Progress

Thanks for sticking with me in my quilt making.  I have finished piecing the quilt top and I am now ready to layer it with wadding and backing and start the actual quilting.

Quilt top

Detail

I ended up adding some extra paint to the motifs as I felt the new print block I had made (below) looked a bit too much like a Christmas decoration.  It was a bit laborious but worth it, as the little antler shapes were bugging me.  After all the effort I had put into the design I knew if would really annoy me if I did not tweak them. The difference is slight but is more like my original idea.

I have been exploring the photographs I took at the Luton Hoo walled garden when I had an artist's pass.  The scheme is still going, but I do have a lot of photographs so haven't renewed my subscription. There are a selection on my Flickr site if you're interested. There is so much of interest there and I hope to be able to use the inspiration for some future textile work.

These are studies of old finial posts that had been saved, but what really fascinates me is the fig trees that are trained up against the wall in the old glasshouses.

I've been playing with the levels on some of  pictures.

Winter figs

Spring figs

And just to finish, another page from my sketchbook.

I'm looking forward to a couple of days workshop with Ruth Issett, so I'm not sure I'll get much quilting done!

Hope you have a good week.

Jill

Words fail me...

I'm so upset about the impending doom to our Ash trees that I had to stop myself trying to spot them as I drove across the countryside last week.  Stopping at some traffic lights on a steep hill in town a few years ago was always a moment of pleasure as a mature Ash and a Scots pine met over the road and gave a beautiful patterned silhouette which I have tried to capture from memory.  I always thought I should try to photograph them, but it was a busy junction and before I could get it together they were both felled as part of building work. The two leaf patterns have definite decorative possibilities. I have to turn down the radio and skip past articles in the newspaper if I see the disaster mentioned - ignorance is bliss and I want to be able to enjoy these beautiful graceful trees as long as possible. Don't you just want to weep and tear your hair knowing that there is seemingly nothing to be done to stop them dying? 

Meanwhile the theme for The Sketchbook Challenge this month is the Spice of Life, thinking about what spices your day especially at this time of year.  My thought turned to favourite woollens and so I had a go at sketching the stitches very carefully in pencil adding some Inktense pencil colour to make sense of the rows.

Once sussed, had another go using  pen and lovely spicy colours.

Another thrill this time of year are the berries everywhere - never tire of their vibrant colours.

Meanwhile back in the sewing room...

I have printed all the 'square in a square' blocks and stitched the straight cut blue strippy blocks, adding some prairie points, (all pinned up here on my design 'wall').  Next I am going to have a go at some free cut strips for the top and then add a few printed motifs.  I had to cut a new, smaller block for the printing and the shapes are a little more delineated. I hope they don't appear too Christmassy as that is not the look I'm going for. The brighter orange paper shapes at the top are the original motif.  I could paint over them - cannot decide.  Besides that I am pleased with how much my patchwork resembles my design - I know that was the idea, but I haven't managed to pull it off before!

In between time I have stitched up my bag and lined it - just deciding how to finish it off, whether to add a magnetic clasp which is practical, but a bit clunky, may just make do with a button and a cord. Hopefully tomorrow I'm having some new shelves put up in my sewing room, so I have got to do some clearing out sometime today,

Have a good week

Jill

More pages from my sketchbook

Thank you for all the positive comments about the Mac, I'm getting there. Meanwhile I am loving my new amount of S P A C E and putting time in on my creative sketchbook course.  

I am working on collage and adding photographs to pages. Not quite happy with this page yet - may work on it some more.

Meanwhile I am enjoying drawing. Here are two studies I did of onions.  The first is done with Inktense watercolour pencils on watercolour paper, the second with the same pencils on cartridge paper.

Below is another double page spread from my sketchbook exploring the making of pickles and chutneys. I have integrated a photograph and the middle jar is a cut-out. 

I am still working on the page that will show through the window.

It has surprised me out find how inhibited I still am in working on these pages.  The course encourages you to go back and rework pages if you feel it is needed, to supplement one way of working with another.  I don't know why my inhibitions and purist ways are so deeply entrenched - but I suppose I was brought up believing that there was 'proper' way of doing something and that had to be mastered. Going back to rework a piece always felt like cheating for some reason - even though I know it isn't.  I am looking forward to reworking some of my other projects especially the 'Walled Garden' which started so well and fizzled out through loss of direction.  I hope that I shall be able to apply what I have learned here to revitalise some of that book.

Next week I am doing a day's workshop with Gina Ferrari of Fan My Flame fame which I am SO looking forward to.  It will be a real treat to use my sewing machine under Gina's guidance.  If you have never visited her blog please do so, she is a very talented lady. I have missed working on textiles for a while, but hope everything will come together eventually.  However I have to remind myself that I am only doing all of this for fun and no one is going to call me to account.

Thank you all who take time to comment,  I love to read what you have to say. It is great to be able to view all of my followers again, the number has been hovering around the 145 number for a while with people coming and going.  As it approaches 150 I feel a give-away coming on, so watch this space.

Sketchbook analysis

Lesley at Printed Material has posted some of her sketch book pages as one of her friends has asked how people use theirs.  I have stacks of them as I always have a book by my chair and a few pens and pencils. So I picked half a dozen that were easily accessable - one dates back 15 years - and looked for common subjects running through out. 
Firstly a draw a lot of faces.  There are a lot of them, often done from the television. Occassionally I can even recognise a TV personality, here are a selection with a few close ups.

My favourite drawing tool is a waterproof 0.1 or 0.3 drawing pen.

Another common subject in all my books are cats.  Several of these are of Tess - cat before Marvin, she was a pretty little Siamese cross.

Here is Tess in Karisma colour pencils, sadly no longer available.

I am also fond of drawing flowers and often buy an inexpensive bunch to draw if there are none in the garden.

When you can't find any other subjects there are always body parts - your own hands and feet I mean.  They are always available!

When all else fails I just let my imagination run riot.

These drawing very rarely lead to anything ... but I'm sure they must say something about me.  Perhaps I am just at the bottom of a hole with all my art work trying to get out!

Jill