A bit of progress

A glimpse...

Halfway through quilting. Hope to finish a work on binding today.

Somethings from Bristol

Will catch up the bead photos. asap... several deadlines going on!

These photos are of work that caught my eye at the West Country Quilt and Textile Show in Bristol, where I went with my friend, Pat, on the 1st September.

Small quilts by Brenda Thomas - A Year at Exeter Cathedral

Lovely work by Dawn Berry. These are some detail shots of some of the work in her gallery area.

I love the stitching and the light colouring.

Work by Sally Sparks with unusual materials.

a few interesting pieces from 2017 Festival of Quilts - 6

Okay, I meant to be done on these Festival of Quilts photos, but I had another look and decided to show more.
This set contains some quilts with boxes and some optical illusions.

Little Boxes - Elizabeth Melville

Interconnected - kathleen Moore

Loved the translucent effect...

which I also saw in this piece from the Matter of Time Gallery

Sue Reid - And the Wheels Go Round

Don't Box Me In - Trudi Wood

White January - Lisbet Borggreen

Loved the used of small print for this

Box on Box on Box - JillJohnson

a few interesting pieces from 2017 Festival of Quilts - 4

Some of the work in the Quilts Creation Section - 3D work and Wearable Art

Release the Kraken by Helen Dickson

  

Brilliant!

Violin by Sue Trevor
  

Nellie by Pam Morris


Victorian Fusion by Kathy Knapp

   

I love the work this lady does.

Silvery Threads - Jackie Harvey

   

a few interesting pieces from 2017 Festival of Quilts - 3

One of the galleries of work that impressed me the most was the display of work by Diana Harrison. Just amazing!
I love the stitching on stone!

You can find images of her work in various places online, especially the work done for the Lost in Lace exhibition at the Birmingham Museum and Art Galleries in 2011.

I am only showing a few photos that are giving me inspiration such as the spent discs from a sanding machine whose colour is taken into the work beside it.

Or the empty boxes which inform shape of larger pieces displayed around the gallery.

and again unique hanging methods and displays have caught my eye.
  
Pins and tiny bulldog clips

In a similar vein, I loved this work called Making Time by Sheila Beer, which was part of the exhibition gallery A Matter of Time.

Small components stitched on paper and fabric one at a time and then added together.

Putting these into my head to percolate around with other ideas to see where they come out sometime down the line!

a few interesting pieces from 2017 Festival of Quilts - 1

A retrospective of Ineke Berlyn's (1956-2017) work. She passed away this year.

I loved these pieces. Not dresses, but quilt art. These were done between 2008 and 2010.

  

 

Notice the hangers!

Also, interesting work by Cherilyn Martin, who had stitched onto a variety of vintage fabrics adding old lace collars and other items. She used 'controlled rusting' for some of the lettering.

Vessels....lost and found #1,2,3,4,5

Again I was struck by the way the fabrics were hung.

70,273 quilts at FOQ

This was one of the 70,273 Project quilts which the Coxhoe Quilters (near Durham) entered into Festival of Quilts.

This group has been very active in the project, stitching together blocks sent to them and making them into quilts.

And here is another attempt at my long skinny. Which is better than I have managed here at home, but not good.

It was in a rather awkward place, so hard to get a point of view that the camera also appreciated! Or do I need a better camera?
But anyway, those who managed to find it had a visual story even if they didn't get one of the show guides with the statement printed.

the Russian Gallery

Other work I loved was the work by Lyubov Lezhanina and Tatiana Andriyanova in the Russian Gallery.

These 2 especially by Lyubov

(I grew up with wood heat. So, this really connected!)

and loved the texture on these by Tatiana



detail

sleeves, labels and parcels

The Ethiopian is on hold. The exhibition organisers somehow hadn't got things right that Stretching Art wanted a space again this year. (This is the 15th year?) So, it has been rearranged to New Jersey next spring.

...and breathe! I can finish it after the Festival of Quilts and for once I will have something done ahead of time. Hurrah!

************ But no time for rest...

So, the Secret Ramshackled piece needed to go off to Germany this week.

Yesterday and today, I have been sewing and stitching hanging sleeves and the extra just-in-case and it-might-be-a-good-idea-if-you sleeve (or tunnel if you are German) for the bottom.

And writing the label.
I could do posh. I could stitch a fabric something. But this label can't be removed...

and carries 'the hand of the artist'! Or so I say.

I have been wrapping layer after layer of bubble wrap, tissue, more tissue, quilt, strong tissue, bubble wrap etc, etc!

That is a thin light box for the middle to keep it all sturdy. We hadn't anything else the right size.

And then parcelling.

And thanks to the Thoughtful Man, the courier is booked to come collect in the morning.

Phew! I told my friend Maggi that I think there needs to be a quilt sleeve, label and parcel fairy to help people who need to send quilts places! If you know any of these, please send them my way.

The opening is the 13th of September. So, a little over a month and I can show you at last.

Chemo Scarves - version 2

The feedback I got on the scarves I made was that although they fit me, they needed to be a bit larger for my family member. Trouble is, I had already cut out about 7 at previous size.

Due to struggling a bit with my own health, I was having a hard time getting my head round how to make them larger without much fuss.

Then I saw this video the other day on another textile artist's blog. She was making some blankets for a grandchild. When I watched it, I thought I could use the same process to add a border to the scarves I cut.



I had some thin voile type fabric given to me by a friend recently. I thought it would be just the thing to add a border, but not add a lot more thickness.
The only thing I did different to the video was to press the seam allowances over to the solid fabric so they wouldn't show through the thin fabric on the border. I just took the seam, smoothed the fabrics away from it and then folded it over and pressed. The fabrics at the corners didn't get in the way then.

I turned it through, pressed and topstitched on the edge of the middle fabric to hold the layers together. Just like the video. Then I folded corner to corner, pressed the fold and put the wadding in the centre. (See how I did it here).

Then I stitched it through all layers, like I did before.

The wadding is enclosed,, but the rest of the layers are loose. I am hoping this might also help with the issue she was having about adjusting the scarf so her head didn't show through the gaps at the back.

The original scarf was cut at 20in square. The piece I added was 25in square, but this is then folded in half in the process of making the border. I hadn't thought of that when I chose the measurement. I have sent 3 off like that which are made of lightweight cotton. But for the heavier weight cotton I am going to try 30in square for the border bit because it won't drape as well, and may still be hard to arrange at the finished size of 22 in. square. ( The 1/2 in from the measurement goes into seams.)

I still have some fabrics uncut, so when I find out how these work, I will just cut them at the full size and make them the previous way.