Sea Life Quilt

I made this for my first grandchild, Ezra (called Ez or Ezzie). He was born at the end of December 2010 and of course he's beautiful. I took this quilt across the Atlantic to Virginia for him. It's been very well used as a playmat and has survived numerous washes-thank goodness!

Knotted and Tied Quilting

Last but not least in this unit we produced a piece of work which was really bias strip patchwork and tied quilting.

Hand Hooking to Create a Textured Surface


The idea was to re-create in collage and fabric, man-made items or structures. I used a stone wall. I really enjoyed this, especially the hand hooking. Keith wasn't too pleased when I used one of his tee shirts because it was just the right colour for my stones!

Free Motion Quilting



Hand Hooking

Tesselated Patchwork

 Tesselated patterns in tiles we had to experiment with shapes which fit together. The art work was using paper shapes and paper manipulation techniques.

The curled and rolled paper has got a bit squashed!

Folded Star Patchwork

Now this looked really complicated but was quite straightforward once the experts showed me how! By this time on the course, I'm really enjoying being much more conscious of colour.

Stained Glass Patchwork

Mono printing, sponging and many other ways of producing a textured effect were the order of the day for this module. Using different papers and paper manipulation techniques too. We also made paper including silk paper. I must admit that I didn't enjoy this but using corrugated, tissue, metallic, newspaper etc. to make collages was ok.

The Third Unit - Texture - Architecture

Time to start the next unit. Looks interesting. Thought I'd start with the cover of my portfolio.

This was the first time I'd tried paper piecing and I was delighted with the result. The course was proving to be very challenging, especially the amount of work we had to do at home.

Fabulous Workshops

Just spent two days attending workshops presesnted by Ineke Berlyn, a Dutch textile artist. Her work is mostly about landscapes. On day one, we produced mini landscapes using stitch and flip and lots of scraps of materials. They were very effective and I'll post a picture of mine when it's finished. On the second day, we used Lutrador - a new medium for me, and made landscapes with acrylics, soldering irons, bondaweb etc. I always love looking at everyone else's work and wasn't disappointed at the end of these two days...photos to follow. You might like to look at Ineke's web page.
http://www.inekeberlyn.com/

Resolved Piece-Humming Birds



1. Source

 At the end of each unit we had to do a piece of work which would be assessed. This was starting with a source and developing the ideas, colours and design to produce a body of work based on the theme. I chose humming birds because I'd seen some really beautiful ones on a visit to the Cascades near Seattle.

3. Some ideas about portraying quick flight

4.The finished quilt design

5. A second design idea using feathers

6. A very 'male' quilt design

2. First ideas

Can't seem to get the hang of placing photographs just wher I want them...I'll keep working on it!

Wild Goose Chase Block

But the colours were fine!

A quick visit to American blocks loosely linked to animals and living things!

Not my best artwork!

Pinless Piecing

Now for Drunkard's Path and Clamshell. By this time on the course, Weekend 4, I was enjoying it more and more and being constantly amazed at all these techniques. I always thought that patchwork was about squares and hexagons...only!



Drunkard's Path

Clamshell Patchwork

Water Colour painting from Source

...and yet more!

Collage Work for Layering



Layering sheer fabrics, nets etc. on dyed backgrounds. Using fabric paints. Finishing with hand or machine stitches.



Alternative colourway painted with watercolours-I loved doing this!



...and more living creatures

 We have been dyeing fabric and so there's the requirement/expectation that we'll incorporate our own dyed fabrics in the samples.

Art Work for Shadow Work

Dyed Silk-Shadow Work & Raw-edge Applique



Module 2 - Colour - Living Creatures

Attendance on the course was one Saturday and Sunday each month with a lot of art work and fabric samples to be produced at home. It was great going back each weekend and seeing what everyone had produced - all with the same brief but hugely different pieces of work.



Stitch and Slash



By this time, we're starting to present our art work and samples a little more coherently!

Chenille



Lots of experimenting with colourways then producing Crazy Patchwork



The Last 3 Samples in Module 1

Secret Garden Patchwork

Broderie Persie

Stitch and Flip

Silk Painting

My Best Efforts!

An enjoyable session drawing and then experimenting with silk paints. This was my introduction to gutta and other ways of forming barriers to stop the paint from spreading. We then had to complete 2 pieces by backing with calico and wadding. Lastly we used metallic threads to enhance the design. 

The First Module - Line-Plants and Gardens



Strip Patchwork



 We were looking at garden structures-fences, paths,trellises, conservatories and geometric lines/small curves. We also looked at how tonal values affected the balance of the design. All our work meant copious amounts of art work before we worked with the fabric. That was very scary for most of us, but

became less daunting over time.







Rail Fence Patchwork





English Patchwork

...and on to a big adventure!

Having enjoyed making the quilts below, I decided I'd search for a course where I could learn a lot more about patchwork,quilting and design. It was difficult at the start because I didn't know anyone who did it, didn't know about shows or shops and didn't know where to seek out courses. Eventually I found out about workshops in some venues but really wanted something more substantial. I decided to enrol at Craven College in Skipton for their 2 year City and Guilds Certificate course.
Boy, was I nervous as the first weekend approached and to make it more complicated, I couldn't go on the first day, so by the second day it seemed that everyone knew each other. However, it didn't take long before I was part of the group. The class had quilters and embroiderers. So, with trepidation, I had started-and what a fabulous 2 years it turned out to be. I'm going to post some of my work from the course with a little information about it.

Celtic Intertwined Hearts

This was part of a wedding present. I worked this using Italian cord quilting-thought it was about time I did some hand sewing. I embellished it with some little pearl clusters.

The Angel Quilt

This little quilt was made as part of a

Christmas present for my two great nieces.

They've now requested 'dragon' quilts for their birthdays. Watch this space...