Stitchinscience

Posh polyester pashmina

2012-02-12T17:16:00.001Z

The cling film covered disperse dye papers proved themselves to give great texture when cut on to shapes and collaged on to the charity shop pashmina. Are these agave, seaweed, modified half-lotus? These shapes are the same collaged cut outs, discharged on to the fabric three times to become more faint. Interestingly, the texture left behind by the cling film becomes more marked with each transfer.

Again, the collaged pieces make interesting insertions into my sketchbook.

Transparent transfer

2012-02-09T17:43:00.001Z

There are so many options with the heat press. This exploration was cutting shapes from the wax-resist, painted papers, and then using these to transfer to a whole piece of cloth. Overprinting to exhaustion, ( me and the papers) and allowing the dye to penetrate two layers of cloth at the same time, or interleaving it between two layers, led to this piece.

Are these chocolate eggs or Maltesers?

The background for this was very, very white, so I boiled it in tea…….for much longer than I had planned due to trying to do too much multi-tasking. Luckily enough it did not boil dry.

Unfortunately, this fabric is full of static electricity, or I might have draped it artistically around my shoulders in an Isadora Duncan sort of way.

Next, I'll be using painted papers that had cling film laid on them while still wet. Hopefully this will give some random, organic shapes to play with as shown here for watercolours. I've found a polyester pashmina ( charity shopping again) that will be transformed by this if all goes to plan.

Dispersing discussions

2012-02-08T15:38:00.001Z

When disperse dyes are painted onto the transfer paper, the colours bear very little resemblance to what appears on the fabric. In general, the dyes appear murky and dull. Our tutor is therefore very keen that we understand how the dyes interact with each other and how to mix our own colours. We therefore prepared our own colour charts, by painting strips of dye, then transferring these strips on to the fabric twice, once in the direction of painting, and then again at 90 degrees to the original print. This gives a grid of mixed colours for later reference.

The painted paper after transfer of the dye to the fabric.

The paper with the printed colour chart.

Discharged papers with the relevant printed fabrics

The papers are rather lovely by themselves when they are discharged, and still have plenty of dye on them to take on to paper with water.

These dyes have a very distinctive smell, which seems to be more apparent when wetting the paper - odd.

Still transferring my affections

2012-02-06T21:14:00.001Z

So,loving the transfer printing effects, but still not enamoured of the fabrics, this week it was time to try some different techniques. First up, wax resist on the paper, before painting on the dye. This beautiful petrol blue was my own mix of dyes.

Next trying this same paper on a garish synthetic organza

It will be good to explore some the layering effects that will be possible with this dyeing method.

Layering detail

Next, trying some resist with dried leaves collected last year.

Again lovely transparent effects on this fabric.

And to finish, a bit of a shambles, trying to use two shades of the same dye, but without enough contrast between them.

Transferring my affections

2012-02-05T12:35:00.003Z

Transfer printing, strangely enough to those remembering wet sponges and faded transfers on summer skin, is a completely dry fabric printing process. This half term at Morley we are focussing on this technique, particularly on mixing and controlling our own colours.

When I tried this during the previous course, we used the stock colours, which was fun, but not subtle.

I bought 3 cheap fabrics labelled "polyester" but with different finishes to really test out the technique. First attempts were a repeat of last year's method, painting the disperse dyes on cartridge paper, letting it dry, and then transferring to the fabric in the heat press. This technique is limited by the size of the press, so most of these single samples are about A3 size. Out tutor, the very patient Marian, is keen that we explore the painterly effects of the techniques we are using. I must be getting somewhere with this, as the phrase " painterly effects" used to send me twitching in to a corner.

Getting more methodical, my dye recipes are written on the cloth. This is a horrible, shiny polyester, but is transformed by the printing process.

Next, painting leftover dyes on to paper in random patterns to see what colours develop. Then using these papers with photocopies of images. This image was an enlarged photocopy of a hand-embroidered piece I did on last year's course. Using the positive and the negative of the paper, gives a positive and negative of the image. Might be worth exploring, but this painted paper is too busy to allow the image to show through.

Next using an indulca resist ( can't find a link about that, it is a bean paste I think) on our silk screen images, printing the indulca resist on to the painted papers and then printing from that. Also trying out multiple prints from the same piece of paper, to see how many prints, of increasingly fainter quality can be made from one paper.

Beautiful transparency with this fabric, despite the rather overly vibrant orange and pink.

Lots more to come.

PS just corrected some autocomplete spelling mistakes that I didn't notice yesterday.

In-di-go, it's magic

2012-02-04T16:20:00.001Z

With apologies to Pilot, but the tile of this post expresses my continued amazement at what comes out of the indigo vat. This week, some cotton jersey, stitched with over stitches and running stitches while watching " The Ghost" and then taken to Morley.

The small hole was due to over-vigorous tugging at the stitches on the wet cloth - lesson learned. The middle section is a bit "tie-dye" for me, but I like the effects at the two ends.

And then today, a find in a charity shop, Nitin Goyal velvet scarf, my favourite colour, and lots of texture. If the temperature drops as forecast tonight, I'll be wearing this one round my neck tomorrow.

Hope you're keeping warm.

Seed pod?

2012-01-28T15:31:00.001Z

During my textile printing course at Morley College, I have been amazed at the sorts of images I can generate, using simple techniques, because I believe I cannot draw or paint. This spiky seed pod / flower / creature was generated using a stick dragged through a blob of paint and the subsequent mark monoprinted on to fabric. The fabric was then photocopied on to tracing paper, multiple times, cut out and reassembled in to this image. The image was then used to make a silkscreen.

Old cotton sheet, silkscreen printed, then background printed with Inktense inks. Machine quilted with polyester wadding. Binding was machine embroidered before placing on to the quilt. Good effect, but I need to be more careful with placement of the stitching.

Additional photos show: the quilting better lit to show the loft; the back, first attempt with Inktense, too harsh and jarring;

My local area challenge

2012-01-24T09:30:00.001Z

My local quilt group has an exhibition in early October 2012. One of our challenges is to make an A3 piece, on the theme "My Local Area". I've ummed an aahed over this for months and finally settled on piece based on my photos of the Great River Race, held on the Thames in September. My personal challenge for this year is to use more of my printed textiles from Morley in finished items. So here it is.

The colours are a bit faded in this photo, it is brighter than this in reality. Details:

Machine quilted with holographic thread for the water effects, which went through the machine more readily than I had anticipated.

I blogged about creating this fabric here.

Celebrating Diversity

2012-01-18T16:24:00.001Z

A challenge from the Contemporary Quilt Group to make a 20cm square piece celebrating the diversity of Britain.

This piece has turned out to be more interesting than I thought it would, mostly due to my inability to cope with the “back-to frontness” of using Bondaweb.

Biscuit cutter silhouette of the British Isles, with scraps of different fabrics that are, or were, made in Britain: tartan, wool, linen, cotton, silk, lace and hand embroidery. Arashi-shibori dyed cotton background, indicating an increasingly stormy sea and the ropes that lash ships to the shore. Machine quilting of the names of textiles of importance to Britain. Backed with a fabric showing old suitcase labels.

The white cliffs at the bottom, looking rather tattered, indicating erosion and change. Fortuitously, as it turned out, Britain has ended up facing in the “wrong” direction, leading to wondering if we will maintain our diversity by facing away from our neighbours in Europe, or if we will start to become more homogenous due to continued influence from the USA.

Chihuly in London

2012-01-17T15:22:00.001Z

If you see nothing else in London in the first quarter of the year, try to get to the Halcyon Gallery in Bond Street to see the Chihuly glass. This is the first major Chihuly exhibition in London since the incredible display at Kew Gardens in 2005- 2006. I visited that exhibition about 5 times, in daylight and at night, and it was an astonishing experience.

I did not have a great camera then, and was usually accompanied by 2 very lively boys, who did not mix well with an exhibition of glass, so my photos from that time are limited.

It will be a real pleasure to see his work again. Thanks to Kim for blogging about this and alerting me to the exhibition.

From thought to research to sketch to research to stitch

2012-01-15T14:32:00.001Z

I really enjoy reading about the process textile artists go through to get from the initial idea through to a finished piece. I am becoming more disciplined in recording my source of inspiration, process and how this leads to the final piece.

Reading recently about the new stained glass in Sagrada Familia has coincided with a request for a fabric postcard on the theme of windows.

This led to more reading about the designer, Joan Vila-Grau and the maker, J M Bonet .

From there to a very simplified sketch, also trying out some of the shading techniques from "Drawing and Design for Embroidery, a course for the fearful"

Using some of the screen printed fabric from last term ( Manutex with Procion P painted directly on the screen) led to this

I'm happy with the final card, but the colours of the fabric appeared more vivid before outlining with the black stitch, perhaps this would have been better in a dark grey, or indeed not done at all.

Back to Morley

2012-01-14T12:50:00.001Z

New term, and some new members of our class, one rather dauntingly with an MA in Textiles and her own textile studio.

I spent today revisiting some printing techniques and adapting one of my screens to make the imagery less regular and more interesting.

Photo screen, image 1, with overlaid paper stencil of differing sized circles

Photoscreen, image 2, randomly overprinted multiple times

Also a quick few dips of pieces of the sheeting in the newly mixed indigo vat, so the colour is strong and vibrant. I love the immediacy of indigo, it goes with my lack of patience and love of the accidental ( in textiles anyway).

Resist with masking tape

Fabric tied on itself in large knots

Then an experiment of dipping a screen printed image in the indigo vat, to see what happens to the pigment paste if it exposed to moisture before curing.

It looks as if has faded, but this will only be clear once it is heat set.

If you are near Morley in the next two weeks, the jewellery and textile tutors have an exhibition in the Morley Gallery. Free admission, and a marvellous range of work to see.

Sketchbooking

2012-01-08T12:46:00.001Z

I have been attempting to keep a sketchbook for a few months. I'm partly daunted by the word "sketchbook" as to me it implies that one has to be able to draw. I've been more reassured by other bloggers who think of their sketchbooks, as more of a notebook, scrapbook, jotter or aide-memoir. In that spirit, I'm therefore less daunted. These pages are sparking stitching ideas at present.

Several media used here: Inktense blocks, Inktense pencils, off cuts from Morley transfer dyed pages, permanent markers, and drawing instructions from Cart Before the Horse. Some of my birds look more like fish, but that could be interesting in itself.

Sun arise, bring in the morning…….

2012-01-04T16:07:00.001Z

On the first day back at work, such a sunrise that I had to dash back in to the house to get my camera, and start singing that Rolf Harris favourite…..

Long shadows, bright light

2012-01-02T16:26:00.001Z

Beautiful sunny morning,continuing all day. What a pleasure. No sewing, just clearing away the decorations and pondering on the year just past.

First stitching of 2012 - and it was difficult

2012-01-01T17:50:00.001Z

Our quilt group's first meeting of 2012 is several demonstrations of different methods of curved piecing. As one of the demonstrators, I though I had better try out a few methods before doing my demonstration. Some of these were much more successful than others.

First, using the Creative Curves Ruler. While the cutting of the pieces using this ruler was super fast, easy and accurate, my machine sewing just didn't do them justice, and the sorry lot that follows were the result.
.

I think this ruler could be going to a swap near you sometime soon.

Next using the "drawing pin/ thumbtack" method for sewing circles. Good results and worth exploring for appliqué, but fiddly.

Losing heart a bit, next on to Dale Fleming " Pinless Piecing", adapted a bit here. Really smooth curves on a circle only 7.5 cm / 3 inches in diameter.

Back to trying traditional marking and pinning techniques on a long curve, too many wrinkles for my liking

Back again to the Dale Fleming method, using only one piece of freezer paper this time, beautiful, smooth, sinuous curves.

I'll be taking all samples along to the demonstration, in order that everyone can see the options and find their favourite method.

My hotmail has been hacked, ignore all messages for next 24h

2011-12-28T19:15:00.003Z

Apologies all round, clicked on the wrong thing after a stressful day and now need to try to sort it out. Any tips gratefully received.

Christmas kisses

2011-12-24T12:49:00.001Z

Hope there are some waiting for you under the mistletoe.

Morley Thursday

2011-12-22T13:10:00.001Z

Hanging up in our spare room, showing the effects of 1 term of textile printing. The apron started off pristine, but I am so glad it looks like this now.

Stitchograph

2011-12-19T20:13:00.001Z

While my younger son was ill, I needed something to persuade him away from only electronic stimulation. Rummaging in a cupboard, I found some of my family's old Spirograph kit and some of my Spirograph compositions, dated 1971.

These have inspired some stitching on to the centres of the long-term Dresden plate project.

Initial testing with washable fine marker pens

Three Dresden plates with hand embroidered centres ( back stitch and French knots) using Rainbows thread, expensive, but worth it.

Paper trees

2011-12-18T15:05:00.001Z

The simplicity of the designs from " A Little Hut' are perfect for a bit of non-sewing making. I bought the files for the Christmas paper cut quilt, and used them to make some outdoor lanterns with old jam jars - feeling very thrifty.

It's beginning to look a lot like Xmas

2011-12-17T11:02:00.001Z

Although we have too many Xmas ornaments for our very small tree, I like to make a few each year and retire those that are looking tired and that have no particular emotional link to our family. No sewn items this year, but some fabric content.

Air dry clay, rolled out, crocheted lace doily rolled over the top, then removed, and shapes cut out with biscuit cutters. I did have to warn hungry people as they returned home that they were not edible, even although they were on the pastry stone.

Morley Montage

2011-12-16T19:49:00.002Z

Our final session for this term was last Thursday, so a fair amount of last minute printing went on , along with a good lunch at The Three Stags.

I had made a furoshiki bag from some of my printed fabric, after seeing them at the V and A , gasping at the price, and after much pondering, and web-searching, found a way to make my own version. I took this along to Morley, and my classmates were very complimentary.

The art work, shown a few posts ago, has now been transferred to a permanent photo printing screen. I still find it incredible that I started with a blob of paint, made some scratch marks and under the guidance of our great tutor, Marian, have some up with an interesting and unique image with which to print.

Much printing later, these are Thursday's results.

The paper cut has now also been transferred to a permanent screen. I thought I would prefer this image, but it has turned out not to be the case. It seems more limited in scope, not lending itself to overprinting, and unforgiving of mistakes.

No class for three weeks, I'll be bereft. I have brought some dye home, so hopefully there will be some time in the Xmas mayhem for some experiments.

Week of wonder 3

2011-12-15T17:39:00.001Z

The power of getting myself organised to get to " The Power of Making" at the V and A.

Lots of thought provoking work here, focussed on the actual making of objects, rather than on their purely artistic value. Some of the most striking were those with a medical focus, such as the beautifully structural prosthetic leg.

More disturbing was the life-size baby made out of marzipan

This was a visually stimulating exhibition, but I'm still not sure I understand the overarching theme yet. To me there were some noticeable omissions from the world of making, particularly in glass.

Next up, the new acquisitions gallery, and some wonderful creations, first of all a chair taken to its minimum form

Another chair made with offcuts from Issey Miyake " Pleats Please " fabric

Wild fabric in an Alexander McQueen dress

Enormous steel screen by Wendy Ramshaw. The images seen through the perfect optical lenses are wonderful.

Some time spent in the V and A shop, and a little " to me from me" present in the form of a zip with laser-cut florets along the tape. What a great embellishment for a rather boring closure.

Gazing at the shapes made by the London Eye while waiting for the train home, there's a quilt design in here somewhere.

Back home to start some Xmas biscuit making.

End of a wonderful week. (Thanks you to technohubby for the blog sort out).

Week of wonder, Day 2

2011-12-13T09:57:00.005Z

Next up, a visit to 2 Temple Place, newly opened in London, near Somerset House. Owned by the Bulldog Trust, whose remit is to bring the collections from regional museums to a wider audience. The first exhibition in on William Morris, with pieces from the currently closed Morris museum in Walthamstow. It could be argued that Walthamstow hardly fits the definition of regional, but that is nit picking.
This house and current exhibition is really worth a visit if you like eccentricity, wood carving and stained glass. The house has plenty of these, starting from the cherubs on the phone at the entrance

to the gilded ship on the weathervane on the roof.

Besides the wonders of the house, the Morris exhibition is very good, with more of my favourite pieces upstairs than down. There are the working drafts of some of Morris' most famous designs, shown from initial pencil sketches through to fully coloured working proofs for printing or stitching. The stained glass is well exhibited, but unfortunately covering up one of the windows of the house.
From there, braving the circling helicopters, on to Somerset House and a display of uses for Forgotten Spaces in London. This really uses the lower, forgotten parts of Somerset House well and has some intriguing design ideas.

Some more craft stimulation in Somerset House itself, with crazy ceilings and light fittings

A temporary shop of British craft , with

Tina Vlassopulos, ceramics

Beautiful paper cuts by Sarah Raven

Eerie and beautiful vases by Catherine Gray

Uncanny ceramics by Koji Shiraya

David Lewis, fun kitchen ware

Taisir Gibreel, beautiful scarves

Jo Newman glass

Jo Davies, ceramics and then covetable jewellery from Claire Wood, and Jessica Jewellery ( which look much more delicate in real light)
Another visually stimulating day, and hopefully I'll get more to grips with the formatting of the blog on the Mac soon.

Week of London wonder, day 1

2011-12-10T17:16:00.002Z

As I've said before, living in London can be a trial so it is important to do things that can only be done in London. In this spirit, I used up some leave this month to " do" some exhibitions. First up, Grayson Perry " the Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman" at the British Museum. This exhibition has had lots of publicity, and it is well worth seeing. The selection of objects from the museum, and how they are juxtaposed with Perry's work was very interesting. It was wonderful to get such close-up views of the large pots, and to see that Perry has worked in lots of media, including iron, bronze and, better known to me, embroideries and tapestries.

Am I a philistine and a pedant to be irritated at two spelling mistakes on the amazing large tapestry? Or am I missing some artistic statement?

Lunch followed at the superb London Review Bookshop and Cafe. Lovely lunch and lots of more unusual books to browse from less well-known publishers. Some Xmas shopping done, and then on to the Contemporary Ceramics Centre for a drool. Designers who caught my eye were,
Lara Scobie, Emily Myers ,Merete Rasmussen, Sophie Cook, Matthew Chambers, particularly his incredible , seemingly nested bowls,

Anja Lubach's rather unsettling porcelain skull / rose bowls,

Sasha Wardell's astonishingly translucent bowls

Penny Fowler's graphic bowls

Ikuko Iwamoto's translucent pieces

None of these pieces are compatible for a small house, shared with two teenagers and an active dog, so no purchases.

More drooling back at the British Museum shop, where the buyers seem to have a more edgy approach than the V and A buyers this year.

Emma Jackson, cobweb felt

Margo Selby, beautiful, tactile scarves

Anne Selby, even more tactile scarves

And heading away from pure textiles
Yu Ping Lin, origami jewelery

Zoe Hillyard, ceramic patchwork

A visit to the Socialist bookshop, and a find of a second hand copy of the Alabama Studio Style book, with all templates and the pattern.

A great day, and almost too many wonderful things to digest and cogitate on. Day 2 , coming soon.

Button winner

2011-12-06T07:46:00.001Z

OK, so I didn't need a random number generator, just went with slips of paper in bowl, and the winner was ……… Gill. Let me know contact details and I'll get your favourite to you.

Lots to tell about my art adventures last week, but life is just a bit busy to allow contemplation and summary in to a readable structure. My head is full of shapes, forms, light and colour. Could be worse things to have a head full of.

200th post - busy, busy , busy

2011-11-29T09:19:00.001Z

After a bit of melt-down at the weekend due to too many half finished projects, too much craft-related mess, and general concern about Christmas plans, I managed to get my head together to do a major tidy up and get some project finished. So here they are.

Indigo dyed, shibori-tied velvet, with silk hand-pulled flowers and hand-rolled organdie leaves, so an online swap.

10 x 10 journal for the Contemporary Quilt Group challenge. disperse-dyed macho overlaid on viscose dyed with Procion MX. Button from the Karen Ruane course, painted with dye and then attached ( haven't quite got the hang of photo editing on the new computer yet).

Button detail.

Hand-rolled organdie leaves, attached to one of the brooches / buttons from the Karen Ruane course. One of the participants on the Morley course is a milliner, and showed us how to make these leaves. i like the idea of having a set of these to add or remove from the brooch as you wish.

Close up of the leaves.

As this is my 200th post, I am going to have a giveaway of one of these that are all now brooches. I can also include some white or green leaves if you wish, but I'll need to get on and make some.

Leave a comment, with which one you would like and why, and I will do a draw next Monday to see who gets one.

Did you guess?

2011-11-26T10:27:00.000Z

Pole dyed cotton sheeting, with good definition of the wrapping cord on the cloth. As a bonus, you also get lovely, dyed cords to play with.

The lower piece is cotton organdy, which is actually a more vivid green than this photo depicts. It stays curiously crunchy when dry, despite vigorous washing and rinsing . I might give this to one of my Morley mates who is a milliner and who uses a lot of organdy.

This is my 199th post – amazing.

Can you guess what it is yet?

2011-11-24T15:15:00.000Z

I’ve actually made something from the dyed fabric

2011-11-23T11:21:00.000Z

Machine pieced, insert circles, using the technique from “ Pieced Curves So simple” by Dale Fleming. Machine quilted using two threads through one needle to get a really heavy quilted line, This one is going in the final online swap of the year

The art of looking

2011-11-22T08:59:00.002Z

I made it to “The Art of Mapping”, well worth a look if you are in London. I liked the work of Nigel Peake

which reminded me in a way of some of the mark making in “ The London Jungle Book”

It was also great to see the iconic “Great Bear” on loan from the London Transport Museum.

and an intriguing work by Grayson Perry ( am I a philistine for wondering if some spelling mistakes were deliberate, or are they part of the art work?)
Then off to look at some intriguing fabric in Dover Street Market, above my budget, but no cost to look.
Peter Pilotto, gorgeous silk

Comme des Garcons, origami shirt

Notan morphing

2011-11-17T11:02:00.000Z

An exercise in Notan papercutting, quickly lost focus,

and morphed into this ( approximately A4) papercut.

More than likely influenced by recently read blog posts from here, here and here. Not a lost few hours, but hopefully will be useful for Morley.

More dyeing

2011-11-15T11:17:00.000Z

White viscose, resist with rubber bands, 5 minutes in the indigo vat.

Tight twist, tray dyed with twice the concentrations of last week’s dyes

White cotton, loosely pleated, tray dyed with twice the concentrations of last week’s dyes

Close ups – where did that orange thread come from?

The Art of Mapping

2011-11-10T20:15:00.000Z

I love maps, so I hope to get to this exhibition at The Air Gallery, Dover Street, London(14- 26 November ). A long term project has been to do some sort of quilted / stitched map along the lines of these artists

Emily Fischer of Haptic Lab

Shellie Holden

Leah Evans

Design briefs – feels more like twisted knickers

2011-11-08T15:44:00.000Z

I have two current design briefs, one for the Morley course and one for my local quilting group. They are respectively, “The Olympics” and “ My local area”. As I was unsuccessful in the bid for any Olympics tickets, and the only immediate impact on our family I see is total traffic chaos on the days of the cycling events, I’m not wildly enthusiastic about this topic.

I’m considering the architecture of the Olympics, as each one seems to bring a surge of new building. I wish this design, Ron Arad, was being implemented for London.

More inspirational is “ my local area” and I’m veering between The Sackler Crossing at Kew Gardens, by John Pawson ( lots of inspiration in these sinuous curves)

and the madness of The Great River Race, an annual rowed race on the Thames that for the past few years has finished in Twickenham.

Dyed and gone to heaven

2011-11-05T10:39:00.001Z

Tray-dyeing at Morley this week, so lots of ~~guddly mess with~~ precision application of the Procion MX dyes. The piece above is cotton, dyed with a mixture of blues, lemon yellow and a tiny bit of black. Beautiful painterly effects with some detail shown below.

Trying to get a purple was not successful, and resulted in an overpowering magenta. Not shown here yet, as I think I’ll try overdyeing it.

Toggles

2011-11-04T10:21:00.000Z

Indigo shibori dyed muslin, screen printed on top. Rolled in to a log, then stitched at the ends. Laborious and strangely relaxing..

Filophilia

2011-11-02T10:05:00.000Z

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T09:39:00.000Z

Glow in the dark thread on silk velvet.

Buttons in red, ( well fuchsia really)

2011-10-29T10:51:00.001+01:00

Cut work with underlays of silks, 38 and 29mm.

Suffolk puff, buttons and great thread.How small can you go?

Dyed muslin, stuffed circles, wired beads, 38mm.

Unsubscribe - but not to life

2011-10-27T12:01:00.003+01:00

My life just has too many strands at present. So, I've decided to hit the unsubscribe button for the many interesting lists to which I subscribe. They are still interesting, I just know that they will still be there if I go and seek them, rather than having the distractions pushed at me. Life feels simpler already.

No Morley this week, so lots of embroidery from the Karen Ruane course. No photos yet, as the camera seems to have run in to trouble.

As I have no photos, here is a reminder about the libel law reform bill, and why if you are in London on 9th November, you might see me there.

In the print studio

2011-10-23T13:07:00.001+01:00

Well, actually on the only large table in our house. Testing out printscreening technique with a Thermofax screen, bought at Festival of quilts. Overprinting some dyed and shibori pieces of fabric with print pastes borrowed from Morley.

A new technique at Morley this week, painting with Procion P dyes directly on to the screen, then the screen image transferred to the cloth by puling over with Manutex. Beautiful painterly effects, but the camera is confused about the appropriate focal distance. Below is this technique overprinted on some indigo dyed, tape-resist shibori muslin. The same technique, this time with thickened dye to minimise the spread of the dye, printed on to wax batik dyed muslin.

With samples mounting, I have also now arranged them in to a sample folder – quietly soothing, even to someone who finds organisation not where they are naturally inclined.

Buttons with names

2011-10-18T15:08:00.001+01:00

Autumn evening skies.

Stitching these buttons in the hoop, they ask to be named. So before they become buttons and brooches, here they are, all 38 mm diameter.

Icy sands

Winter roses

You can have it all.

Pac man

Buttons

2011-10-15T10:03:00.001+01:00

Embroidered on silk dupion ( from the train of my wedding dress, a long time ago) with threads from The Handweavers Studio. 38mm diameter.

Waxing and “P” ing

2011-10-13T19:07:00.001+01:00

Today’s task was to further explore batik, on a different fabric, using Procion P dyes, rather than Procion MX dyes. I brought in some viscose, mixed up a blue and a red, then I was off.

In this first example, the wax was not warm enough and so did not penetrate the fibres to give enough of a resist.

Warmer wax, and much clearer delineation of the wax circles. Blue applied by brush within the resist, and then red applied with a sponge brush over the top.

This gave an interesting mottled effect on the wax circles when it was washed out.

On the lower part, I brushed the red around the wax circles, rather than over them, which left the turquoise blue as its original colour. Lots to explore.

Button up

2011-10-12T19:49:00.001+01:00

In addition to the Morley course, I have ventured in to the land of on-line learning. I have signed up for a course on embroidered buttons with Karen Ruane. This will build on last year’s experimental textiles course at Morley. First lesson was how to mark up in the frame, and stitching of some simple stitches.

These are two completed buttons, 38mm in diameter. On linen ( from a charity shop skirt) stitched with cotton perle and cotton a broder.

A bonus is that my friend, Plum, has signed up for the same course, without us discussing it with each other.

Recovering , in both senses

2011-10-09T18:02:00.001+01:00

Great day at the Knitting and Stitching show yesterday, meeting friends old and new, and managing to persuade a few people of the value of joining The Quilters’ Guild, which was what I was there to do. We were also the custodians of the winning quilts from the Festival of Quilts this year, so got a chance to have a much closer look at the best in show, absolutely incredible. This is by Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga, from Kollumerzwaag, The Netherlands and the quilt is called “Octopussy

I then had the afternoon free to see the incredible 104 hand-stitched panels of the Prestonpans tapestry.

To think that this was stitched from start to finish in 18 months is mind-boggling – truly a “Big Society “ project.

Lots to see, but I made a point of visiting the graduate showcase and some of the younger exhibitors. Rhea Clements scarves are wonderfully tactile

and Zeena Shah’s screenprints were quirky and amusing without being overly sugary.

I didn’t do much to stimulate the economy, limiting my self to two packets of John James embroidery needles ( lovely, if you haven't tried them) and three very small thimbles, as I can never find ones that fit well.

Recovery today, and an upholstery project that has been waiting for too long. One tattered piano stool is now transformed. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough of the thistle fabric to recover this one – it might have led to some wrong notes anyway. It is the same fabric in the last two photos, just with different light at different time of day – a good demonstration of how difficult it is to colour match fabrics from photos.

The colour of conkers

2011-10-08T14:14:00.000+01:00

Conkers, why do you always want to pick them up? They appear every year, they don’t change colour, they don’t change shape, the wrapping doesn’t change. But, they make an excellent subject for a study of how background colour changes our impression of what we are seeing.

Morley manicure

2011-10-06T19:54:00.001+01:00

Hands deep in dye today to try out some wax resist batik. I loved this technique, but again found it difficult to get my head round the outcome of the layering of resist, dye combination 1, then resist again, then dye combination 2.

I think my initial marks were too fine, but it’s all about trying these techniques out, and learning from experiments. This green was supposed to be a subtly shaded turquoise blue.

Also such a great discussion at the beginning of the class about the history of colour and dyes. I got the first book from the Morley library and have ordered the second one through our local library. So much mental stimulation.

E21 + N22 = bliss

2011-10-05T20:41:00.003+01:00

Morley tomorrow, can't wait.

Also if you are going / coming to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace on Saturday, come past and say hello to me on the stand for the Quilters' Guild on Saturday morning. We will be next to the winning quilts from the Festival of Quilts this summer.

E21 x2

2011-09-30T19:35:00.001+01:00

Cold water immersion dyeing, using our own mix of dyes, followed by adapting last week’s stencil to get a negative image surrounded by an organic shape. Once I got my head around what the tutor was trying to suggest I do with the shape, this was surprisingly straightforward.

E21

2011-09-24T09:51:00.001+01:00

E21, one letter and two numbers, but about as close to my personal nirvana as is possible. The Morley College textile suite, E21 is where I’ll be on Thursdays this academic year.

First up, screen printing from a paper stencil. Trying to continue some of the sweeping shapes from last year’s Creative Textiles course, I drew ( !) this frond / blob / inebriated starfish in my sketchbook ( this is getting a bit serious).

Then cut in newsprint, and used to print with the screens that we stretched last week, I have transformed a very worn and tired looking old sheet into

Continuing with the now adhered stencil, and the addition of yellow print paste, gave these lovely firebird effects

The ombre effect is made by placing distinct blobs of different colours of the print paste on the screen and then dragging the blobs down the screen.

The shadow effects are caused by placing the wet screen down again on the existing print before the paste is dry. As with many textiles, these serendipitous effects are the ones I like the most, and will probably be impossible to recreate.

Quilt as you plate

2011-09-20T18:57:00.001+01:00

Inspired by the technique for Dresden plates in Karin Hellaby’s book, “Sew a Row” I have made twelve 12 finned Dresden plates. These have been machine appliqued to calico, sandwiched with batting and backing and are now ready to quilt. I’m using the Jacqui Harvey back stitch quilting method again, details can be seen below and then I’m going to try out quilt as you go as I want to do a mix of hand and machine quilting. Hadnstitching is done with Superior Threads, “Rainbows”, which is beautifully smooth to sew with.

I am making, but……..

2011-09-10T12:29:00.001+01:00

everything is for gifts or swaps, so only non-identifiable glimpses can appear here

Plumbing was not numbing

2011-08-27T15:00:00.000+01:00

A much longer than anticipated visit from the plumber (do you know where your stopcocks are? If not, you might want to find out before your next plumber’s visit if you want to avoid looking as much of an idiot as I did) led to time for intermittent sewing.

Pat Archibald piece quilted simply with undulating lines with rayon threads, and bound with a pieced binding to continue the silhouette in to the binding. I like the fact that I didn’t have to be accurate with the piecing due to the existing crenellations on the silhouette.

I also managed to scavenge enough thistle fabric to make a new cover for a very tatty looking cushion. This felt very thrifty, as I also re-used the zip from the revolting old one.

Festival of quilts

2011-08-25T11:37:00.001+01:00

After a dash back from Cornwall, leaving my husband to coordinate other family travel ( and washing) for a trip to France, I had 2 great days at Festival of Quilts.

For the first time, I also managed to attend a workshop when I was there, with the great Pat Archibald. We zoomed through making a sunset picture in fabric, although I was a bit hampered as much of my equipment had mistakenly gone back to London in the car. Quilters being the people they are, everyone rallied round and I managed to borrow all that was required. The result was this A4 piece, currently looking a bit battered as it has been stuffed in a bag for over a week. Lots of artistic licence in the interpretation of the sunset colours.

As ever, I had problems with the “back to front and upside down – ness” of bondaweb with foiling, so my sun is a little more shimmery than originally intended.

One of the other participants took a slightly different approach and got a look of a waterside skyline.

Purchases were limited to this lovely book by Janet Clare

and something I’ve been wanting to try for ages, a Thermofax screen for fabric printing.

Two birds for two boys

2011-08-15T22:32:00.001+01:00

Details of centre quilting

Detail of border quilting

Centre front panel showing detail of quilting ( photographed before final embroidery of bird details)

Pieced back ( against the advice of Plum, sorry!)

Front, abut 48 x 60 inches.

This quilt has been a long time in the making. It is a gift for my artist friend, in exchange for pencil portraits of my sons. I did have two abortive starts on this gift, and both of those semi-complete tops are now in the ongoing project pile. The central panel is from a design in Material Obsession, with the tree trunk made from a horded piece of Joel Dewberry woodgrain fabric. Then I randomly pieced many, many rectangles in green and yellow. I did not have enough of the light green leaf fabric for the back, so decided to make a pieced background, against all advice.

Free machine quilted with a selection of threads, mostly Bottomline, and with bird-related sayings quilted into the dark green inner border ( not seen well on this photo). Other quilting patterns were either quilted without marking or drawn freehand and were inspired by Philippa Naylor. Binding was embroidered as shown in the last post.

It looks a bit puffy in the bottom photograph, but it doesn’t in real life.

I’ve loved every minute of making this quilt, hope you enjoy it, Tracey.

Embroidered binding, almost a finish

2011-08-04T11:35:00.000+01:00

When I saw the quilts of Philippa Naylor, I was very impressed with her embroidered quilt bindings. As I am almost at the end of making the quilt mentioned previously and wanted to make it extra special, I made an embroidered binding. Not as spectacular as Philippa’s FMQ binding, as this was done using one of the stitches on my machine, but a good effect, all the same. One to repeat I think.

The cobbler’s children……

2011-07-30T11:27:00.000+01:00

You might be tempted to ask why, if sewing is my hobby, my elder son went to school on the last day of term with a blazer in this state? The saying about the cobbler’s children comes to mind.

Four letter word

2011-07-28T10:57:00.000+01:00

Some interesting stencils in “The Street Art Stencil book” inspired this month’s Contemporary Quilt group monthly challenge mini-quilt. Markal painsticks used to stencil on top of shibori, indigo dyed old sheets. I really like the way this colour is transparent, and lets the underlying dyed marks show through the stencilling. Hand quilted with large stitches, and then outlined with hand quilted back stitch ( Jacqui Harvey method).

Upside down, inside out, back to front……thank goodness for Youtube

2011-07-24T18:26:00.001+01:00

I have never been good at visualising a geometric drawing or object as it could be seen from a different angle. Therefore, there are some quilting techniques that will take me so much effort to master, that I’ll just pass them by for now.

However, the latest quilt, for a good friend, needs a more professional binding than usual, so I turned to the “ continuous quilt binding” instructions in several of my books. All went swimmingly until it got to the part about joining the two, long, flapping ends. After about an hour: putting bits together in different orders, sewing them together, ripping them out ; putting bits together in different orders, sewing them together, ripping them out …………. I turned to Youtube.

This video, by Bailey was easy to understand and the binding looks perfect.

No pics yet, as this a gift and is not the design the recipient is expecting.

Resistance is futile

2011-07-19T17:59:00.001+01:00

Missing Morley ( term has finished) I wanted to try some Procion dyeing using some of the resist techniques that I learned on the course. I think,however, my dye stock has gone off, as these two pieces are supposed to be a deep , periwinkle blue. While the masking tape resist has worked , the stitched resist shows almost no “resist” , so perhaps the thread was too fine. Back to the dyeing board.

On another note, how can it take 1.5 hours on the phone and on the web to find out if a tap is compatible with a gravity feed domestic system? Before today, I didn’t even know that technical term.

Postcards for summer

2011-07-14T09:08:00.001+01:00

Fabric postcards swaps are a phenomenon in the on-line textile world. The theme is defined, a date is chosen, swapping groups are set-up and off we all go in to our stashes of fabric. I don’t take part in many, due to time constraints, but this one I really enjoyed.

The theme was “your favourite weather”. Bonded fabrics, stacked and slashed, then recombined with a bit of bling on the top, then machine quilted. Trying to represent the heat and shimmering haze of a London urban summer, (which hasn’t been felt much so far this year.)

The pattering of tiny feet……

2011-07-07T11:14:00.001+01:00

won’t be heard in our house for the next two days, as both boys are off on independent trips with their respective schools. An insight in to the future, I think. I can always put on one of their playlists, very loud, if it seems too quiet.

Morley Makinui

2011-07-05T13:47:00.001+01:00

Amidst the minor complexities of modern life: relatives being admitted to hospital as emergency cases due to self-induced causes; dog diagnosed with hayfever; moth infestation found in the carpet, Morley activities manage to soothe the mind.

Last week’s trial of makinui shibori, led to this beautiful result. Picking out the stitches became a restful activity in itself, once I had settled to it, and stopped cursing it for being such a slow process.

Cotton poplin, about 12 “ square, top side, not ironed yet

Underside

Thanks for voting, if you did. If you didn’t, make a note of 02 September

2011-06-28T17:17:00.000+01:00

Unfolding the Quilts has reached the finals of the National Lottery Awards for Best heritage Project. If you clicked on the button, thanks a lot. If not, please vote in the finals from 02 – 26 September.