More small projects

Another unfinished object turned in to a completed cushion for our exhibition at the Landmark Centre, Teddington, 23 - 25 October.

Another adventure in to fabric painting at a workshop with Lisa Walton called Gorgeous Overlays.  Lisa's technique relies on stitching through a paper template onto a basted quilt sandwich.  The paper is then torn away - the most difficult part - then the stitched shapes are painted with fabric paint.  The stitched lines stop the paint bleeding beyond the stitched shape.

Once again, I had trouble with my positive and negative shapes.

I now need to find a quiet hour to finish the painting with the lovely metallic paints that Lisa introduced us to.

Small project and a large exhibition

After completing two large projects, I am clearing some small pieces to be sold or raffled at our upcoming exhibition from 23 - 25 October.

Cushion, front and back, machine quilted with two layers of wadding

Then today to a remarkable exhibition at the Royal Academy by Ai Wei Wei.  This is bound to get huge press coverage, so I am very glad that I went before any reviews have come out.  I am hugely impressed by Ai Wei Wei's work, having seen another smaller exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park a year ago.  This is an even more powerful experience and many of the pieces will be seen as extremely provocative in their portrayal of the Chinese government.  There is an audio guide to the exhibition, but I abandoned this very quickly, preferring visual immersion only.  A fantastic way to start an autumn season of art viewing.

Vexed by vexillography

Our quilt group will have its tri-ennial exhibition from 23- 25 October in the Landmark Centre in Teddington.  We always try to have at least one group challenge to display, and have successfully had Round Robin challenges in the past.  I blogged in 2014 about my challenge to the group and the quilt above is the result.  No new fabrics bought, all from stash, or contributed by participants.

I have used this piece to practise several different quilting patterns and am very pleased with how it has turned out, (46 x 46 inches).

Border quilting with machine embroidered binding

Mixed designs in one block.

Superb applique dragon by one of the participants (thanks, Kay!) with flame quilting and geometric continuous pattern in the sashing to tone down the black

Feathers and stipple - always useful.

I gave participants these web sites as resources for the design of flags.

http://flagdesigner.appspot.com/#d=3&c1=4&c2=7&c3=2&o=11&c4=5&s=14&c5=7

 

http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/game/tools/flag-maker

 

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1908091/

I am still here..........

……just finding the state of the world too overwhelming to indulge in narcissism about my hobbies.

One million, nine hundred thousand machine stitches.....

….. in 28 months.  I know this fact due to having my sewing machine serviced by the charming Brett at Sewworks last week.  Much of that total is due to the denser machine quilting that I now find myself increasingly drawn to.  Some examples from the weekend, in more signs for our quilt show ( 23 - 25 October, Landmark Centre, Teddington).

Quilting patterns are wonky Greek key and big toe, as described by my family.

If I got down to 1,900,000 pencil lines my drawing would improve at the same rate as my stitching.

Evening fireworks

A potter in the garden before going out, and these agapanthus seed-heads caught my attention

then the evening sun hit them from over the fence - golden fireworks

Last drawing session

Our last session was a discussion about using sketchbooks: in what setting, what size, what paper, with what medium.  Our tutor, Sophie, brought along some of her completed and ongoing sketchbooks, ranging from a little brown paper book from Paperchase, through a lovely concertina sketchbook from Cass Art, to a beautifully bound sketchbook, made with Khadi hand-made paper.  I was particularly interested in the concertina book, due to the possibilities of having pockets for insertions between the double sided pages.

After all that inspiration, we were off “en plain air” to put our sketching skills in to practise.  The Mary Ward Centre has a lovely rooftop garden, which is not used by many of the students.  There are several different vistas from the roof, but I was interested the juxtaposition of a dome, some cranes and a modern block of flats.  The sky was very dull and overcast, so  I am glad that I had started with a coloured ground to get some contrast in to the drawing. 

Not bad, even although I misjudged the size of the top of the dome, and so lost the topmost decoration.  Now Ineed to find the discipline to keep going over the summer holidays.