Cara's Leaf

We're grandparenting this weekend, normal service will eventually be resumed after I've recovered... Today, we took Cara to gymnastics, then had lunch out, wandered round a garden centre, followed by Serious Cake for Cara and Grumpa (who knew a child that small could eat that much meringue...?).  And then we topped that off with a play park, in the Kinneal Estate.  On the way back to the car, Cara really wanted a leaf from one of the many trees surrounding us.  Grumpa obliged (Granny did try to put her off til autumn, but with no success). 

So, I thought, what can I do with this?  Pressing it, of course, would have been a possibility, but I've never really got my mind round what you do with leaves that size once they're dry.  So... I drew round it.  My initial intention was to let Cara colour it in, and I will still do that (she's pleased with the idea), but I'm thinking, applique.  I'm thinking cushion.  Or memory quilt (though there would need to be a lot more memories than just one leaf to make a quilt...maybe it needn't be all that large,though...).  Or just a singled blocked applique quilt.  Yes, okay, I'm wondering what got into me, too, it's so not my kind of thing....clearly the granny genes are kicking in...

And here it is.

And that's as far as it's likely to go, this weekend anyway.  I'm exhausted already, and there's a day and a half left... so won't be playing with the idea any time soon.  I'll keep you posted.

Finally, thank you to everyone who was so supportive after my last post.  I really appreciate it.  Blogging is a bit like talking to yourself, sometimes, hearing other people talk is lovely.

Stop Me...

...if I've said this before...I don't think I have, but hey, my memory is not what it was.  I taught a workshop at FOQ  last year, entitled Two Shapes And A Line, intended to help people to loosen up when it came to Applique design (I'm sure I've mentioned it before).  This piece is ongoing, and is a direct result of some of the thinking behind that workshop, but taken down to using a single shape.  Here it is, at the beginning, two layers of evolon, the first layered with transfer paint and fabric paint, the second acid dyed.  I combined them as an experiment... even I haven't layered lilac over yellow/red/orange before.  But...it was to hand and I wanted a strong contrast...I think you could safely say that I got that, if nothing else.

Hand stitch seemed the only way to go.  First, I tried hand stitching round the shapes, in a metallic purple.  Yuk.  That has now been taken out.  So, I decided that I would mark make, and selected a burgundy hand dyed perle thread with the odd bit of purple in it, to try to begin to pull the two areas together, focusing on the pinkish areas.

That helped, but it wasn't enough.  So, more perle, this time in indigo, but with hints of green and turquoise in the mix (though it reads predominately as indigo).

I just finished the hand stitch.

It was tempting to cover the whole piece with stitch, but I wanted to suggest some space and movement.  I see the piece as an abstract fish, complete with dorsal fin.  Robin isn't so convinced, though he seems to quite like it; he sees it as a carved egg.  I don't think it matters how you interpret it...but I do think it needs a little more work.  As the lilac top layer is fused down, I really don't want to try to hand stitch it... so I'm contemplating working with paint, crayons or pencils to add some visual interest.  I think perhaps stippling with some burgundy paint might add some visual interest and texture to the lilac sections.

There are, in truth, lots of options.  I could machine stitch the purple, though I really don't feel that would be appropriate.   I did contemplate beading, but that would be as problematic as hand stitching, and I'm not keen on glue for beads though I know it would work.  Perhaps some painted bondaweb might be a good idea...either on the lilac, or across the whole piece... hmm...  Or some lutradur 30.  I don't know why I think adding green would be a good idea, I'm pretty sure it isn't, really, but in the interests of experimentation, I might give it a go...I'm off to think.  One thing I am sure of, though, is that despite cursing myself for the original colour combination, it has proved to be an interesting exercise, and worth the time I've spent on it.  The temptation was to throw it away or cut it up... but I'm glad I've persevered.

The One That Got Away...

... or OTGA, as it is likely to be known forever, now, complete with crease, which I'll have to iron out.  I love the shape, though, so it got to be a small piece all by itself.  I was working on a piece to demonstrate just how interesting it is to work with a single shape, to get to know it (part of the FOQ workshop I've been banging on about here.  This is the actual piece;

The OTGA should have been in the top motif, but somehow I missed it.  I'm actually rather glad I did, because the other two motifs have three elements, and it would have been unbalanced if the top one had had four.  This will be one of the exercises we work through during the workshop.

I have a very simple rule in my workshops... participants can't get anything 'wrong'.  I'm really looking forward to seeing the variants that will come out of this exercise.  It's very much unfinished; it desperately needs stitch, and the addition of line.  But that's something we'll talk about in the workshop, I think...though I will probably work today on the OTGA, just so that we can see that it's possible!  I've been thinking about working in this way for some time, as I have masses of drawings that are really lines creating shapes.  (Yes, I know, that's how drawing usually works... but I'm talking about non representational drawing, random lines creating random shapes.  These pieces are coming out of that thought process, albeit in an altered way.  I love it when that happens.

If you would like to come and play with us at FOQ, there are still spaces available; check out the timetable here 

PS.  The background of both pieces is made from hand dyed cotton; the motif, from hand dyed lutradur.

Preparing For Festival Of Quilts...

...continues apace, making up kits for the workshops and finishing off samples and new pieces of work to hang on the stand, to give you an idea of what I'm up to, and about to write about next, to boot.  One of the workshops I'm teaching this time is called 'Take Two Shapes (...and a Line)', and it's about making your own appliqué designs.  I don't suppose I'm particularly associated with appliqué, but I frequently use fusible appliqué in my work, though it is never the focus.  Over the years, I've watched people make ever more complex applique designs; for myself, though, I prefer to keep things simple.  Dear Jane has nothing to fear from me... I'm more likely to make and use abstract and naive designs.  I admire realism, but I'm more interested in suggesting a flower, than describing its every detail in cloth.

I've always thought that there were two ways of working.  In one, you start of with a picture in your mind of what you want to achieve, and then you render it.  This sort of artist keeps copious sketchbooks, plans a lot and often frets at the end if what they make is not exactly what they envisaged.  And then there's people like me.  I like starting at the other end, with no definite plan.  I start with a simple shape, and I play with it, get to know it.  Cut it up.  Combine it.  See what it naturally suggests.  And then, I develop a design or series of designs, based on those ideas.  It's a bit like an exploration.  And yes, I too keep copious sketchbooks (and then totally fail to refer to them...sigh).

Often, I combine two shapes, in a variety of ways, and then think about stitch, which creates the line.
The quilt above is a case in point.  I'm very fond of penny rugs, which were made from felted wool scraps, and, whilst called rugs, were really bed or table covers.  I wanted to make something that referred to that tradition, without necessarily following it slavishly.  So... I took two shapes, a circle and a square.  The cloth is Evolon, which I've rust dyed and then acid dyed.

 The squares are beads; the large ones are made of glass.  It's a (very small) wholecloth, about 12" square; the line, in this case, was first hand quilting, and then, because that wasn't strong enough, I couched sari yarn along the lines.  So now, I have two lots of squares; the beads, and the suggestion of squares made by the lines.  I like the idea of using embellishments like beads and buttons as an integral part of the applique design, rather than added on at the end, because it seems like a good idea...

If this is sounding like a cross between a tutorial and an advert, it is.  I'm teaching this particular three hour workshop on Thursday and Saturday mornings, and there are still places available...so if you would like to come and explore with me, I'd be delighted to see you!  More about all the workshops can be found here.