1000th Blog Post : Studios; quilts; doors, ceramics, travel; plants; drawing, Kew; museums, City Lit; stitching

 My 1000th  blogpost had crept up on me unawares! While I haven't been blogging so much of late ,   using Instagram and Facebook more for sharing what I'm up to, I still find it a useful tool as a 'reflective journal' when I've been doing courses to  record my thoughts and investigations.

 I decided to look back  in an organised  random way ( if that makes sense ! )at what I was  doing on 100th, 200th etc   and actually the main themes  of  what interests me  ( plants, art , textiles, travel)  all come through  even in a relatively  small selection.

My first post in August   2007 was on moving from Ealing to Brentford   and showed the studio space I  was leaving behind so it seems appropriate  to show my current studio arrangements  for the 1000th.  I would never have anticipated the traumas of losing my job and moving  to a new town  and life but after nearly 4 years I'm more settled and  revelling in the opportunities it has given me. Enjoy!

 Post 1 :magsramsay.blogspot.com/2007/08/sewing-space-old-place

Post 100: magsramsay.blogspot.com/2008/07/100th-post-labyrinths-and-elements

Post 200 :magsramsay.blogspot.com/2010/01/tunisian-shop-advertising

 Post 300:magsramsay.blogspot.com/2010/11/ancient-shards-new-materials

 Post 400:magsramsay.blogspot.com/2011/10/deductive-monotypes

Post 500:magsramsay.blogspot.com/2013/02/cherubs-at-haberdashers

Post 600 : magsramsay.blogspot.com/2014/05/across-foot-of-mount-oxa

 Post 700: magsramsay.blogspot.com/2015/08/sketching-ceramics-at-V&A

Post 800:magsramsay.blogspot.com/2016/12/drawing-tuesday-keys-and-kew

Post 900:magsramsay.blogspot.com/2018/03/contemporary-collage-week-9-cubomania

 Post 1000:  I still haven't worked out a  decent  design wall space ( I currently use  to top landing - Ian's claim I'm taking over the whole house is not without foundation ... )  but I really like my studio space with its cutting  table raised on sand castle buckets and the combination  of wall and trolley storage.

 Most of all I love my 2 sewezi tables : 1 currently has my Bernina  sewing   machine set up on it and the other with a wooden insert in  by the window I use for hand stitching ( when I'm not sewing on the train ) , looking out over the green, 

Book of Elounda - Textures and Patterns

Some pages from my 'Book of Marks' from Elounda, Crete.

Compiled on site  from: watercolours and sketches on Fabriano Medievalis cards ; colour catchers  with frottage and acrylic paint monoprints ; fabrics brought with me -my own indigo and  hand dyes from Alter Ego (I'm also the lucky owner of one of Jo's sketchbooks thanks to a birthday present from Sue!) .

Inspired by the local landscape ( especially the clouds and sunrises over Spinalonga peninsula) and the textures of the flora and peeling doors.

CQ AGM, Journals Quilts and an indulgance

 

Yesterday was the annual meeting of Contemporary Quilt in Central London, an event I look forward to eagerly each year with its opportunity to catch up with so many quilting friends. I picked up my copies of the 'Horizons' Catalogue ( Thanks Hilary), thrilled to find mine is on the front cover!

This was a very successful exhibition  and it's about to go to the Prague Patchwork Meeting.

 

The afternoon talk was by Elizabeth Tarr, not a textile artist I was aware of,  she works a lot with indigo (particularly on paper), now buying Chinese shibori pleated skirts from Slow Loris rather than dyeing her own. A lot of the pieces she showed on slides was very dark and difficult to photograph- the example she'd brought with her showed better the richness and depth she achieves. With indigo  I go for marks rather then the intensity she aims for - just shows how versatile a dye it is, more determined than ever to set up a vat this summer.  She did a whole series around painting' Las Meninas' by Velazquez of the Spanish Infanta, admitting this style of painting wasn't really her thing but adapting images from it to tell her own stories. It made me think of the courses I did at the National Gallery,  finding links to pictures in all kinds of unexpected ways which I am still processing.  

 



Bringing small quilts to the meeting was my incentive to finish off some journal quilts: 2 based on my surroundings at Rydal ('Rydal Colours' and 'Rydal Beck') and 1 an  experiment with all kinds of red marks: pen, stitch and finger painting!

Finally a wander around Covent Garden indulging myself  in London Graphic Centre with a box of  100 Fabriano Medievalis  cards as used on 'Human Marks' class. I'd told myself that I could easily make them myself from watercolour paper but actually because they're mould-made with a  slightly thinner area on the fold, they work much better in  handmade books of  marks. I'm planning to take some ( along with colour catchers, paints and threads ) when we go to Crete in  less than 4 weeks.

Thread and Surface

 

 Just received my copy of the 'Thread and Surface' Limited Edition  Sketchbook  Project   which includes a spread from my 'Distressed Doors' sketchbook.  

 

It's fascinating to see what other people have done with the same theme,  reminding me with pleasure of the evening I spent at Canada Water library looking through sketchbooks and giving me the inspiration to get cracking with my 2013 project which I've left to the last minute as usual!!

 

I think they chose well - the image of the door in a cave at Sougia in Crete  is the strongest composition.





 

 

The pages of my sketchbook were constructed from used 'colour catchers', treated with either inkaid or Golden Digital Ground and inkjet printed photos. I joined them together with connecting strips of non-printed colour catchers using zig-zag and then stitched them by machine using Madeira Polyneon thread.
Above are the 2 sides of the same sheet and below that how it looked once bound.

Cretan watercolours of buildings

Mosque of the Janissaries

With more time for painting, one of my favourite subjects  was the 'Mosque of the Janissaries' (orKucjk Hassan Mosque ) on Chania harbourfront - the oldest Ottoman building in Crete. From the guide book:" Here the Christian-born slaves of the Ottoman Empire worshipped , although little did it improve their character; not only did they terrorize the Greeks , but in 1690 they murdered the Pasha of Chania and fed his body to the dogs". It's currently an art exhibition space.....

I had my own troubles to deal with : I'd started sketching from a bench and then  a string of horse and carriages parked themselves right in front of my view - I had to peer round and hope that some tourists would turn up for a ride.

I had a better vantage point on another day - in a rooftop cafe with a grandstand view. At the table next to us was an art  tutor from a local college and 2 of her students. They  made a much better job of the perspective but the tutor was very kind about my colours - a rather enhanced version of the  faded pinks. A lovely spot for a fresh orange juice or Greek coffee with the background clatter of backgammon.