Meeting Amy

Have just had a great few days meeting up with my long time penfriend Amy and her friend from Salem, Oregon. Plenty of sightseeing and chat about patchwork and quilting. Amy spent a few days in London and we visited some gardens in Kent. We enjoyed getting to know each other better. Thanks for coming Amy!

I intend to spend the next few days getting back to the arty stuff/quilting. Lot's of new ideas flowing! Not to mention a few UFO's I have promised to finish. (Who says housework is important?)

A few more pics of the QQ Show 2008

Thanks to Jane and Philip Steward I have some more pics of the show...... here is Kit Kidd's "Dahlia" quilt.
To the right is Janet Stout's "My Japanese Garden".

Some of the smaller quilts we hang on large sheets to show them to best effect.


Now it's back to the design board and the sewing machine to make stuff for 2010! I also find time to alter books, boxes and generally make art in my little art-space-above-the-washing machine-and-next-to-the-back-door! (Incidentally...did you know that if you let dust get to 4 inches thick it never gets any worse!)

Getting excited....

I am going up to Bradford on Avon shortly to meet my long time pen friend and quilting mate Amy. (See photo right...Amy is in pink.) We met 7 years ago briefly and have written ever since. We are delighted to be able to spend some time getting to know each other a little better - whilst visiting the patchwork shop in Bath!

Amy is returning with me to London on Saturday and will meet with the other girls in Quaggy Quilters on Monday evening for coffee and cake.

Quaggy Quilters Show 2008

My quilt group held their third show yesterday at St Laurence's Church in Catford, SE6. I think I can say it was a success... hope the girls feel it was as I enjoyed it very much.

The photo to the left taken when working out what goes best with what! To the right is our raffle quilt..made by the group during the past year, together with some cushions.

The hall was a new venue for us and light and spacious. The kitchen facilities were good and we had a decent sized car park. A problem we have had before in our part of London is parking. It took us only two and a half hours to set it up which is something of a record and probably due to the organisers having learned lots from the previous two shows. Visitors seemed to enjoy it and it was lovely to see my friends' work properly displayed and not just held up briefly in a small space at our "show & tell". Photos were taken by one of our members, Sue Laurence, and her husband John. Thank you!


Laurelle and me having a rest....before the show!





...and here we all are...flushed with the success of having put it all up.........just before the opening!

ISABA

Have tried to put a link on here to the International Society of Altered Book Artists.
www.alteredbookartists.com.

Yes! It worked!

Altered box in progress

Don't know what I did wrong yesterday but here is the photo of my box. There is quite a lot more to be done to it. I plan to decorate it to within an inch of it's life.......as it is my first attempt I am itching to stick things all over it. Or maybe less is more ???? Hmmmm....

I have discovered that I can do quite a bit of art stuff in only a few spare moments. My husband Nick watches lots of stuff on TV that I am not interested in. Quite often I am happy to sit and quilt or do cross stitch but I have found that if I pop out to my artspace and slap on a bit of paint or do some collage I can achieve something which sits and dries for next day. It may only take 10 minutes..... and yes I always wash up my sticky brushes etc afterwards! My artspace is so tiny that I have to keep it cleared - unlike my sewing room (daughter's vacated bedroom) which is usually a tip! At the moment it is full of quilts etc waiting to go to Quaggy Quilters' 3rd Exhibition tomorrow - not all my quilts I hasten to add. I am just a collection point.

Hope to post a few pictures of the quilts after the exhibition. Incidentally in case anyone is wondering "Quaggy" is the name of the river that runs through Lewisham which is where we are based. It is mostly pretty mucky and has old shopping trolleys thrown in from time to time but we thought that as quilters can take grungy fabric and turn them into something beautiful then it was a reasonable name. Plus we liked the alliteration!

Right, I'm off to bake lemon cakes for the refreshments at tomorrow's show!

How am I doing with transfer paints and the altered box?

I ironed the painted computer paper face down on polyester fabric - between sheets of baking parchment. ( available in supermarkets in rolls near the foil and clingfilm.) It protects your iron and the board cover. Heat needs to be quite high but depends on your iron. Firm pressure, constantly moving the iron for a few minutes and checking the image. Be prepared for the paper and fabric to be very hot! Ouch! See what I mean ? Got some nice pieces of fabric some of which could be used in a little water-themed quilt. There is also a piece reminiscient of a sunset..... I need more colours now as I have only got four! I made myself a promise that I would only experiment with what I have! It is the ideal way to manage the budget and not to buy stuff and put it away - then forget what you've got!

The altered box has been given a yummy coat of texture gel mixed with purple acrylic paint using a 1" paintbrush and lots of swirling. It looks good but I have had trouble uploading the photo. Will try again and hope to make it work.

I have found that because I intend to write this blog it makes me work at the projects so that I have something to report! It is easy to read magazines and feel enthusiastic but I've got to just DO IT!

I have also joined the International Society of Altered Book Artists and they have some really good on-line mixed media lessons. Have a look at their website if you have a moment www.alteredbookartists.com. They even have a few free projects to try and a gallery of members work.

Using Transfer Paints

Encouraged by an article in the Zine "Fibre & Stitch" (I recently joined) by Margaret Roberts I decided to give transfer paints another go. I have not been that pleased in the past with the results using this medium but I spread out my newspapers and got working. I have painted quite a few pages of computer paper (see photo of my art space - in the utility room, above the washing machine and next to the back door!) and will show you the results of ironing it onto the fabric in my next post.



I have also started to alter a box. I have been wanting to try this as I have read about "altered art" in various publications - including Cloth Paper Scissors which is my favourite at the moment. I I saved a laundry tablet box and painted it all over with gesso. This needs to dry and I plan to go on decorating with colour and glued bits and bobs until I have a unique box to house my fabric paints. Watch out for further embellishments!

the muse has returned!

The quilt below is a scrappy quilt, made for my daughter in law's 30th birthday. It is all scrap fabric (again 2.5" strips) but put together with a co-ordinating red Moda Marble fabric. The trick in this one was not to make it boring but to have some plan about it. That is where the red came in. Every sixth strip was the red fabric.



Happy Birthday Claire!






The Quilt is called "Galaxy". Made by using just 4 fat quarters and some cream on cream fabric. I sliced into it creating 2.5 inch strips. After sewing several strips together I took a square template.....depends what size you have created your strips....and placed it squiffy on the strip blocks. Cut rund each of the four sides and you end up with a squiffy strip block. When joining these blocks together I used very narrow sashing and came up with what you see. It is called Galaxy because the fabric reminds me of stars and space ...


Galaxy!







I have found it difficult to continue with my blog over the past few months. Partly because I am disappointed with the way I take photos and feel that my blog is nothing without photos! Secondly because I had lost my inspiration. I have recently continued with my quilting work and have completed two quilts to go into my quilt group's exhibition on Sat 19th April. One is an art quilt and one is traditional scrappy made for my daughter in law Claire's birthday.

The muse has returned!