Curves and Leaves

It's been an eventful couple of weeks since I last posted although I have been trying to slow down a bit after our trip to Cornwall.  I had a bit of a reaction to the hectic time away and thought I'd better heed the warning and put the brakes on a bit.  Consequently I decided that I wouldn't go up to Harrogate for the Knitting and Stitching Show this weekend.  I'm hoping there will be some blog posts around so that I can enjoy it vicariously.  Don't worry, I'm back to my usual state of health so there's no problem just need to pace myself and not take on the world!

Happily after my blip I was able to take a Friday Fun workshop at Stitchcraft yesterday.  'Take' as in 'Teach'.  The workshop was concerned with free form curved piecing using a flat seam.  I had 7 ladies which was just enough and not too many to get round in the time.  After a bit of a chat and demo from me they set to and produced some great pieces.

Christine made this beautiful panel above which will become the centrepiece of a cushion.  Christine was fairly new to quilting and stitching so she did really well.

Elaine had some beautiful fabrics that she incorporated into this lovely piece above.  She got a good variety in her curves.

I discovered that I already 'knew' Jackie, who used these gorgeous African fabrics , through a mutual friend who I have been having playdays with.  It's a small world!  Jackie intends to take her cutter to this piece and insert some cross sections.  Give it some attitude!

Joan, who comes to the Sit and Stitch days at Stitchcraft usually makes very traditional quilts and wanted to free herself up.  She's certainly done that with this fabulous little landscape.  Joan, you're a natural! Look at the variety of curves and the movement she's achieved.

Maureen is a member of Wing Quilters and worked so quickly she was able to layer and quilt her piece ready for binding.  She used some beautiful batiks and has got some lovely movement through this scene.  Maureen said as she left it was the best fun she'd had in two hours in a long time.  I was delighted and also blushing.

Nichola, above, was not familiar with this way of working but produced a lovely seascape with a good use of fussy cutting some of the fabrics.

Last but not least Sue made this lively landscape with a mountain range.  I thought she was quite brave to include the fairly deep peaks and between us we decided one or two judicious clips would help the fabrics come together.  

I was so nervous at the start of this workshop and my mouth got so dry that I could hardly speak at one point but I think it went well. Everyone seemed pleased with what they had achieved in the time and there may be a chance to take this technique further in a future workshop.  

As I had decided not to go to Harrogate today I have been pottering around tidying up a little in my sewing room and finishing off a Linus quilt. (No picture yet).  I also took the weights (books) off a pressing of leaves I had set up a few days ago.

The paper is still very wet as it has been sandwiched between waxed paper to stop the books getting wet.  As you can see there were some subtle marks showing through which made me think it hadn't been particularly successful.

How wrong could I be?  The beech leaves didn't work very well but that may be because they need longer to break down but the (?)sycamore leaves have made some lovely marks.   I've still got some more leaves that I've managed to keep moist so I think I will set this up again with some fabric.  I may try some leaf hammering too! Oh and some Gelli Plate printing.  Watch this space!

(Just so you know, I soaked the Khadi paper in the bath for about an hour before I drained it off and set the leaves on it.) 

Have a good week and keep warm if winter is catching up with you.

Scottish Islands Part Deux

 This sight greeted us at a petrol station that we stopped at in Tyndrum on our way up to Oban, our crossing point to the Isle of Mull. 

Our coachdriver stopped so DH could photograph this mirror-like reflection.  A few minutes later and the surface was ruffled by the wind.

 This is McCaig's Tower in Oban, a folly that was built to give the local unemployed some work.

Who could resist this sweet little spaniel waiting patiently at an upstairs window for his master/mistress to come home?

You are probably wondering, as was I, what these people were doing with a tent on a layby.  Sadly I din't find out but I did realise that they probably had their hoods up to deter the midges as it wasn't raining.

I always like a good reflection and this one was at the ferry in Oban.

If you click on the image above you should see the remains of crabs thrown back into the water at Fionnport, the ferry point for crossing to Iona.

 I would have loved a walk on this beach at Fionnport.

Above is the rare landscape of the Machair . We must have arrived at just the right time as the flowers were beautiful.  We were lucky enough to hear a corncrake too as we walked along, a rare sound indeed! (If you follow the link for the corncrake you can click on a button to listen to its distinctive cry).

These photos show the Abbey and its attendant graveyard where ancient Kings of Scotland, Ireland and Norway are buried.  We only had time to grab a snap as we hurried back to catch the ferry.  Another reason to return.

What a beautiful place to be remembered.

The children of Iona had been busy decorating their cycle shelter.

And finally for this post, a few texture images for you.  

The fungi on the tree in the image above reminded me exactly where the inspiration for the windchime I had bought earlier in Cockermouth had come from.

Till next time.......

I think it's done!

I was going to spend just an hour working on my workshop piece today and then do some much needed housework but one hour turned into quite a few! Who said I'm stubborn??? I have had quite a battle with my machine today. It has refused to pull up the bobbin thread and thrown stitches and snapped its thread but I refused to be beaten and after many rethreads, changes of thread, cleaning and a new needle I did manage to get to a finishing point. I've decided that my machine does not like tyvek very much and I probably need to experiment with different tensions a bit more. At least I didn't break any needles!

I've added in scraps of fabric and baby wipes from my scrap bag and also some recycled petticoat lace and some hessian mesh. All I need to do now is decide on a binding and I will have killed two birds with one stone! A completed workshop project and the November Contemporary Quilt Group Journal Quilt (Yes, I know it's only October! This must be the first time I've ever been ahead of myself!).

As usual, you can click on the photo to enlarge. What do you think, Gina? I have to decide now whether to continue with this technique for my quilt for next year's Festival of Quilts or whether to proceed with my printing ideas. Whatever the decision I am definitely going to continue with Free Machining practice. I have a link in my sidebar to Leah Day who is blogging a free machine quilting pattern every day for 365 days and I intend to make up some fabric sandwiches and try some of these for myself. While I may not quilt with them per se they will be good for all sorts of effects in my art quilts. Somebody please remind me I said that I would practice some FME quilting - regularly!

Thank you Gina

Yesterday I travelled down to Peterborough, a short train ride from here, to join a Free Machine Embroidery workshop with the lovely Gina Ferrari. The workshop took place at Art And Stitch and its aim was to use the sewing machine to create a variety of textures to be used in a landscape type picture. I had been waiting for this workshop for several months and really looking forward to it as Gina is a very unassuming and generous teacher and I knew that I would learn a lot. I had high hopes and I was not disappointed!


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As you can see we were suitably supervised throughout the workshop by this very attractive young lady who I think may have been laughing at me a little! :)

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There were 10 of us taking part in the workshop and we soon made our presence felt by spreading ourselves out to fill the available table space.

Angela and Pam who run Art and Stitch kept the tea and coffee flowing all day and even supplied sustaining biscuits (chocolate and I think I spied Jammy Dodgers too!) in the afternoon when energies might have been flagging a little.
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Gina eased us in gently with a little basic Free Machine practice but then soon had us working on small pieces which would become part of our final pieces. Before we got started on the stitching we painted bondaweb and tyvek which would be used in the afternoon to construct the landscapey scenes.

We stitched onto net which had been stabilised with water soluble membrane which was then dissolved away and prepared other texture with small pieces of knitting, the looser and holier the better, and also a little crochet.

Above is the tyvek with sheers stitched on top and blasted with the heat gun. Unfortunately my blue sheer came from an old scarf, maybe silk, and it did not respond to the heat gun other than to start burning! Oops! Despite that it has given me a nice dark piece which has its own texture.

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So, by the afternoon we had knitted and crocheted pieces, embroidered netting, painted and stitched tyvek with sheers and a background of painted bondaweb to work with in adition to fabrics we had brought with us.

This is my very-much-a-work-in-progress seascape. My first piece of knitting came out with too tight a tension so I cut into it and opened it up before I stitched it down. It is the lowest layer in the piece above. I also cut up the stitched net to get more sympathetic shapes that would suggest wave shapes in my sea. I also incorporated scrim and previously painted nappy liner and velvet to start building the landscape. I have a lot of work to do to complete the scene but I really enjoyed getting this far. The idea is to use Free Machining to attach and incorporate the pieces together. Hopefully I will get time to work on this some more this week and it will then become my Journal Quilt for November.

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I have to confess to a 'Eureka' moment during all this process. A light suddenly went on in my poor old brain while I was Free Machining in zigzag and I suddenly could see how I could use stitch to build and describe movement, landscapes, flowerscapes or whatever I want to make. I know that may be very obvious to all of you out there but I suddenly realised that I was capable of using this very simple device to achieve what I have been working towards for the past couple of years. FME has always seemed a great mystery to me but Gina's teaching at the previous and this workshop has opened me up to exciting possibilities. I know you read everywhere about Free Machining and drawing with the needle but it all seems a bit unreal till you actually sit down and do it. I'm not saying I'm suddenly going to turn into a Diva embroiderer but I am very excited to have this new tool to play with. I am also not scared of working on this piece because, if I make a 'mistake' I know I can use more stitch, handsewing and beads to get round it. Watch this space!

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If you live anywhere near Peterborough do check out Art and Stitch. They are a lovely bunch of people and make you feel like one of the family and their workshops are always accompanied by copious cups of tea and coffee.

Workshops

I've been a bit lacking in creative posts recently for which I apologise. I must admit I haven't been doing a great deal on the creative front but I have been taking a couple of half day workshops at the new craft shop in the town. The first class was an introduction to layering sheers and nets to create other colours and effects.

This first A4 size piece of cotton has layers of peach, orange and blue arranged in various ways. It's surprising how long it took to set this up and then machine stitch it. This is obviously only the beginning as I need to carry on making sample sheets with lots of other combinations of net.

This sheet is of beautiful layers of organza. I was slightly less methodical with this sheet as I didn't stick to just 3 colours but I like soem of these combinations and you have the added bonus of the frayed edge of the organza to play with. More experimentation again required.

This third sheet is a mixture of net and organza layered together. You can get some beautiful effects with these combinations and I'm sure it would give some lovely textures in a landscape quiltie.

Talking of landscapes our final task was to layer organzas to produce a small landscape. This has been machined to hold it together but I need to add handsewing and maybe some beading. I think this would actually be more effective layered with other fabrics but it is interesting to explore the possibilities of layering. The edges of the organza have been frayed but you don't have to do this.

To make life easier for us in the workshop we prepared a template for the landscape pieces. Each shape was traced off being careful to trace the whole shape taking in the square below it, if you see what I mean!

For the second workshop we painted fabric and threads to match.

This cotton was painted (paint was mostly flicked on and then a little water was used here and there to spread it a bit) having been dampened first. Salt was then sprinkled on top and it was left to dry.

For each of the fabrics a selection of white/cream threads were painted at the same time so that the colours co-ordinate. You need to turn the threads over and paint both sides. We used a dabbing motion with the brush to paint the threads.

This is muslin which I laid, dampened, onto the wet plastic where the cotton had been. It has picked up the colour which had soaked through from the cotton. It has dried very, very light so I may heat set it and paint it again.

This is silk and a piece of net which were dampened and then painted along with its threads. Apparently it is easier to paint net along with a piece of fabric so that it saoks colour up from the fabric otherwise it does not colour very well.

This, believe it or not, is white organza. I wet it with clear water and then made it stand up in peaks. I then touched the silk paint on it along the edges and let the water carry the paint around the fabric. Again this has dried slightly lighter than the photo above. (The turquoise is the plastic sheet underneath).

So, this is the dried cotton fabric and threads. Can you believe the difference with the original wet fabric?

The dried silk,net which you can hardly see, and threads,

Finally the dried organza which has some lovely marks in it and which is very delicate.

The next trick is to decide what to use it all for!

BTW, I haven't forgotten about the catching up....I still have Alnwick Garden and Holy Island to show you.