Late Autumn flurry

Whilst out and about in London having a break from meetings - I went for a walk in Green Park on a brooding dark November day - the sky was a heavy steel blue and the wind got up in gusts sending the leaf debris in spirals then falling down to earth almost confetti like. The colours of the maple leaves as they swirled around  was spectacular against the sky. So having run out of time - used these remembered images  as a source for the final piece of 2012.

The back ground is hand dyed pima cotton which was machine quilted - the leaf debris is hand dyed silks of different weights which I have raw edge appliqued in place. A very quick piece to meet  the deadline but needs must!

Jean

Made it!

I aimed to finish quilt nr. 6 before midnight tonight and am very happy to present to you :
"Aniseed". I was on a creative roll the last few days, mostly triggered by the course I am doing at an art academy in Kalmthout. I had some catching up to do with the drawing assignments because I had missed a few lessons while traveling. As you all know, one thing leads to another, and having decided on "seeds and pods" as my theme for 2013, I got started on Aniseed as my final quilt for this year.

I do apologise for the quality of the photo's, but it is very dark and gloomy here. I painted the seeds on cotton with fabric paint. Then I selected some fabrics for the background : a monoprinted piece, the 2 light pieces which were done ages ago using flour resist and fabric paint and the orange piece was hand dyed and printed.

RUN JUMP FLY

Run Jump Fly

This is my wish for all our creative endeavours for 2013! In fact, I think we are all “up and running” already, so I hope we will be able to make that leap so that our art will really start to fly!

I have been taking an on-line class with Alisa Burke to help me become freer and less contained in my designing – on-line courses are becoming quite my thing, being a little isolated down here – and my last Voyage quilt for 2012 reflects this. I had a lot of fun placing pieces of some of my favourite fabrics and hand painted the words which were appliquéd with free zigzag stitching. For some of the background quilting I echoed the design on the fabric or drew and doodled happily with the machine, all in black thread.

Having really enjoyed our first Voyage year, I am looking forward to an exciting 2013 for us all.

"Uncharacteristic"

"I am late , so very very late" said the March hare, but I will get there before 2013!
I have already mentioned this piece on my blog and in a sense it was a tryout as I am working on a book about France, but I wanted to try, my travellers' blanket type stitching on a piece of ivory silk to see whether it warranted making it bigger kind of inspired by provence bouti but not quite. I do like the result ( though I didn't until the last stitch went in) but I have decided that the piece is at present uncharacteristic of my style and what i do. Every now and then you do have to try something different.So it does represent a little of where I am in , and that is not in ivory dupioni!However I will try it on coloured dupioni silk and I think I may make a stamp of some kind to stamp onto some coloured Thai silk scraps someone once sent me- that feel smore like what I do. I do like the quiet presence of the ivory piece and that perhaps is also a reflection of where I find myself  at the moment.

 The first photos is without all the stitching and the photo below is of it all stitched and of course a detail photo!

It's entirely hand stitched with rayon threads which I get from the Spinners and Weavers Guild in the UK- i love those threads but was a bit gobsmacked when they increased the price by  more than 200 % this last year.

Voyage Number Six. Bits and Bobs.

For this piece I went back into my collection of fabrics and embellishments from Africa. Loving Rome but missing Africa. We are also making preparations for Graham's retirement, buying a house in Yorkshire! Traveling for 3 weeks to visit friends and our eldest daughter in Zimbabwe and Johannesbrg over the holidays. Making plans, arranging visits from friends for next year (we seem to almost run a bed and breakfast!) With so much going on I enjoyed working with my bits and bobs quietly, in my space for a while. Bark cloth, cotton fabrics and banana leaf covered wires. Mostly hand stitched.
Alison

Last piece for this year

To be honest my last piece for this year has been finished some time ago, but I forgot to upload it. For the background I used a very busy complex cloth which I created in a workshop with Jane Dunnewold. I sliced the fabric and stitched very thin strips of dark grey fabric in between. This I repeated till I was happy with the result. On top of it I appliqued my favorite flower the poppy.

Working with the theme given for this year was for me rather difficult. I prefer to have a more clear cut theme. For coming year my theme will be trees.

A late Fall

Well, I have finally had enough sun to photograph my 5th piece. I am late, and appologize. I hope to have #6 done before the new year.

This piece is inspired by one of my school projects. We learnt how to so block printing, and I found I really enjoyed the process. I use a thin foam with an adhesive backing for my blocks. It is easy to cut and prints beautifully. After doing the printing, I did some hand embroidery for accents, and then using lurex threads in the sewing machine, I accented the leaves.

Living in Ghana, I hadn't seen a fall for many years, and this year, it was wonderful to watch the leaves turn all the wonderful fall colours. It also fit in perfectly with the colour theory we were learning. I learnt that if you mix red and green, you get a brown, and there is was before my eyes on many bushes. Now we are into rain and cold, but the fall colours still warm my work.

On My Hill
Here we are - before I get lost in other things - number 6! 
The fern fabric was printed while I was with Laura last year.  She gave me a screen printing lesson.  Where we live our hills are covered with beautiful ferns.  I love the colours, and especially as they change from summer to autumn.  So this is a good 'where am I' piece for me.  And feeling comfortable back working on my machine again! I'll keep plugging away at the handwork - but I just find using my sewing machine so much more comfortable. Now - onwards and upwards to next year...