Swedish Textiles

So here is the next one, this time it is based on Swedish textiles. In the Dalarna area of Sweden there are many textile museums and I love the bags that the women wear hanging from their waist.
This is made using hand dyed woollen felted fabric, and stitched using a thick top stitch thread.
Gillian

Indian Lady

I made this quilt a few weeks ago and then forgot to put it up on the website.
I made a drawing from a piece of Indian textiles that I bought in India and had a thermofax screen made.
I painted the background, block printed using a small wooden block, then appliqued the lady.
I then screen printed using my thermofax along the edge and added machine stitch.
The "shisha glass" patterns along the edge are made using sweet papers.
Gillian

Thought Bubbles. 

I’ve been looking at a couple of postcards of Miro paintings – really abstract ones - this is part of one of them.  I really like the counterchange in the shapes as they are crossed by line. Well this piece is nothing as complex as Miro’ work – but my step in that direction!  Of course with my theme of circles I needed to use circles and soon enough they turned into thought bubbles.  Working on these pieces I am discovering how hard it is for me to work to a particular size, trying to make sure I fit what I want to make into that particular size and shape when I so often normally just let a quilt grow until it’s done!

 I’m pleased with this one – in particular with the ‘binding’.  I knew I didn’t want a traditional binding on this, and after a conversation with Laura about what can and cannot be used to finish the edges of quilts :) I found this, a soft fluffy cord that was surpisingly easy to stitch into place, I like the rough appearance to the edges. The background and the cord are my own hand dyed indigo.  Also most of the fabrics in the bubbles are my own hand dyes – except for the crackle pieces that are from Ghana.  Threads are a mix of metallic and rayon. 

 

 

So - number 4 complete before the end of August - feeling rather pleased with myself for that!  The next one may not be so easy - Sept and Oct are busy months.

Magie

Under the surface: Coral

Continuing with my series 'Under the surface' I have moved on to look at photographs of coral reefs as a source for the final three pieces this year. As usual I started with with white cotton and dyed a deep blue. I then used discharge paste to  take out some of the dye, then over dyed and discharged again to try to create the different depths of the sea around the coral. Finally a stronger discharge paste was used to take out all the colour to create the coral. Thickened dye was used to create the colours of the coral.    On reflection I am sure I could have achieved a similar result by using fabric paint rather than this long discharge and dye process but I like the transparency of dyes over paints. The piece was machine embroidered to get the detail of some of the coral  with rayon threads before sandwiching it all together and then quilting the sea around the coral.  

30 Quilters' Mews

30 Quilters' Mews
The first three quilts for this year I feel are rather sombre and serious, so for the next three I wanted something more light hearted and frivolous with brighter colours, which is really more what I enjoy, both to look at and to make.
I would love to live in a street of quirky houses with like-minded people living nearby. I had to include some text to fit in with my theme of letters and words. Raw edge appliqué and fused materials, with free motion quilting.

I have had some computer gliches (mostly the operator's inability!) but at long last I think I am up and running with the blog. My quilts are all up to date so here is the third one in the series of People, Places and Patterns. 
Whilst travelling in India a few people that I met made a big impression on me. It may have been their stoicism or fortitude in the face of adversity or it may have been their craftmanship and skills.
This piece is called the Bead Maker. His skill and ability to take a bead through a series of processes to make a beautifully shaped and coloured item was a treat to watch. I have integrated the image of the beadmaker with block printing which ia another traditional Indian way of adding pattern to cloth.
Pat Archibald

More Faces From the Past

I have finished this last piece for a few days now, but have not had time to post it on the blog. It is part of the ongoing series of faces from the past. This particular  figure is from the Royal Portal at Chartres Cathedral. I  reduced the photo I had taken to a drawing and then created a gocco screen in order to make the print ( and that wasn't without problems. I had stored the screen material in a place that is subject to a lot of heat in summer and the plastic has started to come away from the mesh, so that my screen is flawed, but as I haven't got the time or the money to get new mesh, i shall have to live with it! Gocco screens are similar to thermo fax screens but these days it is very expensive to get the bulbs to expose the screen as the company stopped making them)

The copper bands are actual copper tape, which I purchased somewhere in the past which i have cross stitched onto the surface ( it did have adhesive on one side of the tape but I thought I had better  make it more secure than just relying on the adhesive) and the rest of the piece has been machine stitched.

Nr. 3

In the nick of time! I have been working on my third quilt for 2013 for quite a long time. I found it difficult to work with the face, but in the end I am quite happy with it.

The middle part was done with a kind of photo transfer. I say kind of, because I copied the photo onto a transparency/ overhead sheet, planning on making a screen print. However, the ink did not dry so I just rubbed it off onto the fabric. This actually gave a lovely, if quite vague, image. Then I did the side parts using a flour resist. However this required quite rough handling which almost made all of the ink disappear. In the end I used fabric paints to recover the image and finished off with machine and hand stitching.

Pebbles 3

For this third piece I have used a different method of discharging and over dyeing to create the images of the pebbles before quilting and over colouring parts of the pebbles. All pebble pieces were based on  photos taken of the pebbles in the stream at the bottom of our garden at different times of the year in varying light conditions. In this piece I have tried to capture the strong sunlight illuminating both the river bed and the pebbles.

For this piece I have been experimenting with some pigment based soluble wax artists sticks to add additional colour on top of the original discharge pebble shape, I have found they can be fixed with heat or a watered down fabric medium - I used Golden.

Jean

Murky Waters

I just realized I forgot to do the third posting. I finished it for my final surface design class in April, and had forgotten about it.

I printed  and stenciled the leaves using natural dyes on an indigo ground, then I quilted around them. I have had a lot of fun using my leaf stamps. I hope to do more with the idea in the future.

Over the top I put a deep blue organza, and hand stitched in the textured pleates. This was too bright, so I got a dark green organza and put in the circles of the ripple.This shows in the second picture, but the colours are very different in real life. The camera sees through the layers almost better than the eye. In the end I got an A+ for the class, so I guess I should be happy.