dyeing drying

We really did have a delightful time with Christine yesterday. A select group, all enthusiastic, each with our own ideas and reasons for being there.

As you can see the workshop is a lovely place, full of light (much brighter than it appears in this picture), well set up and with plenty of space for being everything from very precise to making a mess. Rubber gloves are essential at least for some part of the day!

I had come with my pre prepared Shibori as I knew what I wanted to do with some of my cloth - still Harry and Connie's sheets by the way! (I really should get round to telling you about them). But I brought some along as well to play with as well.

One particularly contorted preparation took life, Pygmalion like, and marched across the table! OK, it's not quite Burne Jones, but ... maybe, a giraffe or two?

There were a number of other bits of tying, wrapping, rubber banding, kebab sticking and otherwise manipulating fabric. My final show of things ready for pots various looked like this

Because there were four of us and Christine there was room for more than two colours each, in fact there were a whole variety of dye colours to choose from once we'd all made our own colour decisions

And once brought home, rinsed, rinsed again, then run through a hot but not boil wash, all these varied colours and patterns emerged from the washing machine.

Kebab sticks folded randomly into fabric
purple in the pot, it has washed to a rather pleasant blue

I've included all my bits there, with apologies for the odd layout. I find Blogger a bit eccentric about where it puts stuff sometimes!

The stitched Shibori

folded, rolled then alternately
knotted and rubber banded

The linen took up very little colour

The silk, on the other hand, was delightful. These bits
were wrapped around the bit of blue pipe above

goldfish or autumn leaves

round acetate pieces each side of folded cloth,
elastic banded, not clamped

detail

a faint hint of moon

crumple wrapped in a stocking

can you see the face peering out at the top?

layered whirligigs twisted and bundled into a fruit next
if you enlarge you can see the mesh in the outer corners

lolly sticks and fan folding then the triangles of the
other stitched piece. The stitches didn't show

and finally - the giraffe - explosions of green!

What delights for a day of fun.

Oh, and in the last class, Christine emphasised how important it is to clean your machine between each project

a bit of fluff

She was right

Preparations

Tomorrow, I'm going to my next workshop at Studio 11. Colourfun, once a month for the coming year. What pleasures to come!

The first session is resist dying, which was what I did for the mini quilt workshop, so I've been preparing.

pre-stitched/tied pieces waiting for tomorrow

I've done

cotton stitched in wavy lines, with points pulled up to make spiderswebs

the wavy lines all drawn up into exotic looking ruches

Silk wound round a plastic tube, then bound with, in the one case, fine cotton, in the other, rough thick twine. I'm interested in how the different binders affect the pattern; whether the texture of the twine will appear in the resist.

 More cotton, a strip this time, folded into triangles, concertina style, then stitched right through at the borders with, perhaps, the arms of a snowflake pattern. The stitching then drawn up on two sides, and on the snowflake arms, for texture. I'm hoping the stitches on the long edge will resist right through and leave a little ant trail at the folds end make the final arms of the snowflake. Alternatively, there'll be a jumble of textures, reading as nothing!

Then there's the old linen tea towel, probably Ganna's; folded, again concertina style, (linenfold) then folded again and wrapped, not too tight, with a rubber band

Lastly, some leaves, perhaps, or maybe little fish ...

stitched into the single layer of fabric, drawn up tight and tied off, with a little spin round the nubbin for added texture

 then I pleated (as best I could) the fabric across it's width, leaving the little nubbins sticking out. We'll see.

Where are the ideas coming from? From Janice Gunner's Shibori for Textile Artists. It is full of so many interesting things. You may remember the video I posted on Shibori a while back. It's the Japanese art of tying  binding, pleating and otherwise adding resists to cloth with thread, clamps and "stuff". Having absorbed plenty from Christine's last workshop, I really wanted to have some ready prepared cloth as well as doing some more folding and clamping tomorrow, with the other bits of cloth I've not shown you!

I wonder what pictures I'll be posting on Tuesday!

Show and Tell!

Had a little show and tell with my Aunt Sylvia yesterday, who is a spry soul of middlin' years and who was married to my Dad's twin brother Andrew until she was widowed in the late 1990's. She is a sweet soul and I don't see her often enough, considering how close she is to me, being another South Downs dweller. So here's what I showed and told!







Some embroideries old and new. There was also my quilt, which has been trimmed and awaits binding. I cut the binding strips today, the final cuts, so to speak

But now to the garden, which is full of sunshine too good to waste

Varieties of patchwork

I've been working steadily on my quilt, moving it to and fro under the evenly bobbing needle, twisting and folding to get the fabric where I need it to be, to stitch where I want to stitch. I have managed to do all of the "decorative" - for which read rather trembly, wavering, slightly rambling stitching. Here is the back, so you can see the patterns, as in front view they tend to get lost in the pattern of the fabric itself. The colour is all wrong as it was taken in artificial light; it could do with a good press as well, but you get the picture.

I'm really rather pleased with it, as I've not done any machine quilting before and only a tiny bit of hand stuff, I'll post a picture of the front once I've added the binding - the next big challenge. Before that I have all the loose ends to sew in and lose in the layers of the quilt, but that is rather pleasing to do when sitting down watching the TV of an evening.

Meanwhile another kind of patchwork is taking place, in our side yard, the one I mentioned as being destined to be a courtyard. Well, progress is taking place, though first you should see it's original incarnation to appreciate the change

Crikey! It's a bit of a jumble isn't it? Bits of quarry tile mixed with bits of crazy paving mixed with bits of shingle and the odd row of brick edging to catch the feet of the unwary. It's where my slow trees live for the most part, so I can appreciate their seasonal changes from the kitchen window. From the opposite end it looked like this when we first arrived, with a scruffy, but extremely useful shed that has been housing odds and sods.

It is part way through it's transformation now

further on than this, in fact, but you can see the patchwork analogy. My dear one has been acting as labourer, digging holes, filling them in again, moving vast quantities of earth and "stuff" into the skip out the front, salvaging topsoil and barrowing it down to the kitchen garden, cleaning off the black quarry tiles as I want them reused as part of the final design and generally being all round useful, while Ray has been doing the skilled work.
The scruffy looking wall will be painted eventually but before that happens, yet another type of patchwork is being done; pointing, to fill in all the gaps between the bricks where the old pug has fallen out. This, along with the pointing between the pavers, and eventually the painting, is being done by another expert

My daughter

Mini quilting

In case you think I've been slacking, here's where I am with the machine quilting of my little quilt. To give you a sense of scale it's about 50 inches by 35 inches, so not huge but not tiny either. Below is the portion I've managed to do so far.

I've never done machine quilting before so this is all a learning experience. To do the sort of freestyle quilting I'm doing here, you drop the feed dogs on the machine, then move the fabric about under the needle, smoothly and methodically, so that you stitch the lines you want to stitch. You hold it taut with each hand spread in a sort of C shape around the area you're stitching, so they act like the embroidery hoop in machine embroidery, providing both frame and tension. This makes sure the three layers, already safety pin basted, don't slip about and cause puckers in the quilting. Sounds simple right? Ha!

The first thing I learned was that this is impossible to do when you've lost the bobbin plate cover of your machine and are making do with a bit of card taped over the space above the bobbin! The cover was the only thing that went missing in our move of 2010 and I'd been making do, due to my terminal inability to remember to sort out small problems. It was fine with machine embroidery; it was fine with piecing, but quilting is another story altogether. Once I'd sewn the card to the back of the quilt twice and managed to get a birds nest of looping thread on the back, all of which had to be unpicked, I realised that I'd have to sort this issue out before doing any more. I ordered a new one from the shop where I'd bought the machine and, once that arrived, returned to my quilting . Hurrah, I thought, off I go. I began with some straight lines, quilting "in the ditch", that is, along the joins. Then I began to branch out into some shapes. Much harder I can tell you. You have to mange three things at once; holding the quilt taut, moving it about in all directions, not just straight, and working out where the hell you're going! Even worse, as you start to stitch your tension increases so your foot presses down on the foot pedal and suddenly the machine is racing along all happily to itself with you trying to control things! Rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time are nothing compared to this! However, I've persevered and have been having great fun in short bursts. I've found if I stitch for too long my hand and arm muscles get rather painful and refuse to work, which is no help at all. So, am stitching for a bit, then stopping, clearing all the stuff away and starting again the next day. This is all happening on the dining table here, hence the need to clear away. The pink gloves are quilter's gloves, an enormous help as they give a better grip than plain skin.

I'm quite pleased with this little bit below, done today, which took about an hour. I have the South Downs in mind for a sort of theme, but my Downs, as you can see from the top image, are a bit wobbly!

Meanwhile, this morning a select group of us met at Barbara's to discuss the next stage of our City and Guilds adventure; a level two certificate which should take us about two years.
I'm very excited!

On the Pin Board

This just makes life so much easier, there's none of that creeping up onto chairs, in socks, one hand hampered by camera, then leaning out over quilt on floor to take picture at correct angle, thereby breaking several health and safety byelaws in fifty two languages including that of common sense! Here, it is pinned up on the wall, for final review before the quilting takes place.

This taken at 2pm this afternoon on my fourth and final day with Christine. All my pieces pieced, I've adjusted the position of a couple of bits in the final arrangement but no quilting, nor even safety pin tacking done yet!  I managed one bit of quilting before I came home - in the ditch round the big blue rectangle in the middle; the quilting that is. I have enjoyed every moment of my time there and have learned such a lot. I understand about precision, retracting your blade every time, undoing mistakes, measuring properly, all sorts. I was amazed at the way, once pieced, this came out with so few misalignments - I'm thinking back to this one. I remember how many joins I fudged, how many differing weights of fabric moved and reacted against each other. As with all personally taught courses, the best part was watching Christine do what she was teaching me to do - to see it done properly I mean. She is a very good teacher as well, so when she demonstrates, you understand what you are being shown. Then you try yourself, and realise how skilled  and precise her piecing and quilting are!

I have had such fun doing this, though I find keeping going through a time constrained day of activity quite exhausting. It makes me realise that, when at home I can practice the sort of pacing I was taught at the pain management course last year. So, I do stuff for a bit, then I take a break, do a bit more, break, do a bit more, push it a bit, then another break. That way I can manage as much, but in a longer timespan and with more rests in between. That is, incidentally, only commentary, not complaint, but I did feel pretty shattered when I got home.

I now have the fun of quilting it, but all in good time. I have to go back to work tomorrow, so it may have to wait 'til the weekend.

I can recommend a pin board!

Peace Cloth

We had a very civilised afternoon celebrating two "Leos'" birthdays, with family - tea in the garden, a "cold collation" I believe we decided it's called, along with champagne punch. Sounds ridiculously posh; in fact it was a small group of people sitting around enjoying each other's company. The pigeons and collared doves cooed and wooed, the little birds flitted in and out of the feeding tree and a great dragonfly swooped and swam through the air going from shrub to shrub.

I think my little Peace  Cloth gave pleasure,

it certainly raised a smile, and I tried to stitch as much peace into it as I could.

Later, we had another guest, who stayed just a little while

and also

A Little Peace cloth for a friend

I hope to get it finished by tomorrow!

Oh my goodness, I'm ready to go!

I have finally cut out all the pieces ready for Monday. Here they are, hot off my study floor if you get my drift, well, on it really, but you know what I mean. On Saturday I'll cut the binding strips, it might even be pieced by the end of next week!

then, as  I took my ease after all that cutting, this little fellow shimmered into view and allowed me to capture his vibrations

Time to cut

Been cutting out fabric today, having dyed it all yesterday - terrifying - align fabric on cutting mat, or was that with ruler? - measure four  times, reposition ruler, grasp rotary cutter, check cutting plan, check fabric type key, check graph of design, re-count squares on graph and multiply by two, add half an inch for seams, measure twice again just to be sure, check cutting list, hold plan upside down to gain perspective, measure again, retract safety shield on rotary cutter, hold breath - aaand CUT!!

I was very grateful for Christine's advice, encouragement and timely reminder that half of eight inches plus half an inch for the seam isn't four and three quarters!

;-)

oh boy!

Harry and Connie

Have I been having fun today. I've been to be tutored by Christine Chester at Studio 11 in Eastbourne. I had the privilege, due to the sickness of the other course attendee, to have a one to one all day with Christine. I brought along some cotton; torn up sheets, (one of which had a woven label from Harvey Nichols), used past wear, so renewing themselves to a different purpose here. They once belonged to Connie,  my grandmother's older sister and Harry, her lifelong lesbian companion - but that's another story.

Christine was a delightful tutor and, whilst enlightening me on the marvels of tied, resist, clamped, twisted and crumpled dyeing, we found ourselves chatting about; family, studying history, playing music, adopting cats, living by the seaside and other enjoyable things.

The studio itself is really lovely, with windows on two sides, an open airy atmosphere, plenty of big trestle tables to work on and a space for being messy by the sink - not to mention a rather delicious pink tin containing bicuits!

I thoroughly enjoyed tearing my sheets into smaller pieces of differing proportions, then wrapping up a variety of things; rectangular blocks of acetate, ice lolly sticks, kebab sticks, acetate circles and donuts - clamped over folded fabric, rubber bands holding pleats and pinches of fabric and, on one small piece of silk, brought for a particular reason, a combination of folding, tying, clamping and sticks!

I was shown how to mix up the dyes, add salt, immerse the fabrics and, later, add mordant to fix the dye. She also talked to me about design, balance, using colour and texture, proportion and repetition, contrast and the placing of lights mediums and darks to achieve an interesting harmony of shapes on the final piece. Then, whilst the fabric was taking up the colour, I sat down with squared paper to design, trying to bear in mind what bits of fabric I'd dyed with which technique and how much of each! I've come home with the plan and finished making out a cutting list. I've run my bits of fabric through a hot wash, and I've found myself with these.

My favourites are

some moons

a flower filled garden

a sort of forest floor feeling

and this rather nice

Mandala

Tomorrow I have the fun of going back again to think about how to put bits of these together to match my design - or rather to work with design and these bits of fabric to create something, hopefully, beautiful. With any luck my fellow student will be feeling better so there'll be twice the fun.

I am genuinely stunned at the wonderful patterns and colours that have resulted from all of this. Not because I think I'm particularly clever, but because such simple techniques well taught, can produce such riches.

Can't wait