Some small quilts and a big sky!

A New Year, and twelve Journal Quilts to look forward to thinking about, and making. For 2012, the criteria for size is A4, and the only other rule is that the first four are to be shades of red, the second four shades of yellow, and the last four shades of blue. They can all have up to 25% of another colour added. Above is my first one for January. I was thinking about that game where you write down the word for a colour, but in a different colour, and you have to read out aloud the colour that the word is written in! Confused? I'm not surprised!  Anyway, I chose some bright shiny turquoise silk for the lettering, and it really zings against the different red fabrics. The beads were added for extra interest.

This funny little quilt was made in response to another challenge set by the Contemporary Quilters' Guild. Sixty of these 10x10cm quilts will be chosen to make one large quilt, to celebrate the Diversity of British Culture. My contribution is a mixture of our obsession with the weather, and the map of the British Isles which also includes the emblems for each of the four countries that make up Britain, as well as the weather symbols which are also symbolic for  the diversity within the citizens of this land. 

Finally, I have included two photos I took recently whilst out on a Saturday afternoon walk not far from where I live. The sun was just beginning to go down, and the light seemed just right for the trees and teazles to be silhouetted against the evening sky. I also loved the trails left by the high jet planes that had passed overhead on their long journeys. Sometimes, when the sky is clear here, I'm amazed at how many vapour trails there are at any one time! I wonder how many planes there are in the sky worldwide at any one time? I dread to think!

On that note, Happy creativity to you all, and thanks for reading!

Snowdrops, teazles and a robin.

In my previous post I showed a piece of fabric that I had prepared by spraying silk paint over some stencils, followed with some printing using white acrylic paint. I continued to work on this piece by 'sketching' with my sewing machine, using my favoured method of free motion stitching, and added the snowdrops, teazles, a robin and the holly, ivy and mistleto. I used some colour on the teazles, robin and snowdrops, but didn't feel it was necessary to add more colour, especially as the background colour is quite strong, with some interesting detail. The snowdrops  in the forground also benefit from some handstitch. I have a feeling that this textile piece may well be printed to produce this year's Christmas cards. Nothing like preparing early for Christmas eh?



JQ for January, 'Will it snow?'

January's JQ is the last of the year's twelve. We started them in February 2011, so this, and not Decembers is the final one of this series. It is also the fourth one that had to incorporate a button. I used the piec of cloth shown in my last post that I created after the workshop video. I continued by free machining leaves, snowdrops, snowflakes and a robin. I also added some hand stitch, and finally the snowflake button. I will now be looking forward to seeing what the themes, if any, and the size requirements for 2012 are going to be.

I have also created another piece of cloth with the stencilled background, silk paint, acrylic paint and fabric crayons. Watch this space to see what I do with this piece!

A positive start to the creative New Year.

A positive start to the creative New Year. I signed up for a free workshop with Strathmore Artists Papers, and a workshop called 'Doodles Unleashed' with instructor Traci Bautista. I have watched the first video, and decided to make a start this afternoon. I worked on some old white cotton sheeting instead of paper, and used silk paints in a spray bottle, with stencils, and followed this with some fabric crayons, and white gesso painted thinly onto embossed paper which I pressed into the fabric surface. When it has all dried and been 'heat set', I shall start stitching into the piece.

Before lunch, I had a lovely leisurely walk with family, and took these photos.

This view seemed like a reminder to keep my creative focus for the next twelve months!

These tree roots made me chuckle, maybe another reminder about friendships, and how important it is to value them all.

And finally, a reminder to look for the beauty in everything, even when things seem to be decaying or changing, there is always a silver lining. We just need to look that little bit harder.