Creative Cue Wk4: Rolling

I immediately thought of "Rolling Home" when this weeks cue was posted. I have no idea where it came from but I couldn't shake it, so I finally gave in to some rolling homes. The image of suburbia was cropped in a version of Corel Photopaint that I discovered today to be almost twelve years old, (No wonder it doesn't do everything I expect of it!) then added to a background created in it's equally ancient sister Coreldraw, which doesn't seem to be showing her age half as much!

Creative Cue wk3 - track

Not such a good week with lots extra going on, so I haven't done this image justice - I was wanting to do a lot more. The chain, for instance, is calling out to be highlighted as a contrast to the large and small curves, but I've done enough to know what else could be worked on.

 

All image manipulation done in GIMP for a change this time

Creative Cue Challenge Wk 3 - Track

This week's word for the "Three Creative Studios" challenge is track. Searching for a suitable Creative Commons image  was interesting - the choice was dominated by sports cars. But I liked the potential in this image - the change of scale between gear wheel and bike wheel is the kind of thing I want to develop.  I don't think I'll be doing a lot with it - a bit of judicious cropping and some colour changes to highlight the main elements and I could be done.

Chain by Hagbard_
Attribution License

The seven inch heels in my shoe collection

A different look at procrastination

Taken from http://zenhabits.net/

 

Procrastination Make a list of things to do and then don't do it. Call it your procrastination list. Then make the decision to engage in something you really feel like doing. If and when you become inspired to do something on your procrastination list then go for it. Maybe you really don't have to do those things on your procrastination list or perhaps someone else may want to do those things for you. I believe that if you're not accepting, enjoying or enthusiastic about what you're doing then you shouldn't do it. By procrastinating you often let go of resistance and become more relaxed.

 

Hmmm, maybe!

 

 

 

Creative Cue Challenge Wk 2 - Heel 2

I said that I wanted to use the Creative Cues to work through some design elements as I know that my quilts lack variation - whether that be in tone, scale or interest. So I have taken the Heel cue to try to create something that has interest both from a distance and closer to. Using text seems to be an easy way to do this as I think most of us are drawn in when there are words to be read.

The text is taken from Wikipedia and describes the culture and impact of foot binding in China, which struck me as an interesting juxtapostion with a 7" heel that we 'sophisticated Westerners' might wear!

This is photo manipulation - removing an area from the shoe image to show the text below. It would have been much quicker to print off the text and the picture, cut out the shapes from the shoe and stick them together, but at least I learned quite a bit in the process!!!!

What "type" are you?

From "How about orange":

 

"Pentagram recently invited friends and clients to visit their resident psychiatrist. You, too, can drop by his office to learn what typeface most suits your personality. This descendent of Freud will ask you four questions, take some notes, and then reveal your "type," complete with a history lesson on that font. I was diagnosed as Archer Hairline. Give it a try right here. The password is character."

 

I liked the computer wizardry that showed my 'profile' at the end.

Creative Cue Challenge Wk 2 - Heel

So it seems that last weeks word from http://threecreativestudios.com was intended to lull us into a false sense of security!

Even so, when I went to http://johnjohnston.info/flickrCC/index.php, a very simple Flickr search tool, it brought up 1,263 images. I've included a couple of early favourite images to work with but how the jelly beans came to be tagged with the word heel I don't know - but they look good!

Photo manipulation

In answer to Sharon's question - I did mean the use of photo manipulation, though not with Photoshop. I used a combination of an old, old version of Corel Photopaint and GIMP - a free open-source piece of software with the same range of features as Photoshop at http://www.gimp.org/ I'm self taught and can only do some things in each package, hence the combination.

Having not posted for some time I thought that I would have lost all my virtual friends - it has been great to hear from you and know that the world of blogging is alive and thriving!

Creative Cue Challenge - Week 1 East

I'm not sure how long I'll manage this but over the last week several websites/blogs have offered challenges. This one suits my purpose in that it demands no absolute commitment, but the open scope will hopefully help me focus on my intent to improve my design skills.

The challenge is described thus - "Use the Creative Cue as a starting point for a sketch, art work, journal page, photograph, painting, etc. You can use any type of medium you prefer….pencil, chalk, paint, fabric, etc." more details can be seen on the Three Creative Studios blog here - http://threecreativestudios.com/blog/

As this has to be manageable I'll be using the challenge word to search for a Creative Commons licensed photo from the web, which I'll then manipulate. I do need to find myself a list of design elements to work to before I go to far! So with no more ado - this weeks word is EAST:

The original photo is Storm brewing by renrut CC by License (Rye harbour on a stormy day)



And this is my take on it:

Christmas time

Wishing everyone a peaceful holiday ......

Apelsinas / Orange by You_rate
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

Ingrid Press

Sarah Fielke of www.sewn.net has an interview with Ingrid Press featuring pictures from her FOQ gallery and her work with Hanging Together here - http://www.sewn.net.au/HaveASay/GuestCorner/IngridPress.aspx

A trip to York

I've just returned from a short week in York (Not a full seven days but longer than a long weekend!) during which I managed my first visit to St. Anthony's the Quilt Museum of the QGBI. There were two new exhibitions on - "'Seeing Red: The influence of Turkey Red Dye on Quiltmaking' - explores the use of Turkey Red dye to produce a vibrant and colourfast red fabric. The striking quilts on display are complimented by items of costume and beautiful fabric samples." and "'On the Edge in York', is a contemporary display from Edge - Textile Artists of Scotland, and features some beautiful pieces of textile art."

The turkey red exhibition was wonderful. Because of the cohesion of the exhibits created by the use of colour the impact as I entered the hall was amazing. I've seen pictures of the hall but hadn't realised just how tall the space is. The contempory exhibition of work by Scottish group Edge made a fitting contrast - I particularly like the work of Sue Jury but guess who had left the camera behind!

Whoever thought of opening the kitchen to QGBI members was a genius. It was an unexpectedly hot day - I'd walked across York from the railway museum, via the art gallery and was in serious need of the calm and a good cup of tea!

I've often heard people talk of the deli across the 'yard' from the museum and the quality of food they serve, but I'd not heard anything of the wonderful garden that has been created in the courtyard. Considering St. Anthony's is almost on the inner ring road, this garden was a little oasis of colour and quiet.

Whilst I was in the museum I bought a couple of badges from Sumptuosity - http://www.sumptuosity.net/ so yesterday when we took a walk around the bits of York we knew less well we made our way to Walmgate where Sumptuosity is based. This was a fun street with some interesting shops in it. It was great to meet Ruth the owner/creator at Sumptuosity and see her designs in the making and to learn something of her journey into running her business.

The exhibit I went to see at the art gallery finished this weekend. It featured the art of St. Ives and had pieces by the majority of artists associated with St. Ives. This was the first time I'd seen a Ben Nicholson relief 'in the flesh' and have even greater respect for his work. The other artist whose work I enjoyed was Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. I was first introduced to her work at the CQ summer school last year, but had more or less forgotten my interest. Now I really must follow this up!

Sewing machine anyone?

This was half the frontage of the All Saints store on Market Street, Manchester - amazing.

Lino cutting - another exercise

Presumably so that we were working with shapes with which we are familiar this next exercise was to create a monogram. I've doodled with my initials first LR then LB since childhood and have never achieved anything that really pleased me. The limitations of my lino cutting skills did help me narrow down my choices and this is what I finished up with:



monogram - 2cm x 3cm

A little playing produced this pattern, it was supposed to be an exercise in layering and wild abandon, the layers are there but it looks like the abandon will have to come another day!

FOQ - Reflections 3

As each FOQ goes by I spend more time in the artists galleries and less amongst the competitive quilts. This year was no exception, including re-visiting and spending quiet time amongst the work of:

Yoshiko Jinzenji - no photos here, and not many on the web that do justice to the simplicity of this gallery, showing the work of her students using her own cloth.

Chungie Lee - again, more later, though I've a growing sense that in trying to capture how I felt about her class and her work I'll lose some of the magic she left me with.

Ingrid Press - Ingrid was happy for people to take photos and my only regret is that I didn't a shot of her gallery. As well as quilting Ingrid is a basketmaker and had several small pieces on display.







And finally a student exhibit from Taeyoun Kim, an MA student at Nottingham Trent.



The common theme for me was the 'simplicity' of these pieces, where placement is all important. I love the control that produces a sense of calm and it serves as a reminder to me that this is what I like to aim for in my own work. I enjoy new techniques, I like surface design, I'd love to be able to embellish with wild abandon but - this is where my heart lies.

Lino cutting - lesson 1

Last Christmas I put a linocutting set on my wish list, expecting a red handle with interchangeable blades like the ones we had in school. But my daughter knows how much pleasure I'd get from this set:



From the flocked card of the box to the way the tools rest in your hand it's a joy! I've played with tools from time to time, but not having found any suitable books/tutorials haven't really challenged myself. So when Dijanne Cevaal announced that she was doing an on-line course I signed up

Exercise 1 was a kind of warming up exercise, using different tools in different ways to create a range of marks on a 12" x 12" piece:



Exercise 2 focused on positive and negative images, which is something I've struggled with in the past:



Exercise 3 was to create a repeating pattern on a smaller piece of lino - 2.5" square. I made two of these as I wanted to try curved and straight lines:

FOQ - Reflections 2

Perhaps it was the time spent on the tombola stand or in the galleries but I feel as though I bought less than anyone else in blogworld - the Quilt National Book, Chungie Lee's Pojagi and beyond book, a piece of silk organza and some threads seems to some it up.

Having watched (and listened) to Margaret's hand stitching in the Pojagi class (more on this tomorrow perhaps?) I decided that it is time to give it a go. I've always been frustrated by my lack of speed when hand-stitching, but that is missing the point entirely so I bought a mixed pack of perle cotton from Winifred Cottage. I deliberately chose a colour mix that I don't normally work with. The following day having mulled over the pojagi class I decided that I had the germ of an idea for next CQ challenge and bought some silk organza from Mulberry Silks.

No one could have been more surprised than I was when I finally unpacked my goodies, they weren't bought to go together, I'm not sure that they ever will, but I'm left wondering where the influence for these colour choices came from.

FOQ Reflections - 1

As always it takes some time to assimilate everything you see and hear at FOQ, so there could be several posts on this subject!

The easiest to record is the Little Gem Tombola, which I think I can safely say was a success. We superceeded the targets we set ourselves, eventually receiving around 2,000 Little gem quilts which in turn raised more than £9,500 for The Guild's quilt museum at St. Anthony's in York.

For me the success was as much about the atmosphere around the stand and people's responses to making and winning these little quilts. The Guild used to work under the banner "spread the word, share the pleasure" and this was what the Little gem project has been about.



Members of the LG team before FOQ opened



A closer look at some of the contributions (click on picture for more detail.)

Patterns in islamic art

Whilst looking for something completely different I fell across this site - http://www.patterninislamicart.com/ which offers " a FREE download of over 4000 images of patterns and other design features drawn from the rich cultural heritage of the Islamic world."