Tis the season .......

of festive cheer, lights, food and drink and shopping!

Our trip to Yorkshire went well and although we enjoyed it we were glad to get home. It was strange visiting Leeds for a shopping trip with my DD. There's an enormous new shopping mall where we almost got lost, but nothing much has changed. It's still busy and grubby in parts and although I lived there for more years than I care to remember, I never thought of it as my home and I don't miss it.

There are people there that I do miss and it's nice to catch up with them from time to time, but I am beginning to make new friends here and I'm finding plenty to do.

On the quilting/embroidery front, 2013 has been a bit of a dead loss. Lots of good intentions, but not much resulting from them. Looking back over the year, what have I achieved? Well, I've done some painting and decorating, begun to sort things out in my new home,  visited various shows, joined a few groups, got some new books and dyed and painted some fabric.

Now I've set myself the challenge of actually making things. First there's a piece for the Embroiders Guild with a theme of Tree  rythyms. I've machined a grid on some soluble film and will now start some free machining to fill it in. Perhaps I'll also use some hand stitching too. 

Next is a piece for our South West CQ group on the theme of layers. Not sure what this is going to look like yet, but geology seems appropriate. There is also a plan for a group quilt on the same theme with each person making one layer based on a rock type. I have chosen serpentine as, being surrounded by a wall made of it, I'm not short of inspiration.

Looking at other people's blogs has been a wonderful distraction for me and I've picked up lots of tips and ideas along the way. I hope that the same applies to anyone reading my blog.

I hope everyone had a truly lovely Christmas and that 2014 will be good for all. Happy new year everyone!

Getting my hands dirty

The Contemporary Quiltgroup suitcase challenge was to make a quilt on the theme of "all in a days work". The closing date was 1st December and way back in August that seemed ages away. We went for a lovely walk down the lane to the beach and noticed that the hedgerows were full of ivy flowers and they were full of bees. So, this was going to form the basis for a design for my quilt.

 I had the idea of making stamps to print on some cloth and also to make some silk paper leaves as embellishment before adding the bees. However, things didn't go to plan. I used some procion dye for the silk fibre which I hoped would be lovely and bright, but the colours were a bit muted.

Not really the glowing colours I had hoped for and time is slipping away fast. I did manage to make some stamps using funky foam and have used my lovely new Geli plate to make some mono prints that I hoped would make an interesting background cloth.

Sadly this has just not happened. I have been doing other things with my DH and other family and friends, been on courses etc. I've had such a lot of fun playing with all these toys, getting my hands thoroughly coloured with paint and dye but the elusive design and indeed anything resembling a quilt is as far away as ever.
Does it matter though? Well, in the scheme of things no it doesn't, but I had hoped to be able to get a quilt made to the deadline just to satisfy myself that I could. What has happened though, is that I have actually been working at my sewing machine,  my art table and although there aren't any finished items yet, I'm convinced that is only a matter of time.
So the next deadline is to make something for the Embroiderer's Guild competition on the theme of tree rhythms and I've got until February. I can use a lot of the work I've already done towards the final piece so that will be the next focus.

Here is a mono print made using my Geli plate that I'm using as the basis for my design. This is a print from a log that I took out of our log basket!

It's about time I went and tried to get some of the paint and dye off my hands and got on with some stitching!

Righty tighty.....

lefty loosey!

It's  been a while since I did any free machine embroidery rather than free machine quilting and it isn't easy to switch between the two. Yes in theory you are using the machine in the same way for both, dropping the feed dogs and essentially writing with the needle, but there is a world of difference between them. Something that I took a while to realise.

For free machine quilting you need to maintain a constant speed; not too fast; not too slow and move your fabric "sandwich" smoothly in time with the speed of the machine. The aim is to keep all the stitches the same length and keep a flowing line of quilting without crossing over any lines. You need to look ahead of your needle so that you can see where to go next until the space you have chosen is filled.

For free machine embroidery,  the technique is very different. You still need to run the machine at a constant speed, but much faster and as you don't necessarily need the stitches to be a constant length, you can move your fabric as quickly or slowly as you wish. In fact you can keep the fabric still and not move it at all which creates lovely blobby lumps especially if you are using a zigzag stitch. You still need to move the fabric smoothly as  its easy to break the needle if your motion is too jerky. If you lower the bobbin tension, you can get the bobbin thread to show on the surface, or you can use a thicker thread in the bobbin and sew upside down. This gives you an opportunity to create lots of texture and if the stitching is dense enough, you can distort your fabric to create three dimensional effects. A really good book that describes the techniques is Machine Embroidery stitch techniques by Valerie Cambell Harding and Pamela Watts. Possibly now out of print, but worth searching for as it is very well written and gives really clear details of each stitch and how they can be developed. 

In this little sample, I've used perle cotton in the bobbin and ordinary white cotton in the needle to create the surf and turned it over so that I was stitching on the back. This can be a bit of a challenge so it's an idea to draw your design on the back of the piece so you can be sure you're in the right place.

This little sample was sewn on dissolvable fabric with perle cotton in the bobbin.

These little seascapes used all of the bobbin techniques to create lots of texture.

These are only practice pieces, but they will help when I come to do  seascape for real.

But, and there is a big but!  Fiddling with the bobbin tension can cause no end of problems and there are those who say, "never do it"!  I say, well if you want to create lots of texture just using threads, then sometimes you have to! What you need to do is keep one bobbin case absolutely unmeddled with and use another one to play with. This way you can use your machine to its fullest when free machining, but still know that if you want to sew a seam with a balanced stitch you can without any messing about with a screw driver.

Of course when you're going on a course where you know you're going to be free machining and using cable stitch, whip stitch and the like, it pays to take your fiddled about with bobbin case with you. Why didn't I do it then? Don't know. I do know that having realised that I only had my pristine bobbin case with me, if I wanted to get the best out of the course I had to bite the bullet and get out the screw driver! So I did and it has taken me two days to retrieve the correct setting for balanced sewing.  At least I didn't lose the screw!

Last day

of the beaches course. What have I achieved?

Well, I have made some stencils: done a small free machined piece: dyed some fabric with indigo and got half way through making a small fabric collage.

Have I enjoyed it? That's a tricky one! I have met some very friendly people and have learned a lot. There have been a few sticky moments as you'd expect when twelve people who don't all know each other very well are thrown into a confined space and although at times give and take has been a bit thin on the ground, it has been fun.

But I really hadn't expected to miss my DH quite so much, or my new home and that has made it a bit difficult at times. I have found that despite my love for textile art, I am not driven by it and so don't feel the need to spend every waking minute drawing, painting and stitching as some of the others seem to do, so I suppose that means that I'm not a "true artist". However, I now feel that my creative juices have had the kick start they needed and I have found the confidence to just do what I want to do without feeling that I need to beat myself up for not doing more. Standing and looking at what's around, letting ideas arrive on their own and just jotting down a few notes is as far as my planning projects has gone but that process will go on even after I've left here.

We have had some lovely convivial meals courtesy of Sally and Tim who own the farm. Looking out of the bathroom window at night I can see the lights of Polruan twinkling in the distance and if the sun is shining, Gribben head is visible with its red and white tower standing out on the cliff top. There has been moonlight and wonderful starry skies and indeed the setting here is tranquil and very beautiful. We have new lambs who are already forming gangs even though they're only a few days old! I haven't been down to the beach but if the weather is kind I can always come again and do that and I do have to ask myself how many shells I really need.

Today there was a beautiful sunrise that has set me thinking about new beginnings. I'm looking forward to going home tomorrow to start making things for the various exhibitions that are coming up.

I will also be taking some lovely memories with me and hope to keep in touch with some of the new friends I've made.

Now I need to go and have some breakfast and get ready for the day!

Course update

There are twelve of us here at Bodgrugan Barton for the course. Everyone is really keen and there are bags of stuff all round the studio.

A vivit to Hemmick beach yesterday because the tide was too far in for a visit to the beach below the farm. This has inspired me so I'm planning on getting out my sewing machine and my soluble fabric!

More tomorrow after the storm has passed.

Getting down to it!

I have spent most of the week getting things ready to take with me to the beaches course. We have to take enough stuff to be able to plan a project, make images etc.. So I've been collecting fabric, threads, sketch books, pencils, paints and all manner of things but what I seem to be unable to collect are ideas about what I actually want to do. So devoid of ideas, here is the little goody bag I've put together to exchange with one of the other ladies on the course.

My public aim is to use the time on the course to design a quilt that I can put into the competitions at the Festival of Quilts and I'd intended it to be inspired by the sea since we are living so close to it and can even see it from our bedroom window! But in private, I'm just hoping that I can have a good time playing with my toys because as far as the actual design is concerned, well that is still someway off!

Yesterday we managed to have a walk down to the beach after the rain had stopped. The sun came out and it was quite warm, but very windy and the waves were most impressive. Trying to capture the waves with the camera proved to be more difficult than I thought especially since the sun was shining directly on the camera screen making it impossible to see what I was taking. This is where I thought I should have taken my sketchbook, but what with the camera, binoculars, water bottle etc, etc I was already quite laden!

These children were really having fun surfing the waves on their body boards. I wonder if they do a wet suit in my size!

 These patterns in the sand may be useful for my design and I'm thinking of using this to make a printing block.

Today I spent the morning dyeing some silk fibres which I can use to make silk paper and also some handspun yarn to use in the project. Here they are sitting in their bags for the time until I can see what lovely colours (or not) I've got. Next I will get out some fabric and dye that too.

My mind is also buzzing with anticipation because I was asked if I would like to join a local textile art group. I was invited to go to their meeting and take some of my work so that they could see what sort of work I could do. Not really an audition as such, but they were keen to know what sort of standard of work they could expect. Apparently they thought my work was good enough! They are an exhibiting group and are planning an exhibition in 2015 and I am very honoured to be invited to join them.

The work for the exhibition is to be based on the china clay industry, especially the museum at Carthew near St Austell. Yet another project to start planning but there is quite a bit of time and it may be that if I manage to get something made that might go the FOQ.

Then there is the Contemporary Quilt Suitcase challenge for which the theme is "all in a days work" and I'm planning something inspired by watching a swarm of bees feasting on ivy pollen. So I'm in the process of making stamps, silk paper leaves and oh yes, getting some fabric dyed.

Here are the beginnings of the stamps and also a close up of the worker going about his daily business!

Busy times are ahead and at last I feel I'm beginning to get back to work!

All at sea.....

..and surrounded by boxes but now we have finally moved in and have started unpacking I am beginning to think about getting back to making things. Sadly most of my books, fabric, threads etc are all still in boxes and my cabin is not yet ready for me to inhabit, so things are getting a bit untidy.

Our local craft group meets on Wednesday mornings in the WI hall in Mullion and I'm going along hoping to get to know a few people. Everyone is so friendly and at long last I think I'm beginning to settle here, but it's still a long way to go anywhere and I think that most of my purchases for textile things will have to be made online.

On the upside, I have been invited to join a textile art group and went to my first meeting recently. They were all very nice and said lots of nice things about the work I took along to show them. They decided that I was good enough to join them and I feel much happier about joining them rather than a traditional patchwork group. As a consequence, I went along to a recent meeting of the Embroiderer's Guild and have rejoined.

So now that I have started plying with my toys in earnest, I thought I would try out some new techniques. I read somewhere that it was possible to transfer images  to fabric using transparency film. This is normally used in making slides for computer presentations. Here are my attempts.

 These photos were played about with in Paint Shop Pro and printed out for reference before printing onto the transfer film. Getting the printer to print on the film proved to be difficult and in the end I had to tape each sheet to a backing piece of paper to get it to go through.  I decided to transfer the images onto paper rather than fabric at this stage.

This transfer was made using Mod Podge acrylic medium and it has sort of worked, but I used a large paintbrush to apply the medium and you can clearly see the brush strokes. Not really what I wanted.

This transfer was made using another acrylic texture medium which has only picked up bits of the ink. So not really a success, but perhaps it might be a technique that I can use with a bit more practice.

So the next venture into image transfer came from reading Julie's blog in which she describes how to use a screen printing technique with Inktense sticks and acrylic medium to get an image onto fabric. See her post for details of the process.

My results are disappointing to say the least and even worse, the screen is now permanently stained and is not usable because Inktense sticks are permanent on both paper and fabric if they get wet! HO HUM!!!!

So here is the first print made by spraying the powder that dropped through the screen as I was drawing.. Unfortunately I overdid the water which formed large puddles and I didn't use enough of the inktense sticks so not much of it came through the screen.

 Here is the print onto cotton sateen using Mod Podge acrylic medium to push the dye through the screen .A very stiff surface and very blotchy result.

 This is the piece of silk organza in which you can see that only part of the image actually transferred,
and here is my poor screen, now permanently dyed  so I will need to replace the fabric and redo the tape before I can do anymore printing with it.

Still, I may be able to use the fabric with the other pieces and make a collage to practice on.

In the meantime, we have had a weekend away, caring for the aged relative, now 98 and still going strong and as it was a lovely sunny afternoon on Saturday we went to the beach.

And from this lovely jumble we collected.....

these which will be so useful for my beach course which is only a fortnight away!

Now I'm off to get mt sketch book to do some drawings. Image transfer with a pencil is something I can do. The rest will have to wait until I'm in the mood!

Dry run....

Well strictly speaking it was a wet run and quite messy! These are some of the results fluttering in the breeze.

It's been a while since I did any dyeing with indigo and some friends suggested that we get together in a week or two as they would like to have a go and as I am an expert.........

So I checked my stash and the only indigo I could find was some I bought in 1993! I didn't think it would have survived to give the sort of results my friends would be expecting, so I bought some more.

I made up the vat and it did work quite well but I think the water needed to be a bit hotter as it ran out of steam a bit sooner than I had thought it would.

It is such great fun folding up bits of cloth, tying it with string and elastic bands, wrapping it around an old piece of pipe etc because you can never quite predict how it will turn out.

Now I'm off to put it all in the washing machine for a good rinse while I write up my notes so I don't forget what I did and what the results were. Aren't I good!!

Fun at the Festival

Rather late with my post about the Festival of Quilts and I don't want to repeat stuff already posted on other blogs. My tardiness is due partly to a family visit, but also in the hunt for a way to download the photos I took with my phone.

I couldn't use my camera because it needed charging and having carefully packed the charger in a box, I couldn't remember which one! I'm sure I have a cable to connect my phone to the laptop which lets me download the photos, but again I seem to have packed it in a box and I can't find that either. So I have been emailing the photos to myself and its taken me a while.

As always the Festival of Quilts was wonderful. There is so much to see and whatever your interest there's always something for you to enjoy. This year there were three exhibitions that particularly caught my eye.

The first was the Contemporary Quilt Group challenge "Horizons". I really wanted to make piece for this, but given all the hassle with our move and the lack of time and space to get anything made, I wasn't able to. Still others rose to the challenge and what a fabulous show it was. All the quilts were beautifully made and the designs were fabulous. Lots of designs based on the sea but also some that were not. My favourites were this colourful one made by Gillian Travis on the left of the picture

This very subtle one using space dyed fabric which unfortunately was very badly lit

   
and this one on the right made by my friend Sandra Wyman

Sandra has really captured the essence of the Tern and the quilting is lovely. The figure is a representation of a younger Sandra inspired by the sculptures of Antony Gormley.

The exhibition "Through our hands" was also a great favourite. Apart from the wonderful quilts made by Annabel Rainbow, there were works by many other well known textile artists. My favourite was this one by Elizabeth Barton depicting Botallack Mine in Cornwall

The third exhibition which really caught my eye was the Quilt art Masters juried competition won by Dorothy Caldwell . I didn't manage to take any photos, but you can see details here together with lots of other lovely images from the show.

So all too soon my time at the show was up and after a bit of a nightmare train journey, I got back home with just enough time to prepare for our "royal"visitors! Lots of sunshine, laughter and jumping in the waves

before all too soon they went back to Yorkshire leaving us to make a real start unpacking boxes, painting and generally settling in.

Now I must make a start and get back to actually making something!

A new departure

So here I am sitting on an extremely crowded Virgin Cross Country train on my way to Birmingham for the Festival of Quilts. It is such a shame that travelling by train from my beloved Cornwall is such a trial. Haven't they heard of tourists?

But at least I have been able to log into the WIFi for not very much money and here I sit with my cup of tea with UHT milk a bag of crisps and a banana while I browse the FOQ website and try to plan my day tomorrow. There's going to be a lot to see and I hope some lovely people to meet.

As for the ongoing housing project, yesterday we said goodbye to an old friend and we were not sorry to see it go!

This will be waiting for me when I get back on Saturday as will the lovely DH and lots more painting and decorating!

Soon be arriving in Birmingham!