Welcome to everyone, and very good wishes for a happy Easter.
The garden is looking in need of much attention, and I shall be out in it shortly! However, as we have gradually been leaving areas to nature, it is such a joy to see all the usual bulbs and plants in amongst everything else. The Rosemary has been out for weeks, The apple tree is gradually coming into blossom, and the birds are scampering about, with nesting material in their beaks. You can hardly look at any area of the garden without seeing a myriad of primroses in your line of sight!
I have been stitching and switching from one project to another, latterly. I had such a thorough tidy up in my room, as I mentioned fairly recently, but with using totally different fabrics/mixed media, and threads again for each of the projects I am working on, it doesn’t require much imagination to visualise the mess it is all in again!! I can hear the murmurings loud and clear!! I know I am one amidst many of us with the same problem!
I am making steady progress with the scrap quilt and best of all I am thoroughly enjoying it.
Putting together all these units and just using scraps (apart from the “gull” material which I bought for the original project) is quite addictive and thoroughly absorbing. There is absolutely no waste. If I make a unit and it needs changing, perhaps to add a different colour, I can cut it up however I like and start again! It is so refreshing to be working to any size, not having to consider measurement or seam allowance sizes, etc. Every bit of any stitched units that may need to be trimmed, can be used again, as long as the trimmings are at least 3/4″ wide! I have constructed three main strips which are all different widths, and am just starting on a fourth, as you can see to the left of the pink daisy flower in the photo above.
At its widest measurement, at the moment, the quilt top is 36″ wide and it’s longest length is 40″. I am aiming for 36″ x 48″ finished size, which will be a nice size for a two year old’s bed. She is still in a cot!
I have enlarged this section of the quilt to show a range of the different techniques and changes of scale. The main strips, are just laid together at the moment, I shan’t finally sew them together until each strip is complete. The daisy blocks are working well, by allowing the eye to rest as it roams over the quilt. I shall make one more, possibly a strip of three daisies side by side!
I love the fact that it is really colourful, and not typically “babyish”! Hopefully it will grow with her, and perhaps become a wall hanging at some stage in the future. I have included a favourite scrap of denim that I have had on my work table for many months, just waiting for the right occasion. I have been thinking I would be incorporate it into another denim bag, but am loving it used in this quilt! It is to the right of the blue daisy. There are also tiny-scale log cabin units, three different arrangements of half square triangles, and a single flying goose unit, as well as much more!
Isn’t there a great sense of satisfaction when when we crack a problem that has been a thorn to deal with! I use the Windows 10 editing programme for my photos, and have done for years. In fact I started using it when Picassa was withdrawn from use, if anyone can remember when that was!
Well, last week I was using the programme as normal, but when I needed to use it again later in the day, it would not respond at all. What a lot of time I wasted as I tried every which way to sort it out….probably a couple of hours! I was SO frustrated I ended up doing what I should have done straight away; asking Google!! Various solutions were offered and I ploughed through the one I thought probably related to the problem more than the others!
Not being technically astute, I am never sure, if I am going to regret my actions when I am touching buttons! I find it quite scary when I am totally out of my depth. However I followed the suggestions and ended up going into the settings for Microsoft photos App, and clicking on advanced options! (Would I live to regret this?) More options were offered, one of which was repair or reset? I opted for repair, after all something had clearly gone wrong! The programme was not working at all, so it needed repairing! I clicked on repair, and the little circle started whirring around, then a blue tick appeared. Wow! That seemed very positive! I had a smile on my face, which turned into a big grin when I closed Google, and reinserted my camera card, and it all worked perfectly. I hadn’t had to call on anyone else to help me sort it out! ACE!!
I am building up a fresh body of stitched work, linked to my eco printing and have been stitching into individual leaf prints once again. This is work that will be exhibited at the next Textiles Plus exhibition. It is quite a restful, therapeutic process, and the cotton rag paper I am using is very forgiving and easy to stitch into by hand.
Here I have displayed four of the leaves together, on a piece of Khadi paper. Each leaf is in the region of 2″ wide, by 2.25 – absolute maximum of 3″ long. I have grouped them 2 x 2 so that I can make the detail clearer.
They will actually hang in the format shown in this second photo. I shall create a small sleeve on the reverse side of each and hang them all together on a thin dowelling rod. I am making six in total, and the third is in progress!
Our next Textiles Plus exhibition will be in November 2023, and will be called “Entangled threads”.
Clearly these images do not have entangled threads! However I am developing my ideas for that particular piece of work, and am gradually researching source material and pulling my thoughts together before I start planning a sample piece. Hopefully that will be of a size I can frame, and hang as well!!
Textiles Plus has just opened a group Instagram account so that we can post the sort of work we are doing, as well as advertise our events. Our Instagram name is textilesplus_ Note the underscore at the end. There are two or three textile plus groups, which is why ours has the addition of the underscore! Hopefully those of you who have Instagram accounts will follow us.
I have had my own account for several years now, as have those who are already posting.
Date for your diary
Three of my ex students who live in Gloucestershire have an exhibition of their work in June this year, at Three Stories, in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire. Details are given on their poster on the left.
I have been fortunate enough to visit two of their exhibitions in the past, and was very impressed. Together they create a wonderful and varied selection of textile work. Unfortunately I don’t think I shall be able to visit this year. It is on for 12 days, so plenty of opportunity to visit if you are in the area. Apparently, the venue is a fabulous old warehouse that has been renovated fairly recently, and I have heard that it really is well worth a visit.
We all love a good cafe, and coffee and cake, so perhaps a “pre-visit” to suss out the venue would be a good idea, if you live in the county!
Finally, the lovely Forest Flame Pieris in our garden, has taken on a new life since lockdown! I had suggested that we got rid of it as it looked so “poorly”, but Rob was reluctant and suggested we gave it another couple of years, before taking such drastic action! It must have heard him and was grateful for the reprieve, because it is looking amazing, having sprouted many new shoots on fairly bare looking branches. It is thriving now!
Until next time, happy stitching!
Di
Di Wells Stitching News 