This and That!

A sneaky preview of a small portion of my entry for the EQA 'Circle of Friends' quilt that has been selected for the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham this August. I can't show it all, not until after the exhibition, but I was so thrilled to hear on Friday that my entry had been successful. Each country has 12 quilts selected, and each country has a different colour combination. The UK entries have to be in black and white, with up to 30% in any shade of blue. They also have to be a circular measuring between 8" and 12"(inches). The small area of black and blue fabric that you can see here I dyed myself, and the spiders are all free motion machine stitched.

These are drawings and paintings I've made of some fantasy beetles. I made up a small booklet from an  unwanted leaflet that I first painted with white gesso, and then folded into a concertina. I folded it once again, and stitched through all the layers to hold the book together, The photo above is the cover, (unfortunaely upside down),  but hopefully you can see what I mean. The remaining photos are of the pages that I've done so far, but I hope to complete them all very soon. Just a bit of fun really, but I do enjoy doodling, especially insects, and it's something to do when I'm waiting for the potatoes to cook, or when I have a few minutes to spare and don't want to twiddle my thumbs!

My Journal Quilt for July has been inspired partly by the 'Out of Australia' exhibition at The British Museum. I made some sketches while I was there of some of the wonderful baskets on display, and printed two of them onto some fabric. They are on the right. I also really enjoyed seeing the Aboriginal art, and felt that some of them could be the starting point for some handstitched textile art. I had a simple sketch in my book that I made in April on Ferring beach, and decided to translate it into a simple handstitched sample which is on the top left. The print from my sketch is underneath. I just love the way that the artists use such simple lines and marks to convey land/seascapes, and their surroundings.

Well, that's it for now folks, enjoy whatever it is that you like to do, and see you next time. Thanks for reading.