Christmas

Christmas preparations and shopping are keeping the forum members occupied at this time of year, in spite of the time of year and house renovations I have my sewing machine set up in a temporary spot in the spare bedroom. Had to get priorities right and unpack the most important items first after moving home! Progress report soon. Amanda

Amanda's project update

My 'dress from composted fabric' project is moving alond step by step. Today I finished printing the 4mtr length of composted cotton that is going to make the skirt section of the dress. The design is an abstract bullrush representation, printed using cork a 4" place mat and water based fabric paints mixed with printing medium. I've kept the colours quite earthy and left some spaces for the composted cotton to speak for itself. I'll be stitching into this with free motion and backing it with stiff net so that the puffball skirt stands up well. It was last July when I posted the original design idea so I'm including it again in this post just to jog the memory.

Next week I plan to get the dress pattern cut then I can start making it up and it will begin to shape up. Will keep you posted! Amanda

Letting ideas collide

I attended a workshop recently with Vicki Pignatelli in Galway. She showed us a nice technique to create openings and curves in quilts. If I think of this idea in combination with the theme 'deconstruct/reconstruct' I'm wondering if I can adapt it to create a wall hanging about my stone-walls and concentrate on the negative spaces between the stones. The idea is just bouncing around in my brain for now as I finish off some small pieces for a local craft gallery. In the meantime here's a photo of the sample I made at the workshop using Vikki's star pattern.

Composting repair

The cotton that I composted was a bit far gone but, undaunted, I have set about repairing and strengthening it by layering some spare pieces of fabric behind the holes and stitching with free-motion round the edges. It's working fine and I'm sure will create an adequate base for printing onto. More progress reports soon. Amanda

More composted fabric pictures

Amanda's Update:

I was a bit taken aback to see the extent of the composting but now that it's been washed and studied I can see the potential in it. Once it's dried I shall think about stabilising it with a net backing and printing onto it ready to make the skirt of my deconstruct/reconstruct dress. I'm pleased with the strong patterning in the areas that haven't vanished!

Jan's direction currently

Well it seems like it's taken me awhile to get settled what to do with my hexagons and any other ways that I was going to interpret, in my work, the Deconstruct/Reconstruct theme for 2010 but I'm finally getting something together. I have continued with the hexagons I started in Ballyduggan, with a variation of two fabrics within each hexagon. From this I've decided on two pieces, one a triangle, one a rectangle. The triangle top is complete and looks like this prior to quilting and put against a black wall. As it's a triangle, I am still also turning it on a daily basis to determine which way I like it best. The other piece is still definitely in the early works stage as I'm not sure how many more I will be adding but am thinking it will be a block effect.

The second project I've undertaken is remaking a quilt with the Grandmothers Garden pattern that I had originally started in 1973 but never finished. I am redoing 35 of the original blocks putting a row of calico between. The other fun part of this project is that it's using fabric that I had in 1973 from articles of clothing my 4 sisters and I used growing up to make our own clothes.

Finally, I have decided to do a series which came out of needing a journal size (A4) and trialing with some batik fabrics I got last year. I made one but didn't like the results so added a different block type which I thought I liked better but once I quilted them found I had gone back to the original design as my favorite. I am planning on making at least one more for the series but could see it growing beyond that to 5 or 6 even.

New member: Ester Kiely

I'm delighted to join the Textile Art Forum. The theme 'Deconstruct/Reconstruct' strikes a chord. I recently made a series of silk hangings based on the stone walls that surround me in County Galway (see http://www.esterkiely.blogspot.com/). These simple walls have stood for generations, but they also have a fragility to them. So I'm going back to the drawing board! In the meantime here's one of the photos I took of the stone walls outside my house at sunrise.