Surface, Structure, Stitch at City Lit Week 8 (and February Journal Quilt )

   CQ JQ  Feb20   Mussel Holes 

   Week 8  of Surface, Structure, Stitch  and  the start of our 5 weeks working on our own project .  Each person shared their ideas and I showed  my 'homework'  from Glenthorne

 When I was talking to  Louise ,  we looked  in particular  at the multiples I'd produced  ( the stack of colour catcher shapes disintegrated   as she handled it as I hadn't  secured it sufficiently, beads everywhere! )  suggesting overlapping strings of them, perhaps using  an acrylic box from  Muji  to display them. I went at  lunchtime to have a look , what an array of  possibilities.  

 I put together more ' sandwiches'  of  indigo fabrics with bondaweb between  but then  started playing with the 'holes '  leftover  from  cutting them out , putting together  9 inch journal Quilts  using denim from jeans in the scrap basket.   

 The  stack of colour catchers with holes in was particularly  exciting  and Louise had some ideas about  stitching them  together. Many people weren't familiar with the potential of  used colour catchers ( or what they were )  but I've been using them for years including  the start of daily drawing practice in 2013 ( tho it didn't get too far )  

  I've even used the holes before  in this  Journal Quilt  from  2009 

 I was also reminded  how much I like the shapes  and limited colour palette  in Paul Feilers work 

  Back at home,  I followed Louise's  suggestion of  quilting from the back with  a heavier thread in the bobbin

 Now I just need to  sort out what I'm doing in tomorrow's class....

Grasmere Retreat 2020 ( and Surface, Structure,Stitch homework )

 Last  week I was in the Lake District, staying at Glenthorne  Guest House  in Grasmere on my 9th NWCQ  retreat . Unlike  previous years , I didn't do very much  sketching  this year ( even falling behind  a bit on my daily drawing )  but a fair bit of  stitching.  Given the poor weather conditions I'm glad I did my  'Grasmere Cloths' last year, it would have been  very challenging this year! 

 The trains to Oxenholme  had been delayed/cancelled in the storms of the previous week due to flooding  so I was relieved that it was only 15 minutes late.   Karen picked me up and the driving  conditions in snow and flooded roads  were difficult ( these photos  near Windermere were taken out the window waiting our turn to go up on the pavement, the  water being so deep) 

Glad to arrive at Glenthorne, this was the view from my bedroom window  ( and below , on a better day , the view towards the guest house )

The studio  building among the trees  and the table space divided equally with masking tape between the 13 of us ( with the usual jokes about ' encroachment' when materials creep over the line) ) 

 The main project I'd brought to work on  were the different sections  of  #trainstitching work in progress  " #wrapmeintheshore" as I'm getting to the stage  of working out how to hang it/ display it.  I don't want to replicate exactly what I did for #windmeinthesea  so was seeking  advice  from the others  and I'm glad to say have come away with lots of  suggestions.   It looked lovely with the wintery light shining through it, shame it would be difficult to replicate  under gallery/exhibition conditions.

 As it was the 10th year of these retreats , we had several    shared activities to   mark it. We know each other so well now, it feels like we pick up where we left off , always lots of laughter  but also understanding  of each others  circumstances .

Besides 2 entertaining and informative  quizzes in the evening from Jean and Ruth and  a fun drawing  session  with Millie)   we'd each brought a piece of denim  which was sewn together by Judy to form a bookcover/ bag  for the photo album/ scrapbooks  that Millie puts together documenting our  activities. We took it in turns to add some stitching by hand and machine  

  The ' extension'  activity for those who wished to do so ( all of us  in the end!)  was to each bring  a piece of fabric/thread/ beads in indigo or red and make something with them ( we did a similar exercise led by Linda B. when we used paper  ) The rules evolved into  being allowed to incorporate 2 other  materials of our own and  leave out one of the  original if we wished.

 The resulting  works  were extremely varied, from a beaded tree; bookwraps;  mini collages; bookmarks; journal quilts   to my ' barnacle' . 

 I used a patched piece of the Japanese kasuri  from my  trainstitching   with  pieces of the fabrics with a mussel  shape cut out. My other addition was red thread   which I used to sew  13 lines  in kantha style stitching   

 I then gathered it up  into a shell shape ( using the indigo beads  to fasten it) ,  weighted with a wrapped cord made of  red and blue flowery  fabric  

  In between sewing sessions  went for  short walks in the ever changing weather conditions, going shopping for  Grasmere Gingerbread and  warm winter 'trews'  ( the trousers I'd brought  with me, even with thermals , weren't up to it ) .  

 We were  very well fed at the Guesthouse  with  cooked breakfast and 3 course evening meal   but still managed to fit in lunches of  delicious soups and cakes  at Mathildes  after browsing the  Heaton Cooper  art shop painting supplies ( buying more Pitt artist Calligraphy Pens in different colours) 

 Fortified by coffee and cake  I returned to work on my 'homework' for  ' Surface, Structure, Stitch' at City Lit ,  taking one shape and playing with it in multiples

 I took a mussel as my source shape, in 2 different sizes,  using  colourcatchers ( above) with  a spacer  bead between each shape  and   some indigo  and cream fabrics sandwiched with bondaweb  ( below) , with a few stitches to  hold them in position. Lots of potential. 

  We left at Friday lunchtime   under ominous skies with very wet snow. I was travelling with Judy , the spray on the motorway was dreadful , so glad  that thanks to her hospitality  I could make a more leisurely train journey back home on Saturday

 The view from the train between Crewe and Stafford  in particular was of a landscape of flooded fields

 Safely back home in Faversham , after an early dinner at ASK, appropriately enough  we had tickets  for ' Waterways ' in St Mary of Charity's Church.  The Sunday before we'd gone to 2 talks ( Mudlarking and  the way to the sea  at Faversham Literary Festival  with lunch  at the Carriage  Restaurant in between  so it's been a watery week ! 

Surface, Structure, Stitch at City Lit: Week 1

 I really enjoyed the first session  of  ' Surface, Structure, Stitch'  with Louise Baldwin  at City Lit. Although I've done lots of drawing and painting courses there, this was the first textile  course I've done . The session with Ruth Brison  during EDAM gave me a taster of the possibilities of combining drawing and stitch and I'm interested in moving more into 3D  work so it seemed the prefect combination.  I love  Louise's work, and bought a small piece for  our wedding anniversary in 2016 and I'd heard  from other students  that her teaching  and encouragement  were excellent. 

EDAM  Limpets in paper and stitch 

 The course  is 12 weeks , the first 7 weeks exploring techniques  and the final 5  applying them to a  theme  ' Held by Nature' . We started off with a  mind-mapping session in small groups exploring ideas around the starting point of  containers that occur in nature. 

There was a wide selection of shells,  seed pods etc   available and we made  several sketches of the textures  on sheets of paper divided up with masking tape ( good tip   to give frames around the marks ) 

After lunch we worked from these sketches   using  a variety  of different white papers  ( tracing paper , photocopier paper, tissue paper etc )   and gluing, stapling , stitching  to hold them together .  

 I loved the effect  of crumpled tracing paper   and once home , I scanned some of my  paper textures  ( Louise had taken some peoples work to photocopy, to show the effect  of  change of scale  and multiple copies )

 When she came to see what I'd been doing,  seeing how prolific I was  ( !)  she suggested taking one  or two of  my ideas and producing lots  and lots of them and join them together  in different ways

  I had good intentions to make more of these knots  but concentrated instead on ripping photocopier  paper and gluing  them down  with  torn edges slightly raised ( based on drawings of oyster  shells.)

  We finished with a Powerpoint showing images of  how  a variety of artists had interpreted natural objects , creating relief or 3D structures . Some like Debbie Lyddon  ( who I'll be doing a course with in July )  I was very familiar  with,  others less so.  

The next session is on machine quilting ( my main challenge will be getting used to  the college sewing machines !)  and homework  to start collecting images  to do with the theme. 

  I'd certainly like to  continue to explore  mussels  further. 

 From last years sketchbooks I'm inspired by the ' pod' forms of Junko Oki  and  Fabienne  Dorsman Rey 

  Chestnuts might feature 

   And  limpets of course!