Occasional jottings

Ingrid Press

2009-10-11T17:06:00.003+01:00

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

2009-09-29T20:57:00.002+01:00

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?

2009-09-18T22:12:00.003+01:00

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

Lino cutting - another exercise

2009-09-10T21:07:00.000+01:00

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

2009-09-07T17:59:00.004+01:00

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

2009-08-29T17:24:00.006+01:00

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

2009-08-27T18:43:00.003+01:00

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

2009-08-26T11:47:00.004+01:00

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

2009-08-16T21:24:00.002+01:00

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."

Squares

2009-08-09T14:35:00.001+01:00

Pero perdura
Originally uploaded by ionushi

CQ Journal Quilts

2009-08-06T20:34:00.002+01:00

In the excitement of the Little gem project I've fallen behind with my JQ's for CQ. In doing so I was beginning to mutter and chunner to myself about the lunacy of narrowing myself down to a simplistic theme and just two basic colours. Over this last week I have, at different times, worked on two pieces both of which are unfinished but have the majority of the quilting in place. Because they started off so differently in my head I saw nothing in common between the two pieces, until I put themtogether on the table to photograph them. I suddenly realised just how much I like the effect of the quilting on both pieces. Then I came to upload the latest JQ and looked at that and the previous post - I think my sewing machine is trying to tell me something!!!

"Simples" - another little gem

2009-08-06T20:31:00.003+01:00

Simply an offcut of furnishing fabric, simply quilted.

Control

2009-08-06T17:48:00.000+01:00

This is me - controlled, considered, every line thought about. Not necessarily the me I want to be - but the me that I am.

A4 sized, this took several weeks to complete, probably only a couple of hours stitching, but lots of ruminatating! The quilting, though I've been told it looks Japanese in origin, comes from looking at the work of John Maltby.

Doing what I can't already do ....

2009-08-02T17:27:00.003+01:00

This piece is a result of 'turning up' and looking at a couple of the gelatin prints created as a reult of the CQ summer school and a lot of 'What ifs?'. Nothing on paper and nothing in my head and it shows, of course. Included but not necessarily clear from this picture, are image transfer using acrylic medium with both acetate and newsprint, stitching inspired by rain in a japanese woodprint, direct printing and phototransfer of a 'tag' seen too frequently around local shops.

Far too much for one piece, but for me a good exercise in stepping out of my comfort zone. Oh, and it's also Little gem sized but it won't be seeing the inside of the NEC!!

Doing what I can already do .....

2009-08-02T17:22:00.002+01:00

I wouldn't say that I particularly like turquoise, I don't think I have any in my wardrobe, so how come I had enough bits to play with and test contrasting colours? Inevitably the play became Little gem sized!

Squares 19

2009-07-31T12:57:00.002+01:00

[] by Netream
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

Squares 18

2009-07-24T12:55:00.000+01:00

by Lala Lulu
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

Today I surprised myself!

2009-07-17T21:31:00.003+01:00

If I'm asked if I can draw I say no, because I can't get the results I want and don't know how to do anything that will make things better. I've read enough to know that I draw what I see, not what I think I see and that negative space is important, but the theory doesn't prevent the final result from looking primative, naive ...? I'm searching for a word that better describes the lack of depth in my drawing even on those occasions when I manage to capture a reasonable likeness to the subject.

A couple of weeks ago Channel 4 ran a 5 programme series on life drawing . It's described as learning to draw from a tutor, but is more an opportunity to see a model for 30 minutes whilst listening to the artist working. I've watched three of the five programmes so far and I've enjoyed my first attempts enough to think I could look for a proper live life class to see if I could learn to draw, in spite of the results! (But then I wouldn't be thinking about it if I was happy would I!)

Today was slightly different, I grabbed a pencil and some paper and drew the model (the only programme with a young female model, as it happens) and was quite pleased with the overall likeness, but I can never manage the shadows I see.

I decided to find a graphite pencil I have thinking a thicker line might make me draw differently. I couldn't find it so decided to use some charcoal I'd bought for a class last year. I haven't used it since because I couldn't control it and didn't understand the oft repeated phrase 'working into it' - nor did I like the smudges.

I quickly sketched a basic frame for the model then worked on top of it with the charcoal, the likeness isn't as good and there's a lot that could be corrected, but the joy was working with the charcoal - it was amazing! I seemed to have so much control (with so much to learn too) that I can't understand why I didn't like it before, other than the fact that we were drawing 2D shapes and using very heavy shading. Perhaps the fact that I was working quickly meant that things eren't too laboured?

Whatever the reason, there is enough here for me to continue playing - I was amazed at how much I enjoyed myself!

Squares 17

2009-07-17T12:53:00.000+01:00

ciné film by jenny downing
Attribution License

Dreaming in colour

2009-07-15T23:02:00.002+01:00

..... and a strange colour too.

I woke over the weekend to 'see' a colour scheme, almost a finished piece in fact, in my mind's eye. The weird thing is that it was lime green with dashes of dark fuchsia and black, not 'my' colours at all. I can't associate this with either a dream or a real visual cue.

I had to go into my room and pull out some fabrics, and it took quite a lot of will power to not stop what I'm working on and start fussing with fabric layout/proprtions etc. so clear was what I saw. I'm pleased to say that I resisted!

Squares 16

2009-07-10T12:51:00.000+01:00

Mechanical by matthew_moss
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

Gimp - selective colouring

2009-07-03T22:09:00.002+01:00

A Friday night after a fretful day, too tired to think but still too fretful to relax - the answer, play on the PC. A search for GIMP tutorials produced this http://www.gimp.org/tutorials /Selective_Color/

Which led to:

Which in turn came from http://www.flickr.com/photos/51035555243@N01/88507076/

Used under Creative Commons License - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en_GB

Squares 15

2009-07-03T12:47:00.000+01:00

contrust by miuenski
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

CQ Summer School - I'm still thinking

2009-06-30T20:09:00.006+01:00

By far the most exciting activity at Summer School was the screen printing, but as I don't have a wet area to work in other than the kitchen sink, my explorations are fairly limited. I'm also very aware that, unlike some other techniques I've learned in the past, this is going to need a lot of experience to be a good way for me to colour fabric. I'm not sure whether the hit and miss results as I experiment will satisfy me, so do I commit time to exploring further or just be grateful that I had the experience? CQ Summer School - I'm still thinking!

But for posterity, some early attempts, all done on fabric roughly 12" x 12":

Torn paper as a resist

Acetate stencil as gelatin print

Acetate stencil used as screen print resist, fabric previously printed

Glue as a resist, on previously printed fabric

My favourite - a 'mopping up' from the one above!!!!

A second print with red paint pulling some of the black through the screen with it

Squares 14

2009-06-26T12:45:00.000+01:00

geometría callejera by bachmont
Attribution License