4 days this summer

During the past few weeks I have been watching lots of sport on the television.  The Commonwealth Games and then the European Championships!  I've also read lots of books on my Kindle and played Solitaire - especially when it was too hot to do anything else.

But there's been a flurry of activity over the past few days, starting with my birthday last Wednesday.  Actually when I think about it I spent the day doing much of what I've described above - watching sport, playing Solitaire and reading.  However the flurry started with going out to dinner to celebrate.  I had the most enormous fish platter at a local Portuguese restaurant.

 

After eating all that lot, it was just as well that the next 4 days included a lot of walking.  I had volunteered to help at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC.

I stewarded in the Celebrating the Creative Textiles Studio on Thursday morning and Friday morning.  On Thursday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons I demonstrated how to make stitched books.

Photo by Lesley J Darnell

On Saturday and Sunday I went to the Show an hour or so before my demo time so I could walk round the show.

I'm not a fan of traditional patchwork quilts but I do like some of the quilts in the modern, contemporary and art categories.  I used to take lots of photos of the work that appealed to me but this year only 3 pieces stood out to me.

Modern: Streets where we lived by Megan Arnold

Contemporary: Fracture lines by Kathy Collins

Art: Desolation by Anna Woodhead

 

Now I need to get back to the ideas that are germinating from the four days at Summer School.

 

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Summer School continued

In my last post I showed the fabrics I had printed.  Here's what they looked liked together.

Photo by Liske Johnson

I had a Thermofax screen made of the poem I wrote and using fabric paint printed onto some of the fabrics.  Then I started tearing them up and collaging them.  This is now tacked ready to sew, probably on the sewing machine.

These were random pieces left over which looked good together.  They are lightly bonded to a piece of calico.  I haven't decided what to do with this.

I tore up the fabrics into 6x4" pieces and put them together to make a hanging book.  This can either hang on the wall or fold up.  It's double sided.  This is one side.

And this is the other.  It's all tacked together ready to stitch.

Then with a large piece of fabric I made a book.  I ironed bondaweb on the back of the fabric and then folded it in 4 one way and 4 the other.  I cut it like this

Cut along the red lines

I removed the backing paper carefully and ironed the pages together.

I made a cover with one of the other fabrics

With some of the leftovers I started making small collages.  Some of these will probably go on the pages of the hanging book.

I still have lots of the printed fabrics left, but it might be better to finish all these before I start something else.  Or not!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Summer School

After an uncomfortable two days of extreme heat for the UK, I spent two cool days (in both senses of the word) at Littleheath Barn with Liske's 'Art Cloth: Maps and More'.

We spent the two days trying out various techniques with a limited palette to produce some fabrics that sit well together.  My colours were basically rust, slate grey and a little charcoal dye.  The aim was to produce fabrics that were dark, medium or light.

Sadly the photographs don't really show the true colours of the fabrics.

For this fabric I put some white acrylic paint through a bought stencil.  I put narrow masking tape on a screen and printed through it.

right side

reverse

Liske had demonstrated how to make a breakdown screen which I used.  It didn't breakdown as much as I thought it would.

right side

reverse

This is muslin which I wrote on with dye.  I scraped dye over the one end and used a thermofax screen on the right.  I cut it into two pieces.  The top part shows the results of using flour paste as a crackle which I put rust dye over.  I scraped pale rust over the the bottom piece.

I used soy wax and drew lines over my screen and scraped dye through the screen.

right side

reverse

I made a screen by spreading a thin layer of flour paste on it.  On one half I put a bought stencil.  On the other half I scraped lines and shapes when the paste was dry.  I also used the stencil to fill in the gaps so I have positive and negatives of the design.

right side

reverse

I scraped dye over this piece of muslin so I have some matching plain fabric.

At the end of the day I had a fabulous piece of dropcloth.  I had started the two days with a new clean cloth.  I cut this piece from the dropcloth and sprayed a soda ash solution over it to fix the dye. It's cotton drill which is heavier than the calico and muslin I had used so it will possibly become a background.

We're back next week for another two days of composition, planning and making using the fabrics. Although we may start with adding more layers of design using fabric paints.

I've no idea what I shall do with all these fabrics.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice