Visit, read, finish

An unexpected visit to Nature in Art, near Cheltenham, to see the work of StitchextileArtists.  Lovely textural pieces, with an oyster shell made of cloth being particularly notable.

The sculpture in the gardens added to my obsessions with fronds and seed heads.

For some reason, it was very difficult to portray the scale of these pods - they were at least 5 ft high.

Inside, some lovely work with found wood

and with carved limewood, made by Robert Cox.

Hoem to an unexpected find n the local library, “ How to Make Beautiful Buttons” by Beate Schmitz.  Having done the online course with Karen ruin on buttons, I didn’t think there would be a lot for me in this book, but I was gladly mistaken.  Some fun ideas, so the may be renewed up tot he maximum three times.

Buttons as drawer knobs?

Carton buttons?

My brain is pre-occupied by tomorrow’s talk, so a discovered kit from Deborah O’Hare of QuiltRoutes.co.uk provided some pleasant distraction.  Very simple and effective, but I had my usual problem of the Heat’n’Bond seeming to melt into the top fabric, and then not sticking to the lower layer of fabric. I wonder if I am holding the iron on to it for too long?

Inspired by Art

The quilt group has a current challenge, " Inspired by Art", to make an A3 piece, inspired by a piece of art, ideally which can be exhibited with a postcard of said piece of art.  I've ummed and ahhed about this for far too long, so got started this weekend.  My inspiration is a piece by Vasarely, who is known for his Op-art paintings but who also did a lovely drawing, titled " Anti Racist Drawing".  There are a couple of images of this piece online, but not many.

I'm adding some tattoo content to my piece.  While I could have challenged my appliqué skills with this one, I took the easy way out and used Bondaweb, but yet again the back to front , inside out, upside down thing went awry, and despite cutting out the eye of the white head three times, it is still different from the original image.  It is now staying that way.  My interpretation is in blue, as black and white seemed too stark in cloth for these rounded shapes.

Details

 

Clearing out, stitching up and inspiration - (photo heavy)

I am using these few weeks before I go to Australia ( for 4 weeks!) to clear up and use some of my sample pieces that had been lurking unloved for too long.  I'm a member of an exchange group for textile postcards, which are a great way to use stitched samples.  Looking at these, I'm evidently in love with blue and orange.

Black Kunin felt, bonded fabric, hand and machine stitch

Indigo dyed fabric, hand applique and embroidery, machine quilting

Indigo dyed fabric, fish from a greetings card

Commercial fabric, wrong side, hand embroidered eyelets, machine quilting

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Commercial fabric, raw edge appliqué, buttons

Commercial fabric, machine applique and quilting, hand beading

Inspiration this past week has come from visits to

• British Folk Art at Tate Britain- good, but seemed incomplete to me as there was no scrimshaw, canal ware and very little ironwork.
• The New Georgians at Orleans House - interesting and bonkers combined non several pieces, on until 27 July
• Twickenham Carnical, where the best popcorn ver was on sale.  If Drum and Kernel are near you this summer, do try their wares.
• Matisse cut outs at Tate Modern - really lives up to the hype, but perhaps avoid going on a Saturday afternoon!
• Chelsea College of Art , BA Textile Design show - I found the textiles amazingly inspiring, particularly the weaving, printing and knitting.  Surprisingly enough, little of the stitched work caught my eye.  Some of the beautiful pieces are below

 

A fun interactive design scheme by Christine Kim - choose shapes depending on aspects of your life…...

then print the result in repeats

Journal quilt, November, the street where I live

I'm racing to a finish on the contemporary quilt group challenge now, having lost momentum in September. A real benefit of doing the design course at Morley is learning to resist the urge to plunge straight in to the mounds of fabric, and start designing at the sewing machine but instead to get some initial ideas sketched out on paper, or ideally of course in a sketchbook.  For once therefore, I can show the sketchbook and the stitched journal piece.

Raw edge applique, bonded applique, machine quilting, couched edge.  This was my first experience of using Heat 'n' Bond which gave a much finer finish than Bondaweb.

Very close to home. I have lived in the same street for 20 years. My children went to the school at the bottom of the road, my neighbours are great and it will take a lot to make me move. Our door is the only one with stained glass, designed by my sister's partner and installed by one of our neighbours.

This is straighter than it looks, but it was tricky to get a photo without a shadow.  Critiquinq this now, I think the 'doors" should have been longer and the "road" down the middle narrower.  Thank goodness it is only 8 x 12 inches.  

I was going to quilt in several of the requests that have come up during those 20 years, such as “ Can you sew my pantomime cow costume?” and “ Can you check my hair for nits” and “ Do you have a pie plate? ” but decided the space available didn't do them justice.

Water back in its right place

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

Brenda Wroe

Mary Munday ( and me)

Amanda Wright

Penny Kurowski

Caroline Wilkinson

Annelize Littlefair

Joanna O'Neill

Sue Hotchkis

Alicia Merrett ( that's the radiator at the bottom, no matter how much it looks like two lines of stitching)

 

Jane Wheeler

Chris Dobson

Hilary Richardson

Artists' names not noted

Even after all of that inspiration, the quilter in me couldn't resist these pavement slabs round the corner.