More challenge pieces

First updates on work from NWCQ Weekend group - aka Textiles Without Limits:  Mary's piece with the couching finished:

Phyl's leaves (well worth enlarging to see the detail, especially the embroidery:

and a clearer photograph of Leah's piece!

and a whole series of small pieces by Julie - showing a wealth of techniques and a wonderful degree of imagination, not to mention artistic ability!

Quilts finished for FOQ

This is the one I struggled to finish - not the best shot.  It's the quilting that took the time.  Made of layered scrim over yellow-green satin (hand-dyed) for the big fern and grey silk overlaid with dyed silk organza for the dark fossil-ferns.  I ended up liking the back more than the front, but there you go...

The title is Survival of the Fittest as for me ferns are a potent symbol of survival and renewal (and they are actually great survivors - having been around since the Jurassic era, though the ones in my garden are mere youngsters, having only been around for a hundred years or so.

Next is another fern one - made near the end of 2009, a sort of companion piece to the quilt chosen for Contemporary Quilt's Breakthrough exhibition, which will also feature at Festival of Quilts:

This one's called Nature's Blueprints - with Improvisations and attempts to celebrate the ways in which ferns are not - as many people think - fractals but in fact vary greatly from one frond to the next;  this capacity for improvisation is a key factor in their success.

The final quilt of the three (photographed in the car on the way to the P.O. is a double-sided miniatureusing hand-dyed silk organzas and nets over silk-painted pelmet vilene (the shadowy trees in the background deliberately show through from the other side).  Unfortunately this had to be finished off rather hurriedly and some of the stitching has suffered as a result (quilting layers of sheers, especially silk nets, is not the easiest job in the world).  A pretty piece rather than anything very special but I actually manage to like this one!  The trees are drawn from real ones in Wytham Woods, the title is Wildwood - Spring and Autumn and the label is pinned on so it can be easily removed - I understand this will be done before it is shown to the public (I hope)

Ferns

My interest in nature's patterns and observation of the ferns in my garden have led to a deep fascination with these amazing plants.  My ferns, like many others in the neighbourhood, have probably been growing there since soon after the houses were built at the beginning of the twentieth century, but they are mere youngsters compared with the history of ferns in gerneral, which have been around since the Jurassic period.  Good job I like them, as they are not only great survivors but are almost impossible to get rid of.

It started with observational drawings I did last spring, including these two:

For me drawing is not only an intriguing activity which lights up the artist in me but is also a process of observation and discovery sparking questions and a need to know who what and why (I've always felt art and science were closely interlinked and not the separate disciplines many people seem to assume).  One of the first things I observed was how irregular ferns are: a surprise because, like many others who had been fascinated by fractals some years ago, I had thought that ferns were among the most regularly-patterned of plants.  Looking more closely at the growth-patterns of the Male Ferns (the species name) in the following months I discovered a huge degree of variation from the "blueprint" pattern: individual leaves or groups of leaves missing or stubby, for example, especially where they grow near a solid object like a wall or are crowded together (maybe because there's no point in expending energy in growing leaves that have no chance of prospering? I haven't yet found an answer to that question but I'm still looking).

The next drawings took me from naturalistic to stylised:

(apologies for the roughness of these sketches but they are rough notes rather than finished drawings)

I also produced a series of screenrpinted fabric pieces using ferns, hand-dyed fabrics and thickened dyes - here are two examples:

I used these in two quilts: the first is called Nature's Blueprints - and Improvisations.  The ferns here are based on actual ferns in my garden.  It uses the printed panels, my hand-dyed fabrics and machine applique and quilting.  I have not shown it here as I may want to enter it for a show.  There is also a slightly smaller quilt in this series, which I will not show here as it has been selected for the Contemporary Quilt Breakthrough exhibition at Quiltfest in Llangollen next month, so I will not be showing it on my blog until after that exhibition opens.

Then followed some linocuts I did for my printmaking class at Leeds Art college - these are the first two in the series.  The first was intended to be the closest to naturalistic, though it has a strong degree of stylisation.  The print is hand-coloured using watercolour pencils.  The second is strongly influenced by Peter Randall-Page's linocuts (see previous posting)

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During this time I was also producing a series of Journal Quilts for the Contemporary Quilt Group's challenge: the idea was to begin naturalistically and become increasingly abstract.  The first, the September JQ, used a print made by pressing one of the ferns used for screen-prints onto fabric, then free-machine quilting the image produced.  The October journal quilt uses the stylisation and techniques used in the larger quilts.

November's JQ, Fuzzy Fern, uses lines rather than shapes and is made by cutting back layers of scrim:

Whilst the last one December's JQ, which I have called Electric Fern because it reminded me of a neon sign, simply focusses on the basic ferny line, to me essence of fern:

I had intended to give ferns a rest after this, but then I went for a walk in Wytham Woods and saw this clump of ferns growing on a tree:

which set me off thinking again...

more scrim and a journal quilt

It's no secret I've been fascinated for some time by the effects you can achieve with cotton scrim dyed and layered, ironed flat or crinkled or scrunched; layered and cut back or not you can get the effect of various types of paint: I especially like the watercolour effect of layering scrim that has been stretched and ironed flat.

During the last few weeks I've been trying out various things - here are a couple of samples:

This one is based on the fungus on the felled logs I photographed when I was walking in Wytham Woods - just bits of layered scrim - not ironed, but as they come with free-machine zig-zag over. I love the different effects you can get with this stitch.

The second piece is more formal. Layers of pressed-flat scrim to start with, then the shapes are stitched in abd cut back through the payers with great care using reverse applique scissors (also called lace scissors) - an essential and sometimes difficult to find piece of equipment for this technique.

The third technique I tried is probably the simplest: layered as-it-comes scrim plus hand stitching: thicker threads - various kinds all hand-dyed including all six strands of cotton embroidery thread, perle and various silks and rayons - and big stitches so they show up (fine stitching tends to sink into the scrim and get lost):

The next piece is a finished piece using a technique I developed last year: ironed-flat scrim layered over hand-dyed wadding, free-machine stitched and cut back. In this one I was exploring the brighter-than expected colours of a rainy landscape through the window:

And finally, January's journal quilt for the Contemporary Quilt Group's challenge. This year's quilts all have to be 12"x 6" which is a good size to work with. This one is also as it comes with hand-stitching in thick thread, using hand-dyed wadding. The buttonhole-stitch appliqued shoeprints are also hand-dyed along with all the other materials used.

I've chosen a theme for the year (though I reserve the right to change/adapt if this doesn't work out) which is Steps. Instead of resolutions (I did make some but didn't keep up to them very long!) I decided to follow a really sensible suggestion of having a word that would keep me focussed on what I want to achieve, and the word I have chosen is steps. Literal steps in that I want to start going for long walks again, an activity I enjoy and which I had to give up some years ago when I had ME/CFS and something I need to do in order to get fitter. But also steps in terms of getting things done by dividing them up into stages (I find the decluttering is coming along wonderfully since I limited myself to one hour at a time); plus steps in terms of learning to do things a stage at a time rather than all at once!

Oh yes, the JQ - for January so it's a bit late - is called Magic Shoes.

SAQA Auction

The SAQA Auction starts tomorrow. In case you don't know, SAQA stands for Studio Art Quilts Associates, and members have contributed twelve-inch square quiltlets which are to be auctioned in three lots. My contribution, Effervescent Evanescent is above - inspired by the bubbles in my bathwater, techniques include cut-back applique using layered scrim and free-machine stitching.

There are quilts by some of the world's leading artists up for grabs, so why not get yourself over to the website http://www.saqa.com/ and have a look!

I did everything but take photographs

Sorry about the long delay in updating my blog. Did a silly thing. Entered not-yet-finished quilts for The Festival of Quilts confident that I'd easily finish them on time. I did (finish them I mean) but not easily.

You know how it is: you're going along to a particular timetable knowing what you're going to do and then as you do it you come up with new ideas.

The first was a small quilt based on the idea of rockpools - between the tides, where earth and sea meet. I've always been fascinated by them and the strange species which inhabit them. This one started with pebbles, translated into fabric in 3D using jersey hand-dyed and stuffed with wadding. I'd planned a simple background using a length of hand-dyed silk with dyed scrim for sand but it all got very much out of hand. It began OK with a length of scrim pressed flat over hand-dyed wadding producing a very nice dull sand colour, and the silk worked well too though somewhat inclined to fray so it needed satin-stitch. Then I discovered the viscose satin I'd dyed ages ago so that went in too; and that too frayed horrendously and needed satin-stitching. Then it needed shadows, in the form of silk organza. And of course it had to have rocks or there would be no rock-pool. By this time it had taken three times as long as expected.

I liked the seaweed made from granite stitch over silk fibre (the later seaweed, not shown in this photo was fastened to the rocks using seeding; some was stitched to a background chiffon/organza by machine and then appliqued. Then the pebbles went on by hand. And some couched hairy chenille for more seaweed.

I had all sort of plans - stumpwork shells and limpets, sea anemones, hand-embroidered feathered stars etc etc. On reflection it's probably as well I ran out of time or it could have been too far over the top!

Here it is half-way through:

The next one is based on Wytham Woods at bluebell time. I was trying really hard to be abstract but it kept coming out naturalistic. It's made in scrim over hand-dyed wadding with layers of colour used like water-colour washes. Here it is at an early stage. This version looks better than the finiished item:

I then decided to add more layers, and experimented on some scraps with FMQ which was then cut back to give a sort of speckled effect (to suggest leaves and the blue and green of bluebell plants). When I started doing this on the quilt it became obsessive - an interesting effect but unfortunately I got so caught up in doing it that I lost one of the most important compositional features i.e. the effects of light and shade which means that as far as I remember the finished piece is comparatively static. Unfortunately I have no photograph of the finished quilt - I just hope it's better than I remember and I don't have to run away in shame and hide when I see it hanging up next week.

The third entry is the only one at this stage that I am actually confident I like - i.e. the Snakes and Ladders one I blogged about earlier. The final stages improved it immensely from the way it was when I last showed it but once again I have no photo, till I get one next week at the Festival of Quilts.

I'm hoping I learn from this not to enter anything I haven't actually finished. There is actually a chance I might stick to this, since I'm doing a lot more anyway now I have retired!

Out the Other Side

OK so here it is. It didn't get selected for the SAQA Europe show I entered it for but given the wealth of art quilters in Isreal and Europe and the quality of work those selected normally produce that is not really very surprising - I still have a very long way to go.

However it is a quilt that's important to me for several reasons. Firstly the subject-matter: the quilt celebrates finally being discharged from the cancer clinic at St James's (Jimmy's) Hospital in Leeds, where, six years ago I was treated for endometrial cancer by the most amazing team of doctors and nurses and other medical staff, to whom as you can imagine I am extremely grateful.

The patterns are based on normal and cancer cells and the sun-like thing at the top right is probably something to do with the radiotherapy treatment I had to undergo after surgery. I'm not sure where the snake-like shapes came from . My friend Judith reckons they look like snakes, which is not entirely inappropriate - the whole experience was intensely scary but snakes are also traditional symbols of survival, presumably because they can go without food or water for relatively long times.

It was also a first for me in that I've never made a full-size quilt using scrim before (the spots and blotches are the only bits on the surface that aren't); I also dyed the wadding to have colours that would show through the scrim. Plus it's the first quilt I've ever made with serious grown-up subject-matter.

just teasing

If you're wondering what I've been doing this month - well - I've been making a quilt. It will feature in an exhibition this summer (a big juried one if I'm lucky, a small open-to-everyone one otherwise. All I can say about it is it's a bit weird (I'm not sure where it came from) and it's made of scrim. One detail above and one below:

I have really enjoyed working with scrim: I love the effect of transparent overlays - a bit like putting on watercolour glazes only with crosshatching cause by the texture of the scrim itself. I've used dyed wadding (batting) as the base colour, a purple which shows under the blue in the middle of the second detail.

Now fired with enthusiasm for scrim, I'll just show you the first stage of the second scrim quilt - various blues and greens "glazed" over bright lime green wadding (batting). Not sure where this is going next (though I have a number of ideas which should be interesting)