Little Quilts

Carrying on with the little quilts theme I'm sampling the graphic line look that is so fashionable at the moment it suits my doodling way of drawing. Not sure where this is going ( probably in the bin) but I will follow it through to the bitter end  and hope that  something it sparks something a bit more original.

This is the UFO that I am going to finish this week ( birthday celebrations permitting). The exciting thought is that I am getting a new camera  from the dearly beloved , the only problem with that is - do I go for the Canon G12 or the Nikon 71000. Don't you think that with all the reviews and advice on cameras online that it makes choosing all the more difficult? Either way it is a big investment and the one item I use almost daily so I don't want to get it wrong. My five year old Sony Cybershot has been a good friend but somehow the imaging doesn't seem as vibrant anymore. 



Resistance is Futile.

That show of resistance lasted at least an hour  - my excuse being that I'm... darn it  I can't think of one.

I really do need to come up with ways of using the million miles of cord I have made and this is a good start, so not a totally wasted day.

Blogger/Internet/PC seem to be playing up today I can't use the zoom function on my last post so I will publish my quilt pic again in case anyone is bored enough to want to look at it closely.

Quilt in the Snow

Second quilt finished!   18" x 15"indigo cottons, hand dyed and printed cottons, coloured kid leather, machine quilted and stitched. Looks better than the photo suggests, certainly better than my first effort. Not sure where this is leading but I will go with the flow and hope to impress myself a bit more than I am currently doing. I really just want to be making beads and buttons at the moment - I am resisting!

One Down

First little quilt finished. 13" x 17"

Hand dyed and commercial cotton, silk velvet and voile, machine quilted onto a wool batting, hand embroidered and a bit boring!

Just laying out my next little quilt ready for stitching. I think I will use felt as a batting for this one, hopefully it will stop the backing pulling through as I hand stitch. 

Back in Gear

Some work is being done around here at last - my period of procrastination could be at an end. It turned out that I just had to work through producing rubbish  until my brain kicked into 'create gear' again. I was walking away from anything that didn't work or please me, consequently no real progression was being made. I'm starting with a series of small art quilts to get my brain working again . The first one is quite restrained and neat but by the time I get to number six I should have freed up my design sense. I guess this is the downside of dabbling in so many crafts it's almost like starting again when you go back to something you have not done for a while. 

I've also managed to finish a couple of ufo's that have been hanging around for some time. These are a Guild challenge - a Toltec motif to be worked in any stitch method. Just finishing two little things like this have helped me push on with some work. Now maybe I can finish another couple of pieces off in the coming week!

Books and Things

After a lovely day at the Lost in Lace exhibition in Birmingham yesterday I thought I would be brimming over with ideas for a new project.  Another thing that isn't going to happen! However I always have my books to fall back on whilst thinking is taking place. This is the Kantha covered book I made some time ago, I 'm painting a colour wash on each page to take the starkness off the white paper, but I couldn't resist a little decoration on the first page - now why didn't I leave the cover page plain and start on the next page. Then I wouldn't have had a horrible contrast between the pages. When it's dry I will sew the first page to the cover. Some days it's better to do nothing rather than wreck work already done!

This is another page in my little Balsa wood covered book - a bit weak but not a book wrecker.

This is the start of another book made of papers from an old school exercise book that I know to be at least sixty years old . The paper is faded and starting to break up in places, just what I want for a little vintage book.

I'm still thinking about the lace exhibition and have to say that I was more moved by the Museum's collection of lace from their own textile archives. I was intrigued by the ideas, innovation and techniques shown by some of the artists in the main  show but I felt disconnected and uninvolved. I'm not sure if just making something big gives it more gravitas if it lacks in something to start with. (I'm thinking of the crystal net installation ' Inverted Cathedral' here). I need to think about it a bit more!

 Loved the museum and was amazed at the quality  of the art it contained, definitely worth several more visits. As I hadn't been to Birmingham for at least twenty years I spent the rest of the day acting like a tourist with my mouth wide open - nothing like the City I remember. The |Bullring area looks like some Sci- Fi architect was given free reign to vent his wildest dreams, all this modernity juxtaposed with  the old church in the background was surreal.

 I think I liked it!

Name and Shame

I hope that by publishing part of my stack of U.F.O.'s I will somehow shame myself into finishing a few! The crazy thing is  that 80% of them are a day away from finishing and what am I doing? Playing with a pleater/smocker that I borrowed from a friend. I had visions of turning out yards and yards of Fortuny like silk all pleated and stashed for future projects.

I don't think this machine likes synthetic voiles very much. I'm sure that if I removed the threads the fabric would bounce back to normal very quickly. I'm going to try some silk and cotton organza next. Any one had any experience of this machine?

The cording session is well and truly over  - indeed we have probably produced enough cord to supply our needs for the next century or so. I tested the machine to destruction level by running torrn fabrics and novelty wools and ribbons through it and still it persisted (ah.... British engineering).

Now if I set myself the goal of finishing one UFO a day I could have a self - righteous glow by the end of the week.

It's not going to happen is it?