2020 or is it SOSO?

Blogging has taken a back seat in 2019, might it return to the front seat in 2020? Catch up on Nov - Dec activities

Costume exhibition at the National Theatre, free, on until June 2020, 

Panto making, production photos here

Birthday flowers

Contemporary drawing at The British Museum, very inspiring, free, finishes on 12 January

Floods in Oxfordshire

Last 4 Brexit journals, painted wadding background, decreasing influence

Repairing the Xmas wreath, from Gina Ferrari, I think 

Golden yellow winter jasmine, much needed colour

Starting work on a bookshelf quilt for a baby due in March, some of which had to be sewn on the Singer 201k

Will I take part in the Contemporary Quilt Group challenge for 2020, theme is Fragmentation? One metre by 60cm for 31st May? Gathering ideas

Just for fun, a pen holder, using scraps from the panto costumes, using this tutorial.

Trying to persuade my husband that even if we are trying to reduce, re-use and recycle, that a new nail brush might be needed, 

Coming up:

New exhibition at Two Temple Place, “Unbound, Visionary women Collecting Textiles” free, on until 19 April 2020.

Alexander McQueen, “New Roses” how some of those astonishing dresses were made, 27 Old Bond Stree, free, until mid 2020.

 

 

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, July 2019, Brexit, my hope is fading

Politics alert.
Painted newspaper backed with cotton woven interfacing: red, white and blue paint mixed to a drab purplish grey. Quilted with wave forms in black and white variegated thread, because the benefits of Brexit are patently apparent in the black and white arguments being put forward,  and of course, Britannia rules those waves.
Appliqued, foam, Brexit blue, unicorns disappearing up their own rhetoric and off to the far right. Note that the unicorns have no eyes to see.

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.

Journal quilts 2019, continued, May, glimpse of hope?

Trigger warning - politics ahead.
The brief for the next series of journal quilts was that they had to include a substance that was not cotton, woven cloth. As the Brexit farce continues apace, I had to continue with this theme. That means that this series of 4 is neither pretty nor technically skilled  - rather like the current political environment.
I experimented with newspaper painted with acrylic paint, then  backed with fusible, woven cotton interfacing, before layering with wadding and backing.

Painted newspaper with a flash of green cotton to represent the successes of green candidates in the local elections, giving us some hope?

Paint is a mix of red, white, blue and yellow, giving a murky green - representing the state of my spirits.
There is quilting on this, it is just rather difficult to see, like the UK’s future outside the EU.

Edged with black mourning ribbon.

Brexit, April SOS

SOS in Morse code, inspired by the recent projections on to the white cliffs of Dover by Led by Donkeys.

Dashes woven on to the background cloth through buttonholes. Dots hand appliqued. Union Jack fabric fading all the way down. Machine quilting in variegated black and white thread showing that between those extremes there are many shades of grey.

This was meant to have 12 yellow star buttons on it, but after keeping them stored safely for months, I now can't find them. Metaphorical?

Quilt exhibition - don't touch!

Our quilt group is having its biennial exhibition from 23rd until 25th October this year.  A perennial question at such exhibitions is how to align the wish for attendees to touch the quilts with the need to keep said exhibits clean and undamaged.  There are always the ubiquitous white gloves, and the inevitable questions to those who are wearing them, summed up in this witty post.  The " don't touch" signs always seem very off-putting, so I've been pondering a better way to get the message across.

Exerimenting with freezer paper stencils and Markal paintsticks again, I've come up with these little banners that can be touched.  I can get about 4 good prints from each cut stencil, and can also use the stencil cut letters as masks.

Lost the comma from the letter masks.

Although this first example is machine quilted, I've layered up 5 of these as travel projects for over the summer.

Three periods of history: Magna Carta, the Tudors, WW2

What a weekend, straddling Magna Carta, the Tudors and WW2.  I feel that I have been studying for GCSE history alongside the younger members of my family.

First of all, Magna Carta.  I gave a talk to Thameside Quilters on Friday night about my journal quilts.  This was a lovely experience, and I hope that I encouraged some of that productive group to have a go at journals.  Another part of the evening was a presentation by Paula Doyle about the Magna Carta Quilt.

This is a magnificent project, being stitched by 25 quilters, 23 of whom are from Thameside.  Paula brought along two small banners to give a flavour of the colours, fabrics and stitching that will be in the finished pieces.  The back of the quilts will be a mosaic of the Thames and individual blocks of the back are available for sponsorship to cover the costs of this superb piece of work.  I have sponsored a block for our family for posterity.

The next day, an immersion in aspects of Tudor history as the Gloriana made her way through Teddington Lock as part of the Tudor Pull.  Great swathes of flags, gilt and red made for memorable images.

Then, waiting to come through the lock, were the Dunkirk Little Ships

Although there are many of the ships still sailing, there were 18 involved in this flotilla.  All showed loving restoration and attention.

Inspiration for this journal challenge, perhaps.