Still, still life drawing and beautiful stitch

 A return to the still-life this week with more focus on "dark darks" and "light lights”. Our teacher had us all drawing the composition for 5 minutes without looking, before we got into refining the drawing:

In the afternoon, off to a lovely little exhibition of stitched pieces at the Daniel Raphael Gallery in Marylebone. Beautiful work from two artists whose work I am familiar with,Maryam Ashkanian, Alison Holt and from some that I am not: Richard McVetis, Julie French, Lucie Feighan, Ulla Stina Wikander and Robert Dean ( who I cannot find a link to).

 Lucie’s website very generously shares full pictures of several of her sketchbooks, many hours to be lost looking at those.

Well worth a visit, and on until 22nd March.

Bling bacteria, sleep and stitching on wood

The last journal quilt has been completed, the third on the theme of bacteria. Photographed on a sheet ( I don’t like ironing!) to show the extended, wired threads. A single antibiotic-resistant, flagellate bacterium swimming in a soup of over-used antibiotics. Bling for December.

Hand-dyed applique on commercial fabric with appliquéd threads, some hand-wired, which was much trickier than I had anticipated.

My copy of the book of The Sleep Quilt arrived this week, so I am setting aside time in the Christmas melee to enjoy that and think on how it was made. There is a superb blogpost about the project here.

A visit to Manchester allowed time to visit the Manchester Craft and Design Centre. This is lovely space, with a current exhibition of work by Kate Colin whose skill in paper folding is terrific.

Intriguing work with punched and stitched wood veneers by Jane Blease has gone on my long term wishlist.

April journal - turning to fresh water

Blue-green algae

Algal “blooms” form in both salt water and fresh water, but I wanted to focus on a microscopic form that grows in fresh water, hence blue-green algae.  While algae are needed and are beneficial in many aquatic ecosystems, excessive nitrogen and phosphorous, caused by farm or industrial run-off can cause overgrowth and “blooms”. These can be toxic, particularly to animals.

Hand-dyed fabric, experimenting with bobbin work, gathered ribbon, and chain stitch embroidery by machine ( great fun).

Seven year stitch?

UFO clearing is a good thing to do when creative energy is in short supply, but is going back to a project that was started 7 years ago a good idea in this situation?  The answer was yes, when it is this swan, started 7 years ago, in a workshop with Ferret.

I got stuck on this as I was going to appliqué some leaves into the corner, but couldn’t get the scale of the leaves to my liking.

A cycle along the river ( the only benefit of visiting my relative with the stroke) gave inspiration of just stitching on lines of stitch to suggest the winter threads of willow branches.

A greenish, variegated thread from the stand looked like a good mix of colours.

Trying to apply some of my new knowledge about tone, I also added some darker stitch down one side of the variegated thread and some lighter stitch down the other side. The Bernina edge-stitch foot is a great tool for precision stitching.

  

I need to stitch more lines and to decide whether to stitch in the thread ends or sew them in.

 

Baubling along

Plum posted a really good tutorial about using decorative stitches on the sewing machine to make quick felt Christmas baubles.  As I had some red felt circles n my stash of stuff, I adapted that tutorial to go into production.

 White stitching on red

Red wool thread on top of foiled circles, and also used on the back, in the bobbin.  Sewed beautifully, but there was surprisingly little length of thread on the bobbin, requiring lots of bobbin rewinding.

Back of baubles, with design developing across 4 different batches.

Front of baubles.

 

Journal quilt May 2015 - noise contours

I have lived happily alongside Heathrow for 25 years, with little intrusion ( apart from Concorde) until June 2014.  Since then, when the wind is in the east, my neighbourhood has been assaulted with noise, as new flightpaths are "tested" as part of a global initiative to supposedly reduce the cost of fuel for airlines, and, supposedly, reduce aircraft emissions.  The changes have been implemented in the USA, and are being tested in the EU, without consultations with communities that will be changed forever by exposure to increased noise.  

The methods used to calculate noise exposure are misleading in the extreme, with decibel monitors placed at strategic points, and noise levels averaged out as an annual exposure, rather than being stated as maximum and minimum decibel levels.  My journal quilt this month is therefore about the noise contours around Heathrow, showing that my house is supposedly outside the noise contours, and that the 85dB sound levels going over our roof between 2130h and 2330h in particular, are a complete figment of my, and my neighbours'  imaginations.

Commercial cotton, overprinted with hand-enhanced map, commercial ribbons, hand-quilted / embroidered and machine quilted.

Alexander McQueen's birthday is today

When I booked my ticket on 4th April 2014 for the Savage Beauty exhibition, I did not realise that I had booked to go on the day that would have been Alexander McQueen's 46th birthday.  This is my 4th clothing-based exhibition at the V and A and it really does live up to the hype, and I am not surprised to see that the exhibition has already even extended until the 2nd August.

Suzy Menkes has written a very perceptive review, with excellent photographs, here.  As a devoted McQueen fan, I am familiar with his training in Savile Row, Angels and Bermans, Central St Martins and his work at Givenchy, but Menkes makes a fair point that none of this is really explained in the exhibition.  I think it is critical to understand McQueen's path into couture, to really appreciate his technical skill, his cultural context and his breathtaking artistry.  

I would have appreciated more indication of  which pieces he had the actual artisanal as well as the artistic hand, so I could revere even more those where he stitched, cut or slashed the fabric himself.  

The staging of the show is supremely theatrical, many of the garments are not under glass  and viewers can get close enough to see construction seams and embellishments, - the curved French dart was much in evidence as is McQueen's understanding of the properties of the fabrics with which he worked.  I've never seen bias-cut hessian look so elegant.

The V and A seem to have learned from the crush at the Golden Age of Couture  exhibition, and there was less crowding around the exhibits and the flow through the rooms seemed steady and gave everyone enough time to really examine each piece as they wished.  The book to accompany the exhibition, by Claire Wilcox ,is now on my wish list.  No photography in the exhibition, therefore images of my favourites are from the websites that you will find if you click each image, particularly the Met museum in New York.  

I do have an ambivalent relationship with couture, loving the artistry, the ingenuity and the incredible fabrics, but being very uneasy about the uber-luxury market to which it is now pitched.  That being said, I would still urge you to go, and then go again.

Testing, testing….

The big project is at the stage where i need to decide on an appliqué method, so the weekend was spent sampling and testing.  At least these little pieces can be used to make more cards.  These are a combination of: hand-applique, middle right; blanket stitch appliqué, upper right an lower left; machine triple stitch, upper and middle left and lower right.  Surprisingly, the machine triple stitch is looking like the best option.

Creative and moral influences

I seem to have had  week full of creative and moral influences, and it is only Thursday.  The creative influences started with a visit to the British Library.  I am embarrassed to admit that despite liven gin London for 30 years, and regularly passing the library, I have never been in .  I went to hopefully see the original manuscript for Alice in Wonderland, which was " Alice's Adventures Underground" but it was not on display.  There were many other marvels, including an original piece of the manuscript for The Messiah.  The building itself was wonderful, with pieces of art dotted about.  Good to see this anamorphic artwork by Patrick Hughes in the basement.  Photos form my phone, so a bit blurry.

Out on the street, on the way to the Diwana Bhel Poori house for lunch and some intriguing grids and reflections

Then on to the painting course, where we did more colour mixing, and then a colour study of a shell.  It was only when we were about half way through the exercise that it dawned on me that this was exactly the same exercise that I did in the "Embroiderer's Ledger"  course with Karen Ruane, only using paint rather than thread. 

Source material

Resulting colour study, needs a bit more pink.

The day finished with a sobering talk from two of the volunteers from Fine Cell Work, who teach prisoners how to embroider.  It was sad to hear that the charity can only support working in 25 prisons, particularly in light of some of the letters written by the prisoner participants about how the stitching had helped them in so many ways.  There is an exhibition of the quilts made by prisoners currently at the Quilt Museum in York.

It was also an opportunity to borrow the new books by Linda Seward, " The Ultimate Guide to Art Quilting".  At first glance, this is a very thorough introduction to many of the techniques used in art quilts.  Linda has continued to use the diagram format as in her previous book, The Complete Book of Patchwork, Quilting and Appliqué. As I refer to that book often, I might be buying this one as well.

I have also been following the work of embroiderer Rebecca Harris recently, particularly her spat with Facebook about whether her embroidery " Symbiosis" was an "overly sexual" image.  She is now setting up a website, " StitchingScience"  featuring the work of professional textile artists who use science as their inspiration.  It has really made me think about how to better link my science knowledge and my stitching, as I have not really done that to any great extent.

My own stitching this week has been to complete more cards for our group's exhibition in October, using a combination of appliqué, embroidery and a bit of iridescent paintsticks.

 

and…….. I am going to see this next week.  That will be inspiration overload.

 

 

No, I haven't been cross all of that time……

…..just busy with family, getting back to work, and having some thinking time about a major project.  Little bits of stitching ( mostly by hand)  from these past three weeks

Inspired by Art now bound with 1/4 inch binding - not curved, just photographed on a curved bench between showers and gusts of wind. A3 size.

back, with an embroidered label as an entry to one of the competitions that our quilt group is currently running.

Dr Who embroidery to become another label for entry in to said competition.  I am learning to be very wary of using hand-dyed threads on anything that is to be washed.  The dark blue here ran terribly, but it isn't critical for this.  Approximately 8 inches square.  Pattern came from one of the artists on the Dr Who quilt along, but I can't remember who.

Globe embroidery, bought as a batch from Urban Threads, in case they also decide to withdraw their designs from sale in the EU due to the pdf pattern download  /multi-country VAT debacle.  About 6 inches square.

Postcard for stocks made from the trimmings of the "Inspired by Art" piece.

A lovely walk in the countryside yesterday

and then coming across this fine bird in a pub car park.

 

 

Quilting as an outlet for crossness

Being a parent to male teenagers has seemed more straightforward to me than being a parent of  male toddlers, except when it comes to school reports.  Discussions seem to be on an annual loop, with major dips in December, followed by a steady climb through the rest of the year to good results at the end of the summer.  I should be used to this by now, but each December, I allow myself to become cross at seeing the same words again: careless, sloppy, no attention to detail, etc, etc, etc.  With some self discipline, I managed to channel this crossness into some machine quilting, rather than immediately entering the verbal jousting match.

I have bought a straight stitch foot plate as recommended by Philippa Naylor, and this does seem to make these intricate curls much easier to quilt repeatedly, although I did manage to break a needle when forgetting that the plate is not compatible with zig zag stitches.

I was evidently not completely  focussed though, as I managed to stitch the Supreme Slider mat directly to the back of the quilt sandwich.

Thankfully I could cut it free and it still seems to work.  Glass of something Christmassy needed now.

More tone and value…..

….. on cloth.  Not much spare time this week, so stitching has been limited to postcard - sized pieces.  The first on a theme that I always love, boats and the sea, using a few precious scraps of a favourite fabric.  Damp stretching this one, but not as rigorously as it should be done.  First in black and white to examine the tonal contrasts, then in a blaze of wonderful colour.

The daughter of a good friend is in a local professional production of " The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" and her first night is very soon.  I've taken one of the images by the original illustrator, Pauline Baynes, and simplified it for stitch.  Some holographic thread added by hand for sparkle, and silver paintstick for background tone.

I hope she recognises the image when it goes through her letterbox.

Testing, sampling, recording

Having wasted  yet another hour or two looking for a sample for a technique I know I tried, I am attempting to be more organised in keeping samples.  When I was at Raystitch last week, I liked how they had samples of fabric sewn on to pieces of card and hung up in the shop.  This reminded me of the mounting of my samples from the printed textiles courses at Morley, and a question to myself as to why I wasn't using that technique to keep my samples.  Therefore, 

testing out the trapunto technique from the workshop with Philippa Naylor , using folded fabric flowers from "Fantastic Fabric Folding" by Rebecca Wat.  In the end I starched the fabric for these flowers before folding them and that made the technique much more manageable.

The trapunto gives a good dimensional effect when the background is quilted.

Next up, was testing out the trapunto technique on bias strips of varying widths. 

Phlippa has a very straightforward technique fin her book, Applique Mastery for getting these single strips to vary in width down their length.  How straightforward this will be on strips longer that A4 remans to be seen, and may call for some "design solutions."  The lower strip has the trapunto, and even without background quilting, the raised effect can be seen clearly.

As part of the searching, I did find various blocks and bits, that in the spirit of " Found and Finished", have gone off to Project Linus as a contribution.

One of Philippa's comments on the workshop was about why she makes one quilt / year.  Admittedly she is a professional, and makes her living out of teaching, based around her quilts. but her comment about making one excellent quilt, rather than lots of OK quilts really rang true.