Morley this week, and back to my printing project to do with damaged trees, Paul Nash, bleeding canker, the garden museum, wounds, bark, trenches, identity tags - as my tutor says, I could be getting a bit overwhelmed by my subject matter and need to simplify.
Experiments with painting thickened dye paste directly on the screen
experimenting with polystyrene blocks
Finally, a tree image
Tree printed
This could finally be gong somewhere.
Today, my elder son is 18, on the day of the 50th anniversary edition of Dr Who. For a dedicated fan, there was only one birthday present possible from a quilting mother.
Detail
Back
Quilting on back, detail
Thanks to every designer n the Dr Who stitchalong who contributed their designs so generously. Keeping this secret from April until now , in a small house, has been a challenge.
During my recent lurgydom, I was wasting time on the web, and found this incredible quilter, LuAnn Kessi, who very generously has several tutorials and photos of her sketchbooks on her website, including how to draw quilting feathers freehand without templates. A few hours over the past few days led to these, all A4 size. Different pencils have given different degrees of definition to the drawn lines.
The challenge will be to see how well the muscle memory translates into stitch.
The lurgy has gone, so I got out to Henley on Thames, usually associated with rowing, to see the Water, Water exhibition, curated by Kate Findlay, she of the series of quilts based on the Large Hadron Collider. I did my helper stint with Kate and with Delia Salter, she of "The Shipping Forecast" fame, ( blog post by Margaret Cooter, here). The venue was lovely, lots of natural light from roof windows, and a nifty front door that slides down the side of the building. Not surprisingly given the theme, the overwhelming impression of this exhibition is blue, in all shades, with some taupes, greens and flashes of red and orange. Photos below of my favourites ( and my own quilts in situ) not in any particular order. I didn't get a photo of the lovely piece based on Skye, by Delia Salter, as it was tricky to photograph and I didn't get every artists' name, so apologies.
Kate Findlay
Mary Munday ( and me)
Amanda Wright
Penny Kurowski
Caroline Wilkinson
Alicia Merrett ( that's the radiator at the bottom, no matter how much it looks like two lines of stitching)
Jane Wheeler
Chris Dobson
Artists' names not noted
Even after all of that inspiration, the quilter in me couldn't resist these pavement slabs round the corner.
The surprise quilt was finished last night n a mammoth session of hand-finishing the binding. I can only show the back here for now.
One quilted square
Other quilted square
Quilted with Bottomline thread and a size 70 needle, 80:20 wadding.
The chairs at our dining table were supposed to be a temporary fallback when we moved in to our house 19 years ago. Other priorities came and the chairs are still there. Gradually, the cane on the seats has given way due to many breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and other, less conventional use as camps, barricades, forts, castles, boats, spaceships, and the like. The onslaught has had consequences, and it was time to deal with the sagging bottom of one of them.
Two episodes of Grayson Perry giving the Reith lectures, much webbing stretching, lots of tacks and staples later, it is back to a functional state. Not perfect, but might last another 19 years.
When there are this number of threads to tie in, the only method I use now is that shown by Leah Day, using an easy-thread needle, ( also known as a calyx needle). I would really like to try these, but the cost is a bit prohibitive.
