Early Christmas Lunch?

Met friends from the Running Stitchers (Venture 2) today for lunch at Bevere Gallery nr Worcester.  It was lovely to see everyone and catch up with what they have been doing over the past few months, especially the person who had travelled all the way from Islington to join in the fun.

Eagerly awaiting the arrival of coffee ....

A bit of 'Show and Tell' going on here ....

The dreaded mobile phone makes an appearance!!

Upper Edge Workshop

Collage and Mixed Media

Had a lovely few days in Yorkshire this past week.  I did a two day workshop with some lovely ladies over in Elland.  The first day we were tutored by Amanda Hislop and on the second day we played by ourselves.  Oh such fun.

Not all my work on this page

The week ended with a day at the Knit & Stitch Show in Harrogate and I managed to restrain myself  with only one or two essential(?) purchases.

Autumnal Weather

Had a nice walk on Sunday afternoon at Brockhampton.  A bit chilly and very muddy but really enjoyed it.

Change of Format

The Yorkshire Travelling Journal participants are currently contemplating a change of format for the A5 Journal we have been doing for several years.  I have cut out 8 long strips of fabric which we are going to work on and then pass on to the next person.

This led me to trying a mock up on a spare piece of fabric to see what it was possible to do with it.  Suggestions to date have been a folded fabric book, a hanging or a scroll.  The logistics of a scroll may rule out the last one, but we shall see.

Anyway, below is work to date on my dummy one. I have used a Gum Arabic transfer of one of my drawings on the front of it and added some buttonholes onto the turned back edge - this was formed from a piece of the fabric that was not quite the right width for a page, but seemed to lend itself to becoming a nice additional feature rather than being trimmed off.  It looks a bit like a shirt front to me!!  The folded edge of each page has been overstitched by hand to hold a nice firm crease and I may add some decorative loops or lace to some of the pages.

I have started to add another piece of fabric from my scrap box onto the end of the fabric (final page).  Not sure where I am going from here .... so watch this space.  The 'real thing' does not have to be completed and passed on until the end of January 2018, so plenty of time to play.

Felt Exhibition

Managed to get to the latest exhibition of felted work at The Weavers Gallery in Ledbury this morning.  Some beautiful work and very inspirational.

Textile Fair

Could I use this picture for Gum Arabic Transfer I wonder?

Went to Compton Verney Textile Fair on Saturday.  Bumped into a friend from Venture Group amongst the textiles. Loved both the Quinten Blake 'Inside Stories' exhibition and The Lost Words exhibition (featuring words and paintings by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris from their book of the same name).  Have not been for a while and the improvements to the facilities were a lovely surprise.  Catering facilities appeared to be an improvement, but there was much confusion about how to queue and get served there being two tills in operation, one at either end of the serving area. Entrance to the park has also been improved.

A view across the lake to the installation - 'The Clearing' created by Alex Hartley and Tom James as a collaborative artwork.  The little white dots on the left of the photograph below were actually free ranging chickens, that were entertaining everyone at the entrance when we arrived with their antics as they scrabbled about around and on the picnic tables.

Playday

This last week I had managed to get myself in a bit of a panic as I had to prepare some fabric collage plus some black and white images for the Solo Printing class with Sue Brown as she had decided we would have a playday with Gum Arabic Transfer.  The fabric collage took me forever to get my head round and the drawing was a last minute thing using a dip pen and a bottle of black ink ... here are some of the results

A scrap of linen, a photocopy of a pencil sketch of a shed from my sketchbook, plus the blue tit below reduced in size and reversed before transferring.

Full size sketch but printed in Raw Sienna onto a scrap of calico I had in my box

This one is the piece that took me the longest to prepare. It is A4 and not only did I collage it, but I also did some machine and hand stitching onto it in preparation.  If I wish (or have the time) I can now add more stitching.  Scanning the work really shows how cockeyed I got the fabric!