Stitch Size?

My current quilting projects ( 2 for FoQ and a workshop for QuiltWOW) are plodding along without much to show or share at the moment. So my thoughts returned to a post on BQL Yahoo Group a few weeks ago, asking about quilting stitch size - how to obtain that 'heirloom' 14 stitches per inch. As my stitching has grown (literally!), it made me question what the ideal stitch length is and what constitutes 'ideal'. My current average stitch size ( as show in TBL 'Gythion Glow' above) is about 2 per inch. I can however stitch much smaller. This is my first ever quilt project c. 30 years ago - I was determined to get the teeniest stiches and worked up to 12 or 13 stitches per inch ( counted on the top only). In those days, pretty much all that was available was 2oz polyester wadding which is easy to stitch through and the cottons I pieced were from clothing from jumble sales - not too tight a weave. I used a 8 or 9 between and the specialised 100% cotton glazed quilting thread 'Belding Lily' from US. I started off using a 18" wooden quilting hoop but when the rectangular ones made from plastic tubing came available,this became my favourite - it still is as it's easy to adjust the tension evenly. In the late 80's /early 90's I settled on about 8 stitches per inch for consistency ( it took 7 years to hand quilt my one and only double bed quilt based on medieval tiles !)
When I got my Bernina sewing machine and could achieve small stitches that way, I started to increase the size of my hand stitching for decorative purposes, using cotton perle and silk buttonhole thread. In the late 90's it was about 5 stitches per inch in 'City Girl Dream of the Sea' (below)
And 5 years ago in 'Serifos Storm'(below) I'd increased (or should that be decreased!) to about 3 or 4 stitches per inch

As part of the TIF challenge last year , I returned to using glazed quilting thread but in huge tacking stitches (1 per inch! ) - appropriate to a piece about barely being held together. Although, with practice, I could probably achieve very fine stitching again ,my preference now is for combination of machine quilting and BIG handstitching which feels right for the scale I'm working now ( ignore the quilt police!) I use chenille needles ( needed to penetrate layers of acrylic paint as well as fabric and cotton wadding). The key it seems to me is evenness and consistency and developing a rhythm that suits and is enjoyable.

Festival of Quilts I

I've been to all 5 of the Festival of Quilts at the NEC so far (including coming back straight from my honeymoon but then Ian knew what he was taking on ) This year was the tightest turn round ever with arriving home from painting in the Dales on Friday late afternoon and being picked up by Sue 7 am on Saturday! I had a great time as usual, fitting in some retail therapy and looking at quilts in between catching up with friends ( many from 'blogland' ) I looked at the competition quilts first before the gallery spaces as I knew once I saw Dorothy Caldwells work I wouldn't want to look at anything else. More on that in another post.
I had 3 quilts on display so now they've been exhibited I can reveal them in their full glory. This one (Sky, Sea, Fire, Stone) was my entry for the Guild Challenge 'Elemental' and was started in an Angie Hughes workshop on using lettering at last years CQ summer school. It's built up of layers of organza, muslim and scrim (including some digital images) overprinted with words from printblocks ( so there is some acrylic paint in it!) It was hung in rather a dismal corner with a wooden bench in front next to a very bright quilt so it looked even more subdued. The judges comments were mainly complimentary apart from it could have done with more quilting which I agree with.

'Tideline -after the storm' was entered in 'Contemporary Small ' category. It is densely hand and machine quilted then overpainted with acrylic paints. It seemed to generate quite a lot of interest and the judges comments were mainly excellent or good. I was thrilled to find that it had been awarded 'Judges Choice' by Steve Lockie as favourite in the whole show! And finally there was the opportunity to display my 'Thin Blue Line' quilt 'Gythion Glow' just returned from exhibition at Dudley Art Gallery and Museum on the Contemporary Quilt group stand. While I think it is a well balanced and executed quilt and I enjoyed making it , I'm too close to it to appreciate it objectively. I've therefore been surprised at the amount of admiration it has gathered, to the extent that someone is buying it! It will however go on display in any further exhibitions, not least because it features as one of the postcards. I'm in a bit of a glow myself.

100th Post, Labyrinths and Elements

I've had my head down in more ways than one - finishing off my pieces for Festival of Quilts whilst suffering from vertigo and dizziness as a result of viral Labyrinthitus ( as if the tooth infection wasn't enough!) It's just as well that I'd finished the 'Tideline' piece which required machine stiching and some thought and concentration whilst painting.
This 'elemental ' piece was started in Angie Hughes 'Poetic Images' course during CQ summer school last year. Buying some wooden print blocks and printing more lettered fabric extended the piece beyond 'Sea' and 'Sky' to 'Fire' and 'Stone' ( component parts below). I'd already auditioned fabrics and roughly pinned it so only hand stitching was required which has been very therapeutic. It's colours are more subdued and gentle than my usual colour palette - a bonus in being soothing to stitch.


It's almost a year since I started this blog and this is the 100th post!
In that time I have moved house (and had the builders in); travelled to Greece, Romania and Iran; been inspired by Henry Moore sculptures in my work environment; participated in several challenges ( TIF, CQ Journal Quilts, CyberFyber exhange); had pieces of work in 2 exhibitions ( 3 if count the display of 2007 Journal quilts at Sandown).
Throughout the year , I've gained a great deal of insight by working through ideas and thoughts by writing about them here. The links forged between other like-minded bloggers have been even more important and their thoughtful comments have provided encouragement and inspiration. When I first started reading blogs and thought I might like to start one of my own, I had no inkling of the generous community spirit there is in 'blogland' (nor how addictive it would become!) Thank You!

Thin Blue Line - Gythion Glow

As the exhibition has now opened, time to reveal my contribution ' Gythion Glow'. The challenge was to produce a quilt 30 x 120cm , either horizontal or vertical format with a 'thin blue line' running horizontally across it

This is what its looked like to start with - kimono fabric with curved strip inserts, heavily stitched by machine and hand quilted.
Then I painted over it with acrylics! (detail below)

Working Through Ideas II

Another productive day - I posted off 'Gythion Glow' for the Contemporary Quilt 'Thin Blue Line' and entry forms for 2 quilts for the Festival of Quilts. One piece is near completion , the other is in the planning stages: I spent a happy morning printing photos and doing several sketches and watercolour studies. The idea or concept and planning what I'm going to do are always the most difficult and time consuming (but fun !) part, the execution is usually much quicker and straight forward. There was much chewing of pencil while filling in the entry form - first of all what category? I'd orginally received a form for 'Pictorial' but as it will probably end up quite abstract, I thought 'contemporary ' was more appropriate and printed off that form from the website. Then what size? I learnt my lesson from 'Strindberg Shore' which while it had impact took a long time to do. I've done several pieces 80-90cm square so settled for that - it's big enough to have a variety of scale of stitching but achievable.
The inspiration is the Town Beach at Paralio Astros - when we were collecting orange coloured stones for our 'World Beach Project' starfish, there had been a storm the day before and the patterns of seaweed , and the banks of sand and stones were fantastic - the next day they'd all gone (along with our artwork!)
I've added to my collection of 'Inktense' pencils - I particularly like the new ' brown madder' one , perfect for seaweed. My favourite mug has been relegated to pencil holder as it very soon developed a crack. It's a very large china one with the text " I am not awake yet, don't even think about talking to me". I'm not a morning person ( at least until I've had my coffee)

Moore Dismembered ( and More!)

The Henry Moore exhibition at Kew has finished and is being dismantled - I shall really miss having them around and wish I'd taken more opportunities to draw them. The Double Oval was one of the first pieces to go and as I didn't have a camera with me, missed the chance to take pictures of the combination of sculpture and crane ( both having been subjects of recent quilts!) . I've had my camera with me since as the sculptures are gradually dug up and moved to the end of the Broadwalk for crating up. They have fences and security staff ( not just for health and safety) so can't get too close but I rather like the strange juxtapositions and the 'bodies' taped up like bandages. It's like a cross between a zoo and a casualty department.

This weekend I had a frantic stitching and painting session and finished off my 'Thin Blue Line' challenge piece - I'm calling it 'Gythion Glow'. I'm not sure about the etiquette of sharing completed quilts before submitting them to exhibition so I shall just show a glimpse of the sky. I'm generally pleased with it - there were some problems with scale-up even tho' I'd done a 1/4 size sample. I need more practice mixing blues , the sea part didn't work so well but you'll have to wait to assess for yourselves.

My other recent project ( which I can now reveal as she's received it!) was a 60th birthday present for Sue. I knew she wouldn't want yet another cushion and wanted to make something that was useful and reflected our shared interests ( and her love of purple)

In the end I made a sketchbook cover with 60 samples of purple fabric from my stash, including bits of seams and buttonholes from shared charity shop buys , fabric she's given me and some African fabrics. I'm slightly ashamed to say that even with my recent stash edit, finding sufficient fabrics was no problem. I could also easily do the same for other colours.

I glued down the inch squares and zig-zagged them to a batik background (ebay purchase!) and used vilene as batting and made a matching card from a photo applied to monoprint tissue.

I've been interested to see the results on various blogs of a journal-making course run by Sue Bleiweiss. It's something I'd like to have a go at as a completed art project but for actual sketching in my view there's nothing to beat Daler Rowney hardback sketchbooks spiral bound as scrapbook/'lab-book' or casebound for drawing/painting out and about ( just have to watch that they don't have perforated sheets-I hate those). Having worked out how to do it, I now want to make covers for my own sketchbooks- perhaps with board inserts so that I can use the very cheap student sketchbooks available in floppy excercise book format.
If I could work out a way of having 2 extra hands that would be useful what with juggling my water pot ( lantern with handle) , watercolour box ('bijou' with thumb ring ) , sketchbook with bulldog clips (to keep page from flapping) PITT pens and No 10 travel brush ( not forgetting tissue to mop up the drips). I've tried substituting a water filled brush pen for the brush and water pot - ok for smudging watercolour pencils but not very satisfying brush marks.

Off to Cambridge on Friday with Sue for Quilters Guild AGM.- we're doing a workshop with Charlotte Yde and going on the coach outing to Ely. Should be fun!

Thin Blue Line Started

A couple of weeks ago I did a 1/4 scale sample piece to test out ideas and fabrics for Contemporary Quilt 'Thin Blue Line' challenge. I made it double sided - both main fabrics used were kimono/yakuta ( conveniently already a narrow width ) and painted with acrylics both sides. The woollen slubby fabric didn't work that well (at least on this scale - its delicacy is more suited to postcards etc) but I was pleased with the results on dark blue/black patterned cotton yakuta fabric which has a slightly starched finish So the Easter weekend was spent scaling up! The original inspiration was of boats moored at Gythion in Greece with the 'thin blue line' of hills in the background. I snipped sections out of the photograph to compress it down to a composition and proportions I was happy with and matched some of the colour in fabrics to insert as thin strips. Having to work to a fixed size of 30 x 120cm meant I had to use some maths and measuring to PLAN where I was going to insert them - not my usual style at all (normally I judge by eye and let things evolve)

I used the technique shown by Alison Schwabe - the strips are 3/4 inch wide and using a scant 1/4 inch seam allowance and careful adjusting and matching under the machine, can achieve gentle curves without using bias strips.

I've just started quilting( using the same fabric on the back although without the inserted strips means that if it all goes horribly wrong when painting, I get a second shot!) I'm using Vandana variagated thread and a double or triple needle. I managed to break 2 new double needles by not re-adjusting settings before inserting the needles - blame the Cava consumed!

Next steps are quilting from the back with perle in the bobbin to emphasise the boat masts and some serious hand stitching

Thin Blue Line Experiments

' Strindberg Shore'

Finally got round to trying out some ideas for Contemporary Quilt 'Thin Blue Line' challenge, continuing the themes of 'Strindberg Shore' in 30 x 120 cm format. I wanted to look at different proportions of sea, sky and shore, with the horizon line between sea and sky being the blue line. Some of my inspiration (besides some more Strindberg paintings ) included photos and a drawing from Ireland and Greece, paintings by Terry Frost and monoprints by Trevor Sutton.I'm also trying out a different material - a cotton yukata fabric from Japan in blues and blacks. I quilted this with a twin needle to get slightly raised lines on what will be a 12 inch square when finished ( CQ Journal Quilt size- cunning eh!) I marked off 2 areas with masking tape to the same proportions as the Thin Blue Line and painted with acrylics, varying the horizon line.

With the masking tape removed, I quite like the contrast with the unpainted fabric. Not sure which horizon line/ proportions I prefer ( if any) - I'm afraid I 'fiddled', always a danger when working on such a small scale and the painting is not as fresh and lively as it could be.

I'm not that happy in particular with the 'sea' part or the definition of the horizon line. I'm confident mixing blues in watercolour but am struggling in acrylics ( got round that in 'Strindberg Shore' by using indigo dyed fabric after a few abortive attempts). Maybe it needs a line of blue fabric introduced or a left unpainted? More experiments needed!