Blog Archives

Unfolding Stories; Bradford on Avon 30 September - 5 October

29/9/2014

Everything is done - the quilts are in place and West Barn and the artists from Contemporary Quilters West are ready to welcome the first visitors and it all looks fabulous. If you visit and have time, do also pop into the enormous 14th century Tithe Barn next door. The weather is set to be fair all week and there are beautiful walks along the river and Bradford on Avon is also a lovely town to visit too.

Just to whet your appetite, here are a few pictures of some the quilts in the exhibition.

I will be at the exhibition all day on Thursday - I hope I may see you there.

How to find the exhibition:

West Barn, Bradford On Avon,Wiltshire, BA15 1LF from Tuesday 30th September 2014 to Sunday October 5th, 10.30 to 5.00 with a late night 'til 8.30 on Thursday

and then after at;

West Country Quilt Show at UWE, Bristol, November 13th, 14th and 15th, 9:30 til 4pm daily.

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Sketchbook Challenge

21/9/2014

WORDS

This month's theme is words... a nice one for me as I often end up with words on my sketchbook pages. Sometimes I wonder whether I am being lazy by using words - shouldn't I be able to say what I want with images?
I wonder what you think? I welcome your thoughts on this - so please let me know!

Here are two of the images I uploaded to the Sketchbook Challenge flickr group this evening - two recently made pages.

Wine farms - one of my favourite subjects - part of a doublr page spread that might just get made into a quilt one day.
OAK - after sweeping up lots of fallen leaves I had a big pile that I made into some nice pages, and then made a little bonfire with the rest.

Words are figuring a lot in my work at the moment - I have just completed 3 quilts that are literally smothered in words. They will be on display at the Unfolding Stories exhibition in Bradford on Avon next week, along with 2 others made not too long ago. I will post some pictures next week once the exhibition is up and running.

Unfolding Stories
West Barn, Pound Lane, Bradford On Avon. BA15 1LF.
Open daily from Tuesday 29th September till Sunday 5th October 2014, 10.30 to 5.00
Late night opening on Thursday 2nd October 10.30am to 8.30pm

An exhibition of Contemporary Art Quilts by members of Contemporary Quilt West,
unfolding stories through the use of cloth.

Free entry
Accessible to All

'FREEDOM' @ Unfolding Stories

18/9/2014

Unfolding Stories: Bradford on Avon: 20/11/14 until 5/10/14

Inspiration
The 11th February 1990 marked a new dawn for all the people of South Africa when Nelson Mandela was finally freed from prison. The quilted text records some of the people active in the struggle against Apartheid up to this time.
The quilt also contains text from the opening paragraph of the Freedom Charter, a document of great significance to the commitment to create a non-racial country.

This quilt marks a pivotal moment in South African history and records the names of some of the people who made Freedom possible.

Techniques
Dense free motion quilting of this wholecloth quilt forms the background which has been over-painted with stencils and textile paints. The cobbled road has been stitched with rayon threads and painted with oil based Markal paintsticks.

Unfolding Stories is an exhibition of Contemporary Art Quilts by the members of Contemporary Quilters West.
The exhibition is at the beautiful West Barn, part of the Tithe Barn complex in Bradforn on Avon.
Open daily from Tuesday 30th September until Sunday 5th October 2014, 10.30 to 5.00 with late night opening on Thursday 2nd October 10.30am to 8.30pm.

FREEDOM; A quilt for 'Unfolding Stories'

18/9/2014

Unfolding Stories; Exhibition of contemporary art quilts

West Barn, Bradford On Avon,Wiltshire, BA15 1LF

This is a new quilt for my Destination Series of quilts, which will be at the exhibition in Bradford on Avon at the end of this month. Here is a little insight into how it came to be.

Sketchbook inspiration for my new quilt, 'FREEDOM' for the Unfolding Stories exhibition. As part of my series on South Africa how could I not have a quilt about the incredible man, Nelson Mandela?

After 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela finally walked free on 11 February 1990. The image of him finally walking as a free man was shown all over the world. This is the image I chose for my quilt.

The opening paragraph of The Freedom Charter, a document drawn up in 1955, stating the core principles requested by the people of South Africa. I used part of this text for the quilting.

Pebeo fabric paints and white PFD fabric ready to be painted for the quilt background.

Yellow, orange and dark brown mixed and merged to make an interesting stained background.

The coarse cellulose sponge used to apply the acrylic paint onto the painted fabric. I love these!

I cut a stencil from freezer paper, temporarily ironed it onto the background to help keep it in place and dabbed grey paint into the space.

All finished. I used dark grey paint for the largest figure, then gradually lightened it for each smaller figure.

Peeling away the freezer paper to reveal the images of Madiba, gradually vanishing into the distance.

More paint to stencil the word FREEDOM.

This small browser piece is now ready to quilt!

Cushions from dyeing experiments

14/9/2014

Here are the cushions I made from the squares I dyed last week. I think they look quite good - would brighten up a dark corner for sure! I bought some 30cm square pillows from IKEA to go inside and finished off the back with 3 pretty button on each.

Next question was price....
Given that times are hard here in France I decided to put them at 10 euros each. They might sell at that price. Otherwise I will have a lot of pretty cushions on my sofa!

I don't have a lot in the expo in Gabarret this year - but here are a few of the quilts on show by other people in our group.

Mme Evelyne Willay-Bech; Les chats parmi les vols d'oies

Mme Evelyne Willay-Bech; Les Amours d'Eve

Marie; Pour les enfants

Mme Yvette Duprat; Les Tournesols

Mme Yvette Duprat Nappe 'Dear Jane'

Fabric dyeing experiments

11/9/2014

Maori inspired fern leaf

Tree

Autumn leaves

Inspiration from a pair of curtains!

As I have been using stencils for the last few posts I thought I would try something different - this time making use of the positive shapes cut from stencils. Whenever I cut a stencil from freezer paper I try to be as accurate as possible so that I can keep the pieces I cut out to use too. Those are the pieces I used here.

I decided to explore using the freezer paper cut-outs as a mask along with Procion MX dyes in spray bottles and some white PFD fabric. And here are a few of the results. Not too shabby, as a friend of mine would say.

The technique is very simple. I cut stencils from freezer paper, keeping the stencils for another project, and ironing the cut-out pieces onto 12" squares of white PFD fabric. My idea is that the paper will act as a resist / physical barrier to the dye on the fabric.
So as not to saturate the fabric and end up with the dye creeping under the paper barrier I thought that a light mist of sprayed dye might be a good option. With that in mind I made up some fairly strong dyes and put them into a collection of recycled spray bottles (the type you find in the kitchen and bathroom cleaning products)

My general dye recipe:
1/4 teaspoon procion MX dye
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda ash
1/2 cup of warm water

My usual set-up for dyeing; Dust mask, disposable gloves, plastic spoons for mixing, metal measuring spoons, pipettes, recycled tubs.

Dyeing with freezer paper masks

Mix the powdered dye and a small amount of warm water (around half a teaspoon) in a tub until it has a creamy consistency. I try to wet the powder as much as possible and mix until there are no dry lumps. If a few drops more water are required, add them with the pipette. Some dyes seem to repel water, so this method of wetting the dye really helps.
Add the salt and soda ash to the creamy mixture and then add the remaining water, a little at a time and stir until everything is dissolved. If you cannot get rid of any lumps, or you are using red (often lumpy!) it may be necessary to filter the dye through a paper coffee filter paper or an old stocking / pop sock at this stage. Note: I find this makes quite a concentrated dye, but you can add more dye powder or water depending on the shade and intensity of color you want to achieve.
Pour the mixed dyes into the spray bottles and get to work. (As the soda ash is mixed in with the dyes you have around 1 hour to get the maximum effect).
Iron the freezer paper mask pieces to the PFD fabric. Lightly spritz the entire surface of one of the pieces of fabric with the dye. Be careful not to saturate the fabric otherwise the dye will seep under the edges of the freezer paper masks.
Repeat with other colors so as to lightly cover the whole of the fabric surface - try experimenting to see which combinations you like. If the fabric seems to be becoming too wet. or worst still, starts to form puddles, allow it to dry a little before adding the next dye color.
Cover the fabric with a plastic bag and leave for an hour in a warm place.
Allow the fabric to dry ( not essential, but less messy) then carefully peel off the paper masks. If you think you may be able to use these again store them in a safe place.
Fill a large bucket or bowl with warm water and dish soap (or synthrapol) and plunge in the dyed fabric. Try to get as much dye out of the fabric as quickly as you can and then hold the fabric under a running tap. The aim is to remove the unfixed dye and not let any set into the white areas that were covered by the mask. Repeat this whole process until the water runs clear.
Dry the fabric and press.

Next I placed some bamboo batting behind the squares of fabric and quilted them - they look quite good!
I think I will make some cushions from them to put into the patchwork exhibition in Gabarret, starting 10am on 13th September!

Expo 2014

Exposition: Salle de bal la mairie 13 Septembre - 21 Septembre, 10h - 19h sans interruption.

Nelson Mandela at the 'Unfolding Stories' exhibition

5/9/2014

I started a new quilt last week for the upcoming 'Unfolding Stories' exhibition in the West Barn, Bradford on Avon, from Tuesday 29th September until Sunday 5th October 2014.

It isn't finished yet, but here is how it looks so far. It is a variation on the small 12 x 12 quilt I made last year for the annual challenge at Midsomer Quilting .

This latest version is going to measure 75cm x 100cm, and will use some different techniques, but the overall design is similar to the smaller original.

For this quilt I needed to make some quite large stencils of the figure of Nelson Mandela with his hand raised, as he walked free from prison after 27 years.

I used freezer stencils paper and the free software called 'Posterazor' to enlarge the my sketchbook drawing of Nelson Mandela walking to freedom.
I like this software very much - it is simple to use and such a useful tool. Here is a link so you can see what it can do and download it for yourself if you think it might be useful.

Here are the stencils I cut - the largest is approximately 50cm tall and using Posterazor I made the image progressively smaller - the smallest being 30cm.

I then ironed the cut stencils onto the already quilted fabric.

I used grey artists acrylic paint and a small piece of sponge to dab onto the quilted surface. I like the way relief of the quilting stops the paint from completely covering the fabric, making a very mottled visual texture on the quilt.

Once the stencil is removed you can see the sillhouete of Nelson Mandela and the quilting is also still visible through the paint.

The quilt still needs a lot more quilting in the lower section, where I have so far quilted the opening words from the Freedom Charter, a powerful and important document adopted at the Congress of the people in Kliptown, South Africa on June 26th 1955.

About the Freedom Charter
The Freedom Charter was the statement of core principles of the South African Congress Alliance, which consisted of the African National Congress and its allies the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats and the Coloured People's Congress. It is characterized by its opening demand; The People Shall Govern!

In 1955, the ANC sent out fifty thousand volunteers countrywide to collect 'freedom demands' from the people of South Africa. This system was designed to give all South Africans equal rights. Demands such as "Land to be given to all landless people", "Living wages and shorter hours of work", "Free and compulsory education, irrespective of colour, race or nationality" were synthesized into the final document by ANC leaders including Z.K. Mathews and Lionel 'Rusty' Bernstein.

The Charter was officially adopted on June 26, 1955 at a Congress of the People in Kliptown. The meeting was attended by roughly three thousand delegates but was broken up by police on the second day, although by then the charter had been read in full. The crowd had shouted its approval of each section with cries of 'Afrika!' and 'Mayibuye!'

The document is notable for its demand for and commitment to a non-racial South Africa, this remains the platform of the ANC. The charter also calls for democracy and human rights, land reform, labour rights, and nationalization. After the congress was denounced as treason by the South African government. The ANC was banned and 156 activists were arrested, including Nelson Mandela who was first imprisoned in 1962. However, the charter continued to circulate in the underground and inspired a generations of young militants.

On February 11 1990, Nelson Mandela was finally freed and the ANC came to power after the first democratic elections were held in South Africa in April 1994. The new Constitution of South Africa included in its text many of the demands called for in the Freedom Charter. Nearly all the enumerated concerns regarding equality of race and language were directly addressed in the constitution, although the document included nothing to the effect of the nationalization of industry or redistribution of land, both of which were specifically outlined in the charter.