Norfolk skies

Hard to complain about the cold and snow when the weather gives rise to skies like these.

Procion P painting

I've been intrigued for some time by the fabrics produced by Mickey Lawler of Skydyes and wondered if it would be possible to duplicate these effects with Procion P dyes.  A day of experimenting at Morley led to results worth exploring further.
Cotton cloth set up on a batik frame, dampened and Procion  P dye applied with different brushes and sponges.  This is a dye recipe containing reddish blue, turquoise and black.

Detail of how the dye splits as it travels through the cloth

Result of painting directly on the cloth when it is pinned directly to the backing cloth, rather than on a frame

Dye applied on to crinkled cloth on the print table ( bottom) and applied over clingfilm, then crinkled, ( top).  This technique gives great marks.

Now to explore what happens with complementary colours.  Too much inspiration, too little time.

Flocking off

As ever Morley is my anchor at times of change.  Much as I would like to tell various people to flock off , this is still a textile-based post.
Continuing to work on the scallop piece and experimenting with ways to generate images of texture on cloth.  First of all, using flock to add the text to the dyed cloth.  I really like the way this looks like a shadow from the distance, but is textured when you are closer.

Then experiments with painting Procion P dye directly on cloth

Lastly, using the front of an onion bag on an open screen

Printing with print paste

Multiple prints

Printing with black

WEFT, it was fab

This exhibition has been blogged abut extensively and I managed to get there last thursday.  Due to much work  and family turbulence since then, I've only been able to post about it now.

Astonishing  embroidery by the Chinese Suzhou school was on display, taking a traditional skill in to a contemporary interpretation.  This lotus pond was one of my favourite pieces although I can see how some bloggers have stated that it looked too much like a digital image for their liking.

Astonishing embroidered tree trunk

Detail of embroidery

Beautiful stitched indigo shibori

Detail of indigo shibori

Sometimes, one just needs to go back to basics

In the midst of all this artful interpretation of memory, it is useful to go back to absolute quilting basics.  In that spirit, a little cot quilt, " Hearts and Stars" ( about 24 x 30 inches) made from scraps, ( "proper patchwork" as one of my friends calls it, including bits of old clothes)  and off to Project Linus to brighten someone's day.  

Quilting detail

Back, it is straight, just photographed badly.

Journal quilts, February, Cumbernauld

We moved to a brand new, 3 bedroomed, terraced council house in a Scottish new town. My overriding memory is of the stark white of the houses with their black wooden cladding. This contrasted with small remains of beech woods, across the pavement from our house where we climbed and played adventure games.

 White sheeting, black cotton stitched into pintucks. Grey linen, machine embroidered with rayon threads, then trapunto stuffed. Machine embroidered ono the trapunto with the post code using the alphabet function on my sewing machine. I like how the lettering has become abstracted due to using the walking foot and moving the stitched line away from the linear alignment. The far left section is a transfer print of a map of Dalmuir, overlaid on the sheeting, with the extending threads representing the memories of one place influencing those of another. I had planned to add quilted circles to represent the bridges, underpasses and roundabouts of the new town design, intended to keep pedestrians removed from traffic and hence safe. I decided against that, as it made the design too busy. Perhaps I also omitted these as it reminded me that the town centre, devoid of pedestrians, was a soulless, draughty, grey, drab, frightening expanse of concrete.

Details of machine stitching and overlaid map

Detail of simulated beech tree surface

Journal quilts, "There are places I remember….."

I want to use this theme to explore abstract interpretations of places I remember. I have focussed on significant addresses in my life and wanted to use colours and textures to invoke what those places meant to me at the time, and sometimes what they mean with the benefit of hindsight. Although I have visited several countries for pleasure and for work, and my family is fairly ar-flung ( East Coast US, West Coast US and Australia) , I have always lived in the UK, so there will be no glorious colours of wonderful destinations. It took me a long time to get started on this theme, perhaps because some of the memories are tricky to deal with. I'm planning to use postcodes as a unifying element across the series, but added with different techniques.

January, Dalmuir

My early life was spent with my brother, sister and parents in a two room flat on the first floor of a tenement, one of those that were just far enough away from Clydebank to survive the Clydebank blitz.  My cousins lived in the same street, and my memories are of endless days playing in the back court, in the huge park within walking distance, and in the rubble across the road.

I want to get away from pictorial representations of these memories, so I have focused instead on the colours that I recall: the rust red of the sandstone buildings; the green of the park; the blue of the stream in the park; the brown of the River Clyde.

 Breakdown printed cotton sheeting, using Procion P dyes with Manutex. Postcode stencilled with permanent felt pen. Machine trapunto under the section quilted in a brick pattern. Hopscotch ( “beds” or “peever” in the West of Scotland) chalk quilted with rayon thread. Stipple quilted with variegated blue thread, then microstippled with Bottomline thread in green, light rust and light blue.