Dreaming Spirals

Here is a photo of the finished ‘rust’ quilt (I’ve not decided on a proper title yet). In the end, I hand-couched gold-covered copper wire 1.2mm wide around the edges at the back. I only know what it was because I ran out half way through and sent a sample to Wires.co.uk for some more - they were brilliant and sent it to me within 3 days.

Here is what it looks like on the back - I used orange thread in the bobbin for quilting so I couched the wire on with orange thread too, with a strand of strong black thread to keep it from breaking.

And a detail:

Thank you, everyone, for your suggestions and comments about how to make it 3D. I considered them all but decided in the end that couching wire down would add to the decorativeness (if there is such a word!) of the back.

I also quilted this quilt which Barnabas and Zachary helped me make from miniscule scraps of fabric about a year ago.

Here is a detail:

As you can see, I have gone for quite vigorous quilting lines! What do you think?

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I don’t know where the time is going to these days. I’ve had sinusitis for a few days and feel a bit under the weather and I’ve somehow got out of the habit of posting daily to this blog. Does it make any difference? I know I don’t read blogs every day as I used to - there are so many I can’t keep up! Every few days is much better. I’m halfway through wiring up my rust piece - I’ll post a photo as soon as I’ve done it. I finished off more postcards on Monday while our central heating system was being repaired.

I did a 3-ATC swap with Sara Lechner who is a wonderful Austrian textile artist. I met her through the internet several years ago when I was just beginning on my City & Guilds course and have admired her work for years. I love her figures! Here are the three she sent me - I love them. They are very recognisably Sara’s work. I feel privileged to own them.

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Salad time!

Wimbledon time is coming!

And pea and mint soup:

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This is Hereford Cathedral, packaged up like a parcel! It has the Mappa Mundi , a famous medieval map of the world, not that I’ve ever gone in and seen it!

For me, Hereford is famous because Elinor M Brent-Dyer, author of the Chalet School books, lived here for a long time and actually ran a school. This next picture is The Green Dragon hotel, where she used to go for coffee after church across the road, and I’ve stayed here for Chalet School conferences a couple of times! Very nice.

Besides passing these places, I did the shops most thoroughly. I found a nice paper/art shop where I bought these acrylic inks after a friend mentioned them:

I couldn’t resist trying them out when I got home! This little picture is actually about the size of an ATC or business card - I bought a pack of them in the same shop!

I also did this picture in my sketchbook! Just messing about and playing, you understand!

I went to Doughty’s and bought some pfd fabric and calico and a couple of remnants. I also went to Past Times where they had a sale on, and got this nifty little compact mirror.

Not for powdering my nose, you understand. I thought it would be handy for making repeating designs! Like a kaleidoscope.

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I went to Hereford for the day today - will post some photos tomorrow as they are still in the camera which involves an extra step in the blogging process! In the meantime, here are some photos of flowers in my garden which I took on Saturday.

Blue and Purple:

Red and Purple:

White and Purple:

Just Purple:

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I finished my silk clapotis last night! It is wonderful and the drape is beautiful. Here I am in it.

Here it is draped over a chair:

The ‘ripples’ on the reverse show up even better in silk:

I only just had enough yarn. I thought four 4oz skeins would be plenty, but this is all I had left:

Thank you for all your suggestions about what to do with my rust hanging. If anyone reads this and has any ideas, more are still welcome! I will post a photo when I have finally decided on a solution.

I don’t know if it is just me, but if I am watching tv or listening to something on the radio while I am working on something, it becomes forever associated with that thing. For instance, this clapotis will in future make me think of Springwatch and all the gorgeous fledglings I was watching for the 3 weeks it was on, while I was knitting it. When I was sewing this orange and green quilt, I was listening to an interview with a woman who was cared for by wolves as a child during the Second World War and now whenever I see it, it reminds me of it. Does anyone else find this?

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Where has the time gone? I can’t believe it is 4 days since I last posted. How easily I get out of the habit! I had the first stage of root canal treatment on my tooth last Friday and since then have had various aches and pains in my mouth - I thought I was getting a throat infection earlier in the week so I was taking it easy. Gargling with salt and dosing myself with plenty of vitamins and herb teas. It seems to be easing off, thankfully. 2 more weeks till the next stage of the treatment. I often find that if I have antibiotics, I get some sort of infection after I finish them, as if all the bad bacteria are rushing to take over again and my body can’t quite fight them off quickly enough…. Must be a quilt in that image…

Anyway, dear readers, I would like your advice. A few months ago I made this quilt with some of my rusted fabric:

I think it looks a bit boring like that and a bit strange (mainly due to the shape it turned out by the time I had finished quilting) and I would like to make it more like this:

Of course, it is on the floor at the moment so it looks a bit strange anyway, but I thought of either wiring it somehow or attaching it to some background, either fabric or board or something. I’ve never done anything like this, and of course I didn’t start from the beginning and incorporate it into the design so anything I do will have to be added on to either the front or the back and therefore will affect the way it looks now. Any suggestions will be considered gratefully! It is quite thick, by the way, because the grey fabric is a sort of thick upholstery (I think) fabric with a bit of a pile and it has various layers on top of that, and it is quite heavily quilted.

Here is a detail of it:

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It’s too hot to blog today really but I must, I must!! And Zachary is practising his violin in the background and the other two are fighting so I wish I could just run away and hide with my fingers over my ears but I will press on in the interests of technology… or something!

Gill of An Elegant Sufficiency posted a gorgeous picture she took on holiday in Italy of a tiny fern growing in a wall

Here are the other two pieces I painted following the Personal Symbols lesson 5:

This is the collage piece which I overpainted with white zigzags.

Here’s the finished article. I outlined the zigzags in black and painted doodles inside them with silver paint. I then outlined some of them with the same 3d paint as I used on the other piece. I also highlighted some of the shapes in the background with it. I think I like it this way up best - what do you think?

Here is a detail.

Here is the other piece as it was when I posted the picture a week or so ago.

Here it is with coloured teardrops instead of white.

Teardrops outlined in black.

After this I again did doodles in the teardrops with the silver paint and dots in the background but I decided that I didn’t like the background colour, so I overpainted it with very dilute yellow fabric paint. Interestingly, it hasn’t affected the colours of the teardrops much, which is just as well because they probably would have ended up brown!

Here is the result of that little experiment. I like it much better. The colour is deeper than shown here, too.

Here is a detail of the above fabric.

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