Road Repairs-finish!

The backing and binding have been put on. The statement written. And parcelling sorted.
Now it is on the way to its destination.

Road Repairs

Some years ago, I heard about young boys being used to repair roads. In one image a rather large car was in the distance. It made me think about the boy. If he was using the tool to farm, perhaps it would not be such a concern. But being employed for low pay to work on the potholes for a dirt road? This lad (and many other child labourers) stick in my mind. So, it is time to raise awareness of what happens ‘on the road’ in some places.

What bothered me was that he now is denied education. His work doesn’t benefit his family or himself, because except for the minimal wage he earns, the benefit is for the rich to be able drive their expensive cars without damage. Where are the men who run these crews? What effort do they put into the work? Who pays for any injuries? What about the future? He will most likely face back problems and breathing difficulty as a result of exposure to dust and hard manual work.

Something must change.

Materials: cotton, variegated threads and crochet cotton, felt, fabric pen

Techniques: Free hand stitch and embroidery, appliqué, drawing

Road Repairs-the lad

And so the boy has been built.
I sketched him out and then cut the sketch apart to use as a pattern.

And here he is.

Road Repairs

Some of my quiet here has been due to being busily stitching on my piece for the Contemporary Quilt Suitcase collection. As you may know, I have taken part for the last three collections.. The theme of this one is On the Road. I am using this theme to make a piece inspired by an image I saw showing a young lad of school age repairing pot holes in a dirt road.

So, now I have finished the background.

Next, to make the lad.

New Stitching

Starting a new stitching. This one for ‘On the Road’ Contemporary Quilt’s new suitcase collection.
I was going to do some sewing for me, but I had forgotten about this. It had a good idea, so I decided to get going while I could.

I was feeling very lost after the last stitching finished and there wasn’t something in my hands to do. I am using herringbone to give texture.

CQ Suitcase Collection: My Favourite Author

This coming Saturday at the TVCT meeting, we will be viewing the current CQ Suitcase collection. The theme is My Favourite Author. You may remember my piece inspired by Escher.

The Suitcase arrived yesterday, and today I have been discovering what is there. There is a print out with the image of each quilt and the artist statement, so I don't have to handle the quilts. But there are white gloves should I need to.

Pretty amazing that with 64 pieces, there are only 13 Artists for whom there is more than one work! For me, that shows the wide range of knowledge the CQ members have for artists. Many of these artists I have never heard of, or only vaguely remember hearing of.

Fascinating, but makes running an activity about curating or being a juror that much harder! So, I am glad I left several days so I can ponder. I think I have to do research.

It would seem a good question would be to ask something like, "Do you think the work is 'inspired by' or is 'derivative'.
ooooo Dangerous discussion if the Contemporary Quilt artist in question might be at the meeting! 😱 (in spite of the popularity of this type of emoji, there was no one who chose Edvard Munch)

Sorry, sidetracked! But if I ask them to compare a work from this collection with the Artist inspiration, I will need to have images of the inspiring artist's work. Yes, some might recognise names like Picasso or van Gogh and their work, but like me, some might not have heard of the artist in question.

Anyway! making a start. Somehow an idea will present itself. Maybe we will just do a quiz?

Wandering returned

The piece Working for Her Daily Bread, which was made for the CQ Suitcase collection, has arrived home.

It is good to see it again. I am looking around for a good spot to display it. This one is just Not going in a cupboard.

Ramshackle with Escher Influences

Today was the first day for sometime that I felt I could get on with things without excessive weariness or a headache.
Okay...weariness, but tolerable! I have been just sitting in here thinking and planning things for next year, not doing much. Kind of recovering from too many weeks doing far more than way too much.

So. Suddenly I thought, I could finish the Ramshackle piece for the Contemporary Quilt Suitcase Collection: My Favourite Artist. They had extended the deadline which was a Very Good Thing.
And of course, it took much less time than I thought. Hurrah!

“Ramshackle with Escher Influences”

Here is the blurb I am sending with the quilt.

My Favourite Artist: “Ramshackle with Escher Influences”

One of the Artists whose work I love is M.C. Escher. I especially like his work that plays with perspective. However, I realised that is quite beyond me! So, I have focussed on his work using tessellating shapes.
In my own work, I have a series with wonky houses I call Ramshackle Houses. So, I decided to see if I could develop a house shape that tessellates.

The first little houses were too similar - ‘ticky-tacky boxes’, if you like. And then I realised that my own houses, though a bit higgledy-piggledy, have slanting roofs. Once they got their slanting roof, these houses happily became a little like Ramshackle Houses but with Escher Influences. And to get them a bit more ramshackle, I placed them on a slant, also leaving a bit of a gap between them so they could be a bit more individual than if they were snugged up as tessellating shapes are meant to.

I used fused cotton with a raw edge appliqué technique using the machine. Felt is used for the middle layer. The edge of the quilt was covered with a satin stitch.
The tessellating house shape was developed with a technique where one removes a section from the bottom and adds it to the top. Thus, the chimney and door use the same shape. The same concept is used to develop the sides; remove from one side and position on the other side.

Little Houses - 4

But before the fusing, another little touch of my own

Trying out some wind in top right to balance out the houses.

Taking photos and posting them helps with design. I was settled on the arrangement on the top, but then in comparing it with the second arrangement (which was really the first 'audition'), I realise it works best. Just a matter of a little curve on the bottom bit of wind.

And now it is fused.


But yesterday I have discovered the deadline wasn't November but December! I am glad I have already started and got this far.
There is a lot going on because my mother-in-law is very ill and may not have long. So, doing a little bit here and there brings progress. And now without the deadline rush, there is not so much stress with it and everything else.

Little Houses - 3

Cutting houses complete

And so to the layout.

Trying out ideas

Settling on this one

Little houses - 2

Ah yes, much better. They needed a slanting roof like my other Ramshackle houses.

Doing this among too many other things this week! But it is getting there.

Little houses

Thinking about these all through the night. How to lay them out to reference Escher without looking like a traditional pieced quilt.

Also how to make them look less like identical little box houses. They don't look like my Ramshackle houses at this point.

A bit of judicious trimming needed, I think.

Ramshackle Tessellation-ish

I am trying out an idea for developing my Ramshackle house into a pattern that can nestle together in a tessellation kind of manner. I read a tutorial from Kay Koeper Sorensen a few years ago and have wanted to see how to develop one that is 'me'.

And then there is a challenge for the CQ suitcase collection to make a piece inspired by your favourite artist. Well, I am not sure I have a favourite artist...or at least one I feel I could do justice as an inspiration. Hans Holbein, Anthony Van Dyck, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others because of the clothing they painted. Then I remembered I do admire the draftmanship of M. C. Esher's work.
So, that decided it for me. and I realised I could go back to Kay's tutorial. Kay's is in several blog posts, but I also found a You-tube which makes it very clear. This is not a rotating tessellation, nor is Kay's or will mine be. I am going to do mine side to side. (I probably could get them to rotate, but let's do small steps and also avoid too much Maths! - actually I did pretty well in Geometry High School level.)

I also realised I could develop my Ramshackle series a bit more, so I worked with the house idea. Because the CQ suitcase is a travelling example of Contemporary Quilting, I thought it might help viewers see what you can do to make non-traditional tessellations...and at the same time redirect them to my other Ramshackle Houses.

I started with a 7x7cm square. I had sketched out a few ideas on how this would work, so this helped to have a starting point.

basic shapes drawn for cutting

trimmed and moved to the opposite sides.

stuck down - ok not exactly full of character!


so, let's make it a bit wonky. More like it. A lot of sticking together going on here.

Still the thing is, it is a bit squat. Let's toss out a few more 'rules'.

trim to be more like 6cm wide x 7cm high.

Okay this what I had in mind. see the difference?

And the final pattern.

Currently contemplating the fabric and layout!

Catching you up

Something on SATURDAY - at last
This week has been a bit up and down with headaches and/or backaches!
But at least now someone wants to do something about the headaches and I am being referred somewhere. But I had a headache and can't quite remember who I am going to see! so, I will remember when I get the letter with the appointment...or something.

Anyway, I did a few other things like collecting the Lilac and Lace gown from Henley. Consolidated a cupboard or two to get boxes on the floor into hiding. (I am storing the Worn Threads things, so I needed to make a bit of room to get at my cupboards.)

I have been working on the Ramshackle that I am not showing. It will be wide, which is a bit different. It is longer than my table, so I had to move the sewing machine to elongate the design area. I nearly have the houses cut out. Thanking a friend who gave me a little pack of tiny appliqué pins several years ago! I need to work out how to get it fused.

In sorting the cupboard, I found the perfect lace and fabric to go with the lovely silk I want to use for my gown for Festival of Quilts. So, now it is all propped in sight while I consider the shaping of the gown.

And so you have something to look at...

The cherry at the back of the house when it was blossoming and the sky gave a wonderful backdrop to the pale pink.

Quite a few leaves had already come out. They are all out now and no blossoms.

The weather is suddenly summer. Last weekend there was snow in some places! And here we had hail and sleet that piled up. If you can believe it, I am now wearing a short sleeve blouse...without a vest under it!

And during the week there have been some new possibilities open up. I am doing a solo show of gowns and work at Lady Sew and Sew next March. And also doing a couple of workshops in conjunction.
Also doing one or two workshops in conjunction with the Contemporary Quilt exhibitions at the National Needlework Archive this Autumn. The pieces made from the challenge fabrics from Kazakhstan will be on display there, so I am going to do a workshop about building a fabric like I used for the Collared Dragon.

So, here is hoping the head isn't so muddled next week and there will be something to post!

Mere Edges

And to finish it off - besides giving it a press - doing something about the edges!

I was going to make a paper pattern, but then decided I would just over think it. So, just started cutting...like usual.

Mere Edges - 100cm x 60cm

It worked.
You should be able to see it better if you click the photo.


And the handling sample is meant to demonstrate the look and feel of the quilt.
So, curvy...

And the story...

Mere Edges – Sandy Snowden

I read a discourse by Job the Patriarch in which he spoke about many wonderful things to be seen which God has done. His summing up, though, caught my imagination; for Job states that all of these things are ‘mere edges of His ways’. So, I chose to depict clouds, one of Job’s word pictures. I intentionally chose mist for the way it causes edges to lose their definition.

He binds up the water in His thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it...Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways. -Job the Patriarch


Materials: silk organza, cotton, rayon and cotton threads.
Technique: silk dyed using tarragon, tea, coffee and egg dyes, raw edged layers of colours quilted with free machine stitched contours and letters.


So, it has been submitted and it remains to be seen if they think it will work for the exhibition. In the end, though it wasn't what I expected, it works for what it is.

Finished words

Here are the words finished.

He binds up the water in His thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it
...Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways. -Job the Patriarch

The theme of the Contemporary Quilt Challenge is On the Edge. So the 'mere edges' part of this quote from Job really caught my eye.

It is nearly there, but something more I think.

Word placement

Some contours stitched.

So, now to work out where the words will go. Not fuzzy intentionally! But I will tell you the words when I post the finished stitching.

Bits of paper. (only I realised partway through stitching them that I left out some of the words!)

Stitching a few more words on the sample because the colours I selected don't show up much at all on the large one.

developing ideas

Not colours I usually work with, I have had to give this a lot of thought.

Does it want hand stitch?

No, I think I will go with machine stitch.

words

more of the silk organza

Sorry, I wasn't making straps all week. I was puzzling out how to make what was in my head when I had pieces which were more acid green than golden.

So, trying out positions.

hanging works better to see all of it at once w/out looking over the sewing machine

a few subtle changes here and there.

Oh! I need enough to make a 20cm handling sample as well! So I tried to dye a few more scraps - of course, you never get just what you want twice.

And for some bits, I trimmed out layers of silk from underneath!

Experiments

Golds, greens and browns required.

Trying to get gold with an old pack of turmeric. I read about it somewhere.
Not exactly what I had in mind. It becomes more daffodil yellow. But perhaps I can develop it.


A little more experimenting.


Lovely patterns developing on the drop cloth.

If I can get these ideas to play together, they will be for the current CQ challenge.

More Structures

More of the pieces from the Structures exhibition at the Old Fire Station Gallery at the weekend.

Elizabethan Structures - Joanna O'Neill

I loved this! The lighting wasn't the best to see the detail, but I really liked the illustration aspect of showing the underpinnings' or structure of what made up an Elizabethan gown...even to a bit of labelling.
As Joanna said on her statement, it uses aspects of different garments from the Elizabethan period, so may not be exactly what was worn in one particular moment.

Keeping with the garment theme:
Goddess of Fire - Mark Tilley

back

Mark transferred some of the same ideas for garments into his own familiar territory. Rolling and firing clay instead of rolling and felting fleece. Colour through firing instead of dyeing. and then securing each fragment with 'embroidery'...joining with copper wire.

detail

front

another intriguing piece was this sculptural work.
Pool-Sue Hotchkis

Sue always manages to do an amazing blend of quilting, embroidery and sometimes even felting. This work doesn't fail in Sue's attempt to give a glimpse into the structural world found in a rock pool.


And finally, one of the most amazing, in my mind.
Under Construction - Betty Ball

This work consisted of 3 quilts, one behind another. The white and grey bars in front, the orange and yellow bars in the middle and the purple and green bars at the very back.

Each one had a certain part of the structure - the whole of each piece included the 'holes' between the individually finished bars.

Together, the pieces made the structure truly 3D.
Any distortion comes from my own photography.

I also took a photo of the hanging system for future reference!

So, there were several other works either at the Old Fire Station venue or at Lady Sew and Sew's venue. But my photos aren't good enough to do them justice.