August Journal Quilt

With some diligent stitching over the last few days I've caught up with my Journal Quilts!
The offering for August is one of several different size samples made to test out fabrics/techniques for my 'Tunisian Door'. Although I didn't have enough time in the end to sew metal beads on as 'studs' on the large quilt, I still wanted to try it out so did so on this sample. I think I made the right decision , although the beading looks good it takes an awful lot of them and perhaps takes away a bit from the fabrics which are the true stars.

I also sewed together the 3 Journal Quilts from 2010 that are going on display at Creative Stitches Show in Exeter, 23rd –26th September . From Left to Right: March Indigo Sea; February Llangollen Snow; July 9 Part Indigo Wave.
Unlike previous years, I did have a sort of theme this year in that every piece has indigo fabric and some of a Japanese blue/black fabric (even if it's only on the facing). It does add a sense of unity and hasn't been too much of a restriction so far.

Door Progress and Samples

I've been grateful for the overcast Bank Holiday weather as I've been motoring away on my sewing machine , quilting my door quilt. This was after taking over yet another room in the house for art activities, pinning the quilt on the extended dining room table.
I've completed all the door area using 4mm twin needle with different threads, it's amazing how much texture it adds.
I'd already worked out what I was doing in this area by preparing a 12 inch square sample where I'd tried different needle widths and ways of attaching the door handles and organza ' nails'.
Before I started quilting the arch and brickwork, I realised I needed to make a sample for that too!
Working on Journal Quilts (particularly the 12 inch square format) got me into making my samples up into properly bound mini-quilts. I find this years CQ format of 10 x 7 are a bit small for this purpose although I've enjoyed using scraps up! All useful for the 'story boards' I use for works in progress.
The other advantage of 12 inch square 'sample' mini-quilts is that they look great mounted on canvases , particularly in related groups .
I have a bit of a dilemma in relation to this - I have the opportunity to potentially exhibit some of these for sale in a new gallery. However I don't really have the time to mount more work and organize the paperwork as I'm entering a manic period at work ( 12 day stretch of back -to- back training and giving paper at conference) besides looming deadline for door quilt. Not forgetting 2 day lamination course at Art Van Go!
I'd be sorry to pass on this opportunity but would it distract too much from what I really want to do - make large pieces? I think I already know the answer but would appreciate your thoughts.

Been A Bit Quiet

The bug I brought back from Malham developed into phyringitis and laryngitis so I've been rather quiet this week apart from a hacking cough and croaky or nonexistent voice. In between snoozes, crunching paracetamol and sucking homemade treacle toffee( only thing that soothes) I've been making some progress on my Tunisian Door quilt.
I'd printed out some photos of door knockers onto fabric but wasn't satisfied how how they blended in with the back ground fabric. Time to crack out the 'inktense ' pencils and try to match the colours/markings of the shibori fabric.

Pleased with the results (top) and the time spent painstakingly glueing the 'nail' patterns on organza with FuseFX - fiddly but it alters the surface of sheers far less than Bondaweb. I used a bit of 'Badger Balm' on my hands while handling it (trick learnt for handling PMC) and that helped a bit.
I'm now auditioning bricks !
My peace was disturbed yesterday by a huge thud on the conservatory roof - a dead pigeon in the gutter. Using rubber gloves I lobbed it over the fence into the unused alley behind our garden but as it was rather a pathetic throw got Ian to apologize next door in case it had landed there. Ed thought it highly amusing but was grateful for the warning . Otherwise the first he might have known about it was Cipher(his dog) bringing him a present in bed.
As Pigeon Tales go, still got a long way to match Tilly the Jack Russell bringing in a pigeon with a bagel round its neck....

Thinking about Process

After an impromptu ' Ashes' dinner on Friday to commiserate with Sue, Peter, Brenda and Hazel who should have been travelling but weren't going anywhere (!) , I was feeling a bit dehydrated on Saturday going to AGM of Contemporary Quilt in Bloomsbury. It was great tho' to catch up with so many people I know ( some just virtually!).
In the afternoon there was a talk by quilt maker Anne Smith who's attitude and philosophy was breath of fresh air. She wasn't a 'name' known to some of us as she doesn't do workshops, enter quilts at FoQ, very little in fact of self promotion apart from this blog/website. She concentrates instead on making large quilts for entry into Biennial Quilt National (THE premier juried art quilt show) and in this she has been very successful, with 5 quilts accepted, her 2009 entry winning best in show.

She works in a very small room in her house( her first slide was of her venerable ironing board!) using recycled clothes in a very painterly way ,treasuring the worn and washed, stitching on tiny pieces to bring immense movement to her quilts ( none of this 'textile' or fibre' definition for her! ) She gave a fascinating insight into how she makes her quilts- the inspiration, the sketches and samples, the constant decision-making process of adjusting as she incorporates different elements. Besides bring along the prize winning quilts and samples (that we were free to handle!) she showed some pieces on slides that 'didn't work'. When I asked why they didn't work for her it was always to do with the composition not being up to scatch - her art background in ceramics and MA in Textiles and Ceramics showing through.
It was a bonus to hear from a Northern lass, coming from very near where I was brought up and knowing my old school which is being demolished this year (I'm returning 'home' for the first time in 15 years for the special 'end of era' reunion associated with it )
A lot of food for thought, the emphasis on process and strength of composition in particular
After a bit of retail therapy in The Bead Shop and London Graphic Centre (essential supplies of course!) I returned to working on my current project with renewed vigour
I'm making a quilt based on Tunisan Doors using African fabrics. Many of these doors have a smaller door cut into them and I'd been struggling with how to interpret this in fabric. After refering to Ruth McDowells book on 'Piecing' (an essential patchwork 'manual' ) I worked out in the sample above (with a few mistakes ripped out and sown again) how to cut out the door and reinsert it Deep breath and then I tackled the main section itself- and it worked!! Very satisfying.
Still quite a way to go on this piece but I can relate to Anne in enjoying the problem-solving aspects and knowing I need to give more consideration to the development of composition.

March and April Journal Quilts

I've been having a purge of quilt books (Ian is selling them on his Amazon Marketplace site'Snapupbooks') . One that I wouldn't get rid of and that is still fresh despite being published in 1996 is 'The Fabric Makes The Quilt' by Roberta Horton. I was thinking of it when for my March Journal Quilt 'Indigo Sea' I put together 2 Indigo shibori fabrics bought from Changs at recent Region 1 area day with some African damask from Magie Relph and they spoke 'waves' to me. There's been a bit of a discussion on BQL Yahoo group about the 'skinny insert' techniques of Alison Schwabe and I was also thinking of the curved techniques that Charlotte Yde taught at QGBI AGM in Cambridge. I'm really excited with the results and possibilities in cutting curves into these irregularly striped fabrics. The foreground reminded both Ian and I of sky reflected in wet sand ripples.
I'm also planning to use these stripey African shibori/tie dye fabrics in a quilt based on Tunisian doors and the use of 'skinny inserts' of a blue/black Japanese fabric proved just the job to suggest the cracks in between the wood panels . In April's Journal Quilt 'Berber Door' I've experimented with iron on transfer sheets to 'decorate' the door with the studded nail patterns and 'Hand of Fatima' patterns I saw on so many examples in Tunisia. I'm not sure what the pattern on the lower left means but we saw it everywhere in Le Kef . The transfer gives rather a plasticy feel but that seems quite appropriate for a crumbly door!

Honesty Samples and Quotes

A productive day:making bread and soup, changing the sheets, ironing a heap of shirts - and finishing my honesty quilt started here. It's been through almost as many transformations as my numerous samples, toiles and trials. I like to take photographs as I go along, partly to document process and make decisions, partly to identify the point I go astray! Of the 4 different stages this sample went through I quite like the final product above but version 3 had more going for it. Should know by now not to fiddle!



Time to think about the next project - Tunisian Doors in African fabrics. The turquoise palette is now expanded further than when I took this photo thanks to Magie's latest trip to Ghana!
While looking for a title for my quilt, I found an interesting selection of quotes about honesty:
" The elegance of honesty needs no adornment"
"The true measure of life is not length but honesty"
"Where is there dignity unless there is honesty"
The wierdest: "Honesty is never seen sitting astride the fence"

Great Mosque, Kairouan

The Great Mosque of Kairouan is Islam's fourth most holy centre ( after Mecca , Medina and Jerusalem). A beautiful, simple place (if on a grand scale) made of recycled Roman columns and carved stone, fitted together ingeniously into a harmonious whole.

Tunisian Door Knockers

Scruffy Tunisian Doors

My taste in doors is for the patched and peeling, doors of character. There were even more of these than the studded variety!These 2 examples in Kairouan also demonstrate 3 different knockers to summon different members of the household.

This was a closed up shop in Le Kef

The best examples though were in Tozeur, constrasting with the raised brickwork pattern.
This outer entrance to the courtyard of a mosque was my absolute favourite, a symphony of rusting and patched metal

Studded Tunisian Doors

The archetypal Tunisian door (as illustrated on guidebook covers) is blue and studded with rivets in a a variety of patterns reputed to confer good luck. We saw lots of these , particularly in Sidi Bou Said.
They did come in other colours too - we actually stayed in the 'Residence Venus'


This rather more rustic version was in Tozeur- made of palm 'wood'