It's done and dusted

I have finally finished my City and Guilds course.  I have been doing it for about 15 months, and although I started fast and furious the last couple of Modules have taken me much longer than I anticipated. I have learned a lot, not least, that I can turn what is in my head into a piece of textile art work, but also that I must not expect to be able to do so over night.  As this goes against my nature of a quick turn around on the making front, it is time to take stock. When I retired from my full time teaching I knew that I could at last find time for creating in my life and it has lead me to explore lots of new areas. I certainly did not expect to have an on-line shop when I started out.  I have also learned a lot about myself. I started this blog as a means of recording my continuing education into my third age.

This quilt holds rather a lot of very special meaning for me and I was sure that I really wanted to get it right.  Firstly it started with photographs I took at Luton Hoo walled gardens.  Photography was the first step I took in my new adventure in creativity. The garden was like stepping into a secret world, discovering a neglected, magic place that was being lovingly restored. It spoke to me, I had been looking for it ever since I had read Frances Hodgson Burnett's book The Secret Garden as a child.
When I had chosen the images for the design, I searched for quotes about figs. There weren't many, but the one that stood out was the reference to Sylvia Plath's novel, The Bell Jar, which I talked about in a previous post. Although I did not remember reading the passage, the book holds a special place with me as described before.  I decided against putting any words onto my quilt, but it took me a long time to make up my mind, in fact, it was trying to choose which fabric, which stitches, where to place things that took so long.

Before I decide which branch I am going down next, I could do with a little consolidation, but who knows what will grab me next.

But now I will lay this project to rest and share with you some of my inspirational photographs and the finished article.

Thank you all so much for your lovely support.

Now I'm going to do a big tidy-up and decide what I'm going to do next!!

Hope you have a great  holiday weekend and are able to make the most of the grim forecast.

Jill

Stitching, stitching, stitching

I'm not going to say a lot,  you may be relieved to read.

Machine quilting ...

... and hand stitching.

There's still a way to go. Can't decide whether to put some words into it or not... and can't decide whether to bind or face it. 

Off to do a bit more seed stitching.

Have a good week,

Jill

Flying

Here's a quick post as I take a break before putting the dinner on. Can't believe the weather has matched the forecast so I have been torn between the garden and sewing machine. 

But meanwhile here is the lovely Bobby Britnell, whose two day workshop I was on last week. She has just published her book, "Stitched Textiles: Flowers",  and launched it at Art Van Go, so all the examples from the book were on the walls. She is a super teacher and it was great to be surrounded by her work - totally inspiring.

We worked in our sketchbooks and on fabric using similar techniques in each. 

When I got home I had to continue playing and this was the state of my workspace, but I had to get on with that quilt.

So I cleared it up and got out the machine

You will be so relieved to know that I have actually started quilting - hurrah!!! The end is in sight.

Hope you are having glorious weather too.

Jill

Sunny Saturday

Signs that spring is truly here at last as we have a lovely batch of frogspawn in the pond. I took this photograph earlier in the week, today the little fullstops are looking more like little commas.

However I cannot go long without mentioning my quilt progress. I drew up each panel to scale on squared paper and used this to cut out the fabric.

Some of you will be familiar with these images by now.

Here is the first draft pinned up on my design wall.

Meanwhile I have had a lovely two days with Ruth Issett at Art Van Go. This time we were working on fabric.  Although it doesn't show, the example below is printed on pale blue fabric.

We used fabric paint. Day one was very busy and a bit messy!

On day two we used our printed fabric to put together some little samples.

We chose one piece to work on.

Day two was busy too, but not so messy.  Ruth is an excellent tutor and very encouraging.

Back to that quilt. I printed the border with a foam block I made of a pattern of branches.

Below are all the panels ready to be stitched together  - first I have to iron down the leaves.

I'm thinking of including some words in one of the panels. I came across a wonderful passage from Sylvia Plath's book The Bell Jar.  My copy dating from the early seventies holds many memories as it belongs to a friend who was suffering with mental illness. Under very difficult circumstances we lost touch and I have never been able to return the book to him. The passage in the book refers to a fig tree. Esther, the central character is imagining herself sitting in a large fig tree filled with luscious fruit. Each fig represents a wonderful future; something she may become. However she is starving to death, sitting amongst the bounty as she cannot decide which fruit to choose, and they turn purple and drop, rotten, from the tree before she can make up her mind. I'll let you know what I decide.

Annoyingly my back is really playing up at the moment so I'm not sure when I shall be back at the sewing machine. I really want to be doing some work in the garden or out and about, but I'm afraid I haven't been able to do either.

Meanwhile here's Marvin looking a little bored.

I hope you're able to enjoy the spring weather. Have a good week.

Jill

Still working on THAT quilt!

I'm nearly ready to start, honest. Here is my "design" back of the door where I have pinned up some samples. I've planned it all out, so just about to start cutting - gulp. It would have been quicker to build a new Olympic Stadium.

Meanwhile I tried a fabric painting experiment. Egyptian Cotton drawn on with a Sharpie pen and then coloured in with water soluble Derwent Inktense pencils. I painted over each section with as little water as possible to stop the colours bleeding. When it was dry I tested Derwent's claim the pencils become water proof by running the whole thing under the tap... and it worked. Lots of potential.

Next week I'm going on another workshop with Ruth Issett on fabric printing so I haved dyed a batch of mixed blues to work on.

I'll let you see what I've done with it next week.

I then realised I needed some more greens for my quilt, so rather than have another dyeing session I bought a lovely selection from  Maggi's hand dyed fabrics. They are greener than they look here.

I've also put together another set of little bird cards for my Etsy shop.

As I type I can hear the Midwife Toads bleeping in the garden. That must mean the evening temperature is warming up at last. Usually they are making a racket much earlier in the year. We were sort of hoping they wouldn't survive the long cold winter, but they are back!

Midwife toad, snapped a few years ago - noisy but cute, foreign invaders who've colonised my neighbourhood.

Hope all is right with you, and you are enjoying a bit of spring.

Jill