CQ Journal Quilts May to August : Indigo boro

Indigoboro JQ detail 

 My Journal Quilts  this year   are  based around scraps : January to April involved using the offcuts from my own quilts; for May to August  I've been excavating sections of old tatty quilt  which I've recently overdyed in indigo.  I'd  already started  cutting through layers and stitching some of them  them before  dyeing . It's difficult to know how far to go both in revealing the different fabrics and in stitching  but its a fascinating process. Perhaps I need to do a  video  next time!

MRamsay_May18_Indigoboro1

This one I started stitching at Rydal but put to one side.  This was the most disappointing as it took the indigo very evenly , I preferred the original colours (below)) 

  I did have  fun trying to remember how to buttonhole stitch around the holes. It was also a reminder about how difficult it can be to take decent photos of indigo , getting the colour right.  

Indigoboro1 detail

MRamsay_ June18_ Indigoboro2 

This section had already disintegrated and didn't need much cutting back through the layers. The layers of brown wool did not take  up so much of the indigo as the cotton fabrics.   I discovered some sashiko threads I've had for a while   but I think I rather overdid it....  

Indigoboro2 detail

MRamsay_July18_Indigoboro3

 Section from a different quilt . It was filthy when I bought it and after going through the washing machine, a lot of the fabrics disintegrated ( had to clean out the  filter on the machine!). The red patches in particular had disappeared apart from the seam allowances.  After dipping in indigo , learning from the previous JQ, I added just enough stitch to emphasise the shapes ( it was already heavily quilted)  

Indigoboro3 detail 

MRamsay_Aug18_Indigoboro4 

My favourite. I liked the different stripes in this section of quilt and as it was dyed towards the end  of the session, the indigo wasn't that  strong. I started by stitching  either side of the creases to emphasise them  and tried a range of stitches: couching; buttonhole; chain stitch and in the triangle  experimented with  leaving loops in the thread

Indigoboro 4 detail 

After these  small trials, I've now got more confidence to start working a bit larger ( and probably doing something different for the next  set of JQ's while still using scraps ) 

CQ Suitcase Collection : Indigo Hill Arches ( Henry Moore)

 The ' Suitcase Collections ' of Contemporary Quilt  are very popular and give the opportunity for all kinds of groups or individuals who borrow them  to see a  diverse selection of work.   I submitted  pieces for 2 previous  collections and  for the latest,  'My Favourite Artist'  I chose  Henry Moore. 
So difficult to choose a favourite artist, I like so many! I had intended to do a piece based on the  paintings of Wilhelmina Barnes- Graham  as I'd done  several exercises inspired by her work as part of online class with Elizabeth Barton on  Abstract Art for Quiltmakers . But with the deadline looming, I decided to  cut-down and re-use a piece I made several years ago based on depicting multiple viewpoints of a sculpture.

The Henry Moore sculpture that inspired me , ‘Hill Arches’ ,was part of an exhibition at Kew Gardens in 2007. At the time I as working there as a botanist and I loved having access to these sculptures over many months, able to view them in different lights and viewpoints.  I made several journal quilts exploring ways of  interpreting  a 3D piece in 2D textiles( see below)  I liked how the sculptures and their environment interacted and the marks on many of the bronzes reminded me of stitches.

Two black and white images  of  'Hill Arches' sculpture by Henry Moore  were combined in  Photoshop. This was inkjet printed using 'poster printing' function to split an image over 4 A4 sheets onto hand dyed indigo cotton and silk treated with 'BubbleJet Set'.  Machine quilted with variegated threads, hand stitched with cotton perle thread  

Red Circles ( September JQ)

 Hand stitching in the evenings is just about keeping me sane! This is my Journal Quilt for September. Using the same idea of positive and negative  circles  from my July  piece and the boiled wool which is a delight to stitch into( if a bit stretchy), I used thick  red crochet cotton and French knots. In some ways it was more challenging than little black stitches ( I'm not an embroiderer)  but I quite like that they're a bit lumpy and uneven.

49 Quilts

 

This morning  Sue came round to help me pack up my quilts. I started with covering the  bed with hand quilted  'Medieval Tile Quilt' that took me 7 years  to make!   Then   brought quilts together from the Georgian mahogany chest they're normally stored in and those draped over the bannisters from hanging on the walls and lay them on the bed to sort by size and type.  I cut 'noodles' to size  while Sue ripped strips of old sheet and then rolled  and tied them in  3's and 4's.  The largest quilts were refolded and placed in pillowcases. Next step will be matching the rolls with storage bags or wrapping them in  pillow cases  and sheets ( run out of time to make more bags and my machines are now packed up anyway). I ordered some metre high cardboard boxes for transporting them. 

There's 49 quilts here - not counting the 9 that are currently away from home for exhibitions(Cwilt Cymru and International Threads)  and the 220ish Journal Quilts in  2 very large plastic boxes....
That's an awful lot  of investment of time  ( at least half are hand stitched) but I've enjoyed every minute.

 

Shore Marks

 A difficult week coming to terms with the fact that  one month of my notice has gone already, increasingly anxious  about finishing off everything I need to in the remaining few weeks.  The annual Kew Carol Service  was a joy, especially singing  O Radiant Dawn, but underscored  with sadness, especially thinking about Nigel Veitch, our choir conductor to whom the service was dedicated .  I won't be part of it next year and it's proving  increasingly hard to  have to tell people that I'm leaving Kew and cope with their reactions and questions.
So I spent some time over the weekend absorbed in the solace of stitching, piecing together  one of my quilts for 'International Threads'  exhibition in Prague in April 2015.  
This  quilt is for the theme on 'Creating visual texture with repetition'.   I started out with a  kola shibori dyed  piece of  damask cloth bought from African Fabric Shop  and a piece of the same fabric that I'd put in the indigo vat. The repetition is from the lines, the  underlying patterns on the damask and from the accidental marks of indigo left on the original cloth  which I will emphasise  with  indigo stitch marks. I feel the need for some hand stitching at the moment to keep me anchored.   

A creative weekend and strange plant memories

 

At last, some creative time squeezed in this weekend!  Sue  and I had scheduled a 'play date' for Sunday afternoon to look at the results of  our rust dyeing  workshop with Alice Fox and to  do some sewing. So  Saturday was spent assembling bits to work on including some Journal Quilts ( more on that in another post)   and finally getting round to trimming down and facing the first challenge  for 'International Threads' group. I'm embarrassed to say that we're now   on our  fifth ( although I've completed others in between)
It has been almost finished for a long time.  A wholecloth piece of Japanese silk shibori  layered over an African damask ,  it's been a labour of love, hand stitched  using a variety  of loops and other stitches  trying out techniques from Helen Parrott's book. It's accompanied  me on several train journeys, the format of 40 x 80 cm being a good travel piece to work on.
It looks quite sinister and plant-like  reminding me of the carrion flower so I'm calling it 'Red Stapelia' .

At one time in the  small glasshouse at work  where we  had plants that had originally been grown in the lab, there was an enormous Stapelia that took up most of a bench, very  ' Little Shop Of Horrors' .  The smell was something else.... It even had a proper engraved  label which besides  the accession number and  family, genus, species details also bore the  plants name :' Cedric the Poo Plant'. Alas Cedric is no more, removed when the  glasshouse changed use many years ago

100 metres of thread

Yesterday I posted my entry for CQ Horizons exhibition at Festival of Quilts. I was stitching the facing and sleeve on late of Tuesday night - I'd taken time off work on Monday and Tuesday to do that but couldn't resist adding extra stitching -it's addictive!! I reckon I've used  over 100 metres of thread, estimated from  counting the lines on the back (above).

 I did the majority of the stitching (thanks Hilary for the photo of me in action!)  while on  Summer school retreat at Farncombe , a joy to be among supportive company in a peaceful, beautiful landscape, well fed and watered.

Re-purposing old textiles combined with painting with acrylics and hand stitch  brought together what I love best . I've  still got some of this old red and white strippy quilt left  and am pondering how best to use it in a similar fashion

Sand Ripples IV

 

Finally completed the last of my CQ 'Shades of Yellow' Journal Quilt based on sand ripples. This one took as much stitching as the other 3 put together  but I love the effect. I altered a photo of ripples in photoshop, printed it on organza, cut it into sections and overlaid it on some yellow fabric and then hand stitched with 2 colours of 'House of Embroidery' cotton perle. 

It wasn't conscious but I like the progression across the four, both the connection through the curves and the change from  machine to hand stitch.
I'm returning to my beloved doors for the next four months JQ's  'Shades of Blue' and for my next larger project.