A Little Bit of a Diversion

As if I do not have enough unfinished projects already? Sometimes I just need to do something else, anything else, rather than what I am meant to be doing so I started to make a small quilt from some fabric I had left over from a cot quilt I made some years ago.  It has taken me two weeks so far and it is still far from finished.  I seem to end up unpicking almost as much as I stitch because I am not happy with the way the pieces line up. I try so hard to be really accurate with the seams and cutting and still they are never quite right.

Stitched squares awaiting assembly. I have now changed the layout around and added another column of patches.

2 replacement squares to be added as I am not happy with the original ones I made … guess I will have enough bits left for a Lap Quilt after this!!

Some of the stitched pieces laid on the ironing board awaiting the next step ….

What are Friends For?

Whilst I was up in Yorkshire several of my friends got together to play with their Gelli Plates.  We all moan about what to do with the pile of papers we produce on these occasions, but true to form one of the group gave us plenty of inspiration when she was persuaded to show us the sketchbook she has been working in daily since she recently retired ….

Scraps of paper enhanced with doodles

Themed doodles

My Kind of Bike

Found my kind of bike at the weekend. DH and I went to Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb and there was this wonderous bike conversion selling nice coffee. Perfect.  Also had a friend to stay for 3 nights last week and we went out to some of the H-Art open studios (Herefordshire Art Week).

Found these dolls a bit disturbing …. but loved the plate of apples

Birmingham Exhibition

On the day I drove up to Yorkshire to spend some time with friends I fitted in a visit to the Birmingham MAC to see the 62 Group Ctrl/Shift exhibition there. It was well worth the effort with lots of lovely and inspiring textile art on show. This piece was by Eszter Bornemisza, someone who's work I have admired for a long while.

I think the following piece was the work of Sian Martin and her exhibits was formed from seedheads, thorns and other interesting natural objects.

and finally detail from the edge of one of the panels displayed by Joanna Kinnersly-Taylor

Quilt Show

Found time to spend a whole day at the Harrogate Quilt Show last Saturday.  Loved this fishy cushion.

and hope to find some inspiration from this quilt which was designed using images from quilts created during the Civil War.

My favourite exhibit had to be this miniature quilt depicting snowdrops with all the shading created using machine stitching.

It was lovely to bump into lots of people I know and catch up with them. Perhaps one day I will get to live back in lovely Yorkshire.  I feel it is in my bones and miss it lots.

A Jolly Playday

Sticky back Funky Foam print block

Just had a few days up in Yorkshire and a friend had organised a Playday in the local village hall. The general idea was that everyone was to experiment with their Gelli Plates.

Wooden print blocks and an Inktense Block wash

Above and below paper created from cleaning the roller of paint onto a waste sheet of paper.

Finally, when all else fails and you think it has all gone wrong you can still rescue your printed piece of cloth and end up with a very usable background such as this.