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... 

Scrap Busting 9-16

While I attempt to get myself organized after the Festival of Quilts, and try to enjoy what is left of the summer, here are a few more of my scrap busting landscapes. These have all been done with the feed dogs up. Although the photos don't show it acurately they are all the same size of roughly 5 in square.

As well as doing these I am thinking about new projects, taking some online art classes to get the creative juices flowing and preparing for upcoming classes.

Until next time...

Scrap Busting 1-8

A quick post to share with you the first of my scrap busting mini pieces that I introduced in my last post. I am having a lot of fun with these. They are a good warm up exercise before I get down to important stitching. I try and have the next one all planned out and ready to go after each finish. This makes it easier to sit down at the machine the next day and get straight to it. At the moment they are machine stitched but I am hoping to incorporate some hand stitching, at some point, when the time allows. 

All but number 8 were done with the feed dogs down.

Until next time...

Journal Quilts

2014 Journal Quilts

This is my second year of taking part in the Journal Quilt challenge set by the Contemporary Quilt arm of the Quilter's Guild of the British Isles. Last year I played with my Gelli Printing plate and explored abstraction. A closer look can be found here if you are interested :)

I thoroughly enjoyed the process last year, learning a lot. but this year I decided to keep it simpler and have put together some pieces that are more my style I suppose, but are alo in keeping with my plan to use up what I already have available.

Jan, Feb, Mar

This year's requirements were for pieces 6 x 12 inches. Landscape or Portrait format which has to be followed all the way through. I have opted for a landscape theme in a portrait form, if that is not too confusing, but I have cheated as you can see. 

Apr, May, Jun

Some of might think you have seen this before and I did base it on this piece...

...which came about after I took a look at creating backgrounds for landscape quilts all of which can be found in these posts.

Landscape Background Options

Adding Stitch

Finishing Off ideas

Now to start planning for July, August and September! 

Thanks for being here!

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 III

I do like these little landscapes but have to say that as I am posting them I am seeing the faults in them.

That is okay though. As we do we learn and they were fun to make.

I know that some people look at all the straight line stitching in horror but I actually find it theraputic, almost zen like once I get into the rhythm :D

A couple of years ago at Festival of Quilts a woman came up to take a look at this piece and turned to me and said "Don't you get bored doing that?" My answer was "No!"

One more of these to come.

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.

Simple Stylized Landscape I

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you will have already seen some glimpses of this back in the summer. I now have the time to share it here.

Big sky with just a few pieced elements...

 ...and lots and lots of quilting!!
I enjoyed the simplicity of its design and construction. Three more to come so stay tuned!

Stylized Landscapes IV

For the final piece in this series I wanted to have a bit of fun. I decided to have a go at making a larger version of this piece which began life as a workshop sample.

I like playing with strips.

I like lots of close straight line stitching.

Job done! 

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?

Stylized Landscape II

Here is the second of four.

Done in the same manner as the first.

Not sure what else to say other than I did enjoy making this.

Two more to come.