I managed to have a dash around the exhibition from the Morley Advanced Textiles group this week. So much inspiration, as ever. I was originally disappointed at these photos, but now I am intrigued by the reflections and the shadows.
Nuno felt clothing, silk
Machine knitting and inspiration
Knitted butterflies
Lampshade from old embroidered tablecloth
Grinling Gibbons carving interpreted in felt
Inspiration
I have just started a new job, so a lot of stitching has slowed down while I adjust to everything involved with that. A couple of postcards for the birthday swap, made with hand-dyed and commercial fabrics.
A 5inch Dear Jane block to complete a tilt started by one of our group members who was a great quilter and who died this year after a long life. Although I enjoyed making this in memory of her, this has fully convinced me that I will never make one of these quilts.
Then finally, quilting of a piece of screen printed cloth, potentially to protect my laptop if the piece is large enough. Inside is tray-dyed cloth overprinted with a photo screen that has two sections on one screen.
Outside is Procion P painted cloth then overprinted with two different screen stencils made from wide masking tape carved into curves with a scalpel.
Details of quilting, so far.
I am also taking part in this stitch-along, but there will be few photos as the final product will be a present to be revealed on the day of the 50th anniversary edition.
In the tradition of strippy quilts, (yes that is strippy, and not stripy spellchecker, no matter how many times you try to correct it), the most recent bookwrap was made from left-over strips of my hand-dyed fabrics, then hand embroidered with colours complementary to the colour of the cloth. The organisers of this project are so efficient, it is on their site already, so this is a picture of the back or the front, depending which way you put it on your book.
These little projects are very addictive. I've decided to use a lot of my dyed samples from Morley to make these for the Bookwrap Gem tombola at the Festival of Quilts. All to fit A5 size sketchbooks, with a spine or up to 2cm width. Cotton sheeting, hand-dyed with Procion MX and Procion P, then machine quilted. The last one, has an overlay of silk chiffon from somewhere or other. These were also a chance to try out the Bernina edge stitch foot - well worth the money.
Finally ironed and photographed, and they are lovely. These pieces are about 1metre x 0.5 metre.
The marks are much more organic and less well-defined than with tray-dyeing. Lots to explore, but we may have no more snow now. It is either wait till next year, or else buy a bag of ice to crush.
I still haven't decided on a journal theme, but it is coming.
