Drawing lilies

I am keen to get some good line drawings of lilies developed to try them out as a gocco screen so looked and found some photographs on the internet which I then sketched into a line drawing I could photocopy to use etch the image with the Gocco.

My intention is to screen print the image on dyed fabric with discharge paste and to use the pieces as part of a larger collage based on the lily flower. We will see how that works out......

Off to Taiwan - the quilt - not me!

I have been working on a piece with an 'Eco' brief for an exhibition - The Taiwan International Quilt Exhibition in 2016 that is taking place in Tainan,Taiwan. The actual theme is 'Protecting the Earth's Environment'  

The piece below is ready to be shipped out - I did most of the work on it at a retreat in the Lake district in February but had not got around to assembling and quilting it until this week!-  cannot remember whether I put the earlier pieces on the blog.

The piece is called - For how long..........

For how long will we be able to see the beautiful colonies of sea anemones on our coral reefs? We have already lost 27% of the world's coral reefs. If present rates of destruction are allowed to continue, 60% of the world's coral reefs will be destroyed over the next 30 years.

This piece is developed from a design I used for some pieces for Voyage in 2013 which seemed to suit the 'Eco' brief.  The background  was discharged using a range of agents; the coral reef was achieved through a simple hand cut screen and standard Jacquard discharge paste  varying the strength of the paste to try to achieve the effect of varying depths under the sea.    

I built the sea anemones up on the background by layering over a sheet of silk organza. I stitched free hand the first layer and cut back the organza to the stitching line and then repeated the layers twice more to build up a more dimensional shape. I used dye paints to colour some sections of the sea anemones;  the intention was to achieve the see through - jelly like structures of the creatures. Finally I machine quilted around the rock formations of the reef.

Just the sleeve to add the it's ready to go........

Local stitchers

I belong to a couple of local stitching groups and recently we have encouraged everyone to start a travelling book. The idea is that everyone has the same small sketch book and each month we put a small stitch piece, sample or design idea in another persons' book until the book is full. We swap books every month. A few of the pages I have done are posted below.

Back home from travels

Well, it's been over a month since I last blogged - whilst I have done lots of stitching I have been overseas in Madeira and then to  Verona where they were holding the 'Verona Tessile' - a biennial Art exhibition around the old palaces of the City. I posted my piece for Verona a few months back - it was based on the colours of the ripening vine in line with the Exhibition theme - it was a juried exhibition so I was pleased to be accepted and decided to visit as it was somewhere we had always wanted to see.

It is a beautiful old city set in the bends of the Adige river, the centre is almost all pedestrianised so easy to walk around - and there are so many old palaces - never mind the Roman remains and the Arena!

The various textiles exhibitions were held in old palaces, ancient public buildings and old churches. 

They formed a wonderful backdrop for the various different exhibitions on show. 

From Contemporary to tradition and from old silk printed textiles to 3D textiles sculptures.










My piece based on the colours of the red grape as it matures

I particularly like the exhibit of''Take a line.......'

What a way to spend Monday - The Well Cottage Group

Spent most of the day in our local village hall - once a month about eight textile enthusiasts meet up and spend a day doing our own work in company in our small but comfortable village hall. Whilst there are stitchers and quilters in the group there are also dyers and felters- so we make quite an eclectic mix - sound levels rise and fall and it is such  a good atmosphere to work creatively. In the summer we move over the road to Well Cottage (hence the name of the group) and spend the days dyeing with natural materials under the tutelage of Jackie our botanist and natural dye expert.

Used the time today to finish off the backing of my silk Foxglove piece below. It is a whole cloth silk piece, dyed and then machine stitched. Silk is not the easiest fabric to work with but I do enjoy the handle of silk when you are working with it.

Catching up

Well it seems to have been a very busy month with a lot done despite not being at home base for a large part of the time. The piece I showed last post has been selected for the Verona Tessile so is winging its way to Verona- perhaps I will manage a trip out there in late May.

I have been working on a small piece as a fundraiser for the surface design association conference in the states. What they call a spotlight collection to raise funds. My piece was a screen print of a box of shallots developed from a photo image which I discharged on dyed fabric then machine quilted.

Working on a new piece

Been very busy trying to get a piece done to send out to Italy  for an exhibition based on celebration of the vine in Verona.  - hence no time to write on the blog. However, hope to catch up with  recording some of my recent textiles activities soon as I am off up to the Lake District on a creative textile retreat.

The piece is made in differing weights of silk, dyed and overdyed which has then been pieced and quilted - the colours of the silk are intended to represent the ripening of the red grape from the emergence of the first leaves through the maturing on the grape for wine.