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 quilt, March 2019, Brexit 3

Twenty seven different yellow fabrics in fourteen foundation-pieced triangles. Inserted, with curved piecing and appliqué,  in to a rather crumpled and tired looking background. Union Jack fabric at the bottom, tea-stained and of nondescript shape, dissolving into tattered threads at the far right. ( This is straight - unlike UK politics, just distorted by the medium - like UK politics).

Two walks, two days

Trying to keep hope alive.

March, journal quilt, design process

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

Auditioning yellow fabrics

Testing out triangle placement

Finding joy in colour - need to find it somewhere

February journal planning - Brexit 2

The madness continues as the UK heads on a course of self-destruction with no-one apparently able to stop the idiocy. The Brexit theme of the journal quilts has to continue.
How to convey 27 nations working together, and one as an outlier?

Initial sketch

My travel schedule with work means that any stitching project in the first quarter of the year has to be mostly completed by hand, and has to get through airport security, hence hand applique, using my favourite technique of wash-away stabiliser.

 Glue pen at the ready

Circles all glued, ready for stitching

Testing oil sticks to give some variation of colour on commercial fabrics.

Checking colour gradation in black and white

Full colour gradation

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

Dashing through the quilts.......not the snow

With the panto’ commitments over, I’ve returned to finishing off my journal quilts for this year.  Continuing on the theme of abstracted birds, the last four concentrate on beaks.

Crossbill.

Abstract birds, this series of four is about beaks.

 

Hand-dyed cotton fabrics. Experimenting in this series with increasing thickness of machine trapunto using water soluble thread. Very difficult to photograph the trapunto as a flat photo. One layer of trapunto wadding here.

Anticipation of the solstice

When the amount of daylight is so meagre, it is good to brighten up the everyday in anticipation of the light to come after the solstice.

Superb laces in lots of colours from here.

Fungal foray

Incredible inspiration of form and colour from fungi during a walk this weekend

.

Hidden inside the middle of a rotting fence post, waiting to be discovered, 

 

Sweets for my sweet............

……and panto costumes for the tinies, who are boiled sweets in the finale.  Yards of crystal organza, 

Waiting to be tried for length, after reference to a very useful guide here for children’s shoulder lengths and armhole depths.

Sherbet sweet

A few leftover scraps and strips, plus some buttons have turned in to hat and accessory trimmings  under my needle

Roll on the dress rehearsal.

Spring is here

The sheer pleasure in being bathed by sunshine, seeing colour everywhere

Peach blossom - in London!

Roadside flowers

Sharp shadows

Seen at Ham House, where I went to see he beautiful stitching on display in the costumes from A Stitch in Time. There until 29th April.