Cre8ive Threads

Tempus Fugit

2009-04-03T00:24:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone this is my return to blog land after a very long and unintentional sabbatical.... sorry but life seemed to just get in the way, you know how it is sometimes?.Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things slowly ( if i can remember how to do all of this!) I have tried to keep the old arthriticky fingers busy throughout the past few months and will bring you up to speed with some of the lovely work I've received with the Textile challenge group, my efforts in response to the challenges and most recently the work exhibited by Meniscus at the NEC last month.

The exhibition was a great success, judging by some the of the lovely comments passed and as work was sold, so a great weekend all round.It's the first time since joining this group that I've been involved in the setting up procedure, a daunting task but made so easy with the help and expertise of the other girls involved.The following pieces are just some of the work ; Above is Fran's tiny dancer (my title not hers) a gorgeous piece made from silk paper complete with ballet slippers ... just beautiful.

Helen's creation: a waterfall of dyed silks and scrim with the inclusion of delicate pieces of ceramic hidden within the folds.

Sue is an accomplished master of felt, in particular carving of the industrial sort! and as this is only a snippet of the actual huge piece i feel it doesn't fully give justice to her work, but hopefully you can appreciate the intricacy of the Celtic design.

Another piece from Helen showing her designs on fibre and ceramic.

These next two pieces are my contribution, a collar/shawl made up from transparent sheers, , free machined with metallic threads in a design taken from my theme of of shells and ammonites.

This is a little bag I made from knitting wire and beaded fishing line together, it's lined with silk and the handle is clear tubing which I've also beaded. A truly functional piece but i wouldn't like to make another as it was a definite labour of love.

Two super pieces of mixed media work from Anne and inspired from her garden theme. As Anne is a relative newcomer to Meniscus I really don't know a lot about her work other than she's terrifically talented and exhibited many times before.

For me this was a show stopper. A quirky but beautifully constructed corset by Joy called; 'He loves fishing more than me'! A vibrancy of colour with so many textures and stitch techniques. I'll post a full piccie later - i know i have another lurking somewhere. Found it - a little disjointed maybe but please see beginning of posting.

Our next group meeting is looming, the beginning of May and I'm way behind with my design and samples ... teacher wont be pleased! so will have to0 pull out all the stops in the next couple of weeks. I have some plans - don't we all! and a few rough ideas all based around a wrought iron theme, my fabric samples are in a rough form too so it all needs pulling together ... must press on.

OOPS Shame on me but I can't remember who produced this lovely piece, think perhaps it was Julie? sorry in advance.

from the wish list

2008-06-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention yesterday this fantastic post card sent to me by my very talented lottery partner Alis, the photograph really doesn't do it justice as the textures are just so scrummy, the colours white and copper are beautiful together - right up my street. Thanks Alis

These two little beauties are an early birthday pressie, naughty really because i couldn't resist opening them and already they are looking 'well thumbed'!

The new Maggie Grey book from Image to Stitch, as mentioned earlier, is just wonderful so jam packed with inspirational ideas. one of those books that makes you want to return to some old design work and re create the images.

The other is 'the art of embroidery' by Francoise Tellier- Loumagne I've coveted this one for ages and it doesn't disappoint. The illustrations taken from the natural world are a delight, the design techniques are new ways for old favourites but what strikes you is that the book oozes quality - definitely a must have.

Cretan Stitch and June Arch Swap

2008-06-26T07:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't been doing a lot of stitch lately but continue to be involved with the groups monthly arch swaps and a little fun postcard swap.

June's arch was for my partner Annette and because she left it up to me re: colour and theme I was stumped trying to come up with something different (thinking everyone will be bored to death with the twin needling stuff!) so instead I've taken some painted up crumpled paper (recycled of course), overlaid this with sheer fabrics and free machined with a glitzy thread. The mish - mash design was something from an earlier pen and ink doodling exercise for textile challenges, great fun but i didn't do anything with it then.

It was easy to print it directly to a fine fabric via the printer then stitch following the lines on the back (see Maggie Grey's new book Image to Stitch for in depth instructions- a definite must have).

The whole thing was then blasted with the heat gun before being finished with a little surface embellishment of hand stitches and a few beads here and there.

Since I'd made a fairly decent sized 'sheet of fabric' felt i couldn't waste a scrap of it so made some post cards and a couple of atc's. One of the postcards went to my lovely graphic designer daughter, she'll love the fact it was sent through the post nude. She's watched me making oodles of these over the years but I'm yet to actually send one to her - what a rotten mum.

The second challenge was a hand stitch lottery, the stitch given to me was Cretan and i must admit to having to root through some books as it's so long since I'd tackled this one - shame on me!

There's quite a few variations with this stitch so once i got into the swing i was hooked, so much so i went back to my arch pieces and included the stitch there too. So relaxing was it that I wish now that i had joined in with the 'take a stitch Tuesday' that was so popular last year on a site which i should know but escapes me now! Anyway it has me thinking that i might do my own alphabet of stitches , take it on holiday perhaps. i-pod and hand stitching the perfect duo.

This was the finished little atc. Cretan stitch ( Jan style) on open weave hessian and as I had some lovely dried seed pods which were crying out to be recycled, i thought couching them down would just continue the natural theme. Hope you like it Carol?

Out and about and a little creativity

2008-06-15T03:14:00.000-07:00

On Friday I went up to Birmingham, accompanied by my long suffering husband David who trawls around with me to every gallery and textile exhibition known to man, His mantra to friends: " is that he's off to see some more fog plaiting"! actually he secretly enjoys all of this and feels he's become an accomplished critic over the years - although the jury's still out on that one.
The point of the visit, to see the highly acclaimed open exhibition, Art of the Stitch just before it toured the rest of Europe (it closed yesterday) and I wasn't disappointed - WOW.
There were 54 exhibits and obviously not every one appealed but those that did were the most provocative and innovative that i had seen in a long time.
Photographs were not allowed but David did manage a couple of sneaky one's with his mobile phone, providing me with just an essence for future drooling.
There is an exhibition programme to accompany this eye candy fest but it was sold out, however I was told it can be obtained from: www.embroiderersguild.com/bookshop

This isn't one of them, I hasten to add! it's the piece of old battered fencepost that i found when walking the dog in the local park and dragged it home------ just the job for some good old rust dying since the weather has momentarily improved. I've been banned from putting stinky, vinegar clad 'rags' in the airing cupboard --- can't think why?

These were just some experimental pieces using various types of fabric, the silk and linen gave the best results. I did do a couple more incorporating some old keys and nails but the markings weren't so good.

I love the marks left on this linen piece and as it's quite a large piece maybe could do something with it .... a bag maybe? (just scroll down for possible prototype)

Anna Nowicki, announced on her blog some time ago that she was producing a little book of recipes from her previous teaching notes and having been a long time admirer of Anna's work I eagerly sent for it it. I can honestly say for £9 (GBH) + p+p it's worth every penny. A lovely pamphlet - type book to just dip into now and again to spark off some ideas using your own management and style. Great when you're just plain stuck for something a little more innovative.

Imagine how thrilled I felt when it arrived and attached was one of her recent ATC's.

THANK YOU SO MUCH ANNA. Can't wait for recipe book 2!

This is me interfering with 'proper stitching', A pattern I had to follow!, enforced acurate measuring and cutting! Instructions! and the scariest thing - feed dogs UP!!!! Amazingly it turned out very well (if you dont look too close at the wonky stitchess) and the process wasn't as bad as i'd anticipated, actually relatively easy.

What I really wanted (needed) was a little summery bag and couldn't find anything in the shops, so while i was at the Bramble Patch, a lovely little quilters paradise sort of place, buried in the heart of Northamptonshire, I spotted ('scuse the pun) this ready prepared pack (KIT) well only prepared inasmuch as the pack contained 2 fat quarters and equal amounts of interfacing etc - the rest was down to a certain amount of skill and patience (both of which i have in short measure!)

However, the experience was a relaxing one and perhaps i gained enough confidence to tackle the pattern again but this time incorporating some creativity to the finished piece. I may even use the rusted fabric after all - now there's a challenge!

May's textilechallenge Arch.

' Deep blue Sea' all the way from beautiful New Zealand from kiwicarole

thanks Carole, it's lovely and i love the tiny sails peeking out from the horizon.

Last Month one of the tasks set for our group on textilechallenges by our multi talented Artist, Designer, Teacher, Friend and Mentor Carol Taylor was 'monoprinting and taking it further'. We were randomly allotted a partner and a colour combination to work with (mine being turquoise and mustard - believe it or not!) resulting in a postcard sent to said partner. It was great fun giving myself 'permission' that day to just play around sloshing paint and ink over glass and plastic.

Because i'm also involved in the year long Arch swap and continuing to experiment with twin needling i felt it made sense to incorporate everything from this one design brief

The colours look rather 'wishy-washy' but they were strong on the paper before i began transferring it to a polyester fabric via the ink-jet method (again)

I appliqued pieces of the original paper to the finished fabric for a little surface embellishment and to hopefully link the whole thing together. I used various sized twin needles (broken many in the process) incorporating some set decorative stitches, and a little 'Italian quilting' for a raised and padded effect. Do hope you liked it Alison, that's pressuming it did arrive?

the completed trio, Arch and atc for kiwicarole

and aformentioned postcard.

Tickled Pink

2008-04-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

Not a lot to report on the creative front other than finishing off the beetroot dyed/recycled piece that I began a while ago. I added some little found feathers which were hellish to colour up because of their resistance to liquids (obviously!) so ended up using markal sticks and just brushed the colour on with very light strokes. I quite like the results.

in answer

2008-04-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

Carol, in answer to your question about the recipe for 'Fossiled evidence'; this was a real cocktail of handmade silk fibres, embedded into scrim and muslin. The stars of the show were recycled physalis leaves, my natural ephemera, and because of the natural sugar it wasn't too difficult to work them into this background. The amazing fact is; that they have survived intact for so long- no cracks or crumbling!
Can I just add, that during the making of this quilt my darling husband was diagnosed with cancer and endured a lengthy touch and go operation, fortunately all went well. Meanwhile, my wonderful artistic Father who was my greastest friend and critic had but only three more months to live. I rather suspect that it's the tears within the stitch that have held this piece together.
This is a small sample piece that was given as a postcard swap a little while ago.

Kates ATC to me

2008-04-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

Most importantly this is what Kate sent to me, her shape being diamonds.
Thanks Kate it's wonderful.

April ATC challenge

2008-04-26T07:43:00.000-07:00

Another one of the challenges set on textile challenge group this month was to create,make and send an ATC to a randomly selected partner, this took the form of a shape lottery when the shape to produce was also randomly selected (phew - got that?) mine was a star and my partner was the very talented Kate of katesquilting. I really hadn't any ideas that didn't involve Christmas! so just looked anywhere for a bit of inspiration, and that came from a little cutting from last weekends newspaper. I took the cutting , photocopied it a few times to A4 size then transferred the design to a fine fabric using the freezer paper method through my printer.

I then just free machined around the stars and padded them out with a little bit of interfacing (actually it was an old dishcloth).

Feeling a bit glitzy, I drew and stitched the word 'stars' into a tomato puree tube- forever mindful of my recycling genre. finishing off with some cut-out stars and little pieces of twisted wire.

The finished result reminded me of Carol's alter-ego -wonder woman!!!! - hope she reads this!

I have another 3 of these going spare so if anyone wants one just let me know.

Please Note: none of this is rocket science!

fossiled evidence

2008-04-26T04:56:00.000-07:00

And so my aged hanging, that I thought would never see light of day again, went off to Oxford uni for the current exhibition, aptly named '.........and thereby hangs a tale'.The details of the exhibition are here for anyone interested and in the vicinity.

Size Matters

2008-04-18T08:38:00.000-07:00

I've uploaded the piccies from the last post again, hopefully this time they will all open!

The rustic bag complete with a glue gun motif.

Card for Carol. Patination fluid to 'age' the motif.

glue gun motifs.

A close up of the finished petals with stitch.

The dried hydrangea petals

coloured glue gun strands applied to the background fabric.

the completed arch

Pam's Arch

2008-04-16T11:39:00.000-07:00

this is just stunning, a quilted arch sent from Pam in Wales, dyed in the most vivid colours and so beautifully executed ...like a picture postcard makes you wish you were there. Thanks Pam x

A Textile Challenge

2008-04-16T06:20:00.000-07:00

I realise it's ages since I last posted, no excuses but have tried to keep my fingers busy. Thought you might like to see what I've been up to of late. The above little arch was made especially for kiwicarole in New Zealand, We're both taking part in the monthly arch page challenge set by Carol T. of Textile challenges group. My task was to produce a piece of work entitled 'My Garden'. Now at the time the only blooming things in my garden were daffodils and tulips which are still going strong I might add, but not truly inspiring, however the lovely dried, aged hydrangea heads left from last year were compelling and beckoned to be recycled. One problem............

the British weather turned spring into a Christmas scene overnight, we had at least 3inches of snow, just as I was already to create. Thankfully it didn't last long and I was able to proceed.

After separating the flower heads and allowing them to dry fully on some kitchen paper I prepared a base of bandage skrim plastered thinly, so some of the skrim shows through, with tinted paper perfect (you could also use gesso with a hint of acrylic paint to colour instead) and allowed this to dry overnight.

The surface wasn't exactly right so I then placed some little pieces of 'glue gun motifs', these were left overs from a previous experiment but so easy to achieve. I highlighted these with some coloured wax before adding the flower heads with tiny spots of bondaweb and using parchment to protect the iron. The wax melts slightly so care is needed here, don't be too heavy handed with the iron! The petals need to be protected too or they would eventually disintegrate, I tried giving them a coat of acrylic wax but found that to be insufficient, the only remedy was to trap them under the lightest of white chiffon, again the wax melts and a lot of the gorgeous background fades a little.

this is what I really wanted to achieve ..... so I'm afraid it's back to the drawing board!

These are but a few of the 'glue gun' motifs, it's a fun method for further experimentation with loads of possibilities.

This post card I sent to Carol T. It was given the aging treatment with patination fluid then coloured further with wax, placed on a background of twin needled sheers, chopped up and reformed.

Remember the rustic bag I was endeavouring to make and having such a terrible time trying to fathom out just how to create the look that author/designer Isobel Hall achieved? well it's all but finished, and just a few more stitches around the top - hence the pins. I had a stroke of luck earlier this month when visiting sewing for pleasure at Birmingham, the lady herself was there exhibiting and what a lovely person she is, so giving and generous with her time and information (don't you just hate it when they are over precious and act like it's never been done before!) I mentioned the blood sweat and tears that Id gone through trying to get a backing fabric that worked and she told me that the fabric she had actually used was ages old so that was probably the reason!!!!!! Now you tell me!

Anyway, I've completed, well almost, and in true recycling tradition have used every last thread from the backing fabric which had been pulled, teased apart and re-stitched, having used metal piping for the handles I stuffed these with said paper and fibres a) to make them more robust and b) to give them a sense of belonging, I think it works.

can you guess what it is yet????? yes, a double glue gun motif which has been pressed into a rubber printing mat while the glue was still hot ( just remember to allow the glue to go cold before removing from the mat) there's so much texture in this it seemed wasteful not to use it. Afterwards it was patina'd, waxed, painted and stitched to the front.

Do hope your not all bored to tears yet?

I have to mention about the recent exhibition at Peterborough, It appears it was a great success and my little recycled clutch bag was sold.I have mixed feelings. I do hope her new owner loves her and takes care of her.

Unfortunately all was not good, Fran's beautiful little beaded pin from her shawl was stolen - how rotten is that? This is a big learning curve for all exhibitors -BEWARE.

I'm now in the process of getting my next piece ready for our forthcoming exhibition at Oxford University. This exhibition is named ' ...... and thereby hangs a tale', It's an exciting one for me as we are using hangings which we all have previously made under the guidance of Cherrilyn. Mine is my large C+G piece 'fossiled evidence' created from 'silk paper' with embedded ephemera, definitely not for sale ...much too precious. hopefully I'll have some photo's later.

Many thanks Carol for nominating me as one of you inspirational bloggers, that was way, way back in March so sorry for the delay ... you know what I'm like! as for me my list of reading is endless so I couldn't possibly begin to choose, and anyway I'm such a novice at this I can't manage anything but the simplest of posts. Still haven't worked out how to add links to people and groups by placing the word 'here'. .... all instructions gratefully received

Felt like Dyeing

2008-03-02T06:09:00.000-08:00

A little bit of confectionary thinking time ... my dentist is going to love me!

I need some dyed felt for my next project and prefer the all in one acid dyes, just sprinked on in a plastic bag with a little water then pop in the microwave for a few minutes, I have to add that I keep an old microwave for this purpose.I usually leave to cool before handling.
A good day for drying.

A Happy Accident

2008-03-02T04:15:00.000-08:00

I was messing about with beetroot the other day- in the culinary sense you understand and accidentally spilled the jar - what a mess or so i thought. After some mopping up with numerous sheets of kitchen paper 'A what if ' moment occurred - lunch put on hold momenterily while some tie dying and pattern making occured. I left the tied, beetroot juice paper overnight to completly dry out. Soaked some more paper, clamped it with clothes pegs. dipped various size rings into the beetroot juice and printed.

when it was all completely dry the unravelling took place, this is not easy, it did take patience so I didn't tear the paper. (Forgive the naff photography, it was the wee small hours).There were some lovely marks left in the tie-dyed pieces and the scrunched surface unfurled to a beautiful petal.
This was my result: I free machined a printed background with a vermicelli stitch, giving it a really good quilted effect with more papers between and hand stitched interesting areas. 'The petal' was applied with hand and machine stitch and included the dyed cotton string for tendrills.
The centre of 'the flower', has some little words and text.

Museum revisited

2008-03-02T02:29:00.001-08:00

The following three pieces are inspired by the victorian children's clothing collection.These are all worked in the most delicate, fragile silk paper, with inclusions and machine embroidery.

The tiny bootees are just wonderful.
This piece is fabulous and due to my poor photography is probably not doing Joy's work the justice it so deserves. The box is custom made (by her artist husband, John) to an ammonite shape, it has 2 perfectly functional drawers with the most beautiful turned handles. Joy used a fusion of stitching and embellishing techniques to complete the aged and well worn effect....... I loved this piece and she's such a gorgeous person. Another take on 'Fossily things', this sculpture is crunchy and so tactile

Meniscus at the museum

2008-03-02T01:59:00.000-08:00

Because my blog just didn't appreciate the size of the slide show I've replaced it with more static images which, on reflection is far more audience friendly. I can't give away too much info on individual pieces without consent but will give brief descriptions .... enough to wet the appetite.
The source of inspiration for the pendulum is self explicit, it came from the grandfather clocks placed along the hall ways. The shapes are superb, printed and expertly machine embroidered,

Fran took inspiration for her pieces from the swirly surface design of an old pot, from this she produced a very up to the minute wearable wrap. A wall canvas

the most beautiful tightly beaded pin, echoing the shape of her design.

Textiles in Focus '08

2008-02-15T19:21:00.000-08:00

There were some great traders there too so of course I just had to treat myself, well it would have been rude not to. The recent Jan and Jean Books have been on my list of 'must have' for ages and the new one from the Fiberfusion team (also exhibiting here), so lots to keep me amused for awhile.

resolved samples with such originality... love the knitted knickers.

first year students sketch books ....... always a joy.

extremely organic wearable art by the final year students and so gracious allowing photographs.

I've had a truly lovely day today (actually yesterday as I'm writing this in the wee small hours), went to Cambridgeshire to the Textiles in Focus exhibition held at Cottenham Village College. A smallish venue but well worth a visit if your around the area this weekend or just fancy a drive out and a 'textile art fix'. I'ts on until Sunday and admission isn't an arm and a leg, there's some lovely inspirational work and displays.Tracy A. Franklin is lecturing on Saturday and I believe there's a plethora of workshops too. Some of the college students are exhibiting their final pieces, they definitly had the wow factor.

shaping up

2008-02-14T12:22:00.000-08:00

I love the way the tulle has created shadows, this is exactly what I tried to achieve with my hanging.

it's good to see a piece of design work in another dimension, suddenly there's possibilities.

bags with paper and stitch

2008-02-08T23:44:00.000-08:00

The general idea is that you cover the reverse side of the fabric with coffee or tea dyed newspaper, free machine stitch in 'meandering vertical lines' then brush, teasel or pull away pieces of the paper - scissors are not allowed as the edges would be too neat. Sounds a piece of cake, doesn't it? Well as you can see from my samples all i seem to manage is a furry mess. If anyone has attempted this please feel free to offer advice ... before the whole lot is binned.

I've been playing around with 'papers as background fabrics' for years, preffering to recycle rather that buy. So finding isobell Hall's book 'bags with paper and stich was a revelation, now there's something to make with all of the papers i produce. At college everyone is at it too, we are all producing the same bag but obviously with our own individual interpretations, should be interesting. Ms Hall recommends that the right furnishing fabric is key to this project, you need a design that is loosely woven at the back for distressing purposes. This sounds easier said than done, I must have raided every charity shop, market stall and furnishing shop in the area in search for the elusive 'loosley woven fabric'. Along the way I've sampled up with anything that looked right for the job but so far just mitigating disasters

Thanks Again

2008-02-08T23:38:00.000-08:00

Thanks again to everyone who left such lovely comments, not sure what i'm up to but they refused to show, hopefully it's sorted now.

Artefacts poster

2008-02-06T20:12:00.000-08:00

Here's the exhibition poster.

2008-02-05T14:49:00.000-08:00

I in contrast my second piece is so very different. a soft throw/hanging in layers of black tulle with random blocks of coloured sheers. This piece of work gave me nightmares! I wouldn't like to say how much black tulle i actually used, think i've kept John Lewis in business this past month or so ! and the piece is barely a metre in length, it took so much sampling.

a completed piece

2008-02-05T14:35:00.000-08:00

After all of my trials and tribulations this little clutch bag just fell into place. The fabric paper behaved beautifully while i lined it with silk and turned the whole thing inside out. the many layers of waxing had eventually paid off.For detail i added a small manipulated piece of embroidered and burned felt as a clasp.

quilted paper

2008-02-05T12:41:00.000-08:00

After many sheets of tissue paper which had been inked, waxed andwaxed again i returned to Carol's journal cover where i used a twin needle for some interesting but uncomplicated stitch and thought how well it had worked on the 'made fabric'. i've tried to replicate the process here with added pieces of felt squeezed between the lines (not an easy task!) the results were ok, had a real problem keeping it supple and waxed.

2008-02-05T12:26:00.000-08:00

just love these surfaces; more inks and waxes, but this continues to be an exercise of desperation as i still dont know where i'm going!

moving it along

2008-02-05T11:52:00.000-08:00

the painted papers really worked especially once some stitches had been added,this particular piece was aimed at my first idea; a vessel of some sort but i hated the hard cut edges ... back to the drawing board as they say. I then began to experiment further with layering crumpled tissue paper over a calico base string was trapped between. I then used diluted walnut inks with highlights for colour but no stitch. the surface and texture is awesome, very crinckley but a strong fabric because of the pva coatings.
in contrast this 'fabric' has equal strength it's made from a similar recipe minus the pva. instead used lots of waxes which have given a much nicer surface ... reminds me of hide.

2008-02-05T11:37:00.000-08:00

stamping ..... not a lot more one can say about this other than the colours!
this is where things begin to get interesting for me - a little EUREKA moment. papers; layered pulped,embellished, gesso'd, stitched painted, waxed tea and coffee stained ... lovely

still sampling (yawn)

2008-02-05T11:20:00.000-08:00

this is an inked sample using bleach to discharge the pattern/design, i then folded the paper and stitched ... still not sure why?
various dyed fabrics and papers using coffee, tea and acid dyes

2008-02-05T10:48:00.000-08:00

The stencilled design transfered to acid dyed kunin felt. I then Free machined an outline and burned out areas with the soldering iron...... this piece has possibilities
this was a sample of synthetic velvet, foiled and finally embellished with the design highlighted from the back ...... not so wonderful, as it felt like a piece of axminster
more kunin felt, this time with the positive stencil and raised cable stitch.

2008-02-05T10:39:00.000-08:00

from my pencil sketches i then isolated 'interesting areas' and made positive and negative stencils, which proved to be useful later on.

2008-02-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

a pencil sketch trying to capture the markings and textures within the blocks, accompanied by a sample block of painted cartridge paper in which i have trapped lengths of string for a raised effect.

2008-02-05T10:21:00.000-08:00

these are my prefered colours. A couple of random samples using Dylon image maker from a photocopy and a pencil sketch.

2008-02-05T10:16:00.000-08:00

rubbings and mark making, as I only had a purple crayon with me that day some improvisation was necessary.

2008-02-05T09:56:00.000-08:00

I always seem to have to go through the same old designing principles before getting to anything worthy of stitch, taking me forever to 'get it off the page' (as Carol T will no doubt testify!) I love the process but sometimes it takes over and i tend to go off on one so if anyone has any helpful tips/advice all will be gratefully received.After quick sketches and painted papers I decided to continue my theme of using recycled paper. The quality of Some of my photographs leave a lot to be desired but hope you'll get the idea.

2008-02-05T09:53:00.001-08:00

2008-02-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

The wooden blocks which made up the staircase were a wonderful source of inspiration. They resembled the small printing blocks used in the newspaper industry many years ago without the lettering but had so many interesting individual markings. It wasn't long before i was on all fours taking rubbings with pencil and crayons! I used these later when i was creating the journal for Carol.

work in progress

2008-02-05T07:38:00.000-08:00

Life happens when your busy doing other things.....

2008-02-05T05:59:00.000-08:00

I do apologise for my blogging inactivity of late but i have kept very busy with my design and stitch despite having had a tough time with family illness.
Peterborough museum are currently hosting the Meniscus exhibition, of which I'm part and have submitted a couple of pieces of work. I have to admit to feeling right out of my depth as work from the others is absolutley stunningly fabulous, if any one lives nearby please drop in and have a butchers. Admission is free and the museum is open daily 10am - 5pm ( although not sure about mondays)

A Journal cover for carol

2007-08-05T13:06:00.000-07:00

The most recent piece of work that I've completed was a journal cover an accompanying card etc for my great friend carol of www.taylorstextiletrials@blogger.com (check her out if you haven't already done so ... amazing work). This again was part of a group swap and i have to admit to being very late with this one ... sorry carol ,but she was pleased with the results. As I'm beginning all new design work for Meniscus and the forthcoming exhibitions I decided to link this Carol's journal and seized the opportunity to use some of the samples which i was playing around with.

Carol loves purple so the colour was with her in mind, my meniscus work will be totally different.

The 'fabric' I used was tissue paper bonded to calico (I always try and make my own fabric whenever possible) silk paints to dye, with walnut ink and silver webbing spray, the effect was quite stunning and especially once I began stitching experimentally with various twin needles and metallic threads. The motif was a small slip of melted felt and hand made cords placed on the front. I found that by 'stuffing' the lines of stitch at the back this gave a nice raised trapunto effect - note the post card ... lots more playing to do there.

Burning out

2007-08-05T12:37:00.000-07:00

Submitting work to a magazine is a first for me so it was quite scary stuff ( positively a leap of faith), and a quilter I am definitely not! but I did feel comfortable with the technique I choose. The top layer of organdy was burned out with a soldering iron to reveal the design and the edges too which give the whole piece an aged effect. Again, 'keeping the faith' I recycled the copper wire from an old boiler! ... Knew it would come in handy one day!

Quilting Arts and 'A Leap Of Faith'

2007-08-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

I'm thrilled to bits, An art quilt which i did some months ago in conjunction with FAT (fiber art traders) which is an Internet group I belong to, has been published and is in this issue of Quilting Arts magazine. The title I choose was 'A Leap Of Faith' and in a nutshell I based my design work around the cracking of the code for DNA.The double helix featured heavily in the early stages of design and by exaggerating and abstracting and lots of sampling I did manage to put 'A story together'.

New Beginnings

2007-07-31T14:24:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,
After oodles of encouragement from friends, followed by much procrastination by me I have eventually swallowed the 'Brave Pill' and hope to create my own textile journal. A little patience may be necessary whilst I get to grips with the technology etc. But I look forward enthusiastically to sharing and gaining inspiration from everyone who enjoys induvidual creativity with stitch.