What I'm not making...

 

With the challenge of a change in scale, my first thought was to continue my explorations  based very loosely on paintings by Prunella Clough , with a picture  of a whole  door  embedded in a detail  showing textures of that door ( as in Anavriti II  below )   

 So I used a section of the photo below, printed out on cotton and then had a fine time searching through my stash to find orangey  fabrics with interesting wood-like marks.

But it wasn't doing anything for me so I'm starting again with the photos that inspired this 2009 journal quilt below based on door of Queen Charlottes Cottage in the grounds of Kew Gardens.  Simpler , more interesting shapes, contrast in tones and lots of interesting details in the wood grain should do nicely. I've gathered together my fabrics, just working out the construction so apologies that it will be a little late.  I do hope to be able to pass my quilts over to Uta at FoQ   so that's a deadline to work to . 

 

 

Ps Found an old blog post in my searches where I recognise my procrastination and need of deadlines in 'Student Syndrome'. I do generally achieve what I want but the stress levels are high!  



New Challenge

Creating visual texture through repetition

I have to admit that I have been so busy preparing the Radiation exhibition in Geneva (by the way, we had fantasic feed-back!), that I have not gotten around to making my quilt for the last challenge. But I do not want to be in the way of your creative flow so I will go ahead and post the theme I came up with. 

Creating visual texture by repetition is nothing new, but for some reason it has been occupying my perception and way of thinking for the last few weeks.  These are some pictures I took in Geneva at the CERN and at the European UNO headquarters to give you an idea what I am talking about. Normally I work with an overall background in my pieces and create a sort of color-wash backdrop. In this case I would like to explore creating repetitive patterns with pieces that are similar in size, thus giving the piece a sense of rythem and well, texture.

 

I hope you all have a great summer with a lot of time for creative flow and relaxation!

Barbara

Third assignment -- almost done!

I thought I would be able to get my third quilt finished by the end of June but I need a couple more days. And I won't be back in the studio for three weeks, because I'm off to Europe -- where I will be visiting with Uta on the way to a family reunion.  But there's enough of it finished to show a picture.

The back story on this quilt is that a couple of years ago I made a quilt inspired by a photograph by somebody in my art book club.  You can read about it on my blog here and see a picture of the quilt.

I didn't think the quilt was worth finishing, but I loved the way the stripes worked together, especially the places where the regular pattern was interrupted and distorted.  Ever since I have been meaning to make another quilt to explore what can happen with stripes.

So this is what I have come up with, and best of all, I'm fulfilling the requirements of the challenge at the same time that I'm making something I have wanted to do for a long time.

When I get home and finish the quilt I'll post another photo.

Second attempt - right size!

As I had promised, I took a second attempt at fulfilling Ita's guidelines including the size restrictions.
I started off with some of the cut-out circles from the larger piece.

Other remnants from the first piece were included as well, and I did a bit of weaving.

 Fixating with satin stitch:

A few pieces of reflector fabric are noticeable only when special lighting conditions apply.

And here is the finished piece.

Already looking forward to tackling Kathy's set.

Advice, please

So, here I am in a situation of exactly that kind that I always wanted a group like this for. And it's a way to breathe some life into this blog, make it a working tool.

I am currently working on a quilt which will have a lot of text on it. Basically, it will be a 'wholecloth' - a bilingual text, German parts alternating with English, on a piece of shibori fabric. This is the whole piece of fabric:

I want to stitch the text, using a color for the interior part of the words, and a very narrow line on the edges, alternating between the languages.

Barbara has already given me a full bag of technical advice regarding the stabilizer for the stitching, thanks, Barbara. Now I am at a loss regarding the color of thread to use.
At first I thought I would do a blue similar to the blue of the fabric, and a light gray ('silver' - though not a metallic thread).

But this seems a bit dull, doesn't it? Would blue and red be better - these are two different reds, the one on the right is slightly darker.

My husband suggested dark purple and a pale yellow (the yellow appears stronger in the picture than it is in reality).

I'm always someone to go for yellow, but this seems a bit too strong for me. After all, it's not supposed to be a poster, but something which draws the viewer's attention through other means. We tried different reds with the same yellow:

I still think this is rather a pushy combination.
What do you all think?
Perhaps the dark blue with the duller red from the last picture?

Here's the whole audition I am working with right now - or should I go in a completely different direction?

                                

Grey Challenge - "Back To Scissors"

Recently I came across some paper cuts samples I made many years ago when I taught youth groups. It inspired so I decided to transform it into fabrics.                                                                 

I used recycled curtains I painted in shades of gray and from it I created the background.            

Paper cuts were placed on a shrink fabric and from it I cut the patterns I wanted.                                      

It intrigued me so much that I made several models.                                                                          

                                                                       

From: erezziv

Challenge #3

Hi all --

I am going to pose the next challenge even though the current challenge is not technically due till the end of next month.  We sometimes have some open spaces in our calendars to get started early, and even if not, we always think about our next pieces for quite a while before we actually start sewing.  So I thought I would get this up right now.

As I count the months, challenge #3 is due at the end of June, so we have plenty of time.  (Tell me if I have calculated wrong.)

I suggest we use the same size as before -- 40 x 80 cm, in portrait orientation (tall and thin).  The challenge: have part of your quilt be in large scale, and part of it in small scale.

That means part of the quilt will have large pieces, and the other part will have small pieces.  Or if you're working in surface design, part of the quilt will be relatively sparse and the other part will be dense.  Or one part will have big flowers and the other part will have small flowers.  Or whatever other way you choose to interpret your "scale."

Here's an example of what I'm talking about.  This is my Quilt National '11 piece.  The yellow part on top is relatively sparse (large scale) , while the green part on the bottom has lots more lines and tinier bits of fabric in between  (small scale).  At least that's how I would interpret the challenge for my own kind of piecing.  You will no doubt interpret it differently for the way you like to work.

By the way, following Mags' comment on her thumbprint quilt earlier this week, I think it's perfectly OK to use the 40 x 80 size as a general approximation, not an exact measurement.  It's hard to make a quilt come out to an exact size, no matter how careful you are.  Quilting takes up some of the fabric, and it's hard to tell in advance how much bigger you should make the top to compensate.  The only way to get a perfect size is to make the quilt deliberately too big, quilt it, then be prepared to cut off whatever you need.

I think that leads to bad design -- I sure don't want to have to wait till the very end to find out that my piece is two inches too big, and then have to decide whether to cut it off the right side or the left side.  I have already decided that I want that much of an edge for reasons of design and composition and I don't want to have to cut it off.  Or even worse, have to add some on because the quilt ended up a bit too narrow.

So I think we all should shoot for 40 x 80, or whatever size the assignment calls for, but if we end up a bit off that's fine.  The quilts will all look fine in a gallery if they're all pretty much the same size and shape.  At least that's my opinion.  What do you all think?

New schedule for giving a guideline!

After Jayne's need to concentrate on educational things forced her to 'bow out', this is the new schedule for giving guidelines:

Kathy (give new guidelines by end of February 2014),

Barbara (give new guidelines by end of June 2014),

Gillian (give new guidelines by end of October 2014),

Margaret (give new guidelines by end of February 2015),

Eti (give new guidelines by end of June 2015).

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!