Grey Challenge - Inky Index

This is my response to the challenge of  greys - my touch of colour is  the greys themselves. The black and white photo of my stained finger came out of the printer with a purpleish cast!

When I was on the Human Marks workshop with Dorothy Caldwell in Puglia, I took a photo of my index finger stained and ingrained with Indian ink after a morning of making fingerprint marks.
I  manipulated the photo in Photoshop, dividing it into 6 overlapping sections, and printed it out on a commercial batik (with marks that reminded me of my fingerprints) treated with bubblejet set.
Machine quilted .

I'm enjoying working to the 40 x 80 cm size although this is actually  38 x 80 cm as I didn't 'measure twice, cut once' when trimming to size as I usually do.  An extra 2cm on the RH side would have  made all the difference.  Ah well, lesson learnt.

Knit and Stitch at Olympia 13-16 March

Exciting!  Found out today that an image of the stitching on one of my quilts has been used to advertise exhibition 'Halfway  Between' at  Spring Knit and Stitch show at Olympia . And then I noticed that the Contemporary Quilt exhibition shows  one  of  Gillian's! 

Quilt number 2

Hi
Here is my second quilt.
 undestood that we have to use bkack and white fabrics. I didn't use grays.
If you think it' not right I'll make another quilt next month.
Eti

 

 

 

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Grey Challenge / Happy New Year

First of all, I would like to wish all of you a Happy New Year 2014!

Mine certainly had a  happy beginning, because I finally managed to get my grey piece done.

Grey is definitely a challenge for me, being a color I would never choose on my own. But I did not need to stretch too far out of my comfort zone doing this one, since I am working on a monochrome series which includes spirals and insects. The spirals representing the ongoing repetition of life and the insects being the most successful species on earth conquering life's challenges.

But - just to add a new element - I did incorporate hand applique this time, which I have never done before in this series.The silk fabric is really a grateful fabric when it comes to hand applique, the stitches just seam to disappear on their own.

The monarch butterfly is machine embroidered with it's wings added as 3-D features.  The pattern is a design I digitized according to my own pattern.

Details

Hi
Thanks for the comments
The embroidery on my piece is done using a thick thread - often a gutterman 12wt thread, but I also use Wonderfil spagetti or even any thick thread that i have bought in a charity shop.
It is just free machine "embroidery" or do you in the States call it free motion quilting - to me they are the same.

Finished

Mine is finished!
When Ita annouced the challenge I thought "How awful" I never work in grey! So I thought about it carefully and thought of Iceland. we had a fabulous week there in May - amazing country but the weather was terrible - lots of rain and grey cloud.
I am always in looking at the ethnic textiles and enjoyed doing a bit of research in the museum in Reykjavik
Here are some of the photos I took whilst in iceland

So here is the finished quilt!
I can't remember if you were were supposed to use only one other colour, but I just had a use a few!
Thanks Ita for pushing me out of my comfort zone and forcing me to make a quilt in colours I don't usually use.
I just love it! and want to make some more using the same idea, but this time using my photos from other parts of the world.

Gillian

Almost finished - but wrong size...

When Ita announced her color scheme for the second assignment I immediately had an idea that fit nicely into what I am working on for my exhibition in October 2014, "Inspiration Bauhaus". However, it does not fit into the 40 by 80 cms scheme.
Nevertheless, I worked it all out and have now started quilting it. And although it doesn't fit in, it is the only thing I can show right now, and will. Here are a few stages of development:

A plan to give me an indication of how things will be arranged.

Free-cut squares

the squares were surrounded by 1/2-inch-wide lines
and another free-cut round - note the reflector fabric!

all sewn together

had a helper putting the sandwich together

And now it is in the process of being quilted.
But I have a sufficient amount of leftovers, which have already triggered a few more ideas for a quilt abiding by the rules, and in the right size. It won't be finished in time, but I promise to try to get it done soon.

Quilt #2 finished!!

So I was the last one to finish my quilt assignment #1, and now I am proud to be the first to finish #2.

I have been using commercial striped fabrics for some time as the fine lines in my piecing, and have several boxes worth.  For this quilt I used the stripes in very skinny lines, as usual, but instead of using them as spacers between larger pieces of fabric, I decided to just have the skinny lines by themselves.

Here's a view in progress showing how thin the lines are -- the grid lines on the design wall are one inch apart.

Here's the finished quilt.  No name yet.