Not surprisingly I came back from that trip revved up and ready to stitch! I had signed up with Debbie Babin to work through Jane and Elin's AQWorkbook with a group. We had a target of a chapter a week, which was a heavy schedule, but I had the advantage of it being winter here. I made 6 journal size quilts, mostly in a series to do with discourse, but also 2 others that utilised a hand stamped piece I had made at Judy's and another UFO from a quilt class in Elba in 2006.
Following on from that I did Debbie' s Floral Pizzazz class. I found the exercises on value really helpful, but I lost the momentum to complete the actual class project. The slightly seaweedy look of the flower didn't really speak to me. In October I did the Joggles class on tyvek. The main thing I learnt from the class was that all tyvek and all paint is not equal. The samples I had in the kits from Distractions refused to melt, but the hand painted bits of envelope that I used, would shrivel in a blink of an eye. I was pleased with the two works I completed - the grid with tyvek beads on skewers, and the maple leaves. The class was not well supported, the forum almost non-functional, and the teacher not very present. Another time it could be quite different.
My friends Jane and Sandra were getting fed up with my lack of commitment to my big forest project, so I went and had a half day with Jane, playing with silk fusion and torn painted pellon, to make bark samples. When I got back, I remoulded the silk fusion over a real log, and then embellished it with couched threads, beads and felted fibre. It was amazing how many colours you could add to the basic grey-blue and it still look like a real log!
Two other dalliances at the end of the year - transfer paper for printing onto things other than inkjet sheets, and a new embellisher machine. Hardly got to grips with either, but that's for the future.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
July round-up
I arrived in Halifax on July 3rd, was met by Rose and Willis Comeau, and taken to her sister's house in the suburban woods. Squirrels leaping into nut baskets, that kind of thing. That evening we went to the Halifax Tattoo. A great spectacle, but very noisy and too long. I was surprised at the amount of patriotism felt by the audience for their servicemen and women. Next day, a trip round the southwest of Nova Scotia to their area of Acadia. Lots of quilt shops en route, some amazing and some not so much. Almost met Valerie Hearder, but she was not going to be home. Then at their home, pretty close to the shore, I saw Rose's grandmother's quilts, and then met several friends and a sister-in-law and saw all their quilts. Generally a bedsize hand quilted work will sell for between $600 and $1200 Cdn.
I got the ferry to Bar Harbor in Maine, and was met by Alison and spent a lovely couple of days there in rural remoteness. I saw the works that she keeps under the bed (!), and had a day sightseeing and going to quilt shops, then eating lobster. The second day was hot, so we stayed home and I made a quilted bag under her direction. Next stop a flight to Buffalo to be met by Christina and Petra. They live in a farming community near Niagara Falls. We did the tourist thing, but I much preferred Niagara on the Lake, where I bought a print by Edward Spera, one of several local artists there. He does animal paintings with amazing detail, from photos he takes himself all over the world. The other thing in their local town was a permanent mural exhibit.
Next stop Edmonton and Judy and Dave. Had a great time playing in both her wet and dry studios, visiting galleries, quilt shops and chatting. Judy took me to Calgary and then on to Radium, with a stop off at her favourite quilt shop Sugar Pine in Canmore. We met up with Anne and Brad from Oyama. Next day, more quilt shops in Windemere, and then we parted company, and I went on with Anne to the Okanagan. Too brief a time there, more quilt shops, more galleries, lovely views. Greyhound to Vancouver. Stayed downtown (rather seedy) saw Stanley Park, some great art in the furniture dept of a large store, and then got the wonderful train to Seattle. The best train trip ever for luxury and views. I was met by Sally and Randy and spent a couple of days there (more quilt shops, and a visit to Snoqualmie Falls). Sally and I flew down to the quilt festival at Long Beach. We shared a room with Anne, and we all got on fine. Judy, Cheri, Marilyn, Lynn and Tara were also there, as were Alison and her friend Amy. The quilt festival was perfect. Huge, but not as huge as Houston, and classes not all full, so Judy and I signed up for the embellisher half day with Paula Scaffidi. The next day we all did a painting class with Cyndy Walter, slightly disappointing, but fun. Huge meals, lots of margaritas, and lots of chat. We got to see a lot of Marilyn and Lynn's prize-winning quilts, including Grape Harvest before it was quilted.
All too soon, it was time to say goodbye and head home with a bursting suitcase of goodies.
I got the ferry to Bar Harbor in Maine, and was met by Alison and spent a lovely couple of days there in rural remoteness. I saw the works that she keeps under the bed (!), and had a day sightseeing and going to quilt shops, then eating lobster. The second day was hot, so we stayed home and I made a quilted bag under her direction. Next stop a flight to Buffalo to be met by Christina and Petra. They live in a farming community near Niagara Falls. We did the tourist thing, but I much preferred Niagara on the Lake, where I bought a print by Edward Spera, one of several local artists there. He does animal paintings with amazing detail, from photos he takes himself all over the world. The other thing in their local town was a permanent mural exhibit.
Next stop Edmonton and Judy and Dave. Had a great time playing in both her wet and dry studios, visiting galleries, quilt shops and chatting. Judy took me to Calgary and then on to Radium, with a stop off at her favourite quilt shop Sugar Pine in Canmore. We met up with Anne and Brad from Oyama. Next day, more quilt shops in Windemere, and then we parted company, and I went on with Anne to the Okanagan. Too brief a time there, more quilt shops, more galleries, lovely views. Greyhound to Vancouver. Stayed downtown (rather seedy) saw Stanley Park, some great art in the furniture dept of a large store, and then got the wonderful train to Seattle. The best train trip ever for luxury and views. I was met by Sally and Randy and spent a couple of days there (more quilt shops, and a visit to Snoqualmie Falls). Sally and I flew down to the quilt festival at Long Beach. We shared a room with Anne, and we all got on fine. Judy, Cheri, Marilyn, Lynn and Tara were also there, as were Alison and her friend Amy. The quilt festival was perfect. Huge, but not as huge as Houston, and classes not all full, so Judy and I signed up for the embellisher half day with Paula Scaffidi. The next day we all did a painting class with Cyndy Walter, slightly disappointing, but fun. Huge meals, lots of margaritas, and lots of chat. We got to see a lot of Marilyn and Lynn's prize-winning quilts, including Grape Harvest before it was quilted.
All too soon, it was time to say goodbye and head home with a bursting suitcase of goodies.
New Year's Eve
Although I resisted, I am going to have to review my creative year before committing myself to some goals for 2009.
This time last year I had finished the Self Expressions class, which had been pretty successful in developing confidence and 'listening to' the piece. Some of the class members went on to found a yahoo group, which has had intermittent forays, and a couple of challenges. The number of participants is not great enough for continued momentum, unfortunately. They plan to work through AQWorkbook this year, but I have already done that. However, a lasting legacy of the SE class is that I am much happier just seeing where a piece might go, and adding and subtracting threads, effects, etc. until it tells me it is finished, or I decide I am done with it. Not everything has to be a masterpiece. Randomly about half of what I made this year are things I would be happy to display publicly.
In March I went to a weekend workshop here in Christchurch with Gloria Loughman, to make a forest landscape. We started with a pale wash of sky colours and then sponged on various greens and browns. The technique was not to mix green, but to pick up a blotch of yellow and black or yellow and violet and get a mix on the fabric with the sponge. There were about 14 people on the course, and everyone made completely different landscapes. Some got as far as stitching, but I was not one of them. I did a few hours more when I got home, and the project is still languishing in the halfway land between design board and 'consigned to UFO' box. It was great to work with Gloria and see a lot of her works up close. She was very happy for students to maul her quilts. She also encouraged us to practise with her machine and threads, some of her threadwork ideas. She had some small quilts that feature in her book, which show the same scene using different colour options, which was a great lesson in colour effects.
In April I left for my long overseas trip. This was broken down into: 10 days with Mum to see her and get over the flight, followed by a week in the Alicante mountains with my Somerset friend Barbara to get fit. We had a great week of weather, only 2 of us on that grade of walking, so our own guide, and shared the hotel with a group of birders, so got to see nightingales, rollers, vultures, and a huge tawny owl which sat on a dead tree outside the hotel. From there I went to Barcelona for a couple of nights before heading to Rome to pick up the NZ walking group. That was almost a month of walking, sightseeing and eating our way round Tuscany, Umbria, Amalfi and Rome. Semi-work, but also enjoyable.
I spent another month in the UK, mainly with Mum, but I also did a trip to the Midlands, and met up with Angela and Joanna from our yahoo group. We spent the day in Liverpool at the Klimt exhibition (Tate Liverpool). It was really good fun to meet them in person, and we also took lots of photos of the lambananas exhibit all over town, and went to the impressionists at the normal museum as well.
Then off to Canada and the States, to stay with people I had hosted here through Home Exchange, or other ladies from the quilt group.
More on that next post.
This time last year I had finished the Self Expressions class, which had been pretty successful in developing confidence and 'listening to' the piece. Some of the class members went on to found a yahoo group, which has had intermittent forays, and a couple of challenges. The number of participants is not great enough for continued momentum, unfortunately. They plan to work through AQWorkbook this year, but I have already done that. However, a lasting legacy of the SE class is that I am much happier just seeing where a piece might go, and adding and subtracting threads, effects, etc. until it tells me it is finished, or I decide I am done with it. Not everything has to be a masterpiece. Randomly about half of what I made this year are things I would be happy to display publicly.
In March I went to a weekend workshop here in Christchurch with Gloria Loughman, to make a forest landscape. We started with a pale wash of sky colours and then sponged on various greens and browns. The technique was not to mix green, but to pick up a blotch of yellow and black or yellow and violet and get a mix on the fabric with the sponge. There were about 14 people on the course, and everyone made completely different landscapes. Some got as far as stitching, but I was not one of them. I did a few hours more when I got home, and the project is still languishing in the halfway land between design board and 'consigned to UFO' box. It was great to work with Gloria and see a lot of her works up close. She was very happy for students to maul her quilts. She also encouraged us to practise with her machine and threads, some of her threadwork ideas. She had some small quilts that feature in her book, which show the same scene using different colour options, which was a great lesson in colour effects.
In April I left for my long overseas trip. This was broken down into: 10 days with Mum to see her and get over the flight, followed by a week in the Alicante mountains with my Somerset friend Barbara to get fit. We had a great week of weather, only 2 of us on that grade of walking, so our own guide, and shared the hotel with a group of birders, so got to see nightingales, rollers, vultures, and a huge tawny owl which sat on a dead tree outside the hotel. From there I went to Barcelona for a couple of nights before heading to Rome to pick up the NZ walking group. That was almost a month of walking, sightseeing and eating our way round Tuscany, Umbria, Amalfi and Rome. Semi-work, but also enjoyable.
I spent another month in the UK, mainly with Mum, but I also did a trip to the Midlands, and met up with Angela and Joanna from our yahoo group. We spent the day in Liverpool at the Klimt exhibition (Tate Liverpool). It was really good fun to meet them in person, and we also took lots of photos of the lambananas exhibit all over town, and went to the impressionists at the normal museum as well.
Then off to Canada and the States, to stay with people I had hosted here through Home Exchange, or other ladies from the quilt group.
More on that next post.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Trepidation on Boxing Day
Today's the day I set off with a friend to do a 6 day trek carrying everything. I have done it before, about 10 years ago, and I suspect it is a little like childbirth - you forget the pain afterwards until you are committed!
I had three great books for Christmas (I chose them, Mum paid) and spent a happy hour or two browsing through Katie Masopust's Design book, Rayna Gillman's surface treatments, and Maggie Grey's From Image to Stitch. I can see myself using all or most of the first, dipping into the second, and being overwhelmed and paralysed by the third! Although I love to look at those crunchy distressed texture pieces, and have several books, I don't think I want to do them for now. I have other ideas bubbling away, and need to get those out of my system, not to mention a few UFOs worth finishing.
Interesting that in Living the Creative Life, I was reading that you really have to stop yourself from suddenly wanting to do housework, when confronted with a tricky design choice. I do that a lot! In fact, with a few things I wish I was doing, I imagine myself allotting a regular time slot for them and always getting them done, but don't ever start.
With New Year approaching, this might the time to take baby steps in that direction.
Now, off to take 7 league boot steps!
I had three great books for Christmas (I chose them, Mum paid) and spent a happy hour or two browsing through Katie Masopust's Design book, Rayna Gillman's surface treatments, and Maggie Grey's From Image to Stitch. I can see myself using all or most of the first, dipping into the second, and being overwhelmed and paralysed by the third! Although I love to look at those crunchy distressed texture pieces, and have several books, I don't think I want to do them for now. I have other ideas bubbling away, and need to get those out of my system, not to mention a few UFOs worth finishing.
Interesting that in Living the Creative Life, I was reading that you really have to stop yourself from suddenly wanting to do housework, when confronted with a tricky design choice. I do that a lot! In fact, with a few things I wish I was doing, I imagine myself allotting a regular time slot for them and always getting them done, but don't ever start.
With New Year approaching, this might the time to take baby steps in that direction.
Now, off to take 7 league boot steps!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Christmas Eve and not a mince pie in sight
Today is a day for finishing a few things, like checking my pack for the tramping trip. Buying some food for the holiday. Playing with the cat!
I spent a while last night trying to work out the best way to mount the bark sample. I trie a black canvas, but it looked unfinished. I don't want to frame it as such, but it needs something behind it to separate it from the wall and make it stand out. I tried painting some catcher sheets, and one in a light yellow-green looked OK, but plain strips did nothing for the design. I don't want to do threads and stitching, as that would distract from the subtleties of the bark. I think that will have to mature a while as an idea.
Meanwhile, I have thoughts about how to turn the printed poem into a journal. The other fabrics and ribbons will work well. Now I am fussing about the quilting pattern. The curlicues of the design are too overlapping to follow in stitch. I experimented with treating the left side as a profile of a face, but that looked too contrived. I'm leaning towards a fairly open diamond grid centre fill, with maybe hand stitches or small beads on the joins.
Hope to make some progress before tomorrow.
I had a very inspiring time reading Sandra Meech's Contemporary Quilts yesterday. I like it a hundred times better than Creative Quilts, which I seem to have lost, or lent to someone. I also got my class list for the Wellington symposium. I am doing Beth Miller's landscapes, which I hope will codify my rather disparate ideas about landscapes. Also Vikki Pignatelli's manipulated fabrics. I didn't get the Wednesday class that I wanted, so I am not sure whether to take one of the ones on offer, or just not do classes on Wednesday. I might be classed out by then.
At this stage it is looking like a stimulating year for classes - I start the embellisher class at the Thread Studio on Jan 12th.
I spent a while last night trying to work out the best way to mount the bark sample. I trie a black canvas, but it looked unfinished. I don't want to frame it as such, but it needs something behind it to separate it from the wall and make it stand out. I tried painting some catcher sheets, and one in a light yellow-green looked OK, but plain strips did nothing for the design. I don't want to do threads and stitching, as that would distract from the subtleties of the bark. I think that will have to mature a while as an idea.
Meanwhile, I have thoughts about how to turn the printed poem into a journal. The other fabrics and ribbons will work well. Now I am fussing about the quilting pattern. The curlicues of the design are too overlapping to follow in stitch. I experimented with treating the left side as a profile of a face, but that looked too contrived. I'm leaning towards a fairly open diamond grid centre fill, with maybe hand stitches or small beads on the joins.
Hope to make some progress before tomorrow.
I had a very inspiring time reading Sandra Meech's Contemporary Quilts yesterday. I like it a hundred times better than Creative Quilts, which I seem to have lost, or lent to someone. I also got my class list for the Wellington symposium. I am doing Beth Miller's landscapes, which I hope will codify my rather disparate ideas about landscapes. Also Vikki Pignatelli's manipulated fabrics. I didn't get the Wednesday class that I wanted, so I am not sure whether to take one of the ones on offer, or just not do classes on Wednesday. I might be classed out by then.
At this stage it is looking like a stimulating year for classes - I start the embellisher class at the Thread Studio on Jan 12th.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Thoughts of friends far away
Today I was in touch with someone who is close to another friend, and helping her through some worrying post-surgery infection. I remembered another friend whose husband's symptoms have rapidly deteriorated. A friend from schooldays was widowered only a few weeks ago. So it is clear that not everyone in the world is going to have a riotous and carefree Christmas.
I am finding the 'recession' to be a good thing in many ways. If people re-evaluate what is important to them, and come back to being together as a family, or groups of friends, instead of spending considerable hours trolling up and down malls buying ever more stuff, then it has positive outcomes. If people discover that they are just as happy with old things as they would be 2 days after they bought new things, then that is good. That is how more than half the world lives anyhow - those in developing countries, those in remote areas, those on low incomes.
I am sorry that more people than usual will spend Christmas week worrying about the future of their jobs, or their businesses. One of the benefits of being old is that we have seen recessions before, and we have been in situations in the past where we had to tighten belts, and adjust our expectations. Harder for young ones who have never known anything but economic growth.
It's a lovely sunny summer morning, so instead of art, I will go and spend time outside, listening to the birds sing while I cut grass.
I am finding the 'recession' to be a good thing in many ways. If people re-evaluate what is important to them, and come back to being together as a family, or groups of friends, instead of spending considerable hours trolling up and down malls buying ever more stuff, then it has positive outcomes. If people discover that they are just as happy with old things as they would be 2 days after they bought new things, then that is good. That is how more than half the world lives anyhow - those in developing countries, those in remote areas, those on low incomes.
I am sorry that more people than usual will spend Christmas week worrying about the future of their jobs, or their businesses. One of the benefits of being old is that we have seen recessions before, and we have been in situations in the past where we had to tighten belts, and adjust our expectations. Harder for young ones who have never known anything but economic growth.
It's a lovely sunny summer morning, so instead of art, I will go and spend time outside, listening to the birds sing while I cut grass.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Silk paper bark
I have three days before I head away on a tramping trip. Today's creative task is to finish a bark sample made from silk paper. The silk had been dyed a blueish grey with some warmer streaks. I dried it over a real log (next time put plastic wrap in between!). I used my friend Jane's method of cellulose paste, which has the advantage that you can re-wet it to mould it differently. The disadvantage is it won't be very permanent, and could get weevils! I machined the 'bark' form onto some black batting, which has given me something to hold on to and bury the threads on the back. I'm not so intuitive with hand embroidery as I am with patchwork, and it's been a bit of a struggle to do stitching and then immediately cover it up with more stitching. I didn't try to follow the contours of the real bark, just kept the illusion in my head and drifted with the flow, bringing in more colours when the piece started to get predictable. I was able to needlefelt some fibres with my embellisher, and that softened the silk paper - something to remember if that's an effect I want. (I wanted a harder surface for this piece). I'm about ready to add some small beads, and probably another 50 or so French knots. I had some fine wool yarn hand dyed in sludgy greens and browns, and that has worked well for knots, giving a matte texture.
Will post photos later.
Will post photos later.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Day 1
OK. I think I've worked out what I'm doing. Blogging is going to be a combination for me of a textile journal and a textile journey. A kind of backwards/forwards look at my creative life, with maybe some other observations along the way. I will be happy to spend a stopover with anyone who calls in, but at this stage I am less interested in publicising my work and more concerned with analysing and directing it.
It's going to be fun!
It's going to be fun!
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