Road Repairs-finish!

The backing and binding have been put on. The statement written. And parcelling sorted.
Now it is on the way to its destination.

Road Repairs

Some years ago, I heard about young boys being used to repair roads. In one image a rather large car was in the distance. It made me think about the boy. If he was using the tool to farm, perhaps it would not be such a concern. But being employed for low pay to work on the potholes for a dirt road? This lad (and many other child labourers) stick in my mind. So, it is time to raise awareness of what happens ‘on the road’ in some places.

What bothered me was that he now is denied education. His work doesn’t benefit his family or himself, because except for the minimal wage he earns, the benefit is for the rich to be able drive their expensive cars without damage. Where are the men who run these crews? What effort do they put into the work? Who pays for any injuries? What about the future? He will most likely face back problems and breathing difficulty as a result of exposure to dust and hard manual work.

Something must change.

Materials: cotton, variegated threads and crochet cotton, felt, fabric pen

Techniques: Free hand stitch and embroidery, appliqué, drawing

A traveller returns

The piece I did last year for Stretching Art has returned this week.

Sewing Large.

Makes me want to do another version. The first one was called Sew Large. It shows a large eyehand sewing needle.

The next challenge from Stretching Art and Tradition is about the number 20.
"It’s a big milestone for Stretching Art and Tradition. We turn 20! For SAT20, we invite you to explore the number Twenty in any way you can think of. Twenty Dollars buys a meal, twenty stitches to the inch (is there such a thing?), 2’s company, 3’s a crowd, 20 is a party, twenty pieces of fabric. We’re excited to see where you go with this theme."
I have a couple ideas, but probably won't be able to start it for a while.
If you are interested in taking part, let me know and I will connect you with the details about signing up.

4th Plinth - Forced to Flee - Nowhere to Hide

I have finished! (Last week) The little houses made with my adapted box template are stitched together and done!

Inspired by the Artwork: Model for a Hotel (Hotel for Birds) by Thomas Schutte
click on the link to see a variety of images of the sculpture from different sides.

Reason for choosing the art work as inspiration:
The transparent, overlapping colours and the impracticality attracted me.

Forced to Flee - Nowhere to Hide
I am burdened for refugees – South Sudan, Myanmar, etc.
“Here is a tarp and poles. Make your home.”

Documentaries show us people in their desperation. Focus camera on flimsy tents.
Yes, the story must be told!

So, what about their privacy?

Materials and Techniques:
Plastic Document folders used for colour and transparency. Hand quilting thread, hand stitch through layers of the plastic

Adapted box template to resemble my Ramshackle house series. Flimsy house joined together like refugee camps. Open to the elements, transparent. Hiding nothing, revealing all.

-I also added a piece of foam core under the foundation in order to keep the brilliance of the colours. Otherwise, the colour of tables, cloths and so on show through the transparent foundation.

yellow boxes

more little plastic boxes

yellow

You can begin to see the changes in colour with overlapping. I am not sure how or if I am going to make that a part of this work.

Just to show you my set up to cut the cubes with the scalpel.

Beginning on the red. (and you know I am keeping the popper closures for something they will be just right for in the future!)

I had a question about which Fourth Plinth Sculpture I was using for inspiration.

Here is a photo collection of the ones we could choose from

And now you can perhaps guess.
Model for a Hotel - 2007 designed by the German artist Thomas Schutte
(the architectural model was called Hotel for Birds)

I am glad I read this. Going by the images I have seen, I thought it was just blue, red, yellow. But I also wanted to include green. And it seems this article at least says the piece included green glass.

Ramshackle Tessellation-ish

I am trying out an idea for developing my Ramshackle house into a pattern that can nestle together in a tessellation kind of manner. I read a tutorial from Kay Koeper Sorensen a few years ago and have wanted to see how to develop one that is 'me'.

And then there is a challenge for the CQ suitcase collection to make a piece inspired by your favourite artist. Well, I am not sure I have a favourite artist...or at least one I feel I could do justice as an inspiration. Hans Holbein, Anthony Van Dyck, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others because of the clothing they painted. Then I remembered I do admire the draftmanship of M. C. Esher's work.
So, that decided it for me. and I realised I could go back to Kay's tutorial. Kay's is in several blog posts, but I also found a You-tube which makes it very clear. This is not a rotating tessellation, nor is Kay's or will mine be. I am going to do mine side to side. (I probably could get them to rotate, but let's do small steps and also avoid too much Maths! - actually I did pretty well in Geometry High School level.)

I also realised I could develop my Ramshackle series a bit more, so I worked with the house idea. Because the CQ suitcase is a travelling example of Contemporary Quilting, I thought it might help viewers see what you can do to make non-traditional tessellations...and at the same time redirect them to my other Ramshackle Houses.

I started with a 7x7cm square. I had sketched out a few ideas on how this would work, so this helped to have a starting point.

basic shapes drawn for cutting

trimmed and moved to the opposite sides.

stuck down - ok not exactly full of character!


so, let's make it a bit wonky. More like it. A lot of sticking together going on here.

Still the thing is, it is a bit squat. Let's toss out a few more 'rules'.

trim to be more like 6cm wide x 7cm high.

Okay this what I had in mind. see the difference?

And the final pattern.

Currently contemplating the fabric and layout!

Colette Rue - my version

Then, having completed 'Tears' and submitted to SAQA before the end of September and even before bedtime on Friday - with help from Mr. Thoughtful who did the photos.... Why do I always do work that cameras can't focus on? ...fabric, rust, quarts crystals, what do you mean focus?
...
I then worked ALL day Saturday to make the dress for the 3rd round of the Pattern Review Sewing Bee. Okay 10:30am start, but that is early for me to get in here to work. and 15min for lunch and a bit of time to make dinner. So, 10:30am started cutting and completed the review at 12:30am late night.
If you want more of the details, you can read it here. As you remember, we were to make a garment using a Colette Rue dress pattern which was provided.

Never again will I cut and make a whole lined dress in one day, Thankyouverymuch.

And here are some photos.
Keep in mind they were taken at 11pm and thereafter.

front

back

detail

Well, interesting!

So, I thought the results for Round 2 of the Pattern Review Sewing Bee would be up tomorrow. But there was a message after tea tonight to go look.

AND...I got through with my draped indigo top!

One of the images I posted in the review showing where the fabric grain lines were to show how I used the bias. The markings of the indigo more or less followed the straight of grain. The larger marks were pretty much on the cross grain.

At hearing this good news, the not so great news I got yesterday about the cancellation of my workshop at the National Needlework Archive, became a positive! I had wondered when I would make the Round 3 project if I got through! So, when that is announced, I will at least have the time to see what I can do. Watch this space.

************
Today I went with 2 friends to Holme Grange Craft Village, which has little individual shops. A couple we used to like have shut down. But we did find enough to buy. And to sit in the "Can you believe it is the end of September?" sunshine to have some tea and cake.

And then to visit the chipmunks before we went home.

This one was always so busy I never got a full photo of him. He had a stash down under the earth at this point and frequently added to it, burying himself halfway in the earth!

This one was just watching from the edge of the nest box the whole time.

And I missed this one when he was up close eating.

So, had to do with a photo of him having a wash...which is why he hasn't got any hands in this photo!

Another attempt of the same one but he was just about to head somewhere else out of camera shot.

I always find it intriguing that chipmunks are considered pets like hamsters here. Where I grew up, they were a common woodland animal like squirrels.

On the bias - Ripples and Swirls

Following the teaser...
I mentioned the other day that I had got through to round 2 on the Pattern Review Sewing Bee. So, Round 2 was to do a garment that is on the bias.

So, I had the idea of a stripe something, with different directions for each piece. But when I put the fabric on the dummy to get an idea if it would work, I swiftly saw I could drape it on the stand! Wow. and besides, this would work for the SAQA Call for entry in November for H2Oh!

The fabric is Linen with a woven windowpane check. I had dyed it using shibori methods in an indigo workshop a few years ago. I didn't want to just cut a boring garment from it, I wanted to showcase it. So, now was the time.

Development of the draping...

side-back-front

I used tucks and pleats to keep the fabric on the bias as it swirled round the figure.

Then I needed a way to try it on. So I placed my bodice pattern over the armhole area and cut it out, making sure to add seam allowance. Later I added cap sleeves.



And the final top -
 

To read more of the details of the making, you can read the review here.

I may do a bit more to it for the H2Oh! call. Not that it needs it! But I am thinking about adding some beads or something collected in some of the ripples/swirls.

on the interwebs

Cool thing!
The shorts I made the other day were good enough to get me through to round 2 on the Pattern Review Sewing Bee! Amazing.

Waiting til tomorrow to find out the next challenge.


Also, my SAQA Benefit Auction piece, Ramshackle Place is featured on the SAQA Europe and Middle East Blog.

Ramshackle Place

12x12in

They are featuring a donated piece each day from the artists in our region. A link to the blog directly - scroll down and see the ones before Snowden...and return to see the ones after!

Mere Edges

And to finish it off - besides giving it a press - doing something about the edges!

I was going to make a paper pattern, but then decided I would just over think it. So, just started cutting...like usual.

Mere Edges - 100cm x 60cm

It worked.
You should be able to see it better if you click the photo.


And the handling sample is meant to demonstrate the look and feel of the quilt.
So, curvy...

And the story...

Mere Edges – Sandy Snowden

I read a discourse by Job the Patriarch in which he spoke about many wonderful things to be seen which God has done. His summing up, though, caught my imagination; for Job states that all of these things are ‘mere edges of His ways’. So, I chose to depict clouds, one of Job’s word pictures. I intentionally chose mist for the way it causes edges to lose their definition.

He binds up the water in His thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it...Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways. -Job the Patriarch


Materials: silk organza, cotton, rayon and cotton threads.
Technique: silk dyed using tarragon, tea, coffee and egg dyes, raw edged layers of colours quilted with free machine stitched contours and letters.


So, it has been submitted and it remains to be seen if they think it will work for the exhibition. In the end, though it wasn't what I expected, it works for what it is.

Finished words

Here are the words finished.

He binds up the water in His thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it
...Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways. -Job the Patriarch

The theme of the Contemporary Quilt Challenge is On the Edge. So the 'mere edges' part of this quote from Job really caught my eye.

It is nearly there, but something more I think.

Word placement

Some contours stitched.

So, now to work out where the words will go. Not fuzzy intentionally! But I will tell you the words when I post the finished stitching.

Bits of paper. (only I realised partway through stitching them that I left out some of the words!)

Stitching a few more words on the sample because the colours I selected don't show up much at all on the large one.

developing ideas

Not colours I usually work with, I have had to give this a lot of thought.

Does it want hand stitch?

No, I think I will go with machine stitch.

words

more of the silk organza

Sorry, I wasn't making straps all week. I was puzzling out how to make what was in my head when I had pieces which were more acid green than golden.

So, trying out positions.

hanging works better to see all of it at once w/out looking over the sewing machine

a few subtle changes here and there.

Oh! I need enough to make a 20cm handling sample as well! So I tried to dye a few more scraps - of course, you never get just what you want twice.

And for some bits, I trimmed out layers of silk from underneath!

Experiments

Golds, greens and browns required.

Trying to get gold with an old pack of turmeric. I read about it somewhere.
Not exactly what I had in mind. It becomes more daffodil yellow. But perhaps I can develop it.


A little more experimenting.


Lovely patterns developing on the drop cloth.

If I can get these ideas to play together, they will be for the current CQ challenge.

CQ-Kazakhstan Project - 10 finished!

And here we are! Bound edge and finished.

The Collared Dragon

And finally much more like the actual colour!

I haven't developed a story, other than when I went to think of a title. The collar seemed important to it. A subtitle is The Royal Pet. But I haven't added that to the work to send off. Especially if it is to travel, they will have to translate! Collared Dragon is sufficient for now.

So, to get the accurate colour, I turned off the light so that the only light was through the patio windows. (Patio windows are the only source of outside light in my studio. So, that is why the overhead lights are daylight tubes.) Then I took a photo with the flash. Problem is, I can't remember if it was on intelligent auto or normal photo. But it is an option to try again the next time!

The dragon is 'winging' its way to the collection point for CQ and then will go with the rest of the British pieces out to Prague and on to the rest of the journey.

CQ-Kazakhstan Project - 9

Here is the dragon needing a binding.

Please do remember or use your imagination that the background is black! But even in real life, with the colours I used it does read as a very black green. So it is a good thing one of the options for backing was dark green. I haven't enough of that black to make the binding, so I will be using a matt black which may help with reading the colour correctly.

One more thing...I still had one more fabric I hadn't used. The purple devore velvet. So, yes, I used a small bit for the eye, but still. So anyway, I got the bright idea to make a velvet collar. Which works very well.

The dragon had an outing at the Thames Valley Contemporary Textiles group today, so has had much admiration already.

Now for the funny part. I re-read the instructions before trimming to the 50cm square. .....

Oh...it says use 4 or 5 of the fabrics which were sent to you.
hmmm.....

Well, I suppose if I had remembered that, I would have been less successful at 'making it work'.

I have learned that it will also be making a tour beyond the exhibition at the Prague Patchwork Meeting in the Czech Republic. "After PPM the quilts will be taken over by Bernina representative for a tour : Germany, Slovakia, Kazakhstan, Russia....."

CQ-Kazakhstan Project - 8

I am nearly ready to reveal this work. But today I am talking about solving issues.

First of all, I must say it wasn't just a matter of stitching the dragon to the background. It kept stopping like it was stuck on something and often breaking the thread.
I...used a different thread
...changed the position of the thread reel
...changed the needle
...changed to a single hole needle plate(thinking the backing fabric was catching)
...changed to an open toe darning foot (from the normal darning/free machine embroidery foot)
...eventually I realised that because of the chopping and fusing to make the fabric for the dragon and then applying it to 3 layers, that some sections were just a little too high for the foot to have good clearance. SO, I used the tool that is meant to make moving the machine easier and soldiered on (being glad it wouldn't be judged for the stitching).

Furthermore...I learned these things.

1 - when you stitch an appliqué dragon onto a background. Be sure you have taken all the pins out. This is the back.

I used a long pair of tweezers to manipulate the pin through a gap I made in the stitching.

2 - if you get poked with the pin, check to see if you have drawn blood.

I used dish soap on a damp cloth to get the most of it out. (I may write a dragon story and stitch it to the back!)

CQ-Kazakhstan Project - 7

I had a meeting last night and another tonight. So, just another quick photo.

The background has had the clouds stitched on through the 3 layers...in effect quilting it. (the threads need snipped!)

I will stitch the flames down when I make sure the dragon is in the right position. That is what some of those pins are for, so I can get it centred right.
When I stitch the dragon on, it will also go through the 3 layers and since I am using felt for a wadding, it doesn't really need more quilting than that.

I hope to get the dragon on and possibly the binding this weekend. I have to send it off Monday at the latest.

CQ-Kazakhstan Project - 6

Quick update on the dragon...it might be a she!

I found a solution to the eye. and it comes with lovely lashes! A bit of the chiffon print ...green surrounded by cream...and a bit of the devore velvet.

I am in the midst of the outlining and so on. But the rest of the day got very busy. So no time for more info today!