Wind Me In The Sea : SOLD

Amongst all the gloom, something wonderful.  I've  sold my  textile artwork  ' Wind me in the Sea'   to  a collector  of Japanese textiles. 

I was contacted  out of the blue, they'd seen it  when exhibited  with 7th European Quilt Triennial ,  was it for sale ? After an exchange of  lovely emails (  we found we  had  many  shared interests  )  I was very happy to sell it knowing it  would be going to   a good home where it could be displayed.   

Its a very personal  piece of  indigo scraps  stitched to  lengths of Japanese kasuri  from a kimono purchased  in Tokyo  when I travelled there with Susan Briscoe in 2006:  

" A  year of stitching in the form of a winding cloth: double-sided, semi-translucent in a continuous loop. Mainly sewn on train journeys, my stitching, like my travels, continues and repeats looping back to familiar and treasured places " 

 

  

I was thrilled when it was  juried  into the 7th  European Quilt   Triennial,  it was exhibited  at:  

Textilsammlung Max Berk Heidelberg (D)  19.09.2018 – 06.01.2019

Kreismuseum Zons Dormagen (D)    18.01.2019 – 24.03.2019

Textiles Centrum Haslach (A)            11.05.2019 – 30.10.2019

Textile Museum St. Gallen (CH)           14.02.2020 – 19.04.2020

 It was supposed  to have come to the UK as part of the Festival of Quilts  2020  where I was looking forward to  not only helping to set up the exhibition and steward but also to see all the wonderful other quilts in the exhibition.   Alas  COVID  intervened so it was  returned to me  and was still carefully packed up in its bag .  

 I  unfolded  it for one last look  reminding myself of the  journeys made  stitching it   before carefully packing  it up and posting it .  It has now arrived with its  new owner who has let me  know how much they appreciate it.  I hope one day to visit . 

  Now I'm  inspired to start  again on it's companion  piece  "Wrap  Me In The Shore"  which has been   put aside since NW retreat  in February . Though  I won't be stitching  on the train  anytime  soon I look forward to  playing with  scraps  and remembering past travels. 

 

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 ! 

EDAM Term 3 Week 3 " Meanwhile..." Making Connections

 I'm still doing my daily drawing  in A6  sketchbooks  and am beginning to use it to 'capture'  ideas  for EDAM "Meanwhile …"  project  such as fold out maps using photocopies with drawings on the back  ( above )  and stitching on  acetate  using my sewing machine ( below) , in this case testing out the effect of the different  stitches. I may well use  a similar technique for  next CQ Journal  Quilt as   for the next 4 we're  encouraged to use  materials other than cotton .   

And while I had my  sewing machine out, I sewed copies of photos onto graph paper ( above)  and painted papers with maps on the back ( below)  to make into accordion  books.  

 Unlike last  week when we had photos of  different artists approaches etc,  this week , with a different tutor Annie Attridge  we were just doing our own work.  We have a 'WhatsApp' group and before the class started there were messages pouring in with apologies for absence  from various  members of the group.  Those of  us that had turned up were  discussing  our  feelings of panic and inadequacy   (  like  pre exam nerves when you think you haven't done enough)  but Lucinda reassured us  that was what it was like for artists, it's normal  !   With only half the group , we had plenty of room to spread out ( I had 2 tables and  a large section of wall) and  we talked more among ourselves about  what we were doing  and  there was time for each of us to have a  useful tutorial with Annie. 

 I made the most of the wall space and opportunity to make a mess  and  thinking of the large scale drawing  session with Tony did 3 simultaneous  A1 charcoal drawings.

      

  On each  sheet of paper I drew a quick sketch from a tiny photo of the view from the train, rubbed it down  and did a second  of a different  view over the top  and then a third . I then  drew the interior of the train carriage , the edge of the window or the seat . After talking with Annie, she suggested  using a much darker line in ink   and more use of eraser to introduce a lighter tone , to define the difference  between interior and exterior.  

Definately something to explore further even if  none of them are finished works in themselves there are elements I like , eg the use of eraser to introduce idea of reflections  in glass  or  the speed of lines of wires  rushing by, the contrast between static  interior and motion of exterior . And those curves  are becoming a bit of a signature for me !   

 I also had the space to put up the  work I produced last week which I discussed  with Annie.  We agreed  the quick collage with  charcoal drawing over the top  ( below)   definately has potential   so I'll be doing more of those next week  ( minus the timetable, that element didn't work so well)  

 

 On a different scale , we discussed   the accordion  book structures I'd made with my stitched papers  ( above) ( and also the idea  of using the Moleskine planner)  but  she thought they were  bit  obvious, what she really liked was  the simplicity  of the  ink  drawings I'd been doing  based on drawings from maps.   

 So I've brought these home, cut them into  thinner strips and pleated them , ready to take on the train to  write in , draw on, stitch into.  There's obviously  something about the  strip  format    that I can't let go of at the moment , from 'Wind Me In the Sea"   to  my 'Grasmere Cloths'   ( below)  so I'm going with the flow !