May TIF

The challenge for this month was “What do you call yourself and why?” and I sort of cheated by using the label ‘Contemporary Quilter’. I say cheated because it’s only an approximation to what I feel I am – it probably better describes what I’d like to be!!! So in putting this month’s piece together I decided to show ‘what I am’ by using my favourite colour combination and my favourite machine stitches.  I don’t know how clearly it shoes in the photo but the cream area is pebble quilted, I find this a very relaxing way to fill an area.

I had intended to piece this in several sections but so liked the sketch when just the first two lines were drawn that it hasn’t changed! This also reflects what I am – I’ve definitely got a ‘less is more’ mentality! I love the embellished and layered work that people make but can’t do it myself, though it isn’t for lack of trying!

I’d intended to call this quilt ‘Elemental’ but have recently discovered that this is theme for the QGBI challenge at FOQ this year, which I’m not entering!

 

Small squeek of delight!

I have just received a request from Susan Briscoe to include my “Sisters Choice” quilt in a new book she is writing.  One of many such images,  it will be used to “showreaders what they can do with a traditional block. ”.  I know that there are many reasons why the quilt may end up not being used, but it is nice to be asked. Whoopee!

Bags

I’m keeping up with the bql bag challenge, but haven’t particularly enjoyed the last couple of months, so no pics. (It’s not the bags themselves – I’m using up fabric that I wouldn’t put into a quilt so can’t get excited about the outcome!) But …… in the March issue of QuiltWOW were instructions from Di Goodison for bags made from re-cycled plastic bags. I saw Di demonstrating these at a QGBI Conference a couple of years ago and loved her style. This is my take on the QuiltWOW pattern, the bag is made from an M & S carrier and the ‘flower’ is made from the reverse side of the same bag. I particularly like the way leaving the side seams open at the top changes the shape of this bag – I’ll be making some more!

 

lino printing – reduction method

May TIF

“How do you describe yourself as an artist? One moment I am doing one thing that could be described easily as Art and the next I am doing something else that is craft! One moment my curiosity has lead me to to look at something quite strange as beautiful like the mould that grows on food in the fridge and the next I am looking at something most people would find familiar and boring and finding it fascinating like the bubbles in the washing up water. …… OK there is a few questions in the passage above but this month the challenge question is what do you call yourself and why?”

What I think of myself as is a contemporary quilter, I use quilting based techniques to express myself but don’t always use them in a traditional way nor do I use traditional patterns. Explaining this to other people isn’t quite so easy and part of this is down to my concern about what their reaction would be if I showed them the things I make. I then get into a rambling description of what I do, which doesn’t work for me or my poor listener! I should take heed of Sharon’s advice from the challenge description:

 ”One of the ways I try and make sense of what I do is by defining what ever it is, as clearly as I possibly can. ………. The way I see it is if you can’t talk about what you do, or haven’t taken care in how you think about what you do, how do you expect others to respect the way you spend your time? Or how do expect people to respect what you make?” A good point!

April TIF

This has been finished for over a week but it’s taken me a while to get round to posting it – I wish I could explain why, to myself as much as anyone else, but there doesn’t seem to be any reason behind my lack of drive!

The finished quilt is much as intended, though I wish I’d made the yellow flashes on the larger circle larger. I’ve stitched the three sections so closely together that it’s hard to tell, from any distance, that they were separate pieces. I suspect this is the penalty for using commercial fabric with its’ absence of variation.

The sections represent how change can fragment things and bring them back together again – either as a whole or as part of a path to something else.

Deadlines

From responses on and off blog – it seems that we love them! And I’d have agreed with everything Mags said in her comment, until this last quilt. Perhaps what got to me was the fact that the deadline was artificially imposed by ‘external forces’ – but my back is much improved, thanks for the well wishes.

As part of the day job I’m rolling out a technology that will allow children to submit work on-line. It’s in its’ early days in schools but a serious research study has proved that post-16 students show a consistent pattern of submitting work between 11pm and 2am on the day of the deadline. Research? Phrases like ‘money for old rope’ come to mind. Isn’t this how we grew up? Isn’t this the pattern for most of us?

And just because I like pictures, I did a search for textures on my favourite image site www.sxc.hu and came up with this from Nicolas Raymond of Montreal.

Another lesson learned!

I’ve been working to a deadline and all seemed to be going well, except that at the last minute I had a rare re-occurance of a back problem which leaves me unable to sit comfortably for much more than twenty minutes at a time.  Suddenly the time to finish became scarce. Did I like my quilt when it was ‘finished’  – no I didn’t. The final quilting had an unexpected impact on the whole which left me dis-satisfied, and I’d left myself no time at all to address the problem.

Comparing this to the pleasure I’ve had from the TIF pieces I’ve made this year has made me realise that, contrary to my previous definition of myself (Or maybe that was just a younger self ????), I don’t work well to deadlines. And in spite of everything I’ve previously said about working to a finished design, either in my head or on the PC, I do let the quilt talk to me – because this one is shouting WRONG, and other than not submit it all, there’s nothing I can do about it.

Lesson noted. Lesson learned from? I’ll have to wait until another exhibition deadline comes around before I can comment on that!

April TIF

This month’s challenge is ‘How do you see change?’

This immediately lifted my spirits! I’m very fortunate not to have been hit by the uncontrollable cataclysmic changes (accidents?) that can affect people. The changes in my life have been down to the normal life cycles of a family, relationships and of and at work.

Not all of these have been pleasant at the time. Some have been a matter of circumstance and some have been of my own choosing (mostly the latter in recent years). Some changes are quite distinct whereas others are a matter of evolution. Either way change brings out my “cup half-full” mentality and I can look for positives.

The best changes of all are those you can control and that also bring with them opportunities for learning and subsequent personal growth. I’d hate to envisage a time when I’m unable to bring about changes in my life, however small – I fear that I would become quite diminuished.

Enough! Where has this brought me to in terms of the challenge?

I see change and growth as circular, though not necesssarily evenly so, hence the sketch below.

Some years ago I was given a floating candle set which I’ve never opened because I could see the format of the packaging/shapes becoming a design layout at some point in the future. That future is now!

And the colours are part of that ‘just popped into my head’ moment. I’ve never combined these colours before but I presume I’ve seen something that has influenced m choice – but I can’t think what, right now!!!

April bag

Sadly unloved – didn’t enjoy / learn from the construction, don’t like the fabric. But the good news is that there is less of it than there was, and by finishing this bag I get to make the May bag!!!!