Patchwork packs launch

As I mentioned in my last post, I was going to make up some patchwork packs from the left over fabrics of my DD1's baby carrier business.

Well I've posted the first pack on my Etsy shop

These are the patterns I've selected for the first pack, so do pop across to see the details if you're interested.











And now to the draw, courtesy of my DH, looking suitably impartial :-)



Coincidentally it was Laura who won, which is really weird as I won her draw last week. I'll send a different pack so as not to spoil the surprise Laura, unless you really want this one.

This and that

The other weekend we went for a lovely bike ride around Hayling Island. There's a very good cycle track along the beach and along the way I found this wonderful Sea Holly.



I liked it so much that I did a copy in sepia (in the camera), I was quite pleased with the way it came out.



On the way round we saw this wonderful charred log, it was a pity someone had set light to it, but then there wouldn't have been this lovely texture.



We stayed for the day and were treated to this lovely sunset, anyone who knows the area will recognise the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth in the distance.

It was a lovely day, but we certainly knew we were out of cycling practice the next day.



With the sudden onset of cold weather I've decided to make my socks a priority, and have sucessfully turned the heel on the first one, hooray!!!!!

Likewise my jacket seems to be a good idea too, it'll be a long project though, I've jut got to page 3 of 10 pages of instructions.



The interfacing's in and the darts successfully negotiated.



The lapels have been pad stitched and the roll line set to make them roll back. I was very impressed with the pattern instructions, it even told you to pad stitch the conners of the lapelsin a different direction and size so they turned into the body of the jacket. Hmmm!!!!!! clever.

Finally, and unbelievably it was my second blog B/day yesterday, I can't beleive I've been blogging for 2 years. It's been really great, I've learned so much from everyone and had such wonderful support, thank you all so much.

I'm going to start making patchwork packs of the lovely fabrics that my DD1 uses for her Connecta baby carriers and put them up for sale on my Etsy shop, so if anyone would like a pre sale pack just put a comment here and I'll put your name in the hat for my blog b/day. I'll draw it on Friday.

Shopping therapy and goodies in the post

I had a lovely visit to the Knitting and Stitch show on Sunday with DD2. We had a great girlie day out and both spent 'loads of dosh', as you do! I heard lots of conversations at the end of the day regarding hiding credit card receipts etc., but then it is only once a year.



I thought I'd make quite sure I had enough projects to do for the next year, or 3, so bought some lovely skirt fabric, some superfine woven interfacing, wonderful stuff, a fat quarter from the African fabric stand, for my present project, and lastly this gorgeous hat and hand warmer pattern in the softest alpaca wool.



Last year I was really disappointed not to get a Clover iron and everywhere I went they said they were being discontinued, so I was thrilled to bits when I saw this one for sale on one of the stands.



And lastly I couldn't go to the show and not buy a book, could I, so this year I just had to have 2, well, it would have been rude not to :-)

We both arrived home absolutely exhausted, but had a lovely day, how lucky am I to have DD's who all love working with textiles.



I've had some lovely goodies in the post too, firstly this gorgeous PC from Sandy which was her entry for September Calendar Girls challenge. We had a Hundertwasser painting for inspiration this month.



And this was my interpretation, I went for lollipop flowers instead if trees.



Sandy also very kindly included this gorgeous fat quarter with my PC, I love it.



Finally I was delighted to be the winner of Laura's give-away and received this lovely bag and stamp in the post this morning, thank you so much.

Moving on

My explorations into the African project have taken a couple of diversion at the moment.

The first being a suggestion from Laura to make a 12x12 quilt for the Colours of Africa project. I had meant to do something before I went to Tanzania, so having experienced a little of the African culture I was really ready to have a go. It's an amazing project, so if any one has some free time to help I know it will be much appreciated, you can see some of the work that's already been submitted on the blog.



It's not quite finished as you can see, I think I will add a little bit of hand stitching before I bind it.

The second diversion was as invitation to join The West country Budda group in making quilts for next years FOQ, which is very exciting and a great motivator, so thanks to Annabel for setting that up.

As a result I'm still exploring different ideas in my sketch book and decided to have a go at lino printing for the first time in many years. I bought a piece of wrapping paper on holiday and it was decorated with lots of lovely lino cuts, one of which was this great little lizard.



I wasn't too happy with the colours so went back to the original source to see if I could improve on it.



I do love the expression of the male dancer in the top pic, I'd like to think of a way of incorporating this in one of my designs.



I bought a Kuba Cloth at one of the lodges and have found it very insprirational, I love the way it's been pieced. I tried to incorporate the visible turnings into my design for the quilt but found it too cumbersome to work three layers with it, so I think that will have to be a separate project.

Creative spurt

I don't know if it's the thought of winter coming or just a general creative surge after a rest period, but I'm feeling very energised at the moment. I've finally managed to get back into the routine of taking my 2 dedicated creative days a week and have found that really helpful. I never quite know how the day will pan out but I find it a good discipline to stick with the project and see what happens.

I'm gradually moving the African project forward and as a result of my sketch book experiments, I've moved into stitch earlier than I usually do, which is a good sign, maybe I'm becoming more confident, who knows.

Anyway I wanted to see if my paperwork plan would work in reality, so I took some fabrics as close to the original colours as possible and started to work the appliqué patches. Despite having a couple of hand dyed samples, thanks to a swap with Françoise, I wasn't happy with the colours and knew I'd have to dye some fabrics to the colour scheme I'd worked out.



It was such a lovely day I did it outside so I could make a mess with impunity. I used Procion dyes, using the immersion method as I'd run out of Urea and couldn't paint on the dye as I usually do.





The colours came out paler than I would have liked, so I'm now wondering if I should have left them in the dye bath for longer (more than an hour) or put in more dye. My dyes are about 10 years old so it could have been that too. Still, I like these shades so will experiment with them.

Still on a roll I decided to dye my sock wool that I bought back in the Spring. It was pack with the dyes included to be done in the microwave, I couldn't believe how easy it was, can't wait to knit it up now.



And finally I decided to dig out the tailored jacket that I started before the C&G, and have now decided to finish it.



Oh! and plus I blocked my jumper at last today, so now I can sew it up, phew I feel tired just thinking about all of this.

New African project

At last I've been able to get back into the studio after the hectic goings on for the past few months.

Having been so inspired by our holiday in Tanzania I had to make a start with a new sketch book to flesh out some ideas of where I wanted to go with it.



I started with a double spread looking at the various influences I had found exciting, from the people and textiles to the animals. I set the page on a brown Parker ink base ( that I knew would bleach), because it reminded me of the African dusty soil.



From here I went on to look at the colours and designs that the Massai use in their clothing and jewellery. I was also struck by the fact that they use quite a lot of found objects to add to the beading, such as fragments of Coak cans that shine like precious metals in the sun. Their colours and patterns are very bold by Western standards, so I may have think quite hard about the colour pallet that I want to use.



I noticed these wonderful cushion covers in one of the lodges and recognised them as Shoowa cut pile embroidery made by the Kuba people of Zaire. It was great to see them and feel the rough texture of the raphia panels, as I'd studied these textiles on the C&G.
I thought I might use the designs to develop a print, either paper or cloth and maybe experiment with a starch resist.



These cloths, also Kuba, and made with raphia, had been used for lampshades in another lodge. They consist of strips that are joined together with the seams exposed and have various appliquéd shapes. I had the idea to maybe create a coloured version of this using the colours I'd seen in the Massai blankets, and also using the sewing machine to construct it. I wondered what the people would do with our textiles and machines if they had them at their disposal. Maybe they'd wonder why we bother to spend so much time, energy and money, in setting up a machine to do what they do naturally and with virtually no equipment.

As you see I'm a long way from making any decisions yet, but at the moment I'm just enjoying the feeling that I can take this any way I want to, be it a paper print, a painting, or a textile piece.

Freedom exhibition

Well the day came at last on Saturday for the 20 finalists of the Charles Henry Foyle Trust Award for Stitched textiles to see our work on display and find out who had won the coveted prizes.

The standard of the entries was extremely high with several finalists having completed their BA's and pushing on to MA's or finishing them, so it was no surprise the that the stunning winning entry was an MA graduate/student (I'm not sure if she has finished her course) of Nottingham Trent University.
Her name is Donna Rumble-Smith and her piece was called 'Casting a Line'. She had used nylon monofilaments and other yarns 'to create a net that would catch technical words and sayings used, and observations made by both fishermen and embroiderers'

The piece was strung across an area of the Needle Museum the made it feel as if it was in perfect harmony with the surroundings, and gave the total 'wow factor'.



As some of you will know, I decided to make a hat for my entry and this was my entry in the catalogue.

On receiving the invitation to make a piece on the theme of Freedom, my first thoughts were ‘creative freedom’. Like many people I have always suffered from an interfering inner critic that does it’s best to undermine my artistic confidence.
I decided that I wanted to make something really special that would give me confidence and freedom from the voice. Every time I wore it or used it I would remember that I processed great creative strength and determination.
I would also like to think that other people might be tempted to make their own inner critic silencer.





It was remarkably difficult to photograph as I'd made it with reflective sheers and shiny threads, as Iwas trying to create a play of light on the fabrics and threads.







And this is the 'all seeing eye' that looks for unhelpful critical influences.

I would like to have shown more pics of the other entries but my DH took all the shots in raw and I can't convert them :-(

But if you get the chance to go in person it's well worth a visit.