Surface, Structure, Stitch at Cit Lit: Week 3 ( on vacation)

 I missed the 3rd session of  Surface, Structure, Stitch   at City Lit as  I was on holiday for the week in Weymouth( our 13th visit).   I'd had a discussion  with Louise the previous week on  how I might approach adding handstitch to my   machine quilted piece so I'd brought lots of supplies with me to do my homework, spreading out on the dining room table  in the cottage.  My mum was an embroiderer  but my stitching so far has been  very plain, variations on straight stitch,   so  I spent time on the train studying  my mum's copy of  Anchor pamphlet ' 100 Embroidery Stitches' ( Price  6p!)  and a more recent purchase of  Constance Howard's  Book of Stitches ( which  cost rather more  than  secondhand )   

 A lot  of restaurants and pubs were closed during our  stay for either holidays or refurbishment  so we had several meals  at old favourites the Cove House Inn in Chiswell, Portland and the  Taste Cafe at Chesil Beach Visitor Centre overlooking the Fleet lagoon.  Spending nearly a whole day there   on  Ian's Birthday, we were aware of the tides and the effect on the screened views from the underwater cameras ( which I drew  in my sketchbook)

 On the Wednesday when I would have been in my class, somebody posted work on Instagram  at lunchtime  so I could share  in what  other students were doing  . Several were using embroidery hoops so   I had a practice on a bit of old shirt sleeve  of some  new stitches - I particularly  like the 'wave' stitch in different  types of thread .

I then had the confidence to add  these to the machine quilted  piece I'd started  the previous  week 

When I got home, I cut it down to 9"  square, the format for this year CQ Journal Quilts  which has to contain a piece of  something repurposed , having had a previous  life.  My theme was going to be  " Assemblage"  but " Scavenged Scraps"  might be more appropriate since most of the fabrics came from the wondrous  collections of  dressmaking offcuts  and recycled  materials in the  City Lit textile studio  scrap boxes.   

 I'm also taking  part in an invited   Facebook group  challenge posting  a year  of  daily black and white photos " Small Reflections  2020" which  certainly  makes you look at the world differently. 

Surface, Structure, Stitch at City Lit: Week 2

 It's several weeks ago now , but the second  class with Louise Baldwin  at City Lit was just as  exciting as the first .  The focus was on machine quilting/stitching  and as predicted , my major challenge was getting used to the  machines ( Bernina 1008 )  and  how they worked.  The dedicated  textile studio is very well equiped - I was looking around for where the power sockets were , they descend from the ceiling on pulleys ! 

 The session started with a review seated around a table of what we'd done the previous week  and  any  images or samples  we'd done for homework, a very useful  process. 

 We  then started off drawing shapes  and creating    designs for quilting 

 Louise had a variety of samples  showing the effect of  different  thicknesses  of waddings/ felt, slashing ( faux chenille) ; layering and making holes;  different fabrics.  

In a Powerpoint she showed work by Michael James, Penny Beres, Diana Harrison , Ester Bornemisza , Judith Denito Brown. Tim Harding, Vashali Oak

My first sample I used orange felt as the  wadding  and raided the scrap basket  for pieces of fabric  with colours and textures of shells,  using free motion quilting foot  to stitch lines

 For the 2nd sample  I used both the felt and  a very thick polyester wadding,  with scrim  and  upholstery samples, doing ' twiddles'  in different areas   leaving long threads  between them   

 She  demonstrated for me other properties of scrim - stretching it in a hoop then free machining  causing fabric to distort  like drawn thread work - definately one to try!  Other people were using a cording foot  to make corded lines and  a tailor tacking foot to make interesting large stitches and loops.  Definately  ones to add to my list  (  I've  checked and they  do them for my Bernina Activa 125) 

 I like to combine machine and hand stitching  so prepared a  more traditional sandwich of thin cotton wadding  with a calico backing and   applied some scrap fabric 'limpets'    and did some machine quilting  to secure them .   As I knew  I would miss the class the following week  , I had a chat with  Louise about  how I might  add hand stitching  ( basically try lots and cover the whole thing! )   

Daily Drawing : 30DaySketchbookChallenge2020 Part 2

Well I completed the #30daysketchbookchallenge2020   and stuck to the prompts ( mostly) although some of my interpretations  were  a bit  off piste. With the confidence of have drawn for a year, I didn't count it as cheating that some were done in collage, Photoshop, a piece of fabric or a copy of  some artwork done previously rather than   conventional art materials , it was more important that  what I  did   meant something to me or came from my own images . 

Like last year, for January 31st  I did a page of thumbnail sketches ( above) showing my responses to the prompts.  It was great to share my work and to see the imaginative  interpretations  of over 5000 participants (  and several of my friends also took part )     

 Day 15  'Something that Floats'    Day 16 'Something that smells good' 

Day 17 ' Something that smells bad'  Day  18 'Supermarket' 

Day 19 'Technology'           Day   20 'The Four Seasons'

 Day 21 'Reflections'  Day   22 'Cartoon'

Day 23 ' My Hobbies'    Day 24 ' The Zoo' ( woodlice in my compost bin and all the vernacular names for them) 

 Day 25 'Famous People' ( Zandra Rhodes in fluorescent markers)   Day  26 'Fairies and Goblins'  ( ancient goddesses )

Day 27 ' Weird Science'    Day 28 ' Favourite Place' ( Fleet Lagoon while I was there! )

 Day 29 ' Film'  ( Chesil Beach)     Day  30 'Goals'  ( Stitch Samples )

 1 and 2  February  :  Views from underwater camera at Fleet Lagoon;  Streets of Chiswell  

 The prompt for ' My Favourite Place'  was excellently timed for when I was actually at my favourite place, the Chesil Beach visitor centre overlooking  Fleet Lagoon !  And  I made a  good start continuing  in February drawing   while on  holiday in Weymouth.  

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!