End of the Week of Colours, Conclusion, and Stars

Only one image today - this experiment with interlocking stars.  I didn't invent this, and I did it very slowly while thinking about my Week Of Colours.  And my conclusions?  The week was pretty hard compared with last year's Week Of Trees (see label/link at the bottom of this post to find the entries for that) - it was hard to put stuff down because it wasn't today's colour, and although I have got lots done, I have not finished enough to make a display, which I would have liked to do.  There is a big pile by my chair waiting for hand-finishing on the bindings, and a further huge pile layered and ready to quilt.  And a huge mess in the workshop.  I spent a while today sorting out the Blue Box which had exploded on Saturday and would not go back on the shelf.  So I sorted out all the stuff I no longer want from it and I'm cutting it up to make charm packs and the like.  I think I should do more of this, as the stash has got silly.  I was amazed just how many unlikeable fabrice were in the box, and how glad I was to be able to get the lid back on.
So, tomorrow I have to teach and rehang the shop, sort out the rent, and wash up..
And think about the next "Week Of..."

Thanks for reading

Oh, and the stars come from Here

Saturday, Day six: Blue and Boats

This is more like it!  I have been trying for ages to make a version of this boat image that would be teachable.  My original ideas, part of a series that I made for the Sea and Sky exhibition a couple of years ago, was too complex to teach, and too long-winded.  I was pleased with some aspects of the original, not least the time I spent choosing the quilting colours and matching each segment, so that the details were never obscured by the stitching, just added to in texture without any overlay. The quilt (below) is big, about 3 by 4 feet, and I do not expect it to sell quickly.  The smaller pieces I made for the same exhibition are long gone.

The technique I used to make this I call MAP piecing (Modified American Piecing), and starts by taking a piece of paper as big as the finished item and drawing all the segments on it.  I then cut this up and used it to mark out all the pieces, sewed them together on the marked lines and re-assembled the whole.  Laborious, accurate, and very satisfying.  But not for a Class.  Even a very small piece is more than a day's work and you need extreme accuracy (sadly lacking in most sewists, and not part of my Teaching Practice)
Anyway, I made four boats today, in two pairs.  I had all manner of thoughts about variations, and I have three nice pieces, two quilted and blocked, and one ready to layer.

Detail of the quilting

This one is called Two Boats, and here's a detail

Tomorrow is Indigo...

Oh, sorry, no lunch image.. No blue food and I didn't want to fake it...or perhaps I can...
Bless Photoshop!

Yellow is Difficult..

Here's the Yellow Box.. As you can see it's not very yellow.  It's quite hard to find good yellow fabrics and monochrome is not always succesful in this part of the spectrum.. So I started the day with a couple of cushions that I started last week, in seriously Provencal blue-and-yellow

So far, so good.  I packed some patterns that I made yesterday, with yellow covers, as it happens

One of my best sellers.  Note the strapping-tape packed with the pattern.. Small things like this make a big difference - this stuff is easy to find but impossible to describe.. Given a sample everyone goes "Oh, that stuff!.."

Then today's lunch had Eggs (and salmon, but that's the Wrong Colour, so Not Shown)

I made this tree from a Screen-printed piece and this delightful stripey yellow-and-white that has been in the box for years.  As an aside, I notice that some of my fabrics have been with me for a long time.  It's an interesting game, working out the quilts that have a Long Stash Accumulation Period, and those which have obviously been "bought for" all in one go.  Many of my younger students have no working stash, so they buy each project as a complete entity, make it, and have little in the way of leftovers.  I have been buying fabrics for almost 50 years, and I have a huge amount.  This makes weeks like this one possible without too much forward planning, as I can just get the boxes out.  I haven't used anything that wasn't in the workshop this week. 

Anyway, I have taken a whole series of process photographs for this and plan to put up a proper How To in a couple of days on my website.. Watch this space..

Then I worked on this piece for most of the afternoon. I don't usually do Work In Progress photos, because I find them less than useful, but this one was a useful lesson in poverty of contrast.  At the stage above, I hung it up, took one look, and dived back into the box for some Darks, as it was Boooring..

Much better... Detail below, showing the last tree, which is translucent hand-dyed gridded fabric.  I haven't decided whether to trim out the ground fabric under this tree yet.. The effect of the underneath fabrics is quite nice, but the overall effect may be better without..

Tomorrow is Green and should be easier all round

Day Two - Orange

 In no particular order - Kitemaking is Messy, Carrot Salad for lunch, small delta kite with bat,
octopus and flook kites, eight Tiger Blocks ,  (click for tutorial), and five recycled postcards. Now I'm exhausted and I'm going to sit in front of a nice Orange fire...

Week of Colours - Day One; Red

 Start small - a postcard and two nice handkerchiefs for himself..

Argue with Blogger.. 41 four-patches in reds.. 

Make these Disappearing 9-patch blocks

 Quilt number one was a dragon with Laquer-reds in Japanese fabrics, details below

 Quilt two - I had an odd tree sitting in a box

 Later, quilted (all on the table blocking overnight, so nothing is finished yet

 This one was layered and awaiting spiralling

 This screen-print had been in a think mode for a while.  Needs more borders, I think

 Lunch, in keeping.. Beetroot salad!

 And the Scraps.. Note the thread bunnies

Goodnight, more tomorrow....

Hedge 4

Going Home..

From the Ferrycat

More tomorrow

More from Bewleys Hotel

 Floor in the lobby.. Lovely tiles and symbology

 

And this magnificent steed awaits a rider in the front garden

Day One of the Knitting and Stitching Show was pretty good.  We met quite a lot of new and old friends and sold a fair  bit of stuff.  My new items are getting a good reaction, so I'm happy. And the restaurant is good...

Diagonal line

..more Autumn colour...

New project..

..see if you can work it out..