Leeds West Indian Carnival - 44th Year 2011

Just a few of many photographs!

journal quilt - now showing in Houston!

Not the perfect photo but the best I have at present (suddenly realised as the courier service was due to arrive that I didn't have a picture of it so had to whip out the camera, take it out of the packaging and take a couple of hurried shots (really it does hang straighter than this! I hope!)

The images are taken from Leeds West Indian Carnival which this year celebrated its fortieth anniversary plus the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain and its colonies. The bottom image came from the slave-ship theme and I think may be a slavemaster; the middle image, the peacock, signifies pride; and the top image reminded me of a rising sun - I chose these both for their appearance and their symbolism; on the side panels the symbolism is obvious - broken chains growing into leaves then flowers (flowers loosely based on hibiscus).

As for techniques - the background is a single panel of hand-dyed silk overlaid at the sides with hand-dyed silk chiffon: the leaves chains and flowers are reverse applique outlined in braid. The faces on the centre panel are made very simply using a counterchange effect with multiple layers of silk and metallic organzas. For the top image I've used lame (never again!), fancy threads, sequins and braids; for the peacock, braids, multiple organza and lame layers, beads and threadpaiting fo the feathers; for the bottom image bonded shot silk and black georgette plus silver braid and metallic thread.

I'm still not sure I'm satisfied with it - but I'm conscious of having had to modify the costumes/headdreasses to fit the design - for example the slavemaster's collar (the stand-up bit at the back) was at least twice the size, giving an amazing impression of power and domination which is lost in my interpretation.

However the journal quilts are meant to be about exploring and learning and this one definitely took me out of my comfort zone: the techniques I used from the book are threadpainting, couching and reverse machine applique; these are new or relatively new to me; the composition is much more formal than I sould normally use - but it seemed to fit the subject; I created a number of my own fabrics by bonding together transparent fabrics - unfortunately the depth you can achieve this way doen't show up in the photograph; and I used a lot of unfamiliar and non-traditional fabrics.

Below are details of two of the appliques:

Fame at Last!

On a whim I entered this photograph for the Photo of the Month competition on AOL UK - it has made it through to the first of the October heats. Had forgotten about it completely until it suddenly appeared on the AOL homepage this morning. Yippee!

Go to
http://www.aol.co.uk/ to see it.

to vote go to the AOL homepage (above) and either click on the link (the photo is one of several items that comes up in rotation at the top of the page); or go to Homes and Property then Pets and Hobbies (on the menu on the left) and click on the link there.

Catching up

I've recently started a creativity counselling course, Women-Art-Life tutored by Myrna Giesbrecht who teaches the Self Expressions class on Quilt University. It explores ways of organising yourself and your life to develop your own creativity and I highly recommend it - see details on http://www.womenartlife.com/ . The class contains a lot of soul-searching and written and practical assignments with a great deal of input from Myrna herself. The piece above is my first piece (you produce one a week), fused applique using two pieces of hand-dyed fabric, cotton background and silk applique, with the applique outlined in couched glittery braid. Based (rather loosely) on my handprint. Fun and very fast to do except for the silk binding: I did the whole thing in an evening, which is very speedy for me!

On a more personal note, two friends, Harvey and John, went through a civil partnership ceremony recently at Leeds Town Hall, one of the best wedding celebrations I've been to. Huge numbers of guests, lots of people I haven't seen for years. I used to teach Harvey (on the right) so I could claim to have known him longer than anyone else there except his family. John isn't bald - he normally has thick curly hair but had it cut off for the occasion. Both have been through so much themselves and helped so many other people they deserve a great future together. They've already been together thirteen years so their relationship is already long-lasting.

Next month they are moving to Harris in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland: they've bought a place there on a sea-loch with amazing wildlife and fishing-rights and plan to develop it as an alternative holiday-centre, with green energy and a choice of holiday-cottages or yurts. In the pictures (I haven't got permission to show them yet) it looks idyllic, the ideal place to go for peace and quiet (I'm thinking quilters'/artists' retreat though we'd have to find somewhere to set up the sewing-machines): should be up and running by next summer so I'll keep you posted. It's sad to see them go but it looks like a great place for an away-from-it-all holiday.

THE JOURNAL QUILT

It's finally finished - and though I'm not sure about the end result I've certainly learnt a lot doing it; it's included making my own fabrics by bonding sheers, layering, machine reverse applique, threadpainting, couched braid, beads, sequins, angelina, using new and different fabrics (I'm not going to be tempted to use lame again in a hurry) and so on. Given I've done very little in the way of embellishment, except in a few postcards, this was a steep learning curve. I just hope the lame holds together long enough to outlast the Houston show.

Given that I changed my mind about what to send until the last minute when I decided I simply had to do something relating to Carnival (and even then I had a few false starts and over-ambitious ideas - think 3D prancing horse coming out of the quilt(!) and attempts to be somebody I'm not) I really had to push myself to get it finished in time so ended up having to make speedy decisions (You have to understand it normally takes me three days to decide what to get in my weekly shop - I'm not a speedy decision-maker) and act on them quickly. I think this was good for me but it hurt.

Finally there was the challenge of actually getting it to Houston. All went well in the beginning - I even found a box the right size to send it flat in and a courier service that would get it there in two days. However by Thursday night I was in a real state of panic - after 32 hours it had still only got as far as East Midlands airport, only a hundred miles away. By the time I got to bed it had only just boarded the plane. BUT by next morning it had reached Wilmington Ohio and by 11.30 Houston time it had arrived. Yippee!

Can't show photos yet until after the Houston show opens. Maybe I'll like it again by then.

NIBS UPDATE

And finally - the beta-blockers are working - Nibs's blood-pressure is down to normal; he can slo see but still demands I take him for walks!

Carnival: Forty years not out!

Leeds Carnival (official title Leeds West Indian Carnival) celebrated its fortieth birthday on Monday, attracting crowds of over 100,000 people to my local park. It started in 1967 as a local neighbourhood event and since then has grown and grown, as has the influence of Leeds's substantial African-Caribbean community. Notting Hill is better known and larger, but unlike Notting Hill, Leeds Carnival has been a street festival from the very beginning. This year Britain celebrates two hundred years since the kidnapping and abduction of African men women and children to a life of slavery in the West Indies and Britain was made illegal; the abolition of the slave trade formed the major theme of this year's Carnival.

Planning for Carnival begins a year ahead with a great deal of competition between the various troupes and designers, and a great deal of secrecy surrounding the designs. Below is the winning Carnival Queen, a truly amazing costume.



Though there were a whole host of other amazing costumes:


The troupes are formed of both adults and children, the children's troupes being one of the most enjoyable aspects of the events: I particularly liked the blue birds:


The colour and spectacle of the event in local streets is truly amazing:

And age is no barrier to participation:

It can be an exhausting event, though this year not as hot as it often is: masqueraders come prepared with fresh drinks (at one time, in the days when the steel bands had to be pulled along by teams of strong men it must have been even more exhausting)

From a textile point of view, many of the costumes are truly works of art: I loved the detail of the embroidery in this one.
But my overall favourite was this one: first you notice the sheer beauty of it and then the chains:

Then you get the view from behind - the slave ship and the dead faces in the water:

Yes, Carnival is fun, and joyful, full of music and dance and laughter. But it is also serious fun: the celebration of a culture (it has been an important part of validating African Caribbean culture in Leeds, established at a time when people faced even greater racism than they do today even though many had lived in Leeds since the mid-forties) and a shared history. For me it is not only inspirational but awe-inspiring.

patchwork with dyed fabric

Two more quilts I found sorting stuff out - my two prizewinners!

This one's Jammin'. Made from a whole range of hand-dyed cottons I'd done at various times using different methods. Pieced very freely, based on chevron log cabin. Began by cutting four-inch squares from some of my favourite fabrics. Cut other fabrics into varying widths. Added these onto two sides of the squares until each block measured the right size or larger, cutting back to the right size. Then joined into blocks of four to make larger blocks, joined to make the centre, bordered, machine-quilted and bound (also by machine).
And - yes - it was as quick as that sounds.

The inspiration was Leeds West Indian Carnival with its clashes of sounds and colours.

The quilt was exhibited at the GBQF (the last one, under the auspices of The Knitting and Stitching Show) where it won a special prize for use of hand-dyed fabric. A lot of quilters, including traditionalists, enjoy it even though it breaks rules left right and centre! (A friend of mine overheard someone saying: " The pieces don't match. And everyone knows you can't put green and purple together. But I love it!"

Which is quite possibly the best accolade I've ever had!

The second quilt won Best Use of Colour at GBQF and second best in the bed-quilt category and for use of colour at Quilts UK. It's very large (over 100 inches square) and unfortunately I haven't yet been able to photograph it flat on. I tried it on the bed and this is what happened.

Hello Pepper!

Here's alarger picture that shows a little more quilt and a bit less cat.

The quilt's called Caging the Moment adapted from a line in a poem by Lous McNeice. It contains fabrics in 25 different shades of Blue-Violet 7RX, all flat-dyed in jars (adapt quantities from dyeing in a bucket, put dye and salt and soda into the jar. add wetted out fabric, put on the lid, wrap some old fabric and a plastic bag round in case it leaks and "churn" for ten minutes and then intermittently for an hour before rinsing and washing). It also contains a whole lot of different greens (the whole thing was inspired by the colours of spring) which were blast-dyed in small pieces using different techniques and various combinations of blues, yellows and golds with some black. The blue-violet grid goes from light at the edges to dark at the centre. The triangles (green plus yellows blues and purples go from dark at the edges to light in the centre (I bleached some fabric to get it really pale). The colours partially merge in the middle where you have values meeting, which is an effect I really like. I think the original inspiration was Deirdre Amsden's colourwash quilts, the ones with blue triangles on top, but it has come some way from there. It reminds me of Wytham Woods, the bluebells and the dappled colour through trees (see postcard below).

Anyway off now to do some more sewing - no more resting on laurels!

one I made earlier

This is a piece I made some time ago. The design is based on a costume from Leeds West Indian Carnival. I'd wanted to make a mola for some time and really loved the colours of the silk dupion, which seemed like an awful good idea at the time. Turned out to be not a beginner's fabric especially for fine applique but having spent good money on the stuff I wasn't not going to use it.

I solved the fray problem by cutting only about half to one inch at a time before stitching it down, which worked quite well and has left it miraculously whisker-free.

I started with a base fabric of blck silk (kept the edges from fraying with masking tape) onto which the design was drawn. I also made templates for each of the basic fruit shapes, applying these with a very find hemstitch onto the black. Reverse appliqued the outer bits of the segments and cores, and then used the same process for the inner bits, which were cut freely without templates. This made it possible to achieve the fine black lines without too much difficulty.

The last stage was the blue and purple outlines. First I covered the back with purple fabric, tacked in place, then drew the lines freely on the front (this sort of pattern is one of my favourite doodles. Hemmed the black down onto the silk, using two needles, one for each side of the channel cut. Then covered the front with purple, tacking along the blue stripes, cut along the tacks, cut back and hemmed on top of the black.

It's not something I'd tackle again, at least not in dupion, and if I used silk again I'd use a lightweight fusible to minimise fraying. It took a long time but I loved doing it (I've always found hand applique very relaxing).

It still needs a binding - I need to make samples and audition them - and I still haven't decided whether it's a large cushion (the design was for one and tried to take into account the bending in at the corners) or a small wallhanging. Overall it's 20 inches square. Suggestions welcome!

By the way I've discovered you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them. Just ran a quick check and luckily it doesn't look too bad close up!