Frieda Oxenham and Sketchbook Techniques

My attempt, using collage, stencils, stamps, paint and baby wipes

At the end of November, I had a special birthday treat a couple of days after my birthday.  Frieda Oxenham came to share some of her art journaling techniques for creating backgrounds with my Creative Sketchbooks City and Guilds Group.  

Student work

Frieda doesn't teach often at the moment, so we were especially honoured that she came and shared so much of her work with the Group.  Although I was organising the day, I managed to have a go at some of the techniques too, covering myself and the worktop in lots of paint, gesso and used baby wipes.  In fact, I don't think I've ever used so many baby wipes since we had three kids in nappies!

Frieda (bottom right) explaining her techniques

We added lots of paint and wiped most of it off using stencils.  We used stamps and print blocks on spare paper.  Precious scraps got glued into place and then covered in paint.

Student Work

Frieda showed us her most recent work in her art journal and talked us through the layers of techniques in great detail.  Two things I came away with as useful comments were:

1. Don't believe an artist when they say they 'just throw things on a paper without thinking about the layout'.  What they mean is 'through years of experience, I can just place things in the right place by instinct rather than conscious thought'
2. Don't stop after one or two layers.  It adds to the richness of the piece if there are many layers.  Sometimes Frieda has up to 20 layers of paint on a page.

Student Work

The day went incredibly fast and the students all worked so hard.  I know my head was buzzing by the end with some many possibilities and I have been creating even more mess on my worktop ever since, putting layers of paint on to several sketchbooks and loose pages all at once.

Student Work

You can see much more of Frieda's amazing work on her blog, friedaquilter.blogspot.co.uk

Make it Personal: Inspired by the Coast

At the Knitting & Stitching Show in Harrogate, I was really pleased to get a copy of Hilary Beattie's new book 'Make it Personal, Book 2: Inspired by the Coast'.  I have Hilary's other books and I was interested to see what her vision for this one would be.  I wasn't disappointed.  

In this book, Hilary takes her theme of the Coast and shows four different ways of interpreting her source material in great detail.  It is rare to see this whole process and fascinating to see how the work developed.  It was also full of interesting tips and advice on how to make something personal and ideas for collage techniques.
The book is full of photos, showing each stage of the journey, and some diversions.  This is encouraging as it shows the work from the initial excitement, through the early stages, when many makers get discouraged, to the final reveal of the finished, exciting piece.

I will definitely be recommending this book to my students as it helps explain why you need to work through a theme rather than just going with your first idea, in a full colour, easy to follow format.
The book is available for purchase, along with many other goodies on Hilary's shop website at http://www.hilarybshop.co.uk/

Catching up at the K&S Show in Harrogate

Hello again!  I can't believe how long it is since I last wrote on this blog.  Nothing major has happened to stop me from blogging, just, well, life gets in the way.  Teaching from home is going really well and I'm definitely enjoying it.  It has become a full time job, which is fabulous and wonderfully distracting, as I have to try lots of different techniques to share with students and I can see so many possibilities for each one that I just want to try... well, apart maybe from the suffolk puffs!
So when I have a spare moment, I'm finding myself creating in the studio rather than getting on with writing the blog.  Sorry!
In December, things quieten down work-wise and before I get overly absorbed in gift buying, card writing and fudge making, I'm hoping to get some blog posts written to catch you up on all that has been happening here.
Starting with one of the more recent events:  the other weekend I managed to arrange a visit to the in-laws in Harrogate for the same weekend as the Knitting & Stitching Show.  Lucky, I know!
The daughter and I had a great day at the Show.  She was particularly taken with the Quilters' Guild stand where we could stop, have a seat and make a little bird.  These are our attempts. 
 
 We also had a go at adding to the world's longest embroidery with the Embroiderers' Guild.  

This didn't leave much time for seeing the exhibits and as I was entertaining daughter, I didn't get as many photo opportunities as normal - in fact this is the only one I took of the exhibitions of the fantastic work by Ruth Singer and Bethany Walker, working together as 'Interlace'.

We also did a little bit of shopping and have many print blocks to try out soon.

As we were down seeing family, we were also able to give this baby quilt to the newest addition.  When it was in progress on my wall, some of my students thought I'd printed the fabric myself.  I didn't.  It is incredibly rare that I buy printed fabric, let alone a panel, but I knew I would need to make a baby quilt and this just seemed perfect.  Given that babies can only see in black and white to start with (or so I've been told), I thought the contrast would be really good and I brightened it up with some pieces from a jelly roll I bought last year.  The jelly roll was bought to make another quilt, which I've never got around to, so it was good to put some of it to use.

Cyanotype workshop with Ruth Brown

At the Festival of Quilts this summer, I had the pleasure of being a student rather than being a tutor.  I spent two lovely days in a class with Ruth Brown of Stone Creek Textiles learning how to cyanotype - a blue photography technique that works really well on fabric and paper.  These are some of the fabulous results.

Cyanotyping is a great way to add images onto fabric.  It was good to learn from an expert and discover how to put the cyanotype on the fabric without ending up with the downstairs loo looking like a blue slasher movie has just been filmed there.  I do seem to get in a bit of a mess.

One of the key things I learned was how well pinned down everything needs to be on the fabric before you expose it to light and you see the fabric turning from green to blue to grey.

If the fabric is not well pinned, you get a fuzzy image, which may be desirable, but you want to be able to control it yourself.

We also learnt how to turn the cyanotype from blue to yellow and brown, through soda ash and tea.  I've still to try coffee, which apparently gives a more purple-y brown.

We also discovered how to add photos by making a negative on acetate.  I also loved the random effects you can get by just scrunching up the fabric and exposing it at different times.

Ruth has a book on cyanotyping which is really comprehensive and I would definitely recommend taking a class with her.  Find out more at www.stonecreektextiles.co.uk

Free machine quilting of leaves with thermofax

Silver Birch leaf, on a background of free machined sari strips

Free machine quilting seems to intimidate many quilters.  It has taken on mythical proportions of difficulty and some quilters would do anything to avoid it.  I remember when I first started quilting doing everything by hand because every time I looked at the machine something seemed to go wrong.  Now, after years of practice, I don't even notice that I am free machining, it is as easy as straight stitching.
Free machining is where you lower the feed-dogs on your machine and then you control the size and direction of the stitch rather than the machine.  Like most worthwhile things in life, it just takes practice.  The more you do, the better you become.  
I'm currently making a quilt with some leaves on it and this is how I've recreated the leaves.

Silver birch leaves on the scanner

First I went into the garden and picked some silver birch leaves.  I discovered that our tree is a bit diseased and I need to look up why most of the leaves have funny spots on them.

I scanned in the leaves on the computer and then printed them off and traced the outline and some of the veins of the more interesting ones on tracing paper.  I then scanned the tracing in, printed it off on a laser printer and turned it into a thermofax screen.

Stitch'n'tear leaf, machined over

Using some textile paint, I then printed a number of leaves onto stitch and tear, which after the paint had dried I pinned onto the back of the quilt and stitched round the lines.

From the front, stitched and trimming back the excess fabric from the applique

I tried this in a number of different ways - adding fabric on the front, so it was appliqued on with the stitching as well as just the stitched outline.  

Finished leaf - stitched round once in very thick thread

The fabric was then turned over to the front and more machining added.
I'm really pleased with the effect of these and am now piecing together the quilt top to add the leaves too as the samples worked so well.

Only the outline of the leaves were stitched, then the central veins filled in with more machine stitching in different colours and types of thread

A different silver birch leaf, totally stitched in in three colours.

Textile Treasures from the Quilters' Guild

Detail of a 1930s quilt made with an astounding array of dress making fabrics

As part of the C&G Diploma in Patchwork and Quilting, you have to write an illustrated study of British Quilt History.  To help make this come alive, I've borrowed a suitcase collection of historical quilts, called Textile Treasures from the Quilters' Guild to share with my students.  It is amazing what will fit into one suitcase.  It was even more exciting when I was finally able to open it - the case was padlocked and I didn't have the combination to start with!

Visitors to the Open Day

As it was here, I thought it would nice to share with others who may be interested and so I had an Open Day last Friday.  I had no idea how many people, if any, would turn up, but in the end, even in the rotten weather, we had a lovely crowd of about 60 across the day.  The age range was 17-90 which was fantastic, most of us fascinated by textiles, with a few reluctant partners dragged along.

More visitors - isn't my studio really tidy for once!

I've now seen this collection three times and it is amazing the different insights each group has about the quilts.  It can be difficult when you first look at an old quilt to appreciate it and that is part of the beauty of having this collection here - understanding how to look at these historical textiles and learning what we can from them.
Here are some quick points we have learned:

• some of the ugliest quilts have the most brilliant stories behind them, like this Canadian Red Cross Quilt, which was given to a family who had been bombed out three times in World War II

Canadian Red Cross Quilt

• some of the hand-stitching is stunning, especially when it has been stitched by candle or gaslight.  And if you look closely enough, not all the shapes are as crisp as they should be.  So quilts were fudged years ago as well and we don't notice it on other people's quilts straight away, nor does it diminish our pleasure of them (there is a moral there!)

One inch hexagon quilt

• some of these quilts have their small pieces made up from scraps or they have used mended fabric, so nothing was wasted.  I can't imagine piecing two bits of fabric to make a one inch hexagon.
• on the other hand, some of these quilts were made from new, good fabric as you can still see the glaze on the chintz, which would have washed off if it had been laundered.  

A hexagon quilt, which has been carefully 'fussy-cut'

• you can learn a lot about printing techniques and chemical development over time by looking at the different printed cottons used.  Green was hard to make, so blue was over-printed with yellow.  Where it didn't line up, you can see the blue and yellow still.
• fabric doesn't last forever and decay depends on what chemicals were used to dye it.  
• quilters have always loved the new and 'exciting'

Two North Country Quilts.  The one of the left must have been one of the earliest to use viscose rayon as the fabric

• just because it is old does not mean it is very good - we shouldn't lose our ability to be discerning when faced with something that has been lovingly preserved over the years.  However, this is a judgement call and we all have different tastes, thank goodness.

Two more of my C&G groups still have to see the collection before I return it.  If you get the chance, I would highly recommend borrowing it and spending time with these historical objects.

Talking Quilts

Talking Quilts Exhibition at the Festival of Quilts

When I visited the International Quilt Festival in Houston six years ago, I was very taken with a project called Quilt SOS, or Save Our Stories, organised by the Quilt Alliance.  It records the individual histories of quilt makers, creating a vast, recorded oral history of US quilt making.  You can access loads of information about it here.

Kate Smith's quilt about her amazing mother

I wrote an article about it for The Quilter and asked the question why were we not doing something similar here?  Well, it turned out that some people were already starting to organise such a project.

Jennifer Campbell Kirk

Led by Pauline Macaulay, and under the banner of the Quilters' Guild, Talking Quilts came into being with help from lottery funding.  Over the past few years, volunteers have recorded and transcribed over 140 interviews with quilters talking about one of their quilts.

And at this summer's Festival of Quilts, there was a gallery of some of the quilts which were the focus of the interviews, alongside some details from their recordings and you could listen to the recordings themselves.

Sabi Westoby

It was fantastic to see this project come to fruition and the interviews on display were just as exciting and interesting as those I had seen in the States.  It is fascinating to discover which quilt the maker chose to share - often not their favourite or their best, but one with personal meaning attached.

As a gross generalisation, the ordinary person, in particular women, can get missed from history, as their lives even to themselves, can seem unimportant.  This project records the history of such people as well as more well-known ones, and it shows that there is no such thing as ordinary, everyone counts and everyone has a story to tell and share...or at least quilters do!

This is a link to the Talking Quilts website, where you can read some of the transcripts of the interviews and listen to the audio.  More are still be added.  It is an amazing project aided by so many volunteers, all helping to preserve the history of their craft.

Alongside the Talking Quilts, there were historical quilts owned by the Guild, also with interesting family connections

Some highlights from the Festival of Quilts 2016

The Festival of Quilts at the NEC, Birmingham took place last weekend.  I went down for three days, but as I had decided to take a number of courses, I only really had 1/2 a day for mooching around looking at the quilts.
As always there were some lovely quilts and looking at my photos this morning, I didn't take many photos this year and I don't seem to have taken photos of all my favourite galleries such as that by Claire Benn and Ingrid Press.  Rather than share full photos at such a small resolution you don't get any idea at all of what the quilt was really like, here is a selection of close ups of some that caught my eye at the Show.

Ineke Berlyn - Pieces of Positivity 2

Edwina Mackinnon - Pathways

Helen Cowans - Forgotten Women of the Land

Leah Higgins, winner of the Art Quilts Category - the breakdown printing was beautiful

Cas Holmes - Unfolding Landscape Summer Verge

Laura Kemshall, Winner of the Quilters' Guild Challenge.  You can read about this amazing quilt and her new processes on her blog at https://www.designmatterstv.com/winning-quilters-guild-challenge-52-degrees/

Ruth Singer with her winning quilt in the Fine Art Quilt Masters category