2020 WORKSHOPS

Finally!!! I am ready to tell you about the workshops that I will be running in 2020.

The first one is on the 27th and 28th of March. It will take place in a local village hall situated under 10 minutes away from the wonderful Heritage Coast which I am fortunate enough to call home.

It is called The Wild and Windy Sea and it will be run over two days. The first day will be devoted to fabric painting and the next day will be spent making your own sea inspired piece from the fabric you have created.

While I have taught fabric painting workshops to many groups both at home and abroad, rather than just giving an overview of making fabrics for landscapes, my aim is to be able to spend time looking at different subjects in more detail. In this instance that means focusing on the techniques and designs that depict the movement, depth and colour of the sea and the landscape around it.

If you think that this is something that you might be interested then 

Click Here for more Details

To finish, I want to thank all of you who saw my flyer about these workshops back in August at the Festival of Quilts. I was thrilled and humbled by the response. I know that the details have been a long time coming but what can I say. I had not long booked the dates and couldn't pass up the opportunity of advertising them at the show, even though I had not nailed down the final details. Other commitments and life in general has got in the way of me sitting down and spending the time needed of the computer to tell you all about them but now that it has been done I am enjoying spending time creating samples and really getting my teeth into the topic so stay tuned for some sneak peeks.

If wild and windy is not your thing I have more dates for later in the year covering different themes so stay tuned.

Until Next Time... 

New Workshop!

I am excited to be able to tell you about a new workshop that I will be giving this Autumn. It will take place in Duffryn Gardens which is a National Trust property in the Vale of Glamorgan. The class will be held in the Cory Education Centre which is a suburb purpose built classroom that they have on site. The property is situated on the western outskirts of Cardiff and is very easily reached from the M4 motorway.

It takes place on Saturday 19th October 2019. 

It is a one day class so the course fee includes the hand painted fabric background and fabric needed for some of the leaves, as well as the paints, materials and tools needed for the stamping and stencilling techniques that are used to build up the layers of interest. The fee also includes entry to the house and garden for the day.

This workshop is suitable for those with a reasonable knowledge of quilting and use of the sewing machine. A supply list is provided upon booking for the items that you would need to bring such as backing fabric and wadding.

Booking is done directly through the National Trust website.

NOW FULL!

Indian Inspired

This is a close up detail of a piece that I made in 2010 using a technique explained by Jill Kennedy in an issue of Quilting Arts magazine. It involved the use of wax crayons and paper and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process. It is a piece that I show in my 'Quilt Routes Around the World' talk and it is probably the piece that I get asked the most questions about.

My inspiration for the piece came from these Rajahstani textiles that bought when I travelled to India in the late 1980's. I had the most wonderful experiences during that trip and despite all the travelling that I have done since it remains at the top of my list for the amazing memories it gave me.

In all honestly I didn't think that I would ever make a return visit but I am hugely thrilled to tell you that I will be going back in 2020!

Would you like to come with me??

I was approached by the lovely Jamie Maldon of Colouricious at this years Festival of Quilts to see if I would like to be one of the guest tutors to accompany a group on a Block Printing Holiday to Jaipur, India and of course I jumped at the chance.

Full details of the itinerary and costs are available here with lots of great information about what to expect on this type of holiday on the website.

The trip involves a mixture of workshops and sightseeing.

I will be taking part in the workshops alongside you making sure that everyone is having a good time and the trip is fully guided by the Colouricious representative in India.

If you are at all interested then please have a look at all the information available on the Colouricious website.

Naturally I will be mentioning more about this trip from time to time 😊

Until next time...

July Journal Quilt

I really wasn't sure if I was going to make the deadline for this one.

I have just delivered the pieces that will be on display at The Quilt Association's Summer Exhibition, 'Welsh Connections'.  I had wanted it all to be new work but in the end I had to include some older pieces because after my little accident last year I simply lost the time that I was planning to spend on them. There will be photos eventually!

This JQ has been done on a piece of fabric that I painted with normal acrylic paint a long time ago and if memory serves me correctly I was just using up paint that was left over from something else and I wanted to see how they would feel on fabric. It feels good to finally put it to use.
 

It looks better vertically than the correct horizontal format but I am just pleased that I managed to get it done on time. Now I can get on with my final preparations for Festival of Quilts which is just over a week away.

Until next time...

Small Art Quilts

It feels good to finally tell you all about my new book Small Art Quilts. 

Why small? ...because working small allows you to play and experiment and try out lots of things.

Besides which the techniques that I use and are exactly the same no matter what size I am working on.

Naturally there is a comprehensive section on fabric painting with step by step instructions, followed by descriptions on building the quilt backgrounds, adding focal elements, machine quilting, hand stitching and a lot more. Naturally if you don't wish to paint your fabric you can skip over that section and create from whatever fabrics you choose to use.

I have put everything into this book and it if you have ever wanted to do a workshop with me but couldn't this is the next best thing.

It is a technique based book with only two complete project 'How To's' which come at the end. Having said that a number of the focal element templates are also included should you be inspired to create any of the other quilts yourself using the techniques demonstrated.

Signed copies available HERE.

It can be purchased worldwide from all the usual places including.

Waterstones  Amazon UK  Amazon US  Amazon CA  Amazon AU

As well as a number of European countries.

Until next time...

Stamped Hexagon Block.

After completing a stenciled hexagon block, I was a bit stuck on what to do next because the next block was a picture block using hexagons. Naturally I wanted to do my own version and not copy the one that Amy Gibson had done for this Craftsy Block of the Month class.

That is until I saw this over at Linecat@Large's blog, and then I knew where to go.

I made myself a hexagon shaped stamp and got to work.

I will admit to doing this in a hurry. Other projects were calling me. I didn't really take the time to think it through fully and just dove straight in and as a result there are bleeds and brush marks and if I was going to repeat this I would not use my go to Pebeo Setacolor paint because even in its' undiluted form, it just wasn't thick enough for the best results here. Or maybe in my haste I just hadn't shaken up the bottle properly before hand, because I have used these paints neat lots of times with much better results.

Not to worry. Stitch can hide all sorts of sins!

I think the "basket" is greatly improved by a complete covering in thread...

...but the flowers were still a bit wishy washy, and put yellow over blue and of course you are going to get green.

Time to bring in my favorite tool for enhancing and improving (i.e. covering up mistakes) my Derwent Inktense pencils.

(I have to say, insert whisper, I am so glad to see the back of this one!)

**This is part of my own personal challenge to create and learn a bit more about traditional quilt blocks while adding my own twist, as described here. I am following the free Block of the Month classes on Craftsy as my guide..

Simple Stylized Landscape IV

Here is the last of these mini landscapes, looking a bit wonky!

Seen from this angle you can see that it is not so bad :D

When cropped it looks even better!

...and a close up of the detail.

Here is a neat and tidy mosaic of all four pieces.

...and this is how they actually look.

Simple Stylized Landscape II

Here is another mini landscape using a piece of sunset fabric.

Lots of straight line stitching/quilting.

I used a piece of synthetic fabric for contrast although it is difficult to see in the photo.

Stylized Landcapes III

Number III in this series is slightly different form the first two in that I did have a particular scene in mind as I put it together.

It is based on the view from my house across the bay but the a bit of artistic license involved.

The omittance of any buildings is a bit of a nod to my day dreaming as I look out of my kitchen window. I know that I am extremely fortunate to enjoy the views that I have but I often wish I could see how this bit of coast looked before man began to infringe upon it.

Are there any views that effect you in that way?

Art Quilting Landscapes

I am spending the week trying to get organised, in reality, and in my head :)

Meanwhile I have felt compelled to make another mini version of my Tuscan Hillside pattern. Not quite finished yet.

I am thrilled and overwhelmed with how many have purchased this pattern. If you are here because of that welcome and thank you.

In true Blue Peter fashion (U.K. readers only will understand this reference ). Here is a mini one I made earlier!