I’m working on another quilt inspired by Elliot Bay, the place that I live.
Think of camping in Summer; long evenings stretching into clear nights, with a campfire flickering, companionship and camaraderie, pōhutukawa trees silhouetted against the skyline and looming shadowy around the tents, but lit from underneath by the flames. You can see my inspiration photos and my concept sketch in my sketchbook above.
Below I’ve shown you the progression of my work. From my the roughly pinned up background and ideas of trees to use, through to the ‘ready for quilting’ top. Once it’s quilted, I’ll add stars for the milky way and sparks from the fire with hand stitching.
As you can see, I don’t stick fastidiously to my concept sketch. The piece needs room to grown and mature as I work. I had no intention of putting the trees in the foreground, but it seemed to need something, and after auditioning extra trees, and playing with the colours, I went with it.
Then the sky. You’ll notice a dramatic change from an improv pieced background to a one piece, brighter sky. Well, the improv is still under there, it’s just under a layer of hand-dyed silk organza over the top.
I was experimenting with how to get a sense of the milky way. A wise woman once said to me – make visual decisions visually – so I started putting up options. And when my husband said, “wow!” when this option went up, I thought that was as good an endorsement as any!
I need to put this aside for a little while to concentrate on a few other things, but I’ll keep you posted when it gets pulled out again. You never know, once it’s ‘marinated’ for a little while, my fresh eyes may see something that needs altering or adding. A little procrastination can be very good for a piece of art!
Once upon a time, in a farmhouse not far from here, I made a dragon quilt for my little boy. He loved it!
It had been a learning experience for me, I had attempted quilt-as-you-go, but made-it-up-as-I-went, I wouldn’t recommend that…But at least I had raw edge fusible applique down pat by then (about six years into my quilting journey) and I decided to turn the dragon panel into a pattern so others could make their own dragon. I put it on Etsy, and it’s been selling steadily ever since.
I confess to a love of fantasy fiction and so I’ve made other patterns too. Give me a good escapist novel with fairies and dragons and magic any day! Now I have a unicorn, a sword, two dragons, and I’m just about to publish a pegasus.
If you are interested in making your own dragon (kids love them!) then you can head over to Etsy to get your hands on a pattern. They are PDF download patterns so when you purchase them, you can instantly print them and get sewing. No waiting anxiously on the mail.
Dastardly DragonSinister SerpentUnique UnicornThe Knight’s SwordAnd the upcoming Proud Pegasus
I’ve completed 100 days projects before. 100 days of Faces, 100 days of Scissors, and 100 days of Surface Design. That last one wasn’t so successful – I learnt well that I need to keep things simple to be able to do it everyday.
Wait, let’s take a step back to what a 100 day project actually is. It’s simply doing one creative thing every day for 100 days. In the purest sense, you would repeat the same thing – such as complete a small painting, take a photograph, draw a portrait, write a poem etc, but there aren’t any real rules.
SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates), whom I’m a member of, run a 100 day project regularly and I thought I’d join in this year. It’s fun to do projects in a group; motivation, accountability, inspiration all come with the camaraderie. I initially thought I’d use the project to reignite my flagging sketchbook habit, but finally I came up with 100 Days of Elliot Bay. I would complete a small textile art work every 10 days using Elliot Bay (where I live) as inspiration. So there would be a sketchbook element to it as well as ending up with some finished works, which I need for various shows and exhibitions coming up.
So here is my first completed piece:
Moods of Elliot Bay 1 34cm x 56cm
I began this piece by looking at recent photos. The summer weather here has not been great. We have had long stretches of easterly winds and more rain than the farmer has ever seen for this time of year. Not so great for our campground, but giving me some extra inside time to stitch (if I’m forced to look for silver linings…)
The photo I chose was one of Elliot Bay from a distance. My husband and I went for an evening walk to blow out some cobwebs. Watching the storm swell roll in was impressive and quite cathartic.
I began by making a sketch and choosing a colour palette. I chose the last photograph above for my inspiration, loving the tree silhouettes in front of the seaspray fog, and the general moodiness of it all. It matched my own moodiness caused by the lack of summer sun!
I used my hand-dyed fabrics to free-hand cut the shapes of the hills and place them over a background of my hand-dyed silk. Once I had these fused and stitched in place, I used an old trick of mine to audition where to add trees and quilting lines. I took a photo of the composition, printed it out, placed it in a page protector and used an erasable marker to play.
Once I had a fair idea of how I wanted to proceed, I used my BERNINA Q20 to free-motion quilt the wind lines and the trees in. Having the 100 days project as a prod helped me not set it aside when it got to that ho-hum stage. EVERY piece always has a blah stage, a stage where you look at it and your mouth turns down at the corners, but if you push through it usually gets a whole heap better. This time it was when I had stitched a few trees and some of the texture lines on the foreground hills and I was thinking it was really mediocre. Thankfully I felt a whole lot better about it once I built up more layers of thread and detail.
Lastly, I stencilled on the birds. Birds feature so much in my work I was hesitant to add these in, thinking I was over doing it. But I’m very happy with the movement they add, the way they balance the weight of the texture on the hills and trees, and the way they lead your eye into the lighter spray fog area.
So there you have it. The first 10 days of 100 days of Elliot Bay done, and Moods of Elliot Bay 1 complete. I’m hoping it gives you stormy, windy, moody vibes. This place I live never does weather by halves.
If you wish to purchase this original textile art piece, please email me via the address on my contact page. $210NZD plus postage.
Well, good intentions and all that. I won’t waste time on justifying why I haven’t posted for a while, you get it, we’re all busy people.
But life is starting to feel a bit more relaxed around here and I’m getting to spend more time stitching rather than renovating and sorting out campground things. Just in the last two weeks I’ve finished three quilts, and am well on the way to finishing another couple.
‘Old Man Rimu’ 60cm x 75cm
‘Old Man Rimu’ is a class sample for the class I’m teaching at The Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Rotorua next May. I am making different types of trees to hopefully appeal to different people. If you scroll back through my blog, you’ll see my pōhutukawa tree sample I made first. The tree foliage is made out of hand-dyed silk organza and the triangles are also hand-dyed, either with new fabric or upcycled textiles. I went all out on the free motion quilting on this one, just for fun. You might be able to see it better on the back.
I’ve also finished this next smaller quilt and I’m really excited by it! For several reasons. Firstly it began with just playing around. I don’t do a lot of that – I feel I always need a plan, or a sketch, or the intention to end with a finished, highly polished, quilt. And that can be quite restricting. I guess it’s a bit of perfectionism, and being too worried about what the final outcome will be. You learn so much by just experimenting and being willing to change your mind. So to start playing with no firm plan felt very liberating and like I was getting in touch with my intuition. Secondly (and maybe because of the first reason) it’s a looser style, which I really like, and I feel it has more of a ‘textile’ feel to it, with different fabric weaves, raw edges, and hand stitching. Thirdly, I took a risk with the quilting on the wings, and I think it really paid off. Why should wings be quilted with feather-like patterns? Why shouldn’t I relate it to the foliage in the background? Why shouldn’t I reference the birds natural habitat on it’s body?
My artist statement for this piece is: This began as a fabric ‘sketch’ to play with scraps and colour and texture. As it evolved, it began to encapsulate my thoughts around how fleeting the little joys of life are. Just as fleeting as a birds flight or the last colours of an evening sky. Catch hold and savour those little moments.
‘Fleeting’ is for sale for $160NZD plus postage.
‘Fleeting’ 26cm x 49cm
The next quilt is an off-shoot (see what I did there…) of ‘Old Man Rimu’. The deep orange/pink background is the piece of fabric I cut the trunk out of for Old Man Rimu. I was careful, so I could get a two-for-one applique. But I didn’t want distinctly rimu type foliage, all droopy thick needles, so my silk organza foliage is a little more ‘generic’ tree looking. I stencilled the birds on with fabric paint for a crisp outline as they are very small. I like how this quilt is simple, and pays simple homage to the majesty of trees. This quilt is for sale for $NZD125 plus postage, please use my email on my contact page if you are interested.
‘Tree’ 24.5cm x 42cm
I find finishing a quilt that I’m very pleased with is immensely stimulating to my creative brain. I immediately want to get making again. After I finished Fleeting, I dove right in and began another, deliberately looser, collage style quilt. It’s not quilted yet, but I’m feeling very pleased with it too, and already I have a design idea for my next one. I’m holding off on starting anything though until I’ve finished a couple of other things on my plate, or I’ll be overwhelmed under a pile of half-done work!!
This quilt will be about 40cm x 80cm when it’s done. Once I laid the background down I could see it as a gap between trees with the light coming through. We have a bird here in New Zealand, the tūī, who flys very fast and aggressively, zipping between trees like a fighter pilot. I hope I caught a little sense of that with this composition.
One of the quilts I need to finish is this Sinister Serpent. It’s a pattern I designed and I’ve had tested, I just need to pull finger and get it released. This is my second sample and I love the quilting I’ve done in the centre. Maybe that’s why I’m procrastinating. Because I don’t want to ‘wreck’ it. How many times have I told students that it’s just fabric, have confidence and go for it! I need to follow my own advice.
And my last photo (that’ll be seven) is a corner of a HUGE quilt that I need to put binding on. I made this quilt back in about 2014 (!) from favourite fabrics and then it sat, and sat, and sat. I recently asked my lovely friend with a long-arm to quilt it for me and she did a steller job. I had tears in my eyes when I unrolled it! Her designs complement it perfectly and I have a lovely striped fabric binding all cut and ready to sew on.
I hope you have a wonderful Sunday, wherever you are and whatever you are doing.
So, here I am, blogging for two weeks in a row. Go me!
What seven things did I do this past week?
Number One:
Last week I fed my calves more than 50 litres of milk. This week I’ve been given the care of another calf, which makes four fluffy babies I need to feed twice a day. The new baby is probably about 3 weeks old and got left behind in a paddock shift (playing hide and seek.) When she got back to the herd, her Mama didn’t want her, so now she’s with me and named Happy Meal. So this week, I’ve fed my calves over 70 litres and they are getting so strong and demanding! It’s like being mobbed by cute, fluffy vampires every time I walk into the pen.
Number Two:
Got to visit a quilt show!! It’s still a great feeling getting to go to quilt shows, I really didn’t like it when everything was being cancelled because of the pandemic. The Whangarei Patchworkers and Quilters Club held their biennial show over the weekend and I made the hour’s drive south to go see quilts. And talk to lots and lots of people! I reckon I probably spent more time catching up with old friends than looking at quilts, and that was just as good a feeling as viewing beautiful textile art. Below is one of my favourite quilts from the show. It’s called Blue in the Face and was made by Donna Rowan and quilted by Kerinda Robb.
Blue in the Face by Donna Rowan, quilted by Kerinda Robb
Number Three:
Last week I washed metres and metres of white fabric in preparation for dyeing weather. This week I finished measuring it all out and ripping it into manageable pieces. And then I’ve had to sit there and look at it and haven’t managed to do any dyeing yet….(sad face.)
Number Four:
Made a quilt block. This is a 14″ Bears Paw or Hand of Friendship block and I made it to take to the Wellington Quilt Symposium to enter into their block competition. One block gets you one entry into winning a set of blocks to make your own Bears Paw quilt. Love the idea, love a scrappy Bears Paw, love supporting the fun times at Symposium, and love the idea if I don’t win, someone will get a little piece of me in their quilt. So it was a win, win, win for me!
Number Five:
Continuing with the Symposium theme, I’m finalising preparations for attending. I’m teaching two half-day classes and one full day class on the BERNINA Q16 sit down long arm machines. I need to make demonstration quilt sandwiches, finish my handouts, work on a few new FMQ patterns to add my portfolio, and check and double check that I have everything I need to make my classes an awesome, memorable time for my students. And then I’m also going to be a student in two classes so I need to put together all my supplies for those too. I’m getting excited!!
Number Six:
Walked on my beach again. The photo shows how it often is, totally deserted. It’s raining tonight as I write this so I’m enjoying looking at the sunny late afternoon photo memory.
Number Seven:
Lugged around furniture. We’re getting to that point in our renovations of the accommodation units. I hate lugging around furniture, but I love the fact that we are at that point! No photos of my banged up shins…..
That’s it folks. I hope you had a wonderful week, wherever you are and whatever you’ve been doing. I’ll be back next week with another Sunday Seven.
