Using the gifts from Norfolk

I am very behind with making my journal quilts for March and April.  Work has been a bit busy and, I have to confess, I've become a bit obsessed with following the general election on Twitter.  

As I am a Scot, but one who has  lived in London for longer than I lived in Scotland, I am fascinated by what is happening politically in Scotland, and how it is being portrayed in the, supposedly British, media.  Surprisingly to me, Twitter gives a more balanced picture of the reasons why there has been such a surge to the SNP, and the wit and humour of the supporters, in the face of political vitriol, really brighten the day.  It will be very intriguing to see how this carried through on 7th May.

Anyway to the journals.  April uses the rust-dyed cloth.  As this was small strips from a bag of shirt offcuts from Lorraine Pugh, I had to be judicious in deciding which pieces to use.  Too late in the process, I realised that some of the pieces were too imbued with the rust for my machine to be able to stitch through the cloth ( a lesson learned), so I had to re-make this.  The circles are bonded on, and then stitched with raw-edge appliqué.  It does have straight sides, just photographed on a curved bench.  I threw this together at the last moment, as the deadline for submitting journals for the first 4 months of the year is on 30th April.  Inevitably, it is the one I like best of the first four of the year.

March was a response to finally seeing some colour in the garden.  Experimenting with home-made bias binding of different widths, woven at random.  Blooms are raw edge strips of bias binding, folded and stitched, all n a background of tray-dyed cloth.   As I have been travelling for work, I had to revert to some hand-quilting.  I tried again with the plastic thimble from Thimblelady, and although i can feel that this is easier on the hand, I am still not sure that hand-quilting is for me.

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

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.

Working to a deadline

It helps to have a deadline for a long-term project.  I have submitted an entry for the exhibition "Water, Water" to be held in November.  Submitted work has to be completed by the end of September, so I've been quilting these pieces by hand and machine.  The lovely, variegated thread is by Sulky.

Back stitch hand quilting a la Jacquie Harvey.

Hand and machine quilting side by side.  I am really pleased with the even length of the hand stitches, and this was despite a fraught week on the ageing parent front.

Journal quilts 2012, summary

The final posting of the 2012 A4 journal quilt challenge is now done, and we have been asked to load a photo of all of our journals in one picture.  I'm quite pleased with the results of this year, particularly as I made these only from materials from my collection, or from  cloth dyed / printed or otherwise coloured during my course at Morley.   I'm happy to see that there are only 2 out of 12 of these where I have used unaltered commercial fabrics: top row, far right and middle row, far right.

Unfortunately the album of everyone's collections is only available for viewing by members of the Contemporary Quilt Group, but they are stunning.

The theme for 2013 is yet to be announced - I can't wait to get started.

A break in Devon

So many bloggers show photographs of their work placed in beautiful, natural surroundings, that I was inspired by our accommodation this week to photograph an ongoing project, " Morley Moons" outdoors.



The weather was predictably wet, but where we were staying, had glorious views which enabled me to watch how the sky changed as I was stitching.





Lots of muddy walks, practising map-reading


and finding some great colour studies along the way.


There was even a sunset, but the stars had disappeared by the time we had finished dinner with friends.

Am I a professional now?

Our biennial quilt show went off superbly this weekend. Over 600 visitors, a good sum of cash raised for the Royal Marsden, and much pleasure given to all. Our venue always looks strangely empty when the quilts are hung, as it is so large, and there is a bit of a last minute worry as to whether there is enough for visitors to look at.


Finished quilts from the Jan Hassard workshop.

However, when people start coming in and appreciating the space that there is to get a really good look at the quilts, both close-to and from afar, those worries are put aside.


I was working on Friday so came in to the exhibition on Saturday to see a "SOLD" sign on one of my small quilts, which was very exciting. And the excitement continued through the day when I sold two more. Not enough to give up the day job, but glimmers of that portfolio career appearing.


The proceeds of this one are going to charity as the design is by Pat Archibald and it is not my own design.

River Race, all my own work, design and fabric dyeing, ( far left) also sold.


As did lower right " Unexpected item in the thinking area".


Visitors' choice can be seen on the Richmond and Kew Quilters Facebook page, and hopefully this week, on our website.
A great few days and thanks to all my friends who came to visit.


Afternoon sunlight reflecting through the stained glass on the pillars above the quilts.