Reelin I and II revisited

In a previous post I showed the two cotton reel pieces that I stitched. A friend of mine suggested, in the nicest possible way, that they needed to some more stitching to indicate shading and as is often the case, it all seemed so obvious when it was pointed out.

After that I was never going to be happy with them until I had added some shading to both pieces but little did I know just how much additional work this would be. It may not look like it but it took hours of additional stitching but I do think they look better for it. I hope you agree.

 

They are only about 4 inches square and they are mounted on a 6 inch square canvas. It was a really dark wet day when I wanted to photograph them and so I decided that I would photograph them in the light tent that I bought earlier in the year.

 

As you can see the light tent is quite large! I think it did help a little and certainly helped cut out some of the distractions that might otherwise have been in the background. Maybe it was lacking some side light? Perhaps I'll try that next time. 

 

I am planning on exhibiting them in our Taking Textiles Further Exhibition, which is going to be held at Art Van go from 2nd-30th November. See the flyer at on the top left of this post for more info.

My iPad Drawings

Last Friday, I went on a course to learn to paint on an iPad using the Brushes software. The course was held at V&A and was led by Nadja Ryzhakova. In the morning we started to learn about the Brushes software and it's potential and in the afternoon we set about drawing in the museum on the iPad. I decided to stick to my landscape theme as I thought that would be the most useful to me. Here are my first two iPad drawings. You may (if you squint!) see a resemblance to recent images I posted. 

The image above is the first image I created after exploring the tools in Brushes. Everyone on the course had previously explored the Brushes application with varying degrees of success. Everyone, except me that is because I don't even have an iPad! Maybe with Christmas coming up that might change? Anyone that has an iPad seems to love it but they always seem quite expensive to me, for what they do. Would this be the tool that would lead me to get one? Fortunately the V&A will lend you an iPad for the duration of the course but I might have struggled, if I hadn't previously used Photoshop. 

 

In this second picture, I really tried to simplify the image so that I could explore how this technique could be used to inspire future textile work and it was really quick to create (and it probably shows!).

 

Most of the course participants had been inspired by David Hockney's iPad images and everyone wanted to know how to create their own version. We were told that these images were good to print size A4...maybe A3 but as David Hockney's images were significantly larger than that he must have another trick up his sleeve. Not something for me to worry about just yet, I'll leave that until I have an image good enough to want to print it out large! 

If you would like to see how these digital images can be created, then I recommend that you have  a look at Nadja's YouTube channel. Here you can see how she has built up the images and you can see the potential of the tool much more than you can from my work.

One thing I really like about this method of painting is that when you get to the end of the painting session, there's no cleaning up to do and no paint splashes on you or your clothes. That's definitely worth something. 

Gearing up for my next landscape piece

Now that my Italian lake quilt is finished, I have started to consider my next landscape piece. I decided that my album of local landscapes needed updating so one nice evening I set off in my car, camera on the passenger seat, looking for some inspiring landscapes and I was not disappointed. The pinks and golden yellows in the fields in the early evening light were lovely. The only problem was that I had left my camera battery at home in the charger! So yet again I was relying on the camera in my phone. 

I started to work in sketchbook to investigate how I could simplify them and use them to as inspiration for my next piece. I started using markal sticks and wash as I had in my recent post but just couldn't get anything I was pleased with.

 

 

 

I did try very hard but I wasn't happy with what I produced and just put my previous success down to beginners luck and decided to try out another technique. This time I painted the page with gesso, added colour and then cut the page up into similar shapes I could see in the field and I quite liked this effect.

 

This is pretty small, so I decided to repeat the method but to make the design larger but again beginners luck seemed to have left me and I couldn't produce anything that I was as pleased with. 

  

Maybe it's not beginners luck but rather that more pleasing things come from being more spontaneous? Or maybe it's just that the first time you try a technique it will always have the element of surprise and interest that subsequent pieces can never replicate? Anyway, it does seem that in writing this post I am more pleased with them now than I was earlier, perhaps just because it's been a few days since I created them and I'm looking at them with fresh eyes. I'm off to Committed to Cloth next Saturday and whether I like the designs or not, it has given me a number of ideas of where to start with the piece which can only be good. Like the Italian lake piece, I know it's going to take lots of time layering the colours to get it anywhere near where I want it to be. 

The Queen's Coronation Exhibition

Last week I went to the Queen's Coronation exhibition at Buckingham Palace and it was fabulous! I really recommend that you go, if you possibly can. It's lovely to see the State Rooms, the exhibition is very well done with some lovely film footage but for anyone even remotely interested in stitching I'm sure you will love seeing the Queen's Coronation robes and all the other outfits that are on display. The photographs just don't do it justice, you have to see them for yourself.

Breakdown Printed Blouse

In a previous post I showed my breakdown printed cloth and here is what I made with it. Hands up those who thought I wouldn't do anything with it? Even I feel my own hand twitching to go up at this point! I was hoping to make a simple dress, simple because it would be easier to achieve but also because simple would mean less seams and darts to break up the pattern. 

 

 

The pattern I chose to use was Butterick 5211, the one illustrated in purple below.

I had enough to make the dress if I had the pattern going horizontally but I really wanted the pattern to remain vertical but this would have made the dress too short. I wasn't overly concerned about this as I thought it would make a good tunic. But after I had made it up, I tucked it in and I left it loose and I tied it with a belt and came to the conclusion that it looked better as a blouse.

 

I am quite pleased with it and it looks better on with real arms going through the sleeves than it does on the dummy and there are some interesting patterns on the off-cuts that I could do something  else with. Now who thinks I'll soon be showing what I have done with the off-cuts? My hand is firmly down now.

Festival of Quilts 2013 - Part 2

As promised in my last post, here are a few more of photographs from the Festival of Quilts. This one was called 'Japanese Inspiration' and was made by Anna Christensen and I love the limited colour palette and the simplicity of the design.

Keeping with the spotty theme, this one was was made by Dianne Firth. The backing cloth is made of net and the shadows created by the 'red stones' become part of the work. 

 

This quilt by Jill Butterfield also caught my eye. Again I liked the colours, the simplicity of the design and that the left hand side of the piece was longer than the right side.

 

It's interesting to see which quilts your remember several days after the show and I can still see Annabel Rainbows quilts clearly in my mind. These were exhibited in the Through our Hands exhibition. When you got close to the quilt, there is lots of detail and interesting elements to discover.

 

The miniature quilt section usually has me shaking my head in disbelief and this year was no exception - how do these artists manage to work so small? Bear in mind that these quilts can be no more than 30cm on there longest side. This was the winning quilt and was made by Kumiko Frydl.

 

If you were unable to attend the show this year then hopefully this has given you a taster of what you have missed but remember that the photographs don't do justice to the work and that they are even better in real life. There was so many to see, I wonder how many I missed? Here's to next year's show being just as good!

 

 

 

Festival of Quilts 2013 - Part 1

I had a lovely day at the Festival of Quilts, yesterday. It seemed to be a particularly good year, with lots of very impressive quilts to see. If you were unable to go yourself, then I hope that you will enjoy seeing a selection of the photographs I took.  Firstly though, allow me a bit of self indulgence. I was thrilled when I found my Lago Maggiore  in the exhibition and that it had been selected by Pat Archibald.

 

 

Even with Pat selecting it, I couldn't help thinking that my quilt may have fit better in the Art Quilt category, rather than the Contemporary Quilt Category. Perhaps next time I'll phone up to seek advice beforehand, not that it would make too much difference as the winning quilts are in another league altogether.  

 

This piece by Jill Exell won the Art Quilt Category and it was easy to see why this was a winner. I loved the subtle colouring and the detail when you got up close.

 

 

 

I enjoyed the SAQA exhibition: Metaphors on Ageing. This fun quilt was made by Bodil Gardner.

 

I was very impressed by how Mary Pal created such detail with 'just' black fabric and loose weave muslin...and a lot of skill obviously! 

 

I also enjoyed the Beneath the Southern Sky exhibition, especially as I have a soft spot for Australia. This one was made by Sandy Corry.  

 

This Quilt by Stephanie Crawford won the Pictorial Quilt category and the detail was amazing. I can only imagine the amount of drawing and planning required for this piece before  even a single stitch was sewn. 

 

 

These next 3 quilts were part of a Group Quilt Entry, called the Streets of London and was by Kreativt Sanatorium. I particularly liked the different perspectives of these quilts.

 

 

 

 

 I think that's all I have got time to post today but I hope to post a few more photographs in a few days time. Hope you come back to see those too.