Grand Canal

Amazingly, I have finished another piece.  I went to a Studio Day at Littleheath this week.  I wanted to catch up with the Maps & More work.  At the last workshop day I had pieced the canal section and then at home I had pieced that into the background fabric.

This week I added very narrow satin stitch lines on the sewing machine.

Back at home I trimmed the whole pieces ready for binding.

 

 

I used a piece of fabric printed with the same breakdown screen in a different colour to cut binding strips.  I machined these onto the right side.  Then folded them over to the back and hand stitched the binding down.

Onwards and upwards!

I still have lots of fabric and bits and pieces I made during the process sessions.  We have two actual workshop sessions left although I suspect that I won't use everything up.

I still have fabric left from the Maps Summer School in 2022 despite having made several pieces!

There was only one hanging book - just photographed twice!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

A new challenge coming

Thursday was my first meeting with the ladies of Eclectica as a member.  The group has been invited to exhibit at the Bramble Patch in Weedon Bec.  These are the pieces I have submitted for the exhibition

Walk 1
Hand printed and dyed cotton fabrics. Pattern based on the word: WALK
Design inspired by Paul Klee’s oil painting ‘Highway and Byways’.
Strip pieced, cut up and reassembled.
Some machining with pre-set stitches Size: 19.5” (w) x 35.75” (l) 

Walk 2
Hand printed and dyed cotton fabric. Pattern based on the word: WALK
Strip pieced, cut up and reassembled.
Some machining with pre-set stitches Size: 14.5” (w) x 15.5” (l)

Beyond Square
Purchased text-based hand printed and dyed cotton fabrics.
Strip pieced, cut up and reassembled.
Bought plain fabric for line inserts and binding Max size: 26” (w) x 25” (l)

The exhibition is from Wednesday April 6th to Wednesday April 20th.

In the meantime, next Tuesday I'm going to launch a creative writing challenge.  I do hope some of you will join in.   It's called: 21 words

The idea is to take one word each day and write one sentence to use the word creatively.  More information next Tuesday.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Canal pieces

As you know I like to make pieces about the canal, using fabric that I printed using the breakdown printing technique.

I finished this piece.

 
I cut up the remaining fabrics and reassembled them into these two rectangles and they were going to be made into rectangular hangings.

 

 

However, I felt that the rectangles were fairly static and that canals do flow.  Not like rivers flow.  Nevertheless the water does move particularly when locks are opened to allow boats to move through.

 

I cut the rectangles into strips the same width as the internal measurement of the bobbins I have stashed away.  This is the top rectangle cut up.

And this is the larger rectangle cut up.

I machine stitched this piece in slightly wavy lines.  I cut off the double layer of calico edges leaving all three layers with raw edges.   The top part.

The lower part

It's quite difficult to photograph.  I used the stairs so that it would undulate.  My plan is for it to be attached to the bobbins so that when the piece is exhibited one raw edge will be towards the wall.  The whole thing

I have stitched the second piece but haven't yet trimmed the edges.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

 

One finished, one to go!

In the post Another new piece, I showed you how far I had got with piecing some bought fabric togther.

And this is the finished piece:

I went back to the other hanging which I had got stuck on.  I realised it was because I was trying to replicate the Paul Klee work too closely.  Stepping away from it for a while was a good thing.

I continued to cut up fabric and stitch the fabrics fairly randomly together.

I made some strips narrower and some wider than the original 6 inch strips.

I sewed some of the strips together and kept making extra bits.  I made the rust coloured strip at the top narrower.

I sewed all the strips together and trimmed the whole thing.

It's ready for the wadding and the backing.  I haven't decided whether to bond the layers together and then add the binding, or use a technique called stitch-in-the-ditch to quilt it together.  Stitch-in-the-ditch involves machining where the seams join.  I would only do it in the verticals.  There are far too many horoizontal seams!  However I've never done it before so I'm a bit wary.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Piecing with Leah

The thing about printing is that you are bound to have fabrics you like and fabrics you don't.  You can always use the fabrics you don't as the backing for a piece of work!

Leah uses what she calls 'bricks' in a lot of her work.  These are rectangles of fabric which she usually uses horizontally.  I love the look of her pieces but don't want my work to be a poor imitation of hers.  I did however want to try out the method.  As much of my Venice work is based on the architecture I thought I would piece these 3"x1" 'bricks vertically.  I spent a long time cutting up fabric.  I spent even longer - nearly 4 hours ironing the bondawebbed pieces to the backing fabric.

It is now ready to machine stitch.  I may handstitch on it too before stretching it on a canvas.

I also tried making log cabin squares.

I also made 3 pieces that were 'half squares'.  Being pedantic they are two-thirds squares!

I didn't always get the hang of the pattern so sometimes the intended middle square wasn't in the middle!  Ho hum!

I was very fortunate that my table was next to the design wall so could pin my squares up as I went along.

Once I had finished all the squares we played with the placing of them.  See if you can spot the difference!

Then I 'auditioned' narrow strips of the solid colour on the pieces before sewing it all together.

Once it was sewn together I bondawebbed the small strips to the fabric.

It's now got a backing fabric and acrylic felt wadding, ready to stitch.

I learned a lot during this 5 day workshop - and not just about screen printing and piecing.  I know that I am a fairly slapdash artist which is probably why I like mixed media.  I like slapping paint down on paper or fabric and taking as little time as possible over it once I have the idea.  But piecing 3"x1" strips is a slow process, as is stitching log cabin squares.  But with Leah's constant support and encouragement I was able to stick with it and achieve the makings of two really good pieces.  I am hoping to continue to apply myself more effort to my work now that I've seen what results I can achieve.

I thoroughly recommend taking course with Leah.  And if you can't make to Urban Studio North you can always buy the book.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice