Quilts of lockdown 2

 At the start of all of the lockdowns, I needed mindless stitching. No complex piecing, just pulling scraps from a bag and sewing them together. Mindless meandering quilting, bit of hand applique, Quilt 2 is the result. 70cm x 97cm, not large, probably destined for Project Linus. I also had the perfect piece of fabric for the back, found in a charity shop more years ago than I can remember.

 

Quilts of lockdown 1

 

I made this quilt during lockdown, loaded photos to Instagram, but did not blog about it. It was sewn completely from stash and is based on this pattern. Surprisingly straightforward to sew, and great fun choosing the placement of the tones of blue. It ended up at 102cm x 120cm, so not huge, but enough to cover a lap.

Machine quilted with straight line, walking foot quilting, in random geometric shapes.

Will I submit it to Festival of Quilts? It always seems like a bit of a cop out to submit a quilt made to someone else's pattern, but I suppose there have still been artistic decisions made in its construction.

Glimpses of light in the gloom of January

I am hanging on to any glimpse of light to get through this gloomy January and was struck by the joyful shadows created by my little artists models.

Mental light was created by volunteering to join an Extinction Rebellion samba band, and to decorate a drum.

Spirits raised by the colours on this test layout for the bookshelf quilt

Thoughts on fragmentation have turned to leaves and the decay of leaves. Plum showed some little quilts she had made,  trapping fabric under tulle, and this coincided with seeing one of the last journal quilts for 2019, where a participant had trapped poinsettia bracts and leaves under tulle. Going to my large supply of dried leaves, I tried that technique.

My intent was to crumple the squares to make the leaves fragment, but they look so lovely,  don’t know  if I can bring myself to do that!

I forgot to photograph the lovely, stitched gingerbread man, sent to me by Benta, before I packed him with the Xmas decorations, so please see her post where she shows her fantastic creativity with machine embroidery.

Positive actions for January:

• providing sewing assistance at The Repair Cafe in Oxford, where we repaired 12 items of clothing and the other repairers fixed 37 of the other 62 items that were brought for repair. Look out for the day of The Big Fix in the UK on 15th February, and volunteer or take along something to be fixed.
• Tickets booked to hear the wonderful “Lost Words’” again, touring the UK this spring
• Buying an electric cargo bike to share with my husband - we live at the top of a l-o-n-g hill, buses re infrequent at the weekend and traffic is therefore very heavy. Two trips up the hill with laden  panniers have already proved the benefit of this decision.If you haven’t tried an electric bike - they are amazing!

 

Journal quilts continued, August, Brexit - has all hope gone?

Newspaper painted with a mix of red, white and blue giving a murky grey.

Flash of yellow fabric to celebrate the Liberal Democrat win in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, and to represent the conservative party majority of 1 in the House of Commons.

EU stars and blue thread showing inter-connectedness of 'just-in-time" delivery and manufacturing across the EU which the UK will lose access to if Brexit happens on 31 October.

Edged with black mourning ribbon.

Journal quilts continued, June 2019, Brexit, another glimpse of hope

More use of painted newspaper.

Painted newspaper with a flash of black, red and yellow fabric to represent my husband and my sons gaining their German citizenship in June.

Paint is a mix of red, white, blue and yellow, giving a murky grey, quilted with £ to represent the financial speculation occurring around Brexit.

Edged with black mourning ribbon.

Quilts off to Festival of Quilts

I have taken the plunge and have submitted two quilts to the Festival of Quilts this year. Parcelled up and ready to go.

Journal quilt, March 2019, Brexit 3

Twenty seven different yellow fabrics in fourteen foundation-pieced triangles. Inserted, with curved piecing and appliqué,  in to a rather crumpled and tired looking background. Union Jack fabric at the bottom, tea-stained and of nondescript shape, dissolving into tattered threads at the far right. ( This is straight - unlike UK politics, just distorted by the medium - like UK politics).

Journal quilts 2019, January, Brexit 1

A new year, a new stitching challenge. A4 size, four quits to be made with a sewing technique, four to be made with fabrics other than just cotton, four to be made using a different technique to make a background. The first sewing technique was an opportunity to re-visit appliqué of bias strips, something I have not done for years.
Initial sketch

In development, tea-dyed Union Jack fabric, and very useful, very short appliqué pins. Bias strips ( 1/4 inch) made using a bias strip maker, not essential, but saves burnt fingers.

Sewing down the strips, background is a piece of blue satin from my recent pantomime costume-making. Strangely appropriate for this piece.


Finished and quilted with FMQ, bound with satin stitch.

Does this look like my initial sketch? Mostly yes, but I made these changes

• the twisted chain was too complex in a piece of this size and with this width of strips. It would work on a larger scale
• the strip representing the UK went off the piece to the left in the initial sketch. With everything that is happening in the UK, it was a better representation that it went off to the far right
• final piece of the UK strip is tattered and fractured, linked together by a thin thread
• FMQ on the left is swirling and co-operative, FMQ on the right, where the UK strip is heading,  is a maze of never connecting boxes
• FMQ in the centre is dense and closely connected

Pleasures of a wet bank holiday weekend

Lots of time to quilt

Stippling may be a bit of a cliche, but it is fun to do and works well with complex feathers.

The human quilt stand

While quilting the blue splash, I applied some of the lessons from my drawing teacher and looked for areas on this quilt that look unrelated to the rest of it.  The borders need more relationship with the central blocks.  I added circles in three sizes into the borders and the human quilt stand helped me assess if this is a good idea or not.

 

I’m still pondering so have not stitched these down yet.

Easter quilting

More daylight, an Easter weekend with no commitments and too much rain to do any gardening led to plenty of time to get quilting on the blue splash quilt. After auditioning several complex designs, I decided simple is best for the blocks.

I’m contemplating more complexity in the borders after re-reading Freemotion Quilting by Judy Woodworth.

Journal quilts 2018, Abstraction

It has taken me a bit of time to get started with this year’s journal quilts,  ( all to be 7” x 9”) but the vernal equinox has spurred me on. My theme this year is “Abstraction”, stimulated by conversation with my drawing teacher.  The first three are about birds.

January, Gannets diving into the sea

Hand-dyed and commercial fabric, patchwork with proportions of colour to reflect the different colours in gannets.

February, Robins bob-bobbing along

Applique, commercial and hand-dyed fabric

March, Red kite soaring

Commercial and hand-dyed fabric appliqué  with some lipstick highlighting.

Bling bacteria, sleep and stitching on wood

The last journal quilt has been completed, the third on the theme of bacteria. Photographed on a sheet ( I don’t like ironing!) to show the extended, wired threads. A single antibiotic-resistant, flagellate bacterium swimming in a soup of over-used antibiotics. Bling for December.

Hand-dyed applique on commercial fabric with appliquéd threads, some hand-wired, which was much trickier than I had anticipated.

My copy of the book of The Sleep Quilt arrived this week, so I am setting aside time in the Christmas melee to enjoy that and think on how it was made. There is a superb blogpost about the project here.

A visit to Manchester allowed time to visit the Manchester Craft and Design Centre. This is lovely space, with a current exhibition of work by Kate Colin whose skill in paper folding is terrific.

Intriguing work with punched and stitched wood veneers by Jane Blease has gone on my long term wishlist.

For someone who doesn't do a lot of hand stitching..............

I seem to be doing a lot of it, 

Must be too much “Strictly”!

One out, one in, and see the Hive

Kaleidoscope is finally finished and bound, so time to bring out my blue splash quilt and ponder quilting designs.

Scribbling with variegated thread on the little squares in the sashing.

Auditioning possible quilting patterns with soap lines

I think wavy lines are the way to go.

If you have time, do go and see The Hive at Kew. Really innovative and strangely unsettling to be inside it. Intriguing grids on grids to photograph.

From poppies to dahlias, planted and stitched

Seen at Festival of Quilts