One Small Step

One Small Step

Coming back from the Festival of Quilts I had too much going around in my head. The fault of too many courses (including one with Pat!) and too many quilts to see. Can one ever see too many? No not really, but returning home and trying to concentrate on one's own work is difficult!

This inspiration comes from the amazing voyage of Apollo 11 in July 1969 that all those over fifty will remember well. Neil Armstrong , the astronaut who took that one small step, died last week and it seems unlikely that anyone else will be on the moon in my life time.

The moon is hand dyed fabric fused on and the sky is Heide Stoll Weber fabric as is the Earth. The Earth is fused onto felt and then stitched to the background. The stars are hand stitched with silver metallic thread. The footprint is FMQ'd as is the surface of the moon.

I well remember the night of this momentous event, Peter and I were in our “courting” days at the time and we listened to it together. We too have travelled a long way since then!

Fireflies

My JIT piece (Just In Time..... at least by UK time!)  

Based on some designs I did when in Malaysia last year. I started with white, dyed it a terracotta shade then screenprinted with discharge paste to take some of the colour out. Then over dyed with blue and used the screen in a different way to print with metallic powder on top. Stitched the small irridescent insects with holographic thread - a real challenge for the machine tension! and the larger fireflies with metallic thread and then added gold leaf to bits of their bodies. 

This was a very rushed piece as I spent too long at the Festival of Quilts and had a lot of other stuff to do when I got home - but it did make me realise how much I enjoy the surface design stuff and the messy  but very creative development that ensues when realising a design idea. starting from white fabric.

Jean

A Little Late

I have so enjoyed seeing everyone's work on the blog- and  everyone's interpretation of where they find themselves.

I know I am a bit behind, caused by a combination of factors, but in the end only solved by  making the work.In April i  was a tour guide for a group of Australians in France and of course we went to see a lot of the sites. We spent 5 days in Normandy and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course we went to cathedrals and I always seem to end up in cathedrals devoted to women- just one of those things I guess. In some of the older cathedrals the faces of the women seem to look straight out in the world, not demurely downcast or directed at the child. I encountered one such statue at the Bayeaux Cathedral.  Bayeaux Cathedral is in the Norman Romanesque style and was consecrated  in the presence of the Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror, King of England.One of the statues may  perhaps be modelled on Queen Mathilde his wife-  formerly from  Flanders, said to be very beautiful and small in stature and devoted wife and mother .I love the statues that look straight out into the world - it makes you wonder what message they are  sending down the ages- who were the models, who were they meant to represent? Anyway here is my take on her. I have become enamoured of breakdown printing so I have tried to draw her on the screen and then printed her.

What does this lady say to you?

Building Blocks

 It has taken ages to post this picture...camera problems and most pictures don't appear clear enough...but for the moment it is all I have.
Each quilt seems to reflect my current preoccupation. We are developing our business The Stitching Project quite nicely, training women, developing designs, finding clients- well we also need more space....So that has been very much on my mind of late.
I was fiddling around with some offcuts and it started staring at me- our stitching work will be the building block for our dedicated women's space...and so that was all that would come to mind to make.

I have assembled the piece but it very much reflects my life at the moment, my work is so entwined with the work of others....all same, same but a little different.

Blue Moon

This piece was a result of two fabrics and my missing Africa. I was given the fabric with the moon shape and vines, then saw the indigo skin fabric at The African Fabric shop, and couldn't resist it! The giraffes are drawn from  photographs we took during safaris. In fact, we seem to have had so many 'once in a blue moon' momments.

Alison Farmer

Water Under The Bridge

It is very interesting to step back and analyze where creative inspiration begins.  The inspiration for this quilt came when my husband and I took a trip back to our home town, Rexburg, Idaho, in July.  We were eager to escape the crushing heat of the desert and enjoy the relative cool of the high mountain desert in Idaho and the surrounding sights:  Yellowstone Park and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  It wasn't much cooler in Idaho than it was in Phoenix, although the overnight temperatures were in the 60's rather than the 90's!  We stayed in a motel in Idaho Falls, which is about 25 miles south of Rexburg.  The Snake River runs behind the motel and we were able to go for nice walks in the park that follows the bank of the river though town.  One evening we had walked quite a distance and decided to take a short cut using a railroad bridge that crossed the river.  It's funny how those railroad bridges look much more substantial from the ground!  By the time we were half way across the bridge, we were encountering big holes between the railroad ties, rotten wood and very scary views to the Snake River below.  The distance to the river was not that far--maybe 20 or 30 feet, but the Snake River as it runs through Idaho Falls is very deep and has very treacherous currents.  To fall in the river at that point probably would have meant certain death.  Obviously, we didn't fall into the river, and since trains use that particular bridge every day, I'm sure the bridge was quite sturdy, but looking through those holes with the river rushing beneath us was unnerving.

For my quilt, I used woven strips of commercial fabric as the background--to represent the river and its currents; my own hand dyed silk to represent the rocky riverbed and shore; and some of my own woven fabric to represent the raft that I hoped would pass by if we happened to fall into the water.

Frances Murphy

Bethlehem

In July I was invited to teach in Israel. I managed to add on a few extra days and met up with Pat Arcibald and her friend Janette. We had a day in Bethlehem, the religious stuff was interesting but we didnt really know what we were supposed to be looking at! I was keen to see the Banksy murals so when we came through the Gilo checkpoint we walked along the separation wall looking for the murals and were moved by all the grafitti on the wall. We followed the wall for so long that we got lost!
I wanted to see some traditional Palestinian costumes in the various museums and just love all the colours and fine needlework. We also went to see work produced by the many womens cooperatives.
I have used  decolourant to paint the grafitti and then machine embroidery to look like traditional Palestinian embroidery.
I had fun adding some additional grafitti to the wall.

Getting older

Whether we like it or not, we are all getting older and certain bodyparts start to sag. This gave me the idea for my 4th quilt. I used turquoise dyed rusted fabrics for this. Maybe I should have followed a more serious theme, but I was having fun with this one:-). Title is: Sagging boobies.

Boat on the Sea of ​​Galilee

High temperatures, extreme hot weather and heavy humidity that make it difficult to breathe. This is how summer in Israel looks like.

The Sea of Galilee is not only our sole water source. It is also used as a vacation resort where we camp and ride a boat while enjoying the pleasant breeze.

Shoshi Rimer



Junk Junkie - Piece three finally

WHO I AM - Like everyone, I'm quite a few "things".  But one for sure is a Junk Junkie. I dumpster dive if I see something that catches my eye, pick up free things off the side of the road, LOVE Freecycle, thrift stores....that about says it. My poor long-suffering husband is at last used to piles of what seems to most people as useless stuff.  Both he and my 4 year old granddaughter don't throw anything away unless they ask me first if I need it for an art project. I'm not altogether sure why old junk appeals to me and helps define what kind of person I am or at least what interests me. Probably a bit of the same reason I love falling down buildings. It's like I feel a sense of history and presence from another time. I try to imagine to whom it belonged in the past. Was it loved and cared for or just a utilitarian piece. I have a pile of rusted junk on the side of my house that I'm sure my neighbors question but if they could see this piece they just might understand.

I rusted white cotton fabric and then dyed it a bit with some cerulean blue procion dye. The large border/binding is a hand-dyed cotton of very close to the same blue. Both are from my stash. I wove rusted wire, including various rusty bits and pieces as I went along. Rusted some cotton heavy duty thread to attach the weavings to the quilt.

OK...you guys have gotta appreciate that I managed to get my dangly bits in the piece but NOT outside the required boundaries!  Oh but it was tempting........  Personally, I think I just might deserve a medal or something for practicing such a great amount of restraint!!

JUNK  JUNKIE

JUNK JUNKIE - detail

And now I'm on to piece 4!!!