Still more quilting

I've been wanting to make a dent into my stash of fabrics for some time now and decided to make a quilt from "Quilts Made Modern" by Weekes Rinkle. I started cutting it last weekend having decided to make one that involved simple straight rows of 12 different colours. Little did I know how much cutting and seaming this would include! I would have thought twice before starting and now, having started, 'm rather underwhelmed by it and not very motivated to continue...... What to do?

Strips of colour were cut and then pieced together in a series of steps before arriving at a quilt cver comprised of alternate coloured and plain strips.

 I think its boring and I'm not really getting any pleasure from it - first time for a quilt. The colours are the problem as the creamy plain colour adds nothing to the overall feel of the quilt. Oh the horror of having to unpick the strips I've done already........................
Bye for now.

More Quilting

A few weeks ago I made a quilt to hang down in Devon. I've wanted to make a quilt with bold text for some time now and which expressed what everyone says when they first visit us and see out of the window.

Now I'm starting a new project which is also for Devon but is very different from the one above. It's a modern quilt pattern and I'm using up some of my stash to complete it. I've decided I have to start to make inroads into this stash as it's beginning to worry me - lol! Anyway, the quilt is very easy in construction as it's basically straight lines but it's extremely time consuming in cutting up, sewing together strips, recutting the strips and sewing them together in new formations.
1. to start with I have cut 80 x 13" strips in 12 different colours and I have paired these colours together and sewed them into strips.

Two colours sewed together and ready to be pressed.

Voila! These now need to be paired together to make units of 4 colour strips - the next step.
I am timing myself during this project to see how long roughly it will take me to complete the quilt.

NB: Not quilting but I made a cushion for a friend who's been poorly over the past few months. This was the first time I sewed with linen which, surprisingly, was a bit difficult as it seemed to shift about a bit. Probably just my inexperience with sewing. Anyway I was quite pleased in the end and I think she liked it as well!

Long time no see......

Have been off writing up this blog although have been doing quite a lot so here goes....

yesterday a friend came round and we carved some block printing patterns from small erasers . We had great fun and you get some very satisfying results from small beginnings. This is the eraser block I carved last week:

Then I tried it out on paper:

before finally having a go on fabric

I think this might make some very lovely cushions.

I then thought I would play with scale so made another block with larger image using the same pattern. Again, first on paper:

And then onto fabric using either acrylic paints mixed with screen print binder or fabric paints:

This design could also be used as an overall design and in contrast to the smaller version.

Two weeks ago I had a four day short course at West Dean on 3D machine embroidered flowers using soluble fabric. I was very excited before going but was very disappointed by the end of the course. The tutor was inexperienced at teaching and it showed but she was energetic and clearly wanted to please her students. it was however a big disappointment - but that's another story.
I thought we were going to work from sketches we would make from actual flowers but this didn't happen and we somehow just launched straight into our project. Not the way I like to work....

Anyhow, I used a beautiful photograph taken by a friend of mine and worked from that. First I drew some petal shapes onto the soluble fabric ( this is a fabric that washes away when placed in water leaving the stitched shape/pattern), and sewed densely with a focus on colour mixing:

I cut out the flowers and then ran them under the tap to remove the glue.

I then sewed the feathery fronds that are part of the clematis seed pods after the plant has died:

These too needed to cut out and the glue washed away -  a fiddly business!

I then attached the fronds to the ends of the seed pods:

Before finally arranging them into a more pleasing style with a more visual link to the photograph:

Sadly, the rest of the course was very repetitive and I didn't produce anything else that I was satisfied with - enough said!!

A project to dye for

My textile course comes to a finish next week for the Christmas break. I've found this term rather challenging possibly because the theme "Worn and Torn, Faded Glory" didn't really rock my boat and I found it difficult to find an idea, a source or just anything that inspired me. Everything I thought of I quickly lost interest in. I finally found some inspiration at The British Library on a group visit we made there - lets be honest.....plenty of worn and torn stuff there!
After a few false starts I eventually settled on a pattern derived from a Roman wall which Louise, the tutor, suggested could be done with transfer dyes. I was rather intrigued by the comment but had no idea how to go about it.

This is the wall pattern and, of course, the colours have become faded from what, originally, must have been vibrant, singing colours.
I used the transfer dyes to make a collection of colours based of the blues, yellows, browns and reds in the
pattern.
1. Paint a piece of copy paper with the colour of choice and leave to dry
2. Transfer the dye onto synthetic fabric by ironing or using a heat press (natural fabrics will not take transfer dyes)
3. Cut out fabric shapes from the transfer dyed fabric and place them between two pieces of soluble fabric, the bottom sheet of which is a sticky fabric to which fabric can be adhered.
4. Machine stitch all over ensuring that the stitched lines join up with each other in some kind of "web" pattern so it all holds together when the soluble is washed away.

5. Place the finished fabric into water and allow to soak as a start to removing the soluble fabric which can take several attempts to remove most or all of it.
6. Take finished piece and pin out onto a piece of foam board or polystyrene to dry.

After leaving the piece (and I had to push down the sides to fit the sink) this is what it looked like!

They have now dried to a rock hard consistency but are quite lovely and mad in their own way. My fellow group members made some suggestions such as, "make it into a hat, a swimming hat, a boob tube" but I may just be plain boring and stick it up on a wall!
Hope you like it - lol!
Next post will show my experiments with creating a large length of fabric using transfer dyes. I started this week and am getting some exciting results....watch this space!
x

Folk Sampler Quilt

I've now finished the quilt inspired from an idea by Linda Kemshall of Design Matters TV. I made a stencil based on pots of flowers I have on my balcony. It's a mixed media piece using acrylic and textile paints, discharge paste and markal paint sticks. Text runs around the border from painted bondaweb - "If you have a library and a garden you have everything you need " -  a quote by Cicero. It was great fun to make with lots of dense stitching to reinforce the flowers and pots.

I have started a new term of textiles and our theme is "Worn and Torn". We recently had a sketching session at the British Museum so I may use one of my photos/sketches to develop into a final piece.

Ok, holidays are over so. I have no more excuses about updating this blog. I've been really busy with workshops......
City lit weekend workshop with Dawn Dupree on screen printing with procian dyes
A one day workshop with Clive Barnett at Art Van Go again, on screen printing using various techniques
A one day workshop at Art Van Go with Edwina MacKinnon which focused on how to develop a design using one image.
I found all these workshops interesting and challenging enough to add some skills to my "repetoire".....oh, I really sound as if I know what I'm talking about don't I?? Lol!

Anyway, in my previous post I talked a little about a stencil quilt I had started and it's one of the projects I've been focusing on this summer and comes from based on a stencil suggested in a Linda Kemshall video. I made a stencil from mylar plastic and then applied the image to hand dyed fabrics using various techniques.
I made several panels before piecing them together.

.
These two panels were made using markal oil sticks and spray paint.

Pieced together with varying shades of blue strips - the large strip on the right will become the border.

A final touch was to add text around the edge using painted bondaweb. The border now needs quilting before adding a binding. I'm quite pleased with the outcome particularly as I've tried out several new techniques here.

In addition to this I've been making the biggest quilt I've attempted so far which was a commission from a friend - dear God, it has knackered me this week as I've pushed myself to finish it before i go off on my painting holiday in France. I've taken some photos to show the stages need to make and complete a quilt:

1. The fabric needs to be cut up and sorted into their colours - in this case dark blue,  medium blue, dark olive, medium olive.

 The strips are sewed together and then cut into rectangular shapes.

 The shapes are then pieced together into larger strips which are again pieced together to make the quilt.

You can see the pattern emerging with an interplay of dark and light fabrics.

The final quilt - this was hard but I'm pretty pleased with it now. Hope she is!!!

A few more things....

I'm continuing with my stencil quilt and now have sewed all the sections together and am ready for quilting. I don't have the right colour threads so hope to get those this weekend at the Festival of Quilts. I just need to take a few photos......