure you could stand in front of it and look at it from the street so a photo should be ok).

I was fascinated by the Mathew Lanyon paintings which had so much texture in them and so much to look at. Many of his paintings were inspired by flights in a glider (he was a glider pilot) and reflect aerial views and impressions.

Jenny Hirst's painting 'Estuary' is in the centre of the photo above.

My DH made us lunch of cheese on crumpets (pyklets to some) and generally spoiled us so we had a great day. Sadly it was over all too soon and we have to wait another year for our next get together.

Well, I'd better save the rest for another day or I'll have nothing to bore you with. Next time I'll share my holiday workbook. It's not a wonderful work of art but at least I did something and I had fun!

Many thanks to all of you, especially the no-reply commenters who I sometimes forget to mention, for all your lovely and supportive comments. I do appreciate every one or them and the fact that people take the time in a very busy life to say a few words. This is a great community!

Bet You Can't Guess

2011-04-22T19:43:00.000+01:00

where we've been? The header's a big clue! We got back last weekend from a two week break in beautiful St Ives which never disappoints and never ceases to recharge the batteries. We decided that after all the worries with Mum, and now that she is settled and happy, we would have some time out in our favourite place. We rented a flat overlooking the town and the harbour.

What do you think? Isn't it a gorgeous view to look out onto and watch the world go by? I love the colour of the roofs in St Ives. The lichen changes colour depending on the amount of moisture in the air.

The flat was very high up so we kept very fit walking back up the hill every time we went out.

The flat is pretty much in the middle of the pic above and is stuck on top of the white horizontal block in the middle. (X marks the spot). If you click on the photo you should be able to see that it looks very unprepossessing and quite ugly from the outside but inside it was roomy and comfortable and the view was to die for!

We had a view of the town towards the Tate Gallery,

Across to the left to some attractive town houses,

Down to Fore Street, St Ives' main shopping street, strangely quiet in the late afternoon sunshine,

Across to the harbour and the Island,

And out to St Ives Bay and Godrevy lighthouse. The view in my header is almost the full panorama from our window. Stunning!

We didn't go very far during the holiday, preferring to spend time pottering on the beach, watching the tide come in, watching the tide go out, going for a few walks and for me, playing in my sketchbook! (More of that later). One excursion we did take though was to The Eden Project which we last visited a few years ago with my Mum). The Eden Project is built in the bottom of an old china clay pit and every visit is a different experience. We usually go into the tropical biome first as it gets really hot and humid in there and then go round the temperate biome.

You can get some idea of the size of the place from the photo above. If you click on the image you should be able to see a platform high up in the roof with a walkway going towards it. This is new this year and at times the temperature up there gets above 40 degrees with very high humidity. Did we go up there? Definitely not! It was hard enough keeping going round the main part in the humidity there.

Oops! Blogger won't let me load any more photos! To be continued..........

ALQS5

2011-03-28T21:25:00.002+01:00

I should have posted this some time ago so apologies to Tina for not trumpeting (!) her beautiful Elephant quilt from Kate North's 'another Little Quilt Swap'. This is the 5th swap Kate has organised and this time we worked to an A4 or US equivalent sizing. You can look at all the quilts made by clicking here. You need to scroll through to the 1 February and earlier to see the quilts. Kate has the unenviable task of sorting out everyone's requests and matching quilt to 'swapee'.

I love Tina's work so I was really pleased to receive her elephant. Tina's work is always very colourful and always involves a lot of handstitching and usually a fair scattering of sequins and embellishments. This elephant is even more special because Tina made him and many others while undergoing chemo and this is the last of her chemo elephants. Tina is now well and fully recovered and I feel privileged to have this special elephant. Do click on the image to see all the details and printing that Tina included in her quilt.

This is the quilt I made for the swap

The quilt was made from a piece of shibori dyed fabric that I made in a workshop a couple of years ago. I decided to work it all by hand and it helped me get through some of the time when I was looking after my mum after her stroke. I always find hand sewing very soothing and I'm sure it lowers the blood pressure.

My quilt went off to Wil Opio Oguta who lives in the Netherlands and who is coincidentally a fellow member of the Contemporary Quilt Group of the Quilters Guild. It's a small world, especially as Tina and I belong to the same quilt group too!

Memories

2011-03-26T11:20:00.001Z

26 March 1996

Flutter like a butterfly riding on the wind

Dancing and skipping over the land

Upon Copper Hill you will rest on my hand.

You can't stay put as time moves on

But remember the good times and be on your way.

So fly little butterfly, fly on the wind

And one day we'll meet again. love L