Chinese Whispers - a collection

Rather later than I intended, here are the pages I produced for the other members of the Chinese Whispers Challenge. We all saw each others pages and original inspiration for the first time at a recent meeting. Here are my contributions in chronological order.

Rosemary's page.

This first one was for Rosemary. The fabric picture I received reminded me so much of a bear wandering through a landscape. The original photograph was rather interesting. I showed a rather beautiful valley called Bryce Canyon in the USA. The shape I had thought of as a bear was actually a shaped rock in the photo graph. So my landscape was truly fictitious. The image is constructed using simple kantha style stitches for texture and commercial fabrics appliquéd onto a black background.

Brenda's picture.

The second picture had already been to Rosemary, so I was working from her stitched picture. The image I received reminded me of the story of Jonah and the whale. Hence my own hand stitched image using a variety of accidentally dyed dyecatchers. I used back stitch and simple kantha style stitches for the image. What amused me when I saw Brenda's original inspiration was that it was the famous painting of the wave!

Bernice's picture.

This third image had come to me through versions made by Brenda and then by Rosemary. As a result the original image came as rather a surprise. It showed a snowy lakeside scene in Handforth, Cheshire. My own version was based on what I saw was an interpretation of the four seasons. This used my own dyed fabrics, free machine embroidery and some sheer fabrics cut using a soldering iron.

Mary's picture.

The inspiration for this one was a seaside scene which I received from Rosemary. She had interpreted a scene from Brenda, who in turn had received one from Bernice. The photos for this were printed onto silk and allowed to fray a little before being handstitched in place. My photos came from a trip made to Llandudno in Wales. The background is made up of sheer fabrics over different colours of satins used both matte side up and shiny side up. The original inspiration was the photo of a lighthouse. So perhaps I wasn't so very far out with this one.

Chris' page.

This last page was inspired by a rather nice stitched picture of a pigeon. It reminded me so strongly of a song we were singing with the choir that Rosemary, Chris and I sing with. I just had to use the information from the song. It is one of a series about pigeons by Guy Turner. This particular song was "Wood pigeon in the Weald" and uses a pub and place names around Hartfield in Sussex. The hand drawn images were printed onto silk and then bondawebbed in place. The stitching was all by hand with many french knots. The phrase on the grey border at the bottom of the image was directly taken from the song. The original image from Chris was a Kiwi bird. So her pages have travelled rather a long way from New Zealand to the UK.

Dyed fabric.

Pale colours

All the following photos show my fabrics drying on the line after being washed and removed from the packaging. These freshly dyed fabrics were completed during the Dyeing Day lead by Sandra Wyman last Thursday. It was such fun!

Shibori before I removed the string and container

Shibori being washed

The fascinating thing about my Shibori experiment - tying fabric around a shape and crushing this down before dyeing - was that the yarn I used for tying the fabric has also stained the fabric it touched addin a really interesting pattern.

Parfait dyeing

Not my usual choice of colours, but this bright piece is great fun.

More parfait dyeing

I find it amazing that two pieces of fabric dyed together can be so entirely different.

Allowing dye to find it's own way

These four pieces of fabric were dyed in teh same tub with dye being added after each piece of fabric was scrunched into the pot. I just love the way the colours have come out on these.

Mixing two colours - red and green.

The colours here are just so vibrant. I shall really enjoy having these pieces in my stash ready to use.

allowing blue dye to wander and find it's own way

These fabrics were all dyed together another parfait experiment.

This collection is a mixture of cotton, silk prepoline, and silk velvet. The silk velvet is the amazingly marked piece between the sheer fabric and the blue.

Mixing two colours - purple and green

Overdyeing with black

If anything didn't work, it was this piece. However, as it continued to dry, the colours changed again. I shall photograph these pieces after I have ironed them. The small piece is a piece of viscose satin, which has taken the colour really intensely. These will be wonderful bases for a printing session.

Catching up with sewing projects.

The past few weeks have been very busy. First, I had to remove the old cover on my small printing board. It had just got to the end of it's useful life and I was due to go and help out with the crafts at a birthday party last weekend. I had offered to teach anyone who wished ti have a go, to print on fabric.

My old cover for the small printing board.

It was quite interesting. I only ended up with a couple of people actually wanting to have a go, but quite a number coming along to look and see what I was doing. I had taken all my fabric paints, printing blocks, thermofax screens and a lot of fabric. One man was really taken with the idea of printing that he spent some time with me and was delighted to take away a carefully decorated piece of fabric. Sadly, I just did not take any photographs, I just didn't have enough hands. You may be surprised to hear that this was a friend's 50th birthday party, and it all took place in her garden. The nice thing is that she had a go too and gave me a lovely bouquet of flowers.

September challenge for the Sky's the limit group - "Change".

Last week was filled with completing challenges ready for deadlines which were looming. The first to be completed was the chameleon on my Sky's the limit piece. I still am not fully convinced by this piece, mostly because I made a mistake with the stomach area and had to add a piece of fabric to cover a piece which was really far too dark. I feel this needs much more work than I can do at present. What do you think? I call it "Change, alter, adapt". It is calligraphy using up my old fabric dye pens which were drying out over a dyed piece of fabric made some time ago. Over this is a piece of scrim which has then had a bobbin work drawing stitched in place. The whole piece has then been quilted onto a wadding base.

For Wednesday, I had to complete my last piece for the Chinese Whispers challenge. This has been going on since last September, but I haven't been able to post about it before now.

The original photo - underneath the Tay Road Bridge, Dundee, Scotland.

It all started with a photograph. I took this during the Quilters' Guild AGM and Conference held in Dundee, Scotland in May 2012. It is a view looking through the pillars of the bridge. I was very lucky with the light conditions on the morning I took this photo. It had been extremely foggy earlier on.

My piece based on the Tay Road Bridge.

I must admit that I wasn't very happy with my own piece, feeling it is just too simplistic. However, at the time I just didn't have the time to make a more complex piece. I feel it would be wrong of me now to replace this piece with something else since my next challenge now that I have had all the pieces back from everyone else taking part in the challenge is to make a book with all the pieces I have. Hmmmm.

Chris' piece - designed from my textile piece.

I passed my textile piece on to Chris. We had been instructed to pass everything on to the next person hidden in an envelope to hide it from everyone else taking part in the challenge. We would only be allowed to see all the pieces at the end of the challenge.

Chris' note attached to her piece reads, "I found this quite difficult to know what to follow on with at first. However, two things came to mind - a ploughed field and a wooden door, or floor. Decided to use the pattern I had for a foundation pieced house and make the door of wooden slats!"

My main difficulty was that Chris' house was landscape in orientation and not portrait. However, that adds a rather interesting challenge in itself.

Mary's piece - designed from Chris' piece.

The next piece came from Mary who made this enchanting quirky castle. She had only seen Chris' foundation pieced house, so her block is also landscape in orientation. She wrote, "The log cabin reminded me of a house and an English Man's House is his castle so I did a quirky fairytale castle in applique."

Bernice's piece, designed from Mary's piece.

Seeing only Mary's design, Bernice completed this piece. She wrote, "The castle that Mary passed to me caused me to think of knights of old. Then when wondering how I cold depict my thoughts, I came up with the idea of making it a fun picture just suing simple applique techniques."

Brenda's piece designed from Bernice's piece.

Brenda wrote, "After seeing the crusader with such an aggressive stance it conjured up ideas of what or who he had rousted. So we had to have a knight fleeing on a horse to gain the safety of his castle."

Rosemary's piece designed from Brenda's piece.

 The last piece to be completed was Rosemary's. She had organised the challenge for us all and kept us to time as well. Not easy since we met every other month to exchange pieces. Each time we each had a piece for someone else's Chinese Whisper. In my next post I really must put together the photos of the pieces I made for each of the others involved in this project.

Going back to Rosemary's piece for me, she wrote "The picture is of a castle in Guimaraes, Portugal. We went there on th last day of our holiday. The figure is D. Alfonso Henriques. He won the battle of Sao Mamede which paved the way for the foundation of Portugal. The castle was built to defend the monastery and Christian Community from the attacks by the Moors and Normands, so I decided to use my holiday memories as a basis fo the Chinese Whisper piece. It is hand stitching on appliqued background with the knight on a separate piece of the applique fabric stitched in place by matching the background stitching."

As you can see each piece is a superb item in it's own right, all very different and now my challenge is to make a book which will retain the quality of each of the pieces I have been given and yet will make a book which works as a whole piece in it's own right. Not easy!

Thursday brought a very different day. I met up with other members of NWCQ and we had a wonderful day of learning different techniques of dyeing.

Freshly dyed fabric waiting for me to get around to washing it all.

Our teacher for the day was a good friend, Sandra Wyman who is an expert dyer and great fun to be with. I was extremely saddened to hear that she too had lost a very dear furry friend very recently. She wrote a very moving post about the loss of her dear cat. Do go and read it.

Now all that is left for this month is for me to complete my Journal Quilt for September - it has been started and just needs to have the stitching completed before it is ready for posting. Then I must get on and wash all the fabrics which I had such fun dyeing yesterday. Thanks Sandra.

Journal quilts.

The last week or two has been rather a roller coaster, personally. During the past week my dear little friend, Coco, died. Her general health had been deteriorating over the previous couple of weeks, but her loss has been quite a blow. You will recall that her brother Felix died before Christmas. She had been getting on so well with our dog Ella, despite the difference in their ages. Coco was 19 years old, Ella just 6.

On to the textiles worked on this past week. I managed to get my four journal quilts finished and posted just before the deadline, on Saturday. Why, oh why, do I always end up finishing things at the very last moment. I really must try to get things done earlier from now on.

Tree and leaf 1 - May
(felt and tea-dyed cotton applique over my own screen printed fabric, machine quilted.)

Tree and leaf 2 - June
 (my own painted and then screenprinted loose woven cheesecloth fabric.
Applique using my own screenprinted cotton, quilted.)

Line drawing - trees - July
(tea-dyed fabric background with overlay of sheer fabric.
This latter fabric has been cut using a soldering iron.
Machine quilted outline.)

Hedgerow - August
(Background fabric was a cleaning cloth after a session painting the background fabric
for my Horizons quilt. Over this is an overlay of painted cheesecloth.
The applique shapes are commercial fabrics.)

 Each of the above is from my series which has the theme of Silhouettes and shadows. I had intended to insert some shadows into the last four pieces, but have got myself stuck on the theme of silhouettes and simplifying them. Each of these pieces is quite minimalist - simple shapes and stitching. I really am not sure how to continue the series at this point. I think I shall probably just doodle with some shapes before continuing and intend to work on the final four pieces in one session - or a series of sessions during the same week.

Drying fabric dyed during a dyeing session at Brenda's house.

Drying fabric dyed during a dyeing session at Brenda's house.

The fabrics I dyed at Brenda's house the other week have all turned out rather paler than I had thought. However, I shall find these perfect for overprinting or screenprinting at a later date. I am looking forward to attending another dyeing day later this month.

Three weeks later........ sewing and dyeing, feltmaking too.

Blue pine from Brenda's garden - we were here to have some fun dyeing.

Apologies for the long lapse in blogging. It has been extremely busy lately. The wedding has been and gone. Great fun it was too! So lovely to meet family. We really don't get to meet as often as we would like. My dress and jacket were liked, but I still haven't got a photo to show of me wearing the dress with the jacket. I must remedy that as soon as I can.

The following weekend was Festival of Quilts. This was an exhausting time meeting a lot of people and getting to see some really wonderful quilts. I was lucky enough to have my own quilt exhibited along with the rest of the entrants to "Horizons". You can see the whole exhibition here. Just click on the link to the photos of the exhibition.

The three lovely bookwraps I won .

I also took part in the Tombola and managed to win not one, but three bookwraps by the same maker - Sally Hutson. They are lovely. I really don't know how I won three of her rather special bookwraps since I bought tickets on three separate days and won one each time. Such luck, and no I didn't cheat. The bookwraps website can be seen here. It has some lovely photos of the fun we had on the stand. I was able to help out on one of the days. If you look at the list of names to the side, you will find Sally Hutson and can see some of the other bookwraps she made for the Tombola.




Since then it has all been rather a blur. I had to get four book pages completed before Friday, ready for a meeting of one of the Textile groups I belong to. We had a lovely time getting together, dyeing fabric and chatting. Such a lot of fun. The day started off rather wet and we were wondering whether we would be able to work outside, but then the sun came out and it turned into a glorious day!





The first two pages are "Dance" for Marion.











The next two are on the theme of "Circus" for Judy.











Whilst there we were able to look at the round robins we had completed a few months ago. These have now all been completed. It is interesting to see how each piece came out.

I made the moon on this one.














For this one I added the hedge and gate across the centre.

For Judy, I added two crows.












For Karen's bag, I added the sun.












My own cushion design started with the pile of books in the centre and the background fabric printed with words to do with literature. My theme was "Books". When everyone had added their piece, I added the applique letters which state "books".

My round robin - my pieces are the pile of books, the kindle,
the calligraphy showing words to do with literacy and the word "books!"

When I got home I managed to get some felt-making done before the light went. I wanted to make some pieces of pre-felt so that I can experiment with some making some nuno felt later this week. This was all because of a really interesting book I picked up at Festival.

Felt using some wool slub. Not sure what I shall do with this piece.
It was great fun to make.

Pre-felt ready to start experimenting with nuno felt.

The book bought at Festival which will be
of great help when I start experimenting.

Today has been spent washing out the fabric I dyed on Friday. It all looks rather nice. At the time of writing this I am waiting to give it a final rinse out and put it on the washing line to dry. Unfortunately, the rain clouds are gathering again. Photos will have to wait until another time since I haev delayed long enough in getting this post out.

Oh yes, I also played around with my soldering iron and some nylon fabrics. There is some black acrylic felt under these fabrics. I really don't know what I'm doing yet, just messing around and seeing what happens. I was able to watch a demonstration of this type of work at Festival which is why I am keen to give it a go.

Messing around with fabrics and soldering irons.

Another photo of Brenda's beautiful Blue Pine - this is
a section of the bark. I love the circle design it makes.

A busy week - stitching away.

Completed jacket.

That silly brooch.

The past week has been very busy. My dress for the wedding is complete and so is the jacket. I even made a jokey brooch to go with it. It is rather over-sized, though and will probably end up as a decoration for a hat I haven't yet had any time to go and look for.















I've been busy completing the next piece for the Chinese Whispers challenge. I can't show it to you since the whole project is a secret and the unveiling happens later this year. Now, I really am looking forward to the unveiling since I really don't have any idea what the themes were supposed to be for any of the pieces I have worked on. But then, that's the fun of the game. You will find an explanation here.

The other things I have been working on are to do with the Festival of Quilts which is just over a week away. I can hardly wait. I've been making some more of the book wraps for the Tombola, which is being organised by Contemporary Quilt this year. I really am not sure how many I shall manage to complete in the remaining time I have left. After all, next weekend is my nephew's wedding! Which, of course was why I was making myself a new dress and altering that jacket.

Ah well, back to the sewing. I shall take some photos of the book wraps before I take them down to Festival.