This quilt is really still nameless as I haven’t come up with a suitable name yet. Creating the quilt top was part of Module 1 studying colour. In Module 2 (on line) I had to quilt it. The quilt design is inspired by the pumpkin itself - the outline of the fruit and the inner seed hollow and the seeds themselves of course. It is all free motion quilting except the green outline quilting, which was done using the walking foot. I’m still having trouble getting even sized stitches with my free motion quilting but as the old adage goes - practice makes perfect. I might get there one day. My new quilting table certainly put a stop to the problems with the quilt getting caught on the edge of the extension table. Though it was never such a problem with small pieces like this one. It’s roughly 17 X 12 inches.

On the last day of 2007 I discovered this: The Miniature Earth I should have picked it up a few weeks ago but it got past me. I’m not very diligent about reading all my emails - especially those that come regularly. Perhaps it’s appropriate that I found it today. Food for thought to start us on the way in the new year.

There has not been much sewing yet in the activities, but there was some curved piecing. I thought the piece turned out quite interesting despite being a very simple exercise. The fabric is some of the bedding offcuts that I bought on ebay. It’s turned out to have been a useful investment.

I also had to do some simple linear quilting. We had to choose one of our monoprints to quilt with straight lines. I didn’t have much choice as most of my monoprints were more suited to free motion quilting. So I chose to quilt the noughts and crosses:

Having a few days off after Christmas gave me some time to get on with the activities exploring line. I’m putting up a selection here of the most interesting results.
These first two were made using soft pastels and masking tape or torn paper as a template. It was a nice messy exercise which involved finger painting - brought out the child in me

This third piece is a combination of acrylic paint, pastels, permanent pens and a colour wash of acrylic paint over the top of all that. I decided there was too much colour wash and blotted some of the paint off with paper ktichen towel, which left some interesting impressions in the paint. The template was cut from paper.

My latest activity has been to make a quilt top using bias strip appliqué. The design was to be based on an image of lines. I had been collecting images of lines in a previous activity. Just as I was wondering which image to use as the basis for my design, the front cover of the latest issue of New Scientist caught my eye.

The left hand image was on the cover. The right hand image was in the article. They were obviously predestined to be my source of inspiration for another quilt in my face series. Not in the least bit like the first three, but faces none the less.

This is the quilt top. The background fabric is a piece from my earlier dyeing using complementary colours. The spidery effect reminded me of neurones! I just have to come up with a decent idea for the quilting now.

Well as promised here are some of the results of my printing at the weekend. First 2 pages from my sketchbook with acrylic paint printing. These are the results after I worked out the correct amount of paint to use.

And then the results with dye paste printed on fabric. The leaves were real ones from the garden placed on the fabric and printed over.

You get some interesting effects with the blue dye moving through the fabric faster than the yellow in the green. The reverse was sometimes more pleasing on the eye than the “right” side.

And finally I printed over some previously dyed mustard yellow fabric. The design was inspired by the wallpaper in our lounge and japanese calligraphy. It got more like the calligraphy as I went along

I’ve started the second module of my C&G course now. Last weekend I was taking pictures of lines. It’s amazing how many lines there are around about when you start looking for them. I took all my photos in the house and in the garden. No need to go further afield.

This weekend I’ve been monoprinting. I started off with acrylic paint in my new sketchbook and then moved on to printing on cloth. I must admit I couldn’t believe that it would work with thickened dye on fabric soaked in washing soda solution and then dried. I didn’t think that there would be enough moisture and chemicals to get a reaction going with the dye. Even though I’ve read about it in Ann Johnston’s books and in the course notes. As it was an activity for the course I was obliged to try it out. And surprise, surprise it worked

Here are some photos of the printing on fabric. First of all you roller thickened dye paste onto a sheet of acetate and then you make marks:

Then you flip the acetate sheet onto the fabric and give it a going over with another clean roller to press the dye into the fabric. If you have too much dye on the acetate sheet at this point you end up splodging your marks. Ask how i know P.S. I was winning at Tic Tac Toe (or Noughts and Crosses).

Repeat as many times as you have dye paste and prepared fabric.

The results are in various stages of finishing - the bucket process etc. Watch this space for photos of the results. My scepticism has been proven wrong.

P.P.S. Note the vintage ICI lab coat - from my industrial year 1976-1977 - a well travelled fashion item.