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Thursday 28 November 2013

Trees, continued

Morley this week, and back to my printing project to do with damaged trees, Paul Nash, bleeding canker, the garden museum, wounds, bark, trenches, identity tags - as my tutor says, I could be getting a bit overwhelmed by my subject matter and need to simplify.

Experiments with painting thickened dye paste directly on the screen

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experimenting with polystyrene blocks

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Finally, a tree image

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Tree printed

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This could finally be gong somewhere.

Sunday 24 November 2013

Trying to continue the journal quilts

Now that this year's big projects have been delivered, I have returned to the journal quilt series for this year.
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Commercial fabric, leather, machine trapunto, machine quilting.
I left the excitement of the inner city for the suburban life in Twickenham. Although I have lived here for 25 years, I have to admit that I have never been to see the game for which Twickenham is famous, this tribute will have to do.

Saturday 23 November 2013

23 + 50 = 18

Today, my elder son is 18, on the day of the 50th anniversary edition of Dr Who.  For a dedicated fan, there was only one birthday present possible from a quilting mother.

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Detail

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Back

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Quilting on back, detail

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Thanks to every designer n the Dr Who stitchalong who contributed their designs so generously.  Keeping this secret from April until now , in a small house, has been a challenge.

Thursday 21 November 2013

On the print table

At Morley this week, I was lacking inspiration for my long term project based on a collaboration between the college and The Garden Museum, commemorating the start of the First World War.  I managed to do some colour testing, and then ,using these colours, set up a deconstructed screen to print from next week.

Colour testing

















Deconstructed screen in preparation, using large and small bubble wrap

















I then decided to see what would happen if I put one of my feather drawings on to a screen.  I wanted an indistinct mark rather than a sharp line.
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Full screen against the light panel

















Printed on top of earlier print from a deconstructed screen.



Monday 18 November 2013

Feathered fronds

During my recent lurgydom, I was wasting time on the web, and found this incredible quilter, LuAnn Kessi, who very generously has several tutorials and photos of her sketchbooks on her website, including how to draw quilting feathers freehand without templates.  A few hours over the past few days led to these, all A4 size.  Different pencils have given different degrees of definition to the drawn lines.

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The challenge will be to see how well the muscle memory translates into stitch.

Saturday 16 November 2013

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

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Brenda Wroe

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Mary Munday ( and me)

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Amanda Wright

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Penny Kurowski

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Caroline Wilkinson

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Annelize Littlefair

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Joanna O'Neill

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Sue Hotchkis

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

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Jane Wheeler

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Chris Dobson

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Hilary Richardson

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Artists' names not noted

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

Shape and texture

Friday 15 November 2013

Water, water, everywhere..............

and a lot of it coming down my nose from some lurgy or another.  However, better aspects of water can be seen at this exhibition in Henley, where my pieces below are on display.

Sunday 10 November 2013

Keeping it a secret

The surprise quilt was finished last night n a mammoth session of hand-finishing the binding.  I can only show the back here for now.

One quilted square

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Other quilted square

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Quilted with Bottomline thread and a size 70 needle, 80:20 wadding.

Thursday 7 November 2013

When the bottom falls out…..

The chairs at our dining table were supposed to be a temporary fallback when we moved in to our house 19 years ago.  Other priorities came and the chairs are still there.  Gradually, the cane on the seats has given way due to many breakfasts, lunches, dinners,  and other, less conventional use as camps, barricades, forts, castles, boats, spaceships, and the like.  The onslaught has had consequences, and it was time to deal with the sagging bottom of one of them.

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Two episodes of Grayson Perry giving the Reith lectures, much webbing stretching, lots of tacks and staples later, it is back to a functional state.  Not perfect, but might last another 19 years.

Sunday 3 November 2013

Threads of our lives

When there are this number of threads to tie in, the only method I use now is that shown by Leah Day, using an easy-thread needle, ( also known as a calyx needle).  I would really like to try these, but the cost is a bit prohibitive.

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