In my studio: at a snail's pace to completion

This week in the studio I’ve been trying to finish things, with varying success...! 

Unsung Muses pieces
Let’s start with my ‘real’ work.  I haven’t managed to finish any work for ages – I’ve been stuck at the starting ‘scatter-gun’ position for a few months now.  So I decided I really needed to finish some that had been on the go for a while, just to get them out of the way.  Here’s some close-ups of the two I’ve been working on this week.  The orange/bronze coloured one is basically finished, except I don’t like where I’ve put one of the lines of stitching.  I don’t think anyone else will notice, but I do so I need to fix that before I reveal the whole hanging.  So only 15mins work left.

The other piece has been at the almost finished stage for ages and now it only needs the final trimming and the hand stitching of the hanging sleeves, so hopefully I’ll be able to reveal the whole piece next week... (but don’t hold me to it!)

Coffee Cup Patchwork

I’ve progressed to 33 of the 38 pieces joined together into a big long row.  I’m getting excited and slightly worried about whether they will spiral together properly – they should as I’ve measured it, but until I actually start stitching...

 

Transfer Printing

At the weekend, one of the topics I was teaching at the C&G class was transfer printing.  I’ve resisted the temptation to start making work based on maps, the topic for the next few sessions, although it is fascinating and full of potential; but I couldn’t resist having a go at some transfer printing.  This has had mixed results, however, I don’t think you can do transfer printing properly without at least annihilating several pieces of fabric.  I managed it so well, I melted three bits of fabric into the paper and couldn’t remove it – the transferred colour was very strong though! 

The disaster!

 

The colour on the pieces that have worked is weaker, but they are at least intact!  I am thinking they could be really interesting layered into a piece, as I am playing with the ideas of memory and its disintegration, so having some obscured by other layers would work well.

Three layers of transfer printed chiffon

Simple Quilts

After longarm quilting at Beechwood last week, I’ve finished one – hurrah!  The second only needs the binding stitched down on the back and the third the binding added.  I keep thinking I can do the hand stitching in front of the TV in the evening as it doesn’t need too much concentration, but I don’t really watch much television, so I need to find other times to do it.

 

The backing on the one I’ve shown in the photo is some Amy Butler fabric and I’m really liking the way it is making me smile when I see it – it is definitely cheerful fabric.

 

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

Workshop: Paper Pieced Vessels

Last week I spent Guy Fawkes Night in Peebles, giving a talk to Tweedale Quilters.  Peebles is obviously very well behaved as I only heard a couple of fireworks.  The following day, 10 of the ladies from Tweedale Quilters joined me for my paper-pieced vessels workshop. 

 

I love paper piecing, even if often brings back horrific memories to women of a certain age of their first efforts of patchwork in the 1970s using hexagons and Laura Ashley fabrics.  It was one of the first patchwork techniques I was introduced to and I love sharing my enthusiasm for using it in unusual ways in creating 3-D vessels.  It was a lovely calm day – no sewing machines, all by hand and I hope the ladies enjoyed it as much as I did.

It was also quite useful as paper piecing was one of the topics we covered at the weekend at the C&G class, so I had my samples all ready for the students to look at.  Ironically, Marjory, who was teaching with me, brought along her traditional paper piecing to show – Laura Ashley hexagons which had been in an attic for years, waiting to be finished!

I also did a class thing at the weekend.  I had taken the demonstration sample in progress for Somerset folded patchwork to the hospital on Thursday, when I took my son back to have his broken arm examined.  I quickly grabbed it out of my handbag on Saturday morning, open it out to discover I had brought along his temporary calico sling instead!  Not very useful for teaching, but I did end up using the fabric as the basis of the new sample as I demonstrated the technique from scratch!  I’ll show you the finished Somerset piece when I have edged it.

 

In my studio: artist's book in progress

Pine Page

Whilst I was away in the depths of the North York Moors the other week, I decided I had to make some art.  It was wonderful staying in the woods, feeling totally surrounded by nature and seeing the effects of the weather subtly changing the landscape over the space of a week, as more trees lost leaves and the colours turning more brown.

Moss page

 

I had taken a small, long, narrow sketchbook with me, bought at the Festival of Quilts from Oliver Twists, which I had already painted with some leftover blue and yellow procion dyes (not very natural, I know, but if I’m honest, I like my home comforts and will never be a complete nature-girl). 

The bound sketchbook

As the kids explored the little stream and how to dam it, I collected as many different leaves, berries and grasses as I could find.  I bound them into my sketchbook and left them.  My binding wasn’t terribly tight, so when I got home, I pressed in R’s Black & Decker workbench.  It has left a great imprint on the corrugated cardboard cover.

Rowan berries

Being rather impatient and slightly concerned that it would be rotting rather than pressing in our frozen garage, I rescued it last week and had a look at the result.  As you can see from the photos, there has not been much colour transfer, but I have lovely indentations shaped like the pine kernels (not sure what the right word is – can someone tell me?).  The moss also sucked the dye from the page, giving a beautiful effect.  It hasn’t given me a finished sketchbook, but it is a great step on the way to an artist’s book.

Fern on page

 

Effects of brambles

Not in my studio: excuses for no work

This blog post started out completely different, two days ago, but just as I started writing, I got that dreaded phone call from school.  The one that doesn’t begin ‘It’s alright Mrs Cooper, we’re just calling because...’  My eldest had a collision in the playground and had broken his arm. 

So my initial blog post about an artist’s book I’m making went out the window as has my ‘what I’ve done in the studio this week’ update, because between two days in two different hospitals, a speech therapy appointment for another child, Halloween and a car which yelled ‘stop, go no further’ and made rude beeping noises on the way to the hospital, I’ve barely been in the studio!  Added to this, R has hurt his neck and the youngest fell off her scooter yesterday and has an enormous bruise on her forehead.  At least the fishes are fine!

Still hopefully things will get back to normal soon.  Oldest child is fine, apart from an arm in plaster for 4-6 weeks, the car is back from an expensive visit to the local car ‘hospital’ and is useable again.  I’m reasonably calm (I keep telling myself to breathe...) and can’t wait to get back into the studio to hide and make more things.  So the blog post is being delayed and will be what I have done over the past two weeks in the studio, next Friday!

Hope your week has been better...

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.

Inspiration: Pinterest Friday: Sketchbooks

one of my current sketchbook pages, exploring memory and passing of time

Today’s Pinterest Friday is sketchbooks.  It wasn’t meant to be!  I started out with some other ideas when I went onto Pinterest today, but it was these exquisite sketchbook pages that really caught my attention, so I went with it.

I think sketchbooks cause a ridiculous amount of anxiety to artists and art students.  We all get seduced by beautiful drawings and spreads and I think the most asked questions of any course I have taught relate to how to keep a sketchbook.

Drawing at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park - Hepworth sculptures

Personally, my sketchbooks are working drawings and scribbles, which mean something to me, but which are not a lot to look at.  I really struggled to find lovely spreads to share with you, especially those without lots of written comments.  Still, it was fun to look through my old sketchbooks and to recapture some of the joy I had in creating these pages, as well as recovering old ideas that might reappear in some new work soon... And my pages are real, not created to be looked at, but as part of my working process.  Sketchbooks can be an art in themselves, but I’m a textile based artist, not a sketchbook one, so I can enjoy looking at them, but not want to replicate it myself.

 

 

A college sketchbook page on blue

A college sketchbook page on blue

Starting ideas for Unsung Muses

Unsung Muses developed a bit further

Out & About: North York Moors

Scotland has very different school holidays to England and, I imagine, to the rest of the world, so last week was our ‘October week’, or half term holiday.  I believe that most of England still has a week to go.  Rather than stay at home and get depressed at all the things I need to do, but am not doing, such as tidying up, cleaning, repairing old computers etc, I took the kids down to the North York Moors for the week.  It’s an area I have never visited before and we all greatly enjoyed it.  The final count was three abbeys (Whitby, Rievaulx and Byland); two castles (Pickering and Helmsley), two fish and chip meals out, some rather nice cakes and tearooms, one return steam train journey, one run around on a beach, one folk museum (Ryedale) and lots of forest walks.  It was a lovely time, made even better when R joined us for the weekend.  And for all this activity, it was very relaxing.  Surprisingly I hardly read at all (I think I read over 10 books in our two week summer holiday...) and didn’t do much sewing.  It was more fun just cuddling the kids on the sofa in front of the TV in the evening than stitching.

 

 

Luckily the children love exploring ruins as much as I do, so they were happy running around them as I played around with the new camera settings on my phone.  We all liked making panoramas! 

I really enjoyed investigating the woods and taking close up photographs.  I’ve also pressed lots of leaves and berries into a sketchbook to see if they will colour the pages.  Fingers crossed that it doesn’t go mouldy first...

We’re all back to normal today and it is nice to be back in the studio working whilst still ignoring all the house things I need to do.

In my studio: what I didn't finish this week

On many other blogs I see lots and lots of finished work and I sometimes wonder how they get time to make it all.  My working processes are a lot, lot slower.  I can't work out whether I'm good at starting things but never quite finish them, whether I'm a slow worker or just that my work is more involved and I like having lots of things on the go.  Obviously I want to believe it is the latter!  The drawback of this is if I only posted when I had finished work, this blog would be very quiet.  So here is a glimpse of some of the things I have been working on this week.

Dyeing 

 

As the last blog post suggests I have been dyeing loads of fabric.  Partly for fun, partly for an article I am writing about fabric dyeing and partly to replenish my stock for the next batch of artwork I am planning.

Thermofax Printing

I got some screen printing inks last week and having been trying them out with my thermofax screens.  I don't know exactly where this is going to fit in, whether they become part of more complicated art or are left as 'simple' design pieces; perhaps a bit of both.

Coffee Cup Patchwork

I've also been progressing on the coffee cup patchwork - here are the first pieces stitched together.  Only another 37 to go...

Oakshott Logcabin Quilt

This quilt has been underway for ages, so I was thrilled to finally finish piecing the top and even more pleased with how it looks.  Using the shot cotton really brings the quilt to life and I just adore the colours in the Oakshott range.  I've booked into Beechwood Quilting next month to do a load of longarm quilting and this has been added to that pile.

Rail Fence Quilt

With some of the dyed fabric I have given into my desire just to have some fun making a simple quilt and have been piecing it into a rail fence pattern.  Sometimes it is lovely to do some stitching I don't really need to think about and just enjoy the process.

Sketchbook

Although I don't keep a beautiful, 'proper' sketchbook, I do use a notebook and have been planning things out more and more.  These are some little thumbnails for a new piece.  I'm desperate to start, but I'm trying to be good and wait till I have some other pieces finished.

City & Guilds
This weekend, I'm teaching Patchwork and Quilting City & Guilds at the Studio, so I have been making some samples, meeting other tutors and doing some drawing for it.  It should be a good weekend.

So that's this week.  Maybe I would achieve more if I just concentrated on one thing at a time, but it wouldn't be as much fun...