Journal quilt, March

Our parents bought their own house, and all it brought was stress.

Self-dyed fabric,commercial fabric, machine quilting, machine embroidery, Ultrabond.

Lots of symbolism for me here: the ever-changing clipped curves of the hedge around the corner plot of the house; the use of inappropriate materials ( 5 layers of ultrabond does terrible things to a machine needle; uneven, wobbly lines and scrappy finish; mismatched finish on the edges using whatever is to hand; half-bottles; words lacking distinction; machine quilting of the postcode all slightly uneven due to the wadding. Quite cathartic really.

It is straighter than it looks here, I think it is the camera angle.

Dr Who fans, quick.........

Go and look at this now and bow down to patchwork genius.

Swans, fabric and in person

I love swans and have an unfinished project, from a workshop with Ferret, that reminds me every time I get it out how much I respond to their shape and texture.

 Responsibilities as a supporter at the finishing line at the local Park Run on a  beautiful day gave a bit of time to capture more images and shapes.  I really enjoy the second row, two in from the right as it reminds me of the the dessert Iles Flottantes ( can't get the accents on this keyboard).

Birch colours

Beautiful printed window display spotted on the way to Knitting and Stitching show in March.

Colour palette extracted from this image,using GIMP, an image manipulation programme.  Good range of values in the oranges, but the blue/ violets need more variation in depth of tone.

London day out

Two exhibitions today.  First, Ceramic Art 2013 at the Royal College of Art.  I could have spent a fortune.  Unfortunately, this exhibition was only on this weekend, so it is finished,  All images from the Ceramic Art site, as no photography was allowed.
Dorothee Loriquet, wonderfully tactile structures that can be placed horizontally or vertically, each about 40cm in length.

Patricia Volk, these pieces are big, about 1 metre high and designed to be shown outdoors.

Duncan Ross, the colours and the precision in these were superb.

Thomas Bohle, striking, powerful shapes and marvellous glazes

Antonia Salmon, fantastic, hand-formed Archimedes' screws

Tina Vlassopoulos, whose work has featured in this blog before

Lara Scobie, and Sasha Wardell, whose work I have also seen before and loved


Fenella Elms, with intriguing ribbons of porcelain mounted on walls or encased in acrylic

Kate Scott, gorgeous sea-themed pieces

Ikuko Iwamoto, astonishing, vaguely menacing,  delicate assemblies of repeated elements

Then a quick whizz round "Strictly Science" at Imperial College, to mark the centenary of the Medical Research Council.  Somehow , I missed the publicity for this, and the closing day was today.  Great fun and some terrific interactive exhibits.  Some new names to me, of which I am rather ashamed, particularly Dame Harriette Chick, who did important work to demonstrate the link between rickets and a lack of Vitamin D.
My own photos of the day were taken with phone, rather than camera, and the rain was appalling, so this mosaic of "Lookng up to London" was my only contribution to imagery of the day. ( Mosaic , courtesy of BigHugeLabs.com)

Flawed product design

Surely, when the contortions below are the only way to replace a lightbulb, there is something wrong with the product design?  Who will do this for me when he leaves home?

 

 

 

Sketchbook, more papercuts

Using brown paper, magazine page, then layered on top of  watercolour.  The large plant lost some of its umbrels, I think my scalpel needs a new blade.

Sketchbook, papercutting and Brusho

My sketch booking comes in fits and starts, but I've had a bit of a run on more paper cut overlays over painted/ dyed or printed backgrounds.  Probably assisted by a new scalpel, and the discovery of some Brusho powder at Morley in the last week of term.  The scalpel will always seem easier to me than the pencil.

a postcard form Alterego fabrics.

A fortuitous pairing of colour mixing with nail varnish - colour awareness in so many spheres of my life now.

Rust dyeing experiment

I really enjoy beachcombing on an unfamiliar beach.  Some great bits of rusty metal from last weekend's bracing walks in Norfolk ( my family do think I'm mad) have been set up for an experimental rust dyeing session.  Water and vinegar on calico and I'll report on what happens.

Not much sewing this week, and not much speech either as I've lost my voice, but this postcard went in the post as part of an online birthday swap.