With the panto’ commitments over, I’ve returned to finishing off my journal quilts for this year. Continuing on the theme of abstracted birds, the last four concentrate on beaks.
Crossbill.
Several months ago, I dyed some silk that had been a gift from Lorraine Pugh. Supposedly offcuts - these were superb lengths. I never posted the results of the dyeing, so here they are, as I have finally got round to using them
.
I have a much loved wool / cashmere shawl, but it is grey. Trying to introduce a bit more colour, at the same time as simplifying my wardrobe, is proving a challenge, so the grey had to be brightened up.
Quilting some of the silk on the wool
Next stage is to stitch some rouleaux loops and fabric buttons to make it a more individual version of one of these. Inspired a bit by the beautiful scarves made by Ekta Kaul, that I saw in Edinburgh, earlier in the year.
The journal quilts this year are to be 8 x 10 inches, with the first four containing a piece of purple, no less than 1/2 inch square, the second four containing s piece of orange and the last four containing a piece of green.
A walk in the Isabella Plantation a few months ago was the inspiration for my first four. It is many years since I have visited, and besides the improvements to disabled access and the better paths, I was struck by how many of the trees, even rather ordinary looking ones, not just the ancient oaks, have numbered tags. I hope this isn’t indicative of how worried the parks are about the state of these trees.
Using fabric i already have, ( tray-dyed, repurposed linen sheet; Procion P painted cotton, dyed pelmet Vilene) this series was the result. Called “Counting the trees"
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.
The work of the participants in the Printed Textiles course is on display at Morley for the next two weeks. The broad theme was earth, air, fire and water and I have pieces in the earth, fire and water sections.
Earth, mine is the white silk scarf with the squiggly circles, at top right.
Fire, mine is at the top, tray-dyed linen sheet.
Water, mine are at the bottom, below the lovely silk shibori.
The air exhibit is this amazing dress, made with silk fabric that has been printed using the breakdown screen method with Procion P pastes.
Finished on 30th April, about 4h before the deadline for submission. Zooming off to university with the world at my feet.
Even although it was only 30 miles away, funding at that time meant I could leave home and live in. Liberation.
Hand-embroidered panel ( Jenny Hart design), machine trapunto and machine quilting. Post code abstracted out to a decorative edge stitch on the panel. Hand-dyed commercial fabric from amazing supplier at FoQ whose name I have forgotten.
This is how I felt, off to my future. The dark side represents what I was leaving behind and the candlelight of dinners taken in the dining hall during the 3 day week. The brighter side was all that was to come.
Lots I would now change on this in terms of composition, but is was a useful and fun exercise to try to convey my memories in cloth.
Continuing to develop my textile pieces at Morley today based on the Scallop sculpture. Today was time to experiment with a new screen, using some of the text from the sculpture. Unfortunately, I had a complete brain drop after the screen was exposed, and started to scrub this, rather than wash it gently. This led to a breakdown ( of the screen, not me) and potentially a shambles, however, on test printing, it proves to give some interesting effects, consistent with weathering of metal. ( Photos are from my phone, so not great quality).
First, testing on paper, breakdown section at the top
Next, on a piece of tray-dyed cloth
Then, trying out coloured puff binder again. This gives a very intriguing effect, particularly at the breakdown bit.
Attempts to show the 3D effect of the puff binder
Lots to work on here.
Developing the shape from the Scallop sculpture, now on a screen and printed with pigment paste on to tray-dyed cotton.
Overprinting with a lighter blue, which actually looks much better in real life than it does on this screen.
