Inspiration: Stitch Stories by Cas Holmes

I have to admit I’m not buying many books at the moment.  I see many books which look interesting, but I don’t quite get round to buying – I persuade myself I really need to finishing reading all the books I have at home first.  And we do have a lot of books.

However, there is always a book for which I have to make an exception and at the Festival of Quilts, I had no hesitation in immediately purchasing Cas Holmes’ new book ‘Stitch Stories’ which had only come out that week.  And I haven’t regretted it. 

It is a great book – exactly what I am looking for in a book on textiles at the moment.  It showcases the work of a diverse range of artists, mainly working in stitch.  It isn’t just the usual suspects, which is fab as it introduces me to a whole new range of artists to go and look up and to explore their work.  Cas must have a wonderfully inquisitive mind to be aware of not just these artists, but the exhibitions and techniques she also references.  To be able to pull all of these artists together into one book shows how much goodwill she can generate – she must be a generous spirit. 

Cas displays a fantastic breadth of knowledge in the book, covering many ideas and techniques, all related with storytelling through textile art.  I appreciate the book more, because it is not a ‘how-to’.  It doesn’t have any projects.  However, it does go briefly into some of the techniques Cas uses in her own work and by other artists.  The book also has photos of sketchbooks and work in progress, which is always fascinating.  I really like the idea of ‘shadow drawing’ that Cas suggests and will definitely be trying that out soon (when the sun finally shines...).

A word on the way the book is made: it is gorgeous.  At a very basic level, Batsford textile books now have fabric covers, which feel lovely – a fantastic move.  The photographs are luscious and make me want to get straight into the studio and start working – always a good thing!

It is quite a scholarly book, with many quotations from catalogues and thinkers in the textile field as well as Cas’ own thoughts.  It is a book which will repay many reads; one to keep coming back to for inspiration and to egg me on to keep creating meaningful work.  If you are looking for a good book about textile art today, I can’t recommend this one highly enough.

Inspiration: the ultimate guide to Art Quilting by Linda Seward

I received a lovely surprise yesterday afternoon when a courier arrived at my door with a flat parcel.  I didn’t remember ordering anything, so was rather intrigued.  The kids lost interest when I opened it to reveal this quilting book, but I certainly didn’t!

Linda Seward is the author of one of my favourite traditional quilting books:’ The Complete Book of Patchwork, Quilting and Appliqué’.  Whilst I have been teaching C&G Patchwork and Quilting over the last 18 months, if there was anything I needed to know, you could guarantee it would be in this book – have you any idea how few mentions there are of Somerset Patchwork even on the web?!  It definitely lives up to its name and is comprehensive. 

With this new book, Linda is setting out to do the same for Art Quilting, something that barely existed when she wrote her original book 27 years ago (she has written lots of other book besides).  ‘The Ultimate Guide to Art Quilting’ covers every imaginable technique used by art quilters today.  From a quick flick through the book, I can see snow dyeing, soy wax, wet felting, upcycling, a variety of different raw edge appliqué methods, computer generated embroidery amongst lots of others.  Of course given the volume of techniques covered, there is not a lot of detail.  But that is not the aim of the book.  The book aims to show you the potential there is at the moment in the art quilt world.  If you want to try one of the techniques beyond basic, you need a specialist guide to it and there is no way one book could contain it all.

As well as giving me lots of technical ideas to try – there are lots included that I haven’t yet – what makes the book really special is the range and quality of art quilts in it.  Linda obviously made a significant effort to ensure that the book also acts as a survey of art quilts today.  It has many artists I know, but also several I don’t  and it has been lovely looking at all of these gorgeous quilts and just feeling inspired.

A friend asked me on Facebook yesterday was the book worth it and my response has to be yes on two levels: for the beginner it is a great introduction to exciting techniques used by art quilters around the world; for those more experienced, it is a good book to dip into when you want to play and try something different and to admire the talent of art quilters today.

Oh, and  you may recognise the quilt on p229... but my review would have been the same even if my work hadn’t been included.  I feel honoured to have my work included with all of these other amazing quilts.

Inspiration: Classic Quilts from The American Museum in Britain

 

This post was meant to be about my work in progress last Wednesday, but I have had a horrible week of migraines, so I don’t have any work in progress to share with you!  Here’s hoping this week is more productive.  Instead of my work, here is a book that makes up part of my vast collection, ‘Classic Quilts from The American Museum in Britain’.

If you have never visited the American Museum near Bath, it should definitely be on your ‘go-to’ list.  It has a beautiful, peaceful setting looking out over a valley of green fields, lots of folk art and American history.  Last time I was there, which was admittedly 1996(!), there was a Civil War re-enactment, which echoed loudly across the valley and a special exhibition of Candace Bahouth’s work. There seems to a different special exhibition each year and I have fancied visiting many of them, but since moving north of the border again, Bath isn’t really the most practical place to go.

So this book brings back many happy memories of visits to Bath pre-children.  But there is more to it than that.  Written by two of the curators of the museum, Laura Beresford and Katherine Hebert, it gives a short, but fascinating, history of the museum and of its amazing quilt collection.  The rest of the book is devoted to individual quilts, each with a full page, full photograph, accompanied by some beautiful detailed shots and a short history of the quilt and the block/technique used.  It covers many of the best known American styles, such as Log Cabin, Baltimore, Amish, Hawaiian, Double Wedding Ring, etc. 

I liked this hexagon quilt, especially how it points out how the pattern can be seen in more than one way –which way did you see first?

This Trip Around the World Quilt was also amazing.  It is on-point, each square is one inch square and is individually quilted.  Wow!  Its maker is unknown, but it was presented to Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the 32^nd President, who created a role for herself in promoting traditional skills as a way through the Depression.  It was also used by the Roosevelt family, which I think is nice, rather than just sitting in a cupboard or being in a museum all its life.

The book is relatively speaking rather old now, published in 2009 and I purchased it from PostScript Books, which can sometimes have amazing textile books and museum catalogues on offer – well worth checking out now and then.

And now, whilst I am migraine free, I’m going to get on with some stitching.

 

Classic Quilts from The American Museum in Britain

ISBN: 978-1-85759-598-7

Scala 2009

Inspiration: Quilt Improv by Lucie Summers

Lucie Summers - Garden Wall quilt

Yesterday was spent polishing up my article for Popular Patchwork on Lucie Summers.  Lucie is the author of the new-ish book ‘Quilt Improv’ and I just love the way her book looks.

Reading through it, I had a revelation.  There is a name for the style of patchwork I most like to make.  All this time I’ve been striving to be a perfect corners type of quilter has been wasted.  I’m not that type of quilter.  I’m actually a quilt improviser and that is totally acceptable.  As Lucie listed out in her book what makes a quilt improv, I found myself nodding in agreement.  I’ve always hated instructions which state ‘First cut 336 2x4in blue rectangles’.  I think that is why I’ve never really made a quilt from a book – it just puts me off.  At least if I design it, I can try and fool myself that I’m not really cutting 336 identical units by not cutting them all in one go and having blocks at varying stages of production. 

Lucie Summers - sample blocks

So what is quilt improv?  Using the fabric you have; not worrying about matching points or corners; working intuitively rather than slavishly following your pattern or initial design idea.  This sounds exactly like what I do!  Of course as Lucie states, this is not an excuse for shoddy workmanship; the quality of workmanship still needs to be high.

After this fantastic revelation, the rest of the book was a joy to read.  Lucie shares her own style of improv techniques and then walks you through the process of making a number of quilts this way.  Some reviews of this book on Amazon have missed the point and said the instructions for copying the quilts were not good enough.  The whole point is to show the process, not to exactly copy her quilts.  I love that the book shows her original inspiration and first sketches as well as the final quilt.  It really helps explain the process.

Quilt Improv by Lucie Summers, published by F&W Media

If you are looking for a gorgeously photographed book to take you away from creating traditional quilts, without being scary, I would definitely recommend this book. You can find out more about the book at http://www.stitchcraftcreate.co.uk/quilt-improv

 

 

 

Inspiration: Make it Personal by Hilary Beattie

Make it Personal is a new self published book by Hilary Beattie.  She decided to write the books she wanted in the way she wanted and this is the first in a planned series.  As it is so personal, the design and layout of the book do not follow the norm, which is lovely.  It is a shame when an author’s voice has to be subsumed into a standard layout in a magazine or book.  I like quirky!

A spread from the book

Although the books overall are going to be about working through different themes in textiles, Hilary quickly realised that she needed to equip readers with the techniques first of making your fabric personal and this is what this book does.



Asters 2 by Hilary Beattie

I really like the way she does not follow rules for the sake of it, but uses the techniques in an exploratory manner and encourages the readers to do the same.  She runs through different materials, media and methods, such as thermofax printing, using thickened dye, creating rubbing plates, using stencils, screen printing etc.  It is packed full of examples of Hilary’s work over a range of subjects, particularly showing good use of nature.

Master Caster

I enjoyed reading the book and seeing how one artist has developed her techniques into a way that suits her.  Hilary also shares this information very generously.  If you need encouragement to look at textile surface design techniques, this could be a good place to start.  You can buy it direct from Hilary at www.hilarybeattie.co.uk or on Amazon.  You can find out more about Hilary on her website or in an upcoming article I've just written about her in Popular Patchwork.

 

Jugs 4 - Queen of the Night by Hilary Beattie

Inspiration: Fabric Manipulation by Ruth Singer

One of my samples based on Ruth's book

One of my greatest pleasures in life, alongside art, is reading.  Books have always played an important role in my life and I doubt there has been a day in almost 40 years when I haven’t had at least one book on the go.  Actually these days I’m finding it harder and harder to finish books, so I think I currently have about ten on the go...  Part of the joy of having children has been re-reading my old favourites with them and discovering new ones written more recently.  As a child, my dream job was to be a second-hand bookshop owner or a librarian, but somewhere that got lost along the route and I became an accountant and finally a very happy artist.  I wouldn’t swap my job now!

Given I read so many books on art and textiles and occasionally, technique, I thought I would share some with you on this blog now and again.  I hope you like my choices and if you have any others you think I should be reading, do let me know – I always love hearing about good books!

Fabric Manipulation, 150 creative sewing techniques

by Ruth Singer

 

This book is only just out, published by David and Charles.  It is amazingly comprehensive, dividing techniques into ‘Pleat & Fold’, ‘Stitch & Gather’ and ‘Apply & Layer’, along with a basic introduction to fabric, threads, tools and stitch techniques.  Ruth encourages readers to experiment and make the techniques their own.  Although there are some small projects in the book, its aim is definitely to impart some of Ruth’s huge technical ability to start readers on their fabric manipulation journey.  That implies it is a book for beginners, it is, but there is also lots for more experienced stitchers as there cannot be many people with all these techniques in their repertoire.  Many of the techniques come with ideas for further experimentation.  In her samples, some have drawn illustrations to show how to make them as well as photographs and Ruth also gives advice of the fabrics she has used and what she thinks works well for that particular technique.

Another of my samples using folding techniques from the book

I had fun making some samples based on the book and it is also good for reminding you of things you have tried in the past but have forgotten.  It is certainly a book I will return to many times, which, in my view, makes it a very good book indeed.

Ruth runs workshops in Leicester and around the country and exhibits her work across the world.  I think it is only fair to say that I have known Ruth for a number of years and it has been a great joy to watch her work develop and take off.  She is a very hard working and talented stitch artist and teacher.  But even if I didn’t know her, this book would be high on my wish list as it is so comprehensive.