Greetings

Back soon ....

Have a great week

Jill

Phew!!

"Perhaps she'll take a little more notice of me when she's finished THAT quilt!!"

It's okay Marvin.

It is all done and photographed ready to send off to my tutor.  

My first proper quilt, although only a small one.

"Now will you pay me attention!"

I'm very preoccupied with family at the moment, so keeping a low profile, but enjoying looking at everyone's posts.

Have a great weekend.

Jill

Head in a cloud

I seem to have head my head in a cloud this week - as opposed to a head in the clouds.

Just haven't been able to put my mind to anything new. However I have managed to get a few things finished

Photo effect using 'Photo Booth'

Finished November calendar.

Made a basic page for December.

Decided to unpick some stitching I had done on my quilt, but haven't touched it since.

  Made a couple of book wraps from a piece of 'mad' quilting I had done. So now I shall have these lying around instead of the bit of quilting.

 Finished off some little tree decoration bags I have made for friends.
(Don't tell)
They are bits of Sari ribbon stitched down onto felt. From an idea in this book - and Gina.

And I finished off my bag, and added a vintage buckle from my mother-in-law's button box

And here is the photographer's assistant checking the action.

Have a good week

Jill

A busy week

I've had a busy week and consequently my workshop with Ruth Issett last week seems ages ago. On Monday I managed to pull my back untangling a thread from the vacuum cleaner brush and then I had to take the car to have a new clutch fitted.   I had a bit of a walk into town to catch the bus home which helped ease my back and a routine visit to my chiropractor on Tuesday sorted it out and it is fine now.

I started the straight machine quilting on my quilt last weekend and began some of the hand stitching.  It has been so dull that I have needed to work under my daylight bulb.  I set my ironing board under the lamp and I could adjust it to just the right height for sitting upright while sewing.

Marvin likes to sleep in my workroom and keep me company, his favourite spot is on the chair just in front of the radiator.

Last Friday I order a secondhand copy of Ruth Issett's Colour on Paper and Fabric and it arrived on Tuesday which gave me something to read while waiting for the call to fetch the car.  While resting my back too!

I had also ordered four Karisma Colour pencils which are no longer made, however this company specialises in end of range pencils -  1buy1pencils so I ordered four of the colours I would use. Sadly I have worn out my yellows and would love to get hold of some.  I saw a new box of 48 pencils on sale on ebay for £150!!! But I'm not that desperate.

On Wednesday it was time to visit the hairdresser.  Consulting my calendar pages I realised it was two months since I have been, no wonder I couldn't see where I was going.

Wednesday afternoon I managed to finish the free motion quilting so I can put the sewing machine away for a while and get on with hand stitching.

My vermicelli stitching isn't too bad, but I'm inclined to move the fabric quickly on the corners so the stitches get longer.

Today a friend and I went to Childwickbury near St Albans to a Christmas Fair held at the home of Christiane and the late Stanley Kubrick.  Christiane is an artist and many of her paintings were on sale and she was there painting a beautiful still life, what a treat! I have long admired her colour filled paintings but did not realise until very recently that she had opened her home to the arts, holding two fairs a year.  The work on sale was of a very high standard with several textile artists, printmakers and painters showing their work. What a shame it was pouring with rain.

She also holds an Art School in the stables and runs many courses over the year - guess who is going to keep an eye open for next year's dates?

Well that it from me for now! I seem to have another busy week coming up so I'd better get on with some stitching.  You must be getting fed up with photographs of this quilt! However I think it is going to be with me for some time yet before it is finished.

Fingers crossed for a bit of sun in the coming week, I hope things are bright with you.

Jill

Two Colourful Days at Art Van Go

This week I had two wonderful days with Ruth Issett at Art Van Go in Knebworth.

The workshop was called Pushing the Boundaries of Colour and we certainly did that.

At the end of day one we all had a big pile of papers covered in colour.

My work station is in the front here - I had two spaces to myself and still managed to overflow the area.

Ruth first asked us to choose colours.

We covered paper with paint and dye.

Finally Ruth asked us to cut up the strips and assemble them into new strips or concertina books.

I bought myself a nice new sketchbook to fill with my cut strips.

However once at home I was filled with doubt about my colour choices.

Here are some examples I have made so far.

It was astonishing how many colours could be produced using just three.

I had selected magenta and lemon yellow to start with and then chose turquoise. Seeing other people's choices emphasised the difference just choosing a different blue or red could make.

Ruth opened up her little pot of paste she uses to stick layers of coloured tissue on her strips.  Those of us of a certain age were immediately transported back to our childhoods by its smell - that of almonds.  We all had to buy a pot, it was a good job A.V.G. had a supply in. What a delightful retro tin it is, complete with a little well in the centre which holds a little brush.  It smells nice enough to spread on your macaroons!

I used to use it to stick pictures in my scrap book with it when I was quite small. Mum would cut the nice bits out of birthday cards and I would do the sticking.

Finally this is the strip I created under Ruth's guidance.

This has made a great break from quilting and I have a stash of papers to play with when I want to push my colour sense some more. 

However it is going to be back to the quilting for me over the next few days.

I do hope you have a colourful weekend,

Jill

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