2021 CQ Journal Quilts : INDIGO January to April

 I've been making  Journal Quilts every year  since 2003 ( and with Contemporary  Quilt  of QGBI   since 2007) .  This year  they are  to be of a  theme and shape(s)  of your own choosing  but designed  so that at the end of the year they  can be joined together in some way  for possible exhibition.   My favourite / most successful   set of  JQ's   is from  2013 when I chose 'Indigo' as my theme  so that is what I've chose to revisit  but deciding on size/ shapes  took a lot of pondering on graph paper!  I decided in the end on  a combination of : 8 x 8", 10 x 10" , 8 x 10", 10 x 8"   which  I hope will give me enough scope for experimenting.   So far I'm on track , having completed  January  to April  and  May's the current piece of ' trainstitching' 

January ( Jellyfish Bloom ) is wet bulb thermometer wicks stitched onto shibori dyed section of old quilt.

 February ( Hidden Depths)  is monoprint of net on silk layered with indigo dyed wadding and linen tablecloth , kantha stitched.

 March ( StitchResistRipples) Stitching back into a piece of Mokume ( 'woodgrain' ) shibori was almost as time consuming as doing the stitch resist ! Combined with a monoprint and a small scrap of Ndop stitch resist indigo from Cameroon.

April ( Thunderbolt Pier ) A couple of years ago  the ' Edgy Stitchers' ( CQKent)  had an outing to Chatham Historic Dockyard  as inspiration for  our exhibition later in the year.  This is  a recycled sample based  on photo of 'Thunderbolt Pier' , manipulated in Photoshop, printed on fabric  and  fused  to background of quilted silk arashi shibori.

Wind Me In The Sea : SOLD

Amongst all the gloom, something wonderful.  I've  sold my  textile artwork  ' Wind me in the Sea'   to  a collector  of Japanese textiles. 

I was contacted  out of the blue, they'd seen it  when exhibited  with 7th European Quilt Triennial ,  was it for sale ? After an exchange of  lovely emails (  we found we  had  many  shared interests  )  I was very happy to sell it knowing it  would be going to   a good home where it could be displayed.   

Its a very personal  piece of  indigo scraps  stitched to  lengths of Japanese kasuri  from a kimono purchased  in Tokyo  when I travelled there with Susan Briscoe in 2006:  

" A  year of stitching in the form of a winding cloth: double-sided, semi-translucent in a continuous loop. Mainly sewn on train journeys, my stitching, like my travels, continues and repeats looping back to familiar and treasured places " 

 

  

I was thrilled when it was  juried  into the 7th  European Quilt   Triennial,  it was exhibited  at:  

Textilsammlung Max Berk Heidelberg (D)  19.09.2018 – 06.01.2019

Kreismuseum Zons Dormagen (D)    18.01.2019 – 24.03.2019

Textiles Centrum Haslach (A)            11.05.2019 – 30.10.2019

Textile Museum St. Gallen (CH)           14.02.2020 – 19.04.2020

 It was supposed  to have come to the UK as part of the Festival of Quilts  2020  where I was looking forward to  not only helping to set up the exhibition and steward but also to see all the wonderful other quilts in the exhibition.   Alas  COVID  intervened so it was  returned to me  and was still carefully packed up in its bag .  

 I  unfolded  it for one last look  reminding myself of the  journeys made  stitching it   before carefully packing  it up and posting it .  It has now arrived with its  new owner who has let me  know how much they appreciate it.  I hope one day to visit . 

  Now I'm  inspired to start  again on it's companion  piece  "Wrap  Me In The Shore"  which has been   put aside since NW retreat  in February . Though  I won't be stitching  on the train  anytime  soon I look forward to  playing with  scraps  and remembering past travels. 

 

Grasmere Retreat 2020 ( and Surface, Structure,Stitch homework )

 Last  week I was in the Lake District, staying at Glenthorne  Guest House  in Grasmere on my 9th NWCQ  retreat . Unlike  previous years , I didn't do very much  sketching  this year ( even falling behind  a bit on my daily drawing )  but a fair bit of  stitching.  Given the poor weather conditions I'm glad I did my  'Grasmere Cloths' last year, it would have been  very challenging this year! 

 The trains to Oxenholme  had been delayed/cancelled in the storms of the previous week due to flooding  so I was relieved that it was only 15 minutes late.   Karen picked me up and the driving  conditions in snow and flooded roads  were difficult ( these photos  near Windermere were taken out the window waiting our turn to go up on the pavement, the  water being so deep) 

Glad to arrive at Glenthorne, this was the view from my bedroom window  ( and below , on a better day , the view towards the guest house )

The studio  building among the trees  and the table space divided equally with masking tape between the 13 of us ( with the usual jokes about ' encroachment' when materials creep over the line) ) 

 The main project I'd brought to work on  were the different sections  of  #trainstitching work in progress  " #wrapmeintheshore" as I'm getting to the stage  of working out how to hang it/ display it.  I don't want to replicate exactly what I did for #windmeinthesea  so was seeking  advice  from the others  and I'm glad to say have come away with lots of  suggestions.   It looked lovely with the wintery light shining through it, shame it would be difficult to replicate  under gallery/exhibition conditions.

 As it was the 10th year of these retreats , we had several    shared activities to   mark it. We know each other so well now, it feels like we pick up where we left off , always lots of laughter  but also understanding  of each others  circumstances .

Besides 2 entertaining and informative  quizzes in the evening from Jean and Ruth and  a fun drawing  session  with Millie)   we'd each brought a piece of denim  which was sewn together by Judy to form a bookcover/ bag  for the photo album/ scrapbooks  that Millie puts together documenting our  activities. We took it in turns to add some stitching by hand and machine  

  The ' extension'  activity for those who wished to do so ( all of us  in the end!)  was to each bring  a piece of fabric/thread/ beads in indigo or red and make something with them ( we did a similar exercise led by Linda B. when we used paper  ) The rules evolved into  being allowed to incorporate 2 other  materials of our own and  leave out one of the  original if we wished.

 The resulting  works  were extremely varied, from a beaded tree; bookwraps;  mini collages; bookmarks; journal quilts   to my ' barnacle' . 

 I used a patched piece of the Japanese kasuri  from my  trainstitching   with  pieces of the fabrics with a mussel  shape cut out. My other addition was red thread   which I used to sew  13 lines  in kantha style stitching   

 I then gathered it up  into a shell shape ( using the indigo beads  to fasten it) ,  weighted with a wrapped cord made of  red and blue flowery  fabric  

  In between sewing sessions  went for  short walks in the ever changing weather conditions, going shopping for  Grasmere Gingerbread and  warm winter 'trews'  ( the trousers I'd brought  with me, even with thermals , weren't up to it ) .  

 We were  very well fed at the Guesthouse  with  cooked breakfast and 3 course evening meal   but still managed to fit in lunches of  delicious soups and cakes  at Mathildes  after browsing the  Heaton Cooper  art shop painting supplies ( buying more Pitt artist Calligraphy Pens in different colours) 

 Fortified by coffee and cake  I returned to work on my 'homework' for  ' Surface, Structure, Stitch' at City Lit ,  taking one shape and playing with it in multiples

 I took a mussel as my source shape, in 2 different sizes,  using  colourcatchers ( above) with  a spacer  bead between each shape  and   some indigo  and cream fabrics sandwiched with bondaweb  ( below) , with a few stitches to  hold them in position. Lots of potential. 

  We left at Friday lunchtime   under ominous skies with very wet snow. I was travelling with Judy , the spray on the motorway was dreadful , so glad  that thanks to her hospitality  I could make a more leisurely train journey back home on Saturday

 The view from the train between Crewe and Stafford  in particular was of a landscape of flooded fields

 Safely back home in Faversham , after an early dinner at ASK, appropriately enough  we had tickets  for ' Waterways ' in St Mary of Charity's Church.  The Sunday before we'd gone to 2 talks ( Mudlarking and  the way to the sea  at Faversham Literary Festival  with lunch  at the Carriage  Restaurant in between  so it's been a watery week ! 

Surface, Structure, Stitch at City Lit: Week 5

 This week the focus of Surface, Structure, Stitch  at City Lit was on machine covered cords  " A line in space" .  For homework I'd looked  through my copy of  Stitch and Structure    by Jean Draper (  and also Janet Edmonds Three Dimensional Embroidery )   but had misread the instructions  on bringing  an image with strong mood , texture and colour.

  I'd remembered the 'colour' bit   and on a lovely sunny day  had drawn some of my shell collections   -  as  my daily drawings ( love the serendipity of  the combined drawings when backlit)  

  And on a sheet of watercolour paper  divided as we'd done for black and white studies in week 1.  I used neocolour crayons and W&N Watercolour Markers which I've had for ages ( and was reminded why  I still don't like them , back in the drawer they go! )

  I'd cut my thumb badly with a breadknife, tacking pebbles on my trainstitching piece on the way to class  was trickier than you'd expect!

What  we were doing with the images   we had ( or hadn't!)  brought in  was to describe in  words some of the qualities  of our image  then interpret the words in  drawn/collaged  lines . These examples Louise shared were based on a photo of a  cactus with red flowers, 

 These drawn  lines were then  translated into  stitched cords of fabric or thread wrapped string  

  I  did have some photos of shells with me  but  to more accurately  describe their qualities  used some of the  items  available in the class. 

 I was struggling to capture the true colours using the art materials  available so Louise suggested I construct ' moodsticks' ,  covering a stick/piece of card with scraps of fabric and winding threads  around them  from the exciting range of fibres available.  Similar  to  swatches prepared for weaving  but freer , with overlapping threads and colours giving more texture and optical colour mixing. This could get addictive!

 Then  an attempt  to make some machine wrapped cords : laying a string under free embroidery foot with feed dogs down  and using a wide zig zag   stitch and  pulling it  through. My poorly thumb hampered me somewhat as I couldn't hold it taut enough so  didn't have enough control.  

 Still , enough  to see the potential, discussing with Louise how they   could be coiled  or joined  together  to make circles  or stitched into a network .  I spent  the rest of the session gathering  bits to bring home  and try out on my own machine.
Enough  writing for now, time to go and play ! I could be some time...