I think I should have stayed in bed.

First I took a lot of orange beads off this – all the ones I put on last night.

But – I did manage to find some more black beads for the black bit.

Then I decided to tackle one of Maggie Grey’s free lessons for people who have bought ‘Textile Translations’, a lesson I downloaded in February and have been meaning to do something with ever since.

So I looked for the printout in my sort-of-organised, rescued-from-somewhere I worked, in-tray.

Not there.

Looked everywhere else I could think of and couldn’t find it.

So I decided to print off the instructions again.

Found the website, found the free lessons, looked for the code word at the foot of page ??.

Wrong word.

Realised I’d picked up ‘From Image to Stitch’ rather than ‘Textile Translations’.

Found the right book, with some difficulty.

Printed off the lesson.

Went to look for my shrink plastic – which I thought was in the same in-tray. It wasn’t.

Searched for the shrink plastic.

Found the printout of the lesson I couldn’t find before, in a ring binder with other things I wanted to do. Must have been exceptionally organised that day …

Eventually found the shrink plastic next to the in-tray – from which I must have removed it while looking for the printout.

Had a cup of tea.

Stamped the shrink plastic. Discovered that the ink was taking for ever to dry. Lost patience and coloured the unstamped bits with a metallic pen – which smeared the black ink.

Began to shrink the shrink plastic. Realised I’d forgotten to colour the back and edges and that the holes I’d punched were too near the edge and were no longer holes.

 

Finished shrinking the plastic, looked at the results carefully – and put the in the bin.

Definitely my fault, not Maggie’s.

Had another cup of tea.

Worked on two quilts for ‘Art Quilts Around the World’. Success!

I don’t need two but I can’t decide which I prefer and both ideas seem to be working. One is now in the washing machine, so I’ll see how it comes out.

There will be a teaser posted on the Art Quilts blog when I've finished this so you will be able to see a couple of very unhelpful images over there soon.

I’ve decided to go on posting C&G images until the end of the month, although this is the last of the quilting ones. 

This is a small tied quiltlet of transfer dyed polyester satin. It always reminds me of the quilted eiderdowns my aunt had.

Remember these?

The unlandscapes are finally completed [apart from putting some sort of hanging mechanism on the back.] Of course I was not motivated to finish them by the fact that I have a class tomorrow and I want to take them in ...

In another part of the forest - this is another idea from Maggie Grey. I made two copies of the 'hot stones' version of the pebble photo, sprayed one with black webbing spray, then cut it up and wove it through the other one. This looked a bit bland, so for the first time since I started the daily photo/design exploration series - I added some fibres.

First I just wove the black wool through but it was not very firmly secured so I add 4 cross stitches. I started off stitching over the thread ends but in a moment of aberration made one stitch in a paper square [the one at the bottom]. Guess which one I like best?

If I was going to follow this up as a 'real' embroidery, I think I would first mount the prints on felt to give them a bit more body, and possibly add machine embroidery to the result, before cutting and weaving and adding [perhaps more complex] hand embroidery. The grey and orange colour combination appeals to me more and more [and I don't like orange ...]

Quick post because I have to prepare for tomorrow and clear part of my workroom. Wensleydale is going to put up an extra worktop for me which should provide:

1. a painting/gluing/generally making a sticky wet mess place so I don't have to use the kitchen;
2. a high surface so I can work standing up without my back objecting;
3. more storage space so I can keep the aforementioned space clear.

This will be done [we hope] while I am out tomorrow. but first I have to make room ...

Notice how yesterday Blogger wouldn't let me add spaces between paragraphs and today it insists on adding great big ones?

After a successful day yesterday...

today has been frustrating. I spent this afternoon working on some fabric postcards that just didn't work. And nor did my design exploration.

The cards are for an 'Around the World in 20 Quilts' swap, 'Seasons'. I wanted to use part of this poem by Swinburne - the fourth verse - because it expresses my feelings about winter and spring so well.



So the plan was:

1. use transfer crayons to sketch a landscape and print it on some green polycotton;
   
2. print the verse on tissue paper;


3. fuse the tissue to the background;


4. add some flowers - a bit vague this, i was designing on the hoof;


5. back and edge finish the post cards.

Simple! Not.

The first mistake was the green polycotton - it is almond green, not spring green and it didn't work.


The second mistake was using transfer crayons, which always end up looking - well, like crayons. It would have been better to use transfer paints. Although I quite liked the look of the paper after I had ironed off the print onto the polycotton. I thought of using white polyester instead of green - but the only white poly fabrics I have are sheers or satin, neither of which is the effect I want.




Third mistake - printing the poem in a font I can't read.

Fourth mistake - printing the verse out exactly to postcard size, and then cutting it exactly to size. I have done this so often I ought to know better! By the time I got the verse on the background there was no room to add an edging and no room to add the flowers without hiding the verse.

And the 'silk' flowers I decided to add didn't go with that artificial green.


So this was definitely a learning experience.


The design exploration was a learning experience too. The idea came from Maggie Grey [again] - paint an ink jet print out with Quink blue-black ink and then discharge it back to the print with bleach.



Simple! Well - yes - but I don't find the results very inspiring, I think because the print I started with, the pebbles, wasn't suited to the method.

This is a collage of my usual four scans. The original is bottom right. Yes, I did say it was blue-black ink. Not turquoise.

I started off trying to discharge the negative spaces between the pebbles but because they were dark in colour the results didn't show. At the bottom of the image I discharged the lighter pebbles. It does give a watery look, but I am definitely underwhelmed by it. [Interesting - I didn't think underwhelmed was a real word - but Blogger's spellchecker does. Although it doesn't recognise 'Blogger's'.]

Of the four scans, the negative is the most interesting, because the colours are unexpected - definitely a 'hot coals' look, except that they also look to me as if they are floating. For some reason it makes me think 'canvas work' although I am not sure why, and it might be difficult to get the subtle shading. My other idea is massed French knots and beads.


This evening I am intending to sew ribbon round the edge of the not landscapes to hide the staples. [No, I hadn't forgotten about them.] Not much can go wrong with that - can it?

So now it's all over

at least until New Years Eve. Hope you all had a good Christmas, as we did.

We were expecting Babybel tonight but unfortunately her mummy isn't very well [get well soon, L], so we have to wait until New Year's Eve for our next cuddles. However we had lots yesterday when we all congregated at Babybel's house for Boxing Day lunch. We all went out for a walk before lunch - and Little Red Riding Hood wanted to walk too, although she can't quite manage it on her own yet.

As we had a quiet time over Christmas I have been working on the blue book. I started with collage using magazine photos, which isn't my favourite medium but filled in a few of those 190+ pages! However I was quite pleased with this minimal effort, which wasn't meant to be a design for 'Around the World in 20 Quilts' new theme 'Brave New World', although it might become one...

I also started some blue embroidery, inspired by this photo of lichen.

I saturated the colour of the image and printed it on some holey hand made paper, as suggested by Maggie Grey in 'From Image to Stitch'.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the paper - but this is the carrier sheet on which it went through the printer, so you can see where the holes were ... The thread is for the next layer of stitch.

I layered pieces of the hand made paper on a remnant of denim from the book cover, glueing it down with a bit of painted Bondaweb I had lying around - as you do. On the left is an unstitched piece, on the right a partly stitched one - some couching and some Sorbello stitch, which reminds me of the patterns in the lichen in the original image. More Sorbello and some beads to follow, I think

And finally - I was delighted to find this in a cracker on Christmas Day. The out-of-focus paper clip is there to give an idea of its size. I think it would make a lovely alphabet book for Babybel when she is old enough to not to try to eat it.

A stellar display

I mentioned a while ago that I had joined the group 'Around the World in 20 Quilts' [or ATWI20Q' for short]. We have been working on the theme 'stellar' and all the finished A4 quiltlets were revealed on Nov 30th. There is a link to the group blog in the sidebar [under all the pictures of Babybel] if you want lots of ideas and lots of inspiration.

I have finished [?] the second not-landscape. It has changed a bit since you last saw it - the brown has gone. I think the kantha-ish quilting works and I may add some to the first not-landscape. You will notice that some bead and French knot encrustation did creep in after all...

I spent the weekend working on an altered book for Maggie Grey's online class. This used to be a copy of an Enid Blyton story - I decided it was worthy of altering when I realised that the girls in the story had a governess and the threshing machine was run by a traction engine. As it wasn't a first edition I decided it was probably of limited interest to 21st century children and proceeded to attack it.

Here it is drying on the radiator. Some pages were removed, then I glued a variety of papers [newspaper, paper towels, tissue, pages from a completed crossword book and an old phone book, and paper doyleys from the pound shop] to some of the remaining ones. All were brushed with gesso and sprayed with black and grey Brusho. I think it looks wonderfully tatty. When it is dry I will have to decide what else to do to it. At the moment, still thinking about mark making, I am pondering on runes ...

Having taken the plunge with altering a book - I am tempted to do it again. I think, apart from my reluctance to deface books, i have always been put off by the style of the altered books I have seen. Maggie's, of course, are different, and much more to my taste.

The quilt is temporarily on hold as Wensleydale is administrating on the dining room table, which is where I layer my quilts. He has promised it will be clear by tomorrow, so I can get the three layers assembled and pinned - I hope to tackle the quilting on Thursday.

On a completely different topic - as this blog has been a bit doggy recently - here is Quality Control testing the printer. Notice that blank sheet of paper emerging? That is what happens if you tread on the buttons on your way up. She is looking alert because she has just heard the fridge door opening two rooms away ...

Bobs and bits

I haven't been posting much because I haven't had a lot to post about, I'm afraid - but a few things came together today, so here I am.

First - we had a Friday trip this week. [We had a Tuesday one as well but that was a routine trip to Bournemouth so doesn't really count.]

The Discovery Centre [that place again - if the cakes were as good as the coffee I'd probably move in] has an exhibition of Hockney etchings. They are illustrations to Grimms' fairy stories, which Hockney made in the 60s. It is a touring exhibition from the Hayward and seems to have been on the road for several years so you may have seen it elsewhere. [I picture someone at the Hayward saying 'Didn't we have some Hockney etchings? Whatever happened to them?']

But I digress. As usual. The etchings are well worth seeing. There is one of a rose which I would dearly love to own if I was rich enough - and I don't like pictures of flowers. If you want to learn from a master how to use line and make marks - get yourself to the Discovery Centre.

On a more mundane level, I have finished my 'Stellar' quiltet for the 'Round the World in 20 Quilts' group. Sort of. I cannot reveal it all until the end of the month but here is a rather bad photo of a corner of it. This is one of the Inkaid pieces which I thought would be too stiff to hand embroider, although as you can see I managed to do some. It is sort of finished because I think it needs more fly stitches.

i am also working on these from Maggie Grey's on-line class for owners of her book 'Textile Translations'. These will eventually become a book, although they look like witches hats' to me. They are made of Vilene, believe it or not. I don't want to give away Maggie's techniques - if you want to know you'll have to buy the book - but there is a lot of stuff on there. Not much stitch, but a lot of crud - er - artistically applied mixed media.

You may notice, although the photo isn't clear, that the pieces are edged with zig zag. I wanted to edge them with blanket stitch but for some reason my sewing machine did not want to do blanket stitch on the Vilene. I tried everything I could think of - I even cleaned it and changed the needle - but no go. It would do FME. It would do zig zag. It would do blanket stitch on other fabrics. but on the Vilene? No.

Books are also being made for the Contemporary Textiles Workshop. Yes, in the plural. To make a cover, I stuck some monoprinted brown paper on Vilene, foiled it, added some monoprinted Lutradur, stitched it, zapped it with a heat gun, hated it. Threw it in the bin - then fished it out because I thought I could make some more samples from it - samples of what not to do.

So I made another piece on felt - except I'd run out of foil. I called in at our local craft shop, 'Creative Crafts' today to get some more but they had every colour except gold. So they persuaded me to try a new line of paint they had just got in - 'Precious Metal Colour'. This is the result - and the photo doesn't do it justice. The paint ain't cheap. but it just glides on - and the manufacturer claims you can use it on all sorts of surfaces including glass and plastic.

This afternoon I sat down to work on the witches' hats - looked at the first monoprint piece - and thought - it's not so bad after all. That's why I am now making two books.

Some bits and bobs.

Inspiration seems to have returned - at least as far as the monoprints are concerned. Here are a few more of my little samples. The two top left and centre are tissue paper, right top is woven monoprint and magazine pages. Bottom left is the sample I have shown before but now it has its swirl. The final one is monoprinted brown paper again, with holes cut in it and blue fabric behind. There are curtain rings appliqued round the holes.

You may wonder why I have been so consistent with the size. When Cheese Minor went home after his birthday in the summer, he left behind the packaging from his prezzie. The tag has already gone on to my black/white book - and the box now looks like this.

And here are the samples inside it.

At first glance this may not look as if it has anything to do with monoprinting. I used the Gormley heads I produced with cereal box transfer painting, for the covers of a book made by sewing over tapes. The method came from 'Book Arts - Beautiful Bindings for Handmade Books' by Mary Kaye Seckler - except that it is a different size, I didn't make wooden covers, and the structure is slightly different because the cereal box card needed a backing to beef it up a bit.

It is connected to monoprinting because it is a dummy run for a book covered with monoprints. I was going to make a vessel - and I still might - but I saw an inspiring book with what looks like a tape binding in a Val Campbell-Harding book ...

I hadn't made a book like this before - it gives a good result but you could really do with several extra hands while sewing it. Real book makers have a frame for sewing over tapes so I may need to speak nicely to the resident carpentry expert.

And finally - this. If you read Maggie Grey's blog you will know exactly what it s - if not you will think - not for the first time - that I have flipped.

Maggie has instructed her readers to put an old catalogue out into the weather to mature. We don't know why yet but we are so trusting that lots of us have done it. Mmm - maybe I have flipped after all.

What to do after C&G?

Yesterday was the first session of the 'Contemporary Textile Workshop' at Eastleigh College which I signed up for, post C&G. It is taught by Sue Chapman, who is the P&Q teacher and also taught my 'Creative Sketchbooks' course, and Terrie Hitchcock who is the new embroidery teacher. I wanted to sign up for it because I know Sue is a good teacher and I had been told Terrie is - and because the work exhibited by last year's students was amazing.

So A. and I toddled along yesterday, not really, in my case, knowing what to expect - but having a good idea that we wouldn't be doing any sewing. Good job, as although I had everything apart from the kitchen sink, I had forgotten my specs.

We were told that the course will focus on design -great, just what I need - and that while last year they had looked at colour, this year it was mark-making. Less great- despite a recent outbreak of black and white I like colour. Preferably lots of it and very bright. I feel much less confident about mark making - so it is probably a good thing really.

We were given trays with pieces of paper towel in them, on which Quink had been drizzled, and strips of B&Q heavy duty lining paper.

Take note of the exact specification - I am a lining paper fanatic, ever since the guy who decorated our living room 2 years ago left me a roll of the stuff he used. Believe me, that didn't come from B&Q and when I discovered how much it cost I decided to use it very, very, carefully.

The B&Q stuff is pretty good [I understand the non-heavy duty isn't] and has different textures on each side, one cream and smooth, the other white and grainy. Of course, asked to do pattern - some of us came over all representational... I realised again that when asked to do this sort of thing I don't do it BIG enough, so what I do can look mean and uninspiring.

The rest of the day was spent monoprinting. I am ambivalent about monoprinting - other people produce some wonderful stuff, but I am always disappointed by my own efforts. Which is why you are seeing only a limited sample here. We were initially restricted to black and white but allowed a little colour in the afternoon, so I got out the Koh-i-noor. I think if I was clever enough I could make monoprints that looked like linoprints - but then why not make linoprints?

We have the month until the next session to develop some ideas for stitch. I was feeling pretty disheartened about it all this morning [not helped by another insomniac night] - but when I returned to my book of the month, 'From image to Stitch' I realised that monoprints could replace ink jet prints. and almost anything looks better if you cut it up.

I had an outbreak of the 'What if's' - so I have spent much of today following some of them up. No pictures as they are still drying - I don't want too much sticky acrylic paint on the scanner.

Unfortunately it was only right at the end of today that:

• I realised it was best to put the paint in a paint tray and then transfer it to the print surface, rather than squeezing it straight on, and


• I found a design idea I really liked,so


• I began to produce prints that satisfied me.

Sue and Terrie encouraged us to print on tissue paper and Bondaweb it to fabric - but- what if I print directly on to Bondaweb? I thought it might not work, and the prints are pretty smeary, but that may just be my poor monoprinting technique.

I am thinking of making a vessel, [continuing with the Tamsin Van Essen theme] so what if I print directly onto craft Vilene? Again - a bit smeary - this was early on in the session, so I need to revisit it.

I tried several other fabrics - poly satin worked well but looks best from the reverse side so I have a good print on the matte side, or a darker, less subtle print on the shiny side. Scrim worked surprisingly well, and was good for squeezing out a second print. Curtain lace doesn't really show the pattern but looks good anyway. Some linen-look poly also worked well, as did the same black cotton I used for the Inkaid.

Speaking of which - I made two paper samples, one with Inkaid on a rubber stamp and one with a natural sponge. They are drying at present but I will try printing them tomorrow and see how they look. If the idea works I will try it on fabric. Another what if - what if i use Inkaid on some hand dyed fabric [not black]?

I've been experimenting again,

trying techniques from Maggie Grey's 'From Image to Stitch'. I have decided that one of the reasons I have felt unsettled is that I want to play but also feel I need to work in my compost heap - er 'studio journal' - for the class on Friday. Solution? Experiment - but use themes from the journal. Obvious really, isn't it?


I bought some Inkaid at the Knitting and Stitching Show, so, at last, I got round to using it. [We won't mention the bottle of Bubble Jet Set I bought - er - several years ago and have only opened once. That is 'opened'. Not 'used'.]

Now you may have noticed that occasionally I use black in my work. [I wear it too, although I shouldn't, without a tastefully arranged pink or apricot scarf. Unfortunately I don't do tastefully arranged scarves. Chic I ain't.]



So I was keen to try out printing on black paper, as suggested by Ms Grey. The Inkaid bottle suggests two coats but my Yorkshire genes [I tend to keep quiet about those, but I do have some] suggested I try just one. So does Maggie, but as you will see I am very good at skim reading and then working on the basis of what I thought I read ...


I learned that:

• Inkaid is white. It shows on black paper if not covered with print. Of course Maggie points this out but that only registered with me after I had printed.


• The brush marks show.

A bit of judicious tearing removed the white bits from this one, which was one of these. I backed it with black felt and practiced FME on. Not the greatest piece of work in the world, but as Wensleydale pointed out, you can't get samples wrong.


It has just occurred to me to wonder whether it would have looked any different if I had printed on white paper. Maybe I'd better experiment some more!


I also tried printing on brown paper [no Inkaid]. I learned from this:

• Print first, scrumple second. Trust me, the other way round is not a good idea. This piece is this size because that is how far it got before the printer threw its hands up in horror and refused to go any further.













• Brown paper is dark. So if you print a dark picture on it it will get darker. Which is what happened to this guy. So I made it worse by ironing shreds of black FuseFX over him.

A scan in inverted colours looks quite spooky.


I have also returned to Dunnwewold at al's 'Finding your Own Visual Language' which I enthused about last year, worked partly through and then lost interest in. I think it was being asked - again - to draw lines expressing emotions. [I know I could skip that bit but I am a linear thinker and I have difficulty giving myself permission to do things like that.]


Looking at the book again prompted me to try some of the ideas with pots, starting with chopping them up. I do like the starkness of black and white.