whatever that is! I've spent the last couple of days painting and generally recovering from the excitements of street fairs, visitors and the rest. Now, though, I need to get back to work. I haven't done any dyeing for a while, and I bought some screen printing bits and bobs to play with, so perhaps that will be next week's excitement, particularly as I've got a couple of big screens to work with. Francoise has been playing with soya wax to great effect; she told us about it on ArtTextileContemporain, a list for French speaking art quilters. Okay, I'm not a native speaker, but I'm going back to Carrefour with Dijanne and Sandy next year, so I need to practice!!
Today's pictures, though, are of 'Face On', the first of the rust dyed pieces to be quilted. Click on the pictures for a bigger version (I think...)
I'm finding working with rust dyes quite difficult, to be honest. Making them is straightforward. Problem is, though, I like them as they are; adding stitch somehow doesn't seem to add much to the equation at all. Nor does adding layer. 'Face On' needs more stitch, I think, but it seems difficult to make the stitching have an equivalent strength to the marks on the cloth. Perhaps couching with heavier yarns might be more appropriate... or simply letting the cloth do its own thing.
I had a fun day out on Friday with my textile artist friend Jill Arnold; we visited
Blickling Hall near Aylsham, to see the gallery space there, which is great. There happened to be a quilt show on when we visited, which made it even more interesting, of course. Some good examples of Boutis, including an enchanting Christmas Tree which, sadly, wasn't for sale. I can't see myself actually making something like that, but it would have been very nice for decoration...with no children in the house, and usually no visitors, we don't do the whole Christmas 'thing', but I do make an occasional nod towards the festivities.
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