Busy day today

 I rarely go to the flea market without finding something of interest.

Today it was this beat up pine box with its alphabet and number printing blocks. It's sadly not complete but I don't care because I often mix different fonts together in my altered books. These will no doubt make an appearance in the 'Little Book of Red' that some of you may have seen on DMTV recently. We spent a bit of money on other things so the stall holder threw the blocks in for nothing - can't be bad!

I've been sewing as well as mooching round market stalls for bargains. The PowerQuilter is earning its keep again. I had a happy hour free motion quilting this bird panel. It's one of the cardboard etchings I made for a DMTV video that's now been digitally printed onto cotton fabric by Jamie and Laura at Fingerprint.

I'm stitching a design of leaves to echo the printed leaves and using spirals to fill in the gaps and travel across from leaf to leaf.

Although I should really finish all the quilting before I start to add paint (or at least take the needle out of the cloth!!) you can see I was impatient to see how a little white acrylic ink would look. I think it will draw attention to the stitched leaves and help them sit happily amongst the printed ones.

In town today I resisted the window display in my favourite dress shop and came home to make something from my vast stash of jersey fabrics.

This started life as a Vogue pattern I've used many times. I shortened the sleeves, narrowed the sides, lengthened the whole thing and added two enormous patch pockets. Doesn't bear much similarity to the photograph on the pattern packet but it will be a really easy piece to wear as the weather warms up.

Hope tomorrow will be just as productive!
Bye for now,
Linda

Crossing another couple off the list

I'm still ploughing my way through the unwieldy pile of unfinished projects. The studio seemed the most tranquil place to be over the last few days.

This little fellow had his binding attached and hemmed this morning.

He's one of my original sketchbook drawings digitally printed onto cotton fabric.

I framed the print with hand dyed cotton, added painted Bondaweb feathers and finally hand painted the wing and tail feathers to take them across into the borders and create a bit of drama. The whole thing is free motion quilted on my PowerQuilter.

You could be forgiven for thinking this quilt had fallen off the edge of the world. It's been so long since I worked on it but here it is finished. Or is it?

Now, although it's bound and has a hanging sleeve attached, I'm thinking I might add a bit of paint. I'll hang the quilt on my studio wall so I can watch it carefully before making a decision.

We live in anxious times - I hope your weekend was peaceful.
Linda x

Drawing portraits this week

With portraiture the theme for our next exhibition with Through Our Hands, I've been experimenting with oil pastel and solvent.

It's surprising how much detail you can achieve considering how chunky the pastel sticks are.

Knowing I'd been working with faces I think Laura was having a laugh when she found this book for me. Luckily it was in the charity corner of her local village stores and only cost 50p instead of the original price of nearly £10.

It may have been intended as a joke but it is strangely compelling even if I have to resort to a magnifying lens to see the numbers. I thought I'd start with Botticelli's Venus as he's in the news so much at the moment. I've made a good start but there's a long way to go before you'd know who it's supposed to be.

Turns out that drawing by numbers is way more time consuming than pastels and solvent!

Have a good weekend. I intend to be happily occupied painting the garden shed. Just need to get rid of the cobwebs first. (That's the shed's, not mine).

Bye for now,
Linda x

Clearing the decks

I've had what I think is a genius idea for the next Through Our Hands exhibition! You know how it is though - what seems brilliant in your imagination doesn't always work out as hoped so for now I shall keep my thoughts to myself. While the new ideas are fermenting I decided to clear the decks. There are so many unfinished bits and pieces in my workroom it's putting me off starting anything serious. I'm faced with heaps of stuff every time I walk in the room and that's just not good.

First to get the treatment was this collagraph print I made last year. Laura and Jamie printed it to cotton fabric and I've finished it with both hand and machine quilting. The hand stitch is with Madeira Lana and the machine stitch is Cotona 50 and Madeira Rayon. The spiky details in the foreground were painted with Jacquard Lumiere paint. It looks quite foreboding doesn't it? I wasn't in a bad mood when I made the print - it's just that I have limited colours of etching ink! I can tick this one off the list but sadly they printed me 3 different versions so I might have to hide the other 2 in a closed drawer.

While I had the paint and brushes out I worked a bit more on one of the Fingerprint, 'We print - You Colour' panels.

I'm not sure yet how much of the panel I'll paint but I'm really enjoying the intricate pattern in this particular design.

Then just because a change is as good as a rest I returned to this moth quilt which has been lingering for far too long in the 'just get on and finish me' pile. The moths were discharged from the hand dyed charcoal grey fabric and the moon was painted.

The PowerQuilter makes free motion quilting a total pleasure because I can see such a large area of the quilt as I work. I'm using Madeira's Cotona 50 cotton threads for most of this as I love the fine line they create. Most of the sky will be quilted with the same pattern but I'll keep changing the colour of the thread to create a bit more interest.

So, that's my weekend sorted. By the way, after I moaned about the cold weather last time, today the sun is out, the noisy frogs have arrived in the garden pond and the birds are going about their springtime business. One fly in the ointment is that the heron, who I usually love to see, has completely emptied the pond of fish and is not averse to a frog either. Paradise is never without its problems is it? Nature red in tooth and claw!

Bye for now - Linda x

What to do next?

Well, it had to happen. I've finally finished the quilt top.

Sorry about the poor photo - the quilt is too big for any clear bit of floor I have in the house so I had to resort to the washing line. Pity it was such a blowy day - I had to time my photo to suit the breeze as the patchwork flapped merrily back and forth like a sail.

The bright sunlight doesn't help either - the fact that the patchwork looks like an old rag right now will be rectified just as soon as the top is quilted. You may notice that there is an extra row of tumbling blocks to the top. I've tried it on the bed and they'll sit over the pillows and look quite dramatic.

Doesn't the back of the piecing look lovely? Quite the stained glass effect. It's almost a shame to lose that by adding batting and backing but experience tells me that will transform everything.

I've done all the sewing in the evenings but during daylight hours, when I've had a few spare moments, I've been working into my altered book. This page was in dire need of repair before it parted company with the binding. Wonderful what a few strips of tape and some colour can do! If you are going to have a repair make a feature of it I say!

Now that I'm using red as inspiration I see it everywhere. Even the plants in the conservatory are cooperating by flowering right on time.

Finishing a big project always seems to leave a vacuum. I can't bear being idle so maybe it's time to do a little dressmaking. I was quite restrained at the recent visit to the Rag Market. These are the 3 fabrics I bought. I have an idea to use them together in a Marci Tilton pattern I've already made up twice before. They'll all coordinate - just have to decide which fabric goes where. I bought more of the narrow stripe so that will be the main feature with just accents of the bright floral number. I may even have enough of the striped fabric for a T-shirt if I'm lucky.

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen I tried Richard Bertinet's recipe for Far Breton. It's a longtime favourite of ours bringing back fond memories of holidays in Brittany. I have to say it's as good as any we've eaten in France and is sure to become a regular addition to the pudding repertoire. If you're a keen pudding eater you'll find the recipe in his book, 'Crust'. The dark bits are rum soaked prunes by the way.

Hope spring is just around the corner for us all here in the UK. Today is cold wet and windy - I hate it but I suppose it will pass!

Linda x

Fabrics fading

I was rummaging through my fabric bins to find just the right colour for the patchwork I'm making when I came across some checked fabrics I bought in Seattle, USA. Now I was aware that the table runner and mats I made several years ago had faded but I hadn't realised by quite how much.

The interesting thing is that the borders were made from hand dyed fabrics with fabric painted details and these have retained their original colour much better. The table linen is in regular use and goes through the washing machine at least once a week.

It's odd then isn't it that hand dyes have such a poor reputation for being colourfast? In my experience pretty much any fabric colour will fade over time but hand dyes are no worse than commercially coloured fabrics and paints last longer than everything else!

Colour is always on my mind but even more so than usual as I'm working into my little book of red.

DMTV members can see the latest pages next week but here's a hint of what I'm up to.

Thanks for reading today. I'm off for more sketchbook play now but I'll be back to talk very soon. Linda x

Painting, piecing and popping into town

You may remember a while ago I showed the initial stages of an oil painting I started of a gorgeous jug I found at our local market. I confess  the canvas has sat on the easel waiting for my attention since then but today, as there were no distractions, I had a couple of hours to play.

The second coat of paint has helped a lot I think.  I also corrected some of the basic drawing with oil pastels. Not sure if it's the done thing to mix the two but it seems to have worked OK.

I'm loving how the colours blend together so easily. Can't imagine why I've taken so long to use oils! Of course all this is now really wet and will have to sit for quite some time before I can go back in and add detail. I've already suggested highlights but on such a shiny surface the reflections from the window and surrounding objects are very obvious. I can't paint them in yet because the white paint simply mixes with the underlying layers - I have to find patience from somewhere!!

Of course the best way to avoid the frustration of the wait is to do something else. This photo shows how I've squared up the short sides of the patchwork with diamonds and triangles.

The diamonds are teal on one side and dark red on the other. That way the tumbling block illusion is maintained. I could have saved time and just added half hexagons but I wanted the pattern to run right to the edges. I'm at the point now where I want to see it finished and especially to see how the quilting will transform it from a floppy rag to something substantial - always the best bit!

After all the late night sewing it felt like time for a break so I was pleased when Laura called and suggested a ride into Birmingham. It's always worth the journey to buy dressmaking fabric on the Rag Market and we did manage to find a few bargains - more of that another day! When we are in Brum we always make time for a visit to the Art Gallery and Museum. The building itself is worth the trip. This wonderful gallery leads the way to the Edwardian Tearoom where we had lunch.

The tearoom is always a popular place to sit and rest your tired legs.

And, as it was half term, there were lots of children in the museum enjoying the interactive displays. You may recognise this one having fun in the 1930s style kitchen. The little pinnies were a nice touch but I suspect the box of Lux and the washboard meant little to this generation.

Hope you had a productive week too!
Bye for now,
Linda x