Strippy bookwrap

In the tradition of strippy quilts, (yes that is strippy,  and not stripy spellchecker, no matter how many times you try to correct it), the most recent bookwrap was made from left-over strips of my hand-dyed fabrics, then hand embroidered with colours complementary to the colour of the cloth.  The organisers of this project are so efficient, it is on their site already, so this is a picture of the back  or the front, depending which way you put it on your book.

I don't want to go to Chelsea…….

I seem to be reliving my musical history through my photos.  In the week of the excesses of the Chelsea flower show, these are all from my garden, and show why " I don't want to go to Chelsea" ( with apologies to Elvis Costello).

Colour palettes

The photo below, of peeling paint on an abandoned rowing boat,  has continued to intrigue me, and I asked my elder son to help me extract a colour palette.  He did extract the colour palette below, but in such a blur that I'll find it tricky to duplicate the process.  He's definitely not a natural teacher.

More book wraps finished

These little projects are very addictive.   I've decided to use a lot of my dyed samples from Morley to make these for the Bookwrap Gem tombola at the Festival of Quilts.  All to fit A5 size sketchbooks, with a spine or up to 2cm width.  Cotton sheeting, hand-dyed with Procion MX and Procion P, then  machine quilted.  The last one, has an overlay of silk chiffon from somewhere or other.  These were also a chance to try out the Bernina edge stitch foot - well worth the money.

I love my baby' cos she does good sculptures……………….

…….with apologies to " The Rezillos" ( still one of my all time favourite bands) but it is so appropriate for the sculptures I saw this week at the Cass Sculpture Foundation, by Ellis O"Connell.  Fantastic work, really organic shapes.  As they are made of carbon fibre and not steel or stone, they are warm to the touch, which is really surprising in work of this scale.

This was such a rewarding place to visit, and there were only about 6 other people there yesterday - admittedly, it was so cold that I couldn't eventually take any more photos as my hands were so stiff.  About 1.5h drive from London, and I took about 2h to view all the sculptures.  It was the culmination of a complete overload of art this week, that I will blog about later once I've absorbed it all.  This visit was combined with a trip to Petworth - art of complete contrast and incredible to think it was all owned by one family.

Two finishes

Rain at the weekend gave time to finish a couple of ongoing projects.  First of all " Morley Moons" indigo dyeing using resists,  pole-wrapping shibori and some Procion p dyeing with a thermofax screen.  Details of dyeing in this post.

Quilted with stippling and a design learned at a Philippa Naylor workshop.

Then, using the offcuts of the cloth, an A5 book wrap for the Bookwrap Gems stall at the Festival of Quilts.

Interior

All very satisfying.

Work on display at Morley College

The work of the participants in the Printed Textiles course is on display at Morley for the next two weeks.  The broad theme was earth, air, fire and water and I have pieces in the earth, fire and water sections.

Earth, mine is the white silk scarf with the squiggly circles, at top right.

Fire, mine is at the top, tray-dyed linen sheet.

Water, mine are at the bottom, below the lovely silk shibori.

The air exhibit is this amazing dress, made with silk fabric that has been printed using the breakdown screen method with Procion P pastes.