I know that I should have spent the day at the computer today but I couln't resist some sketchbook work.

Using this picture, which we took on our recent visit to Seville I have taken small fragments and made some quick sketches of them.

I am hoping to get some more time tonight to finish the page. It is nice just to sketch without a finished item in mind and just wander around the page adding snippets that I fancy.

I am also working on a page for pictures of my students work. That should be live soon.

Hope you have a look 

Bev

Old Sketchbooks

One good thing that is coming out of having to pack up my studios, is that I am revisiting my old work and sketchbooks. We are constantly moving forward with our work so it is lovely to take the time to revisit and re evaluate. 

 I thought I would share some of the pages with you

These are from my Feathers and Wings sketchbook and the next are from a City & Guilds topic of Social and Economic themes

I should never be stuck for themes to work from but I do like making new sketchbooks.

Happy Sketching

Bev

Packing Up??

I know I am meant to be packing my studios away in preparation for the building work but I couldn't resist having a bit of a play.

We have been away for a week in France, and so visiting the Festival of Quilts yesterday gave me itchy fingers. I bought a gelli plate and couldn't resist getting it dirty. My mono printing needs practice I think less is more in this case.

Colouricious printing blocks and gelli plate

 

I love this block 

And I like the more indistinct images here.

 I couldn't resist making some more pages for the Spiral Sketchbook

And finally a couple of pictures of some visitors  to our Gite last week

 A Hoopoe 

And a hedgehog

Now back to the packing

Bev

Spirals

The Sketchbook was empty yesterday but now has a few pages in progress. 

I have chosen Spirals as the theme and I am very pleased with it. I just wish that I had more time to spare at the moment. Although grabbing a few moments here and there can take my work off in unexpected directions. 

Between packing everything away in preparation for the building work which will be happening soon ( I hope ) and my teaching there is a little space for random creativity. 

A cut spiral stitched onto a painted background 

Another spiral cut out 

Spirals in pen, paint and metallic rub

And two wax rubings of the stitched spiral

Spirals - Here I come

Bev

The Empty Sketchbook

Yesterday was the summer lunch at the Calico textile group. Biddy, the group leader, gave us all a summer challenge in the form of a small sketchbook.

I have removed some of the pages in preparation for painting, printing, sketching, not sure what yet. Can you guess that my hardest decision is, what is going to be the theme. Do I go for something new or do I revisit an old theme that I haven't fully explored. Decisions, decisions.

The first thing I will do though is get some colour on those blank pages. But that will have to be tonight as a exciting day of teaching comes first. 

Bev

A Doodle Day

Sometimes you just need a doodle day and today was mine.

 I started by playing with patterns on paper

And finished with a doodle block

The trouble with this is that more ideas keep flowing and I need more doodle days than I have time for. 

If you fancy having a go at machine embroidery doodling I am running a work shop on June 3rd at Rutland Sewing Centre, near Oakham. Please contact the shop to book a place. 

Bev 

Blue John Blocks #4

Happy New Year to you all and wish you all a creative 2014

Now that all the Blue John blocks have arrived at their destinations round the world I feel that I can continue to share the development of this special block design.

 I wanted to make a quilt which would go across the bottom of a double bed  as foot warmer. Out of the blocks I had started to explore from the photograph 

 I liked the 7 Piece block pattern the best. I also decided that I wanted each of the 7 pieces of the block to be of different tonal values.

I also thought  that each block should be different so that it would have the appearance of a tile floor.

However making a whole quilt in this way did not give me enough contrast in movement across the quilt.

So I decided to add in stripes and squares to the design, this added more interest to the design.

Having the squares and stripes cut out  of coloured papers allowed me to play around with the composition of the quilt, until I found a design that I was happy with.  

This pattern was too much like a tiled floor and I opted for a more asymmetrical design.

Once the design choice was finalised, and the fabric dyed, I then had to think about the quilting pattern.

Bev

Blue John Blocks #3

Development of the 7 piece block 

Having explored the 6 piece block I then turned to the 7 Piece block. As I said in the earlier posts I was thinking of marble floors and tile patterns.

Taking the tracing of the picture and simplifying the block and adding in tonal values gave some striking block designs. 

As each block has 4 sides different larger blocks can be created.
I haven't mirrored the image yet and have only used 2 or three different tonal values. 

Putting two of the larger blocks together, it is starting to look like tiles.

I really like this block but it didn't work in this form for the quilt so back to the drawing board.

Bev

Blue John Block #2

Colour choices and dyeing

Going back to my source picture I cut out small squares of different colours which I then tried to reproduce using water colours. This was the preparation for dyeing fabrics for the Blue John quilt.

Using tray dyeing and procion dyes from Art Van Go on polycotton  I created some wonderfully textured fabrics.

This is the grey, blue and purple palette, and the warmer yellow, orange and browns

I had in mind  terrazzo floor tiles and marble for this quilt so didn't want uniform colours

More design ideas using the 6 piece block. Not quite what I am looking for yet.

Bev

  

Blue John Blocks #1.

Whilst I was away on holiday a friend started an International Block Swap group. I have been lucky to be involved with this project and so I gave myself the week off the computer last week, to concentrate on a block I  developed during my City & Guilds. When studying for something like a City & Guilds you end up with masses of design work which never seems to be developed. I decided to go back and revisit some of my work which I will now share with you, over the next few posts.

My starting point was a favourite cave photo.

I love the colours and textures as well as the strong lines in this picture. To create the block I traced then picture and then isolated some areas with interesting lines. The three squares on the tracing.

I then simplified the shapes and looked at tonal values for each area.

Already I can see blocks appearing.

These are some blocks made with the 6 piece block pattern 

Hope you enjoy the start of this project

Bev