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 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.

April, journal quilt, work in progress

Quilting to show that black and white arguments are not straightforward

and often contain many shades of grey

March, journal quilt, design process

Initial sketch, transferred to tearaway stabiliser. Triangle layout adjusted during transfer.

Auditioning yellow fabrics

Testing out triangle placement

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

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.

May journal - still in fresh water

I’ve got very behind posting about this year’s journal quilts.  May is still on the theme of blue-green algae.

Testing out prints in the sketchbook with acrylic paint

Trying out different way of appliquéing silk, rouleaux strips

Final piece

Year-end stitching

Last journal quilts of the year, October, November and December, stitched in a flurry due to pressures of work and stress due to aircraft noise.

October, experiments in curved paper piecing.  Stitched while on an idyllic two days staying in Lulworth Cove at Botany Farmhouse.  Wonderful hosts, terrific breakfasts, more textile than you could imagine would fit in to one house - as the owners say,  not for minimalists!

 

Back

November, inspiration from an experimental piece by Christine Risley at  an exhibition in Goldsmith’s College.  Machine -stitched threads pulled long and loose on the top of stencilled hearts and chains, with accent of pins wrapped with red thread.

Detail

December, inside out for Christmas. Polyester wading on the outside with pinked, folded circles for trees.  Surprisingly difficult to sew through all of that.

Merry Christmas all.

Using the gifts from Norfolk

I am very behind with making my journal quilts for March and April.  Work has been a bit busy and, I have to confess, I've become a bit obsessed with following the general election on Twitter.  

As I am a Scot, but one who has  lived in London for longer than I lived in Scotland, I am fascinated by what is happening politically in Scotland, and how it is being portrayed in the, supposedly British, media.  Surprisingly to me, Twitter gives a more balanced picture of the reasons why there has been such a surge to the SNP, and the wit and humour of the supporters, in the face of political vitriol, really brighten the day.  It will be very intriguing to see how this carried through on 7th May.

Anyway to the journals.  April uses the rust-dyed cloth.  As this was small strips from a bag of shirt offcuts from Lorraine Pugh, I had to be judicious in deciding which pieces to use.  Too late in the process, I realised that some of the pieces were too imbued with the rust for my machine to be able to stitch through the cloth ( a lesson learned), so I had to re-make this.  The circles are bonded on, and then stitched with raw-edge appliqué.  It does have straight sides, just photographed on a curved bench.  I threw this together at the last moment, as the deadline for submitting journals for the first 4 months of the year is on 30th April.  Inevitably, it is the one I like best of the first four of the year.

March was a response to finally seeing some colour in the garden.  Experimenting with home-made bias binding of different widths, woven at random.  Blooms are raw edge strips of bias binding, folded and stitched, all n a background of tray-dyed cloth.   As I have been travelling for work, I had to revert to some hand-quilting.  I tried again with the plastic thimble from Thimblelady, and although i can feel that this is easier on the hand, I am still not sure that hand-quilting is for me.

The magic that is "Texturemagic"

In the spirit of "use it or get rid of it" I tried out a piece of Texturemagic that I have had in my supplies for a while.  The results were so intriguing, I incorporated them into my journal challenge for February.  

Straight line stitching on hand-dyed velvet

Stipple stitch on hand-dyed velvet

Stipple stitch, with a layer of wadding on hand-dyed velvet - this one looks really like brain coral

and all three samples incorporated in to the final journal ( 6 x 12 inches), with a piece of quilted, but non-textured velvet at the bottom for reference.

This was very easy to use and gave really interesting results.  The edges of each sample were a bit of a challenge to keep straight at this size, but a larger piece would be much easier to handle.  I think this one will need a big " Please do not touch" sign at our exhibition in October.

Landscape, light, paint, roofs, journal, London

Today started with the Landscape Photographer of the Year exhibition at Waterloo Station, extended until 28th February.  One of the advantages to the non-shoping fraternity of the addition of the Waterloo balcony are the occasions when it becomes a temporary exhibition space.  These photographs are fantastic,and many of them are taken with relatively straightforward cameras, without photo editing but with a lot of preparation, observation of the light and huge amounts of patience.   The winners are here and I could not choose a favourite.

Inspired by all of that, and waiting on the steps of the National Gallery, I attempted some  silhouettes of Nelson's column.  All photos are from my phone as I forgot my camera, hence the elongated format.

and an opportunity to photograph the first of this year's journal quilts "en plein air".

 En route to the fantastic, huge paintings of "Walls of Water" by Maggi Hambling.  On until 15 February, only one room of  paintings but completely free and well worth a trip.

These paintings have ben subject to a scathing review, but I loved seeing the way the paint was handled, and three of the painting in particular made me feel as if I was in front of a giant wall of water.  Down in the espresso bar, my friend and I also liked ( after a very good courgette and pumpkin seed muffin - better than it sounds) the selection of  monotypes, also on the theme of water, printed with Frank Connelly of Morley College, with whom my friend is currently studying.

Then off to Bloomsbury, stopping by St George's Church, designed by Hawksmoor and recently restored, to marvel at the acoustics and the intricate reflections on the brass chandelier.

A quick lunch on the deserted and unexpected roof garden of the Mary Ward Centre

with some shapes worthy of drawing practise sharply outlined in the sunshine.

 

Then down to the class to work on using tones on a coloured ground.  Couldn't get that foreshortened top of the triangular object at all.

Finishing off with a meeting of the quilt group to see the Contemporary Quilt Group Suitcase challenge on the theme of " All in a Day's Work" .  As ever, these 43 little quilts were enormously imaginative, although the number that featured lists in some form or another was a bit worrisome.  

There was also the return of the finished blocks for the round robin challenge.  I am very pleased with how every interpreted my challenge, and amazed at the amount of work that went into the blocks.  Everyone kindly wrote about their inspiration in the notebook that I sent round with the quit, so I now need to think how best to incorporate those comments so they don't get separated from the previous work.  No photograph yet, as I need good light to show the detail on those blocks.

And eventually to bed, head buzzing.

London - signs and quilts

We have a German orchestral exchange student with us for a week, so my sewing room has to become a girl's bedroom for now.  As the sewing machine packs away in to a Horn cabinet, it was quite quick, but i needed a textile fix somehow.  The contemporary Quilt Group AGM  was at the right time.

On the way there, a selection of London signs, old and new, with some intriguing spelling of foreign food

Then, at the meeting,  a chance to see some of the journal quilts in the flesh.  These did not disappoint.  Ninety six of last year's journals will be on display at the Creative Stitches event at Excel next week, and I will be there stewarding on Saturday 5th April.

The speaker was an intriguing artist, Elizabeth Tarr, who was a new name to me.  Elizabeth works with indigo and stitch on brown paper, taking her inspiration from her travels and from favourite paintings, including a long series based on Las Meninas.