Scroll book update

In Don't Scroll Past I showed you how far I had got with the scroll book I'm making.   I had started to stitch in random places.

One of the problems with deciding vaguely what the finished piece will be, is that things don't always fit.  I knew I was going to put a piece of wood at the top for the fabric to wrap around, but wasn't sure what that wood might be.

Then I remembered that I still had some bobbins in a drawer.  However when I got one of them out it was just to small for the width of the fabric.  It wasn't possible to make the fabric narrower unless I undid quite a bit of stitching.

Thankfully I have a very amenable husband who was willing to sort it out for me.  In the photo below, the top bobbin is the original width.  The middle one shows where he cut 1 centimeter of the spindle out and glued the bobbin back together.  He inserted the centimetre piece into the middle of the bottom one which is now the right size for the fabric.

I usually print on the fabric before I start stitching but I thought I would experiment with using the thermofax screen over the stitching.  It was more difficult than usually because of the lumps and bumps but not impossible.  You can find the words of the poem on the thermofax screen here.

I have attached the fabric to the bobbin.  I could continue to stitch the piece if I feel like it.

Fabric bonded to itself around the bobbin

Bonded to the bobbin

Partly rolled up

Completely rolled up

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Exhibition Days Away

We went away for a couple of days because I wanted to go to two exhibitions.  We could probably have done both in one day but it was nicer to go at a slower pace.

Firstly, we went to the Willow Gallery in Oswestry to see their current exhibition Stitch by Stitch.  It was lovely to see work made by people I know including Jo Smith, Liske Johnson, Karen Herrick and Cas Holmes amongst others.

Jo Smith: Garden Friends - Red Fox

Liske Johnson: Squinting at the Sea

Sorry ladies about the quality of the photos - I was snatching them with my phone.  It's a popular exhibition and between the people and the lighting it was quite difficult to get good photos. (well That's my excuse!)

Then we went to the British Ironwork Centre. This was part sculpture park, shop, cafe and craft studios. It was also advertising the Knife Angel but we didn't ever find it which is odd because it's very tall.  I'm pleased we saw it when it was in Worcester.

From Oswestry we made our way to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct where we had lunch and a short walk beside the canal.

A narrowboat crossing the aqueduct

The view from the aqueduct

The aqueduct

From there we drove through Llangollen and stopped at Horseshoe Falls.  I thought this was going to be a waterfall but turned out to be a cast iron weir. It enables water to be taken from the River Dee to feed the Llangollen Canal.

We continued our journing to Ruthin where I had booked us into a hotel.  The view from the bedroom window was fabulous.

I was going to write about both days but we did so much in each day that I will save day two for another post.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Getting Ready

Next week I am going to Littleheath Barn Studio for the first two days of a four day Summer School.  The second two days are a week later.

The theme is Buildings.  I love buildings and architecture and few textile artists seem to use this topic so I was excited to sign up.

However!

Do I use the redbrick buildings I love along the canals in the West Midlands?  Or do I use the beautiful architecture found in Venice as inspiration? 

I decided I would get out all the things I have related to the two topics.

Canals

Books

 

Sketchbooks

Photobooks

My poem as a Thermofax screen

Lots of collage material

Venice

Books

Sketchbooks

Stamps and Stencils

Thermofax screens

Another book, map, photos and postcards

A box of collage fodder and other inspiration

Well, it was good to find out what I had.  BUT!  I'm no further on in my choice.

Come back next month to find out what i did.

Thanks for stopping by
Bernice

A hanging book

This is the other book I had not shown completed.  I used the fabrics I had printed at last year's map inspired summer school at Littleheath Barn Studio.

I tore the fabric into 15x10cm rectangles.  I put a long piece of fabric to hold the pieces in place.

I put a layer of cream soft calico and another layer of printed fabric.

I handstitched through all the layers following the patterns made by the breakdown printing.

 It's possible because of the large D rings to hang the book either way up or either side showing.

Oryou can close it up.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

The Festival of Quilts at the NEC  is on from Thursday 3rd August to Sunday 6th August.  I will be showing my books in the Creative Textiles Studio on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

A Grid Book

I will be The Festival of Quilts at the NEC next month in the Creative Textile Studio showing the various books that I have made.  In preparing for the Show I discovered I have not shown in full how I made two of the books.

This is a calico book made when I was thinking about Grids.  If you go back to that post you can see how I built up the layers until I ended with this piece of painted calico.

I tore the fabric up into strips and reassembled them putting the torn edges onto the right side of the fabric.  Then I folded it like the diagram below and cut where the red lines indicate.

I  bonded the pages together and then machined it with orange thread for contrast.  I also added some cotton fabric I had printed using my inkjet printer.

Closed, the book is 15x13cms.

It's very different from the books I usually make.

Thanks for stopping by today
Bernice

Don't scroll past

Remember these from my last post? 

I also had some ice-dyed silk noil that I could use as  the cover.

However I decided not to make a conventional book but to make a scroll book.  I tore up all of the above pieces into smaller strips.  I took a piece of dyed cotton that I was never going to use for the backing.  I forgot to take a photo so this was taken after I had started stitching.

I put Bondaweb on the backing fabric, laid the strips of silk noil on top and ironed them to bond them all together.

I have started randomly stitching on this piece, particularly where the bonding didn't work too well.

 Here's a close up of the extended fly stitch.  There's also running stitch.  I'm using variegated thread from Paintbox Threads.

Thanks for stopping by
Bernice