New work: Facing the Past

Facing the Past by Gillian Cooper

The last few weeks have been very productive for me.  Perhaps it is the coming of spring which always makes life seem easier or perhaps it was the successful use of a self-imposed deadline.  Today, Alan McCredie was over photographing some of my work, to go onto my website, which is in the process of being updated.  Alan’s a great photographer – check out his blog for the Scotman newspaper on 100 weeks in Scotland to get a flavour of some of his other work.  This week's photos reflect the 30 year anniversary of the start of the miners' strike.  I can't believe it was 30 years ago - it was a significant event of my teenage years as the strike-breaking lorries hurried in convey past my house carrying coal to the steelworks. 

This is a little piece I finished last week – only 6½ x 4½in, postcard size.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t photographed by Alan today as I had to send it off on Saturday, so don’t hold the photo against him – it is entirely my fault and when I show you some of his photos of my work over the next few weeks you will appreciate the difference!  This work is for the SAQA Spotlight Silent Auction at the SAQA Conference at the start of May.  I particularly wanted to make a piece as I am going to the Conference.  I’m hugely excited (and a bit nervous) at going to the States for 12 days.  It is a big trip and I really need to get on with planning the details.  I’m going to the big quilt show at Paducah, having a couple of days in New York, then going down to Washington for the Conference.  If anyone has any tips/ideas for things to do in New York/Washington, please let me know.  It is years since I visited.

Anyway.  Back to this piece.  I found it quite challenging to create such a small piece, especially one with straight edges.  I made another couple of pieces, but liked the shape made by their raw edges, that they have been kept for other things!  Over the top, I used an embroidery pattern I created a while ago from the remains of one of my ancient figure patterns and, of course, I’ve stencilled a figure on top.  I’m pleased with the results, so much so I might try small again.

My art influences

I’ve recently discovered the wonder of online courses and when I saw an art history course aimed at artists,  'Live!' I knew it was time to sign up.  It’s currently in Week 2, so it’s not too late to sign up (and it’s free).  It’s run by CalArts on the Coursera website and there are lots of other courses available.  It is amazing to see people from all over the world participating in one course at one time and from such a large variety of backgrounds.  This week’s assignment was to come up with the ten biggest influences on our art life, from the start. 

My influences

Here is my resulting collage (can you spot the problem with it?).  I’ve used fairly broad categories: I love books and would literally read the telephone directory if there was nothing else around as a child, so I couldn’t home in on just one book: there are so many that have influenced  me. 

So if you were undertaking this exercise, who would your biggest influences be?  Can you be more specific than me?  Do we overlap in any way?  Reviewing it, I think my biggest omission is all the teachers that have taught me and all the students I have taught as they really have inspired me more than anyone else... maybe I need to redo the exercise.

Out & About: Katie Pasquini Masopust workshop

detail of the finished quilt

Last May (yes, I can’t believe it was so long ago!), I had the privilege of participating in a workshop led by the well known quilt artist, Katie Pasquini Masopust at the Studio, Loch Lomond.  It was five full days and I really enjoyed it.  The subject was from watercolour to finished quilt.  By the end of the five days, all I had to do was bind the quilt... which is why it has taken me so long to share it.  As June was rather busy with PomPoms and then other things took over, I only got round to finishing it a few weeks ago.  

The finished quilt

 I learnt a lot from Katie and her process is really interesting.  This is a quick and rather abbreviated summary of what we did.

My original watercolour

We painted lots of watercolours (most of mine were disastrous but the aim wasn’t to create a great watercolour painting, just source material), then we selected the best bits of each one before deciding which one to make into a quilt. 

The selected detail to make into a quilt

These were then traced and blown up in full sized patterns, which were meant to be copied exactly.  She also does ‘proper’ appliqué – none of this raw edged stuff – and showed us her technique. 

The back of my applique

 

Laying out the pieces to applique

Applique in progress

 

Finally, Katie heavily quilts her pieces to add interest and tends to use a similar coloured thread to the fabric, using a different pattern for each area.

Quilt ready to be trimmed

Being awkward, I was the only person in the class who created a horizontal piece, but now that it is complete and trimmed down to rectangle, I think I may prefer it to be hung vertically. 

 

It was a great learning experience, not just for what I learnt, but for what I also discovered about my own working practices.  For instance, I don’t like working to exact patterns, I want things to evolve and life is just too short not to use raw edge appliqué (besides I like the effect)!  Also, I like the quilting to add to the design as well as the texture of the piece. Overall, it was a great experience and even though I am highly unlikely to make another quilt like this (it is Katie’s technique after all, not mine), well worth going to.

In my studio: on-going textile art work

work in progress. Gillian Cooper

So what I have been up to in the studio over the last week?

Work in progress. Gillian Cooper

It’s been a good week – fingers crossed, my adjusted migraine medication seems to be helping at the moment, so I could just bash on.  I’ve been concentrating on making, which is fun; giving myself permission not to do all the admin-y things I should be doing.  They’re still on my list, just delayed by a week.

Hand dyed and printed fabric detail

Of course, this doesn’t mean huge amounts of progress as the type of work I do is slow.  Very slow, but as the last post shows, when I try and do quick work, I don’t like the results, so it is back to slow and, hopefully, metaphorically if not in money terms, much more profitable.

Hand stitched panel with leaves in progress

I’ve also been getting advice, which is... interesting.  When I put the piece at the top up on the wall, one of the kids suggested to improve it to add a row of pre programmed stitched elephants.  The second said add more colour (it is meant to be muted).  I haven’t dared ask the third.  On the other hand, I felt that their choice of colours of threads for this hand stitched piece were more useful and I have gone with them.

Collaged background

Asking advice of the kids is probably quite useful, as it will never be what I expect and I am free to ignore it, even if they are a bit hurt that there are no elephants being added to the piece...  Who do you get your most useful advice from?

Unsinging Muse - what to do with work you don't like

Untitled and Unloved by Gillian Cooper

I finished this smallish piece a few weeks ago, but haven’t felt inspired to share it.  There is something about it that just doesn’t work for me, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.  I thought perhaps it was too simple, yet it has all the elements I have been working on in my Unsung Muses series; figure, waves, patterns, incomplete fragments, but somehow... somehow...

 

Detail - colour not quite right

Is it the different colourway? Is it that the background isn’t pieced? Is it because it didn’t take weeks of labour as most of my work does – I was trying to see if I could make ‘quicker’ pieces?  What do you think?  Brutal opinions would be appreciated as I suspect this piece is just going to sink to the bottom on a pile and I’m not sure it will even make it on to my website when it is revamped.

Detail - colour not quite right - I think the shot cotton makes it harder for the camera (and me!)

Does this happen in your work too?  How often do you get to the end of a piece and discover you really don’t like it?  One person looking over my shoulder at it said it was ‘cute’; which was a bit of a kiss of death for me!  What do you do to recover your work at that point or do you just write it off to experience?

Inspiration: Pinterest Friday: Leaves

It’s a while since I’ve had a Pinterest Friday, so here is one today: leaves.  I’ve been working on leaves as a kind of sideline since the summer. 

I’ve been printing and drawing them, but with no real final end piece in sight – just something nice to play with on the side. 

As I started hand stitching a leaf inspired piece yesterday, it seemed appropriate to share some leaf photos with you. 

The work is still too early to share, but hopefully at some point in the next six months I will have done enough to show you it!

 

How to: Quick Jelly Roll Quilts

The smaller quilt on the quilting machine

These quilts were made to accompany an article I'm writing for Popular Patchwork about group fund raising for charity, by having a race to see who can make their jelly roll quilt the fastest.  The winner gets half the entry fees, whilst the rest goes to charity.  The quilt top can easily be made in less than a day.  I heard about the ‘Jelly Roll Slam’ race when Ruth Higham held one at The Studio,Loch Lomond.  It is definitely possible to make this quilt top in a day; even I managed in under four hours and I am not known for speedy piecing.

 

The larger quilt

 To make the quilt top, you will need:

• One jelly roll and a fat quarter of fabric.

Cut the fat quarter into 21/2in squares. You will need one square for each strip.

To make the quilt:

• Stitch a square to the end of each strip.
• Join all the strips together at the short ends into one hugely long strip.
• Fold in half right sides together and stitch along the long edge.
• When you get to the end, cut the fold, fold in half again and repeat.
• Keep repeating until you have the shape of quilt top you want – that’s it!

Detail of the larger quilt

It really is amazingly simple.  If you don’t want all the squares to line up, you can offset how the strips line up when you fold in half for the first time.

The smaller quilt - I didn't realise that some jelly rolls have 30 strips not 40 - so watch out!

In keeping with the quick piecing, I ‘quick-quilted’ them at Beechwood Quilting on their long-arm machine.  They will be great for the kids to play with and to throw over the sofa. 

If you are part of a quilting group why not hold your own jelly roll slam? I’m all for finding new (and fun) ways to raise money for charity.

 

Inspiration: trying out the new camera

Trying to capture the moon from our bedroom window

Last week was our half term week and at the risk of becoming scarily predictable, we headed down to Northumberland to the cold coast for a family holiday.  It was definitely the worst weather week we have had there, but it didn’t seem to matter.  The children enjoyed the familiarity of returning to the same known place and we got to relax, visit bookshops (well, actually only one fabulous second-hand bookshop, Barter Books in Alnwick) and go for bracing walks/jogs. 

The harbour at sunrise

Sunrise, looking away from the harbour

The week also gave me the opportunity to try out my new toy – a new digital SLR.  It was a belated Christmas present as R didn’t have the courage to buy it on his own, which was probably the right move!  Digital SLRs have moved on so much since we bought our original one about eight years ago and it is going to take some getting used to as there are so many touch screen buttons and gizmos that I have absolutely no idea how to use.  Of course, it would help if I read the manual, but... it is not going to happen. 

Walking on the sands at Alnmouth.  Yes, the boys are wearing shorts.

Sand break at Alnmouth

Still, the week was a great chance to experiment and try different settings.  Here are some of the better ones.  There are lots more pictures of the sea, but I thought after the post the other week, you would be more interested in these.

Water feature at Alnwick Gardens

At the end of the week, we headed up to Edinburgh, where I spent a delightful Saturday with Thistle Quilters.  They were a wonderfully friendly group and I had a great time showing them some of my Unsung Muses work, which had travelled down to Northumberland specially with me and then sharing my paper pieced bowl techniques.

One of the giant drains of the fountains at Alnwick Gardens

Small stream in Alnwick Gardens

Alnmouth

Alnmouth

 

Inspiration: Hilary Beattie in Popular Patchwork

 

 

A few months ago,  I blogged about Hilary Beattie's brilliant self-published book 'Make it Personal'. I liked the book and Hilary's whirlwind energy and passion for her textiles so much, I wrote a feature on her for Popular Patchwork, which is in the current edition (out 7 Feb 2014). 

There are lots of lovely images of her work and insight into her quilting life.  It was great fun to write - Hilary was full of useful information and I am following some of her recipes from her book in my current printing.  Her work and her blog are well worth checking out.

 

Inspiration: the Sea

 

The sea at Craster, Northumberland

For the next project in the C&G course, I set the students the theme of the sea.  The sea is such a great topic, that you can hardly fail to be inspired by it.  There are waves, patterns on the sand, shells, rock pools, sea creatures, fishes, driftwood, mythical sulkies and mermaids, boats, etc.  I've asked the students to bring together a collection of sea related things and I can't wait to see what they bring.  This is some of what I've pulled together to show them.  

 

Some of our shell collection

Little pebbles from the beach

Sea pictures taken from magazines

 

Postcards of sea paintings

 

This is the trouble with teaching C&G - it distracts me from my own work as now I want to go and make sea related art, rather than what I'm working on at the moment!

Craster, Northumberland

I also found them a couple of useful blog posts - this one by Mai-Britt Axelsen on how she designed her container, which is the other part of the weekend. Secondly, I loved how Sandra Wyman developed her sea quilt from the workshop she took with Jo Budd.  You can see it here.  It is really useful to see how you can be 'inspired by' rather than having to slavishly copy what you see.

 

Do you find the sea inspiring?  Have you made any sea inspired work that I can recommend to the students?