CUSHIONS

Hand-stitched hexagons

Machine-stitched 'pointless' patchwork

I made this cushions for a fund-raising sale and they were quickly sold.  The large multi-coloured quilt (see August post) fetched £200 in a sealed bid auction.  

INSPIRED BY BUILDINGS

Three pieces of work using some or all of appliqué, painted and dyed fabric, printing, metal (including aluminium drinks cans), hand and machine stitching.

'Window at Missenden Abbey' 

I did a course at Missenden some years ago and took a photo through an open window.

'Park Hill flats, Sheffield' 

One of my sons lives in Sheffield and this is now hanging on his wall.

'The Roofs of Llandrindod Wells' 

Inspired by a postcard bought in the Metropole Hotel, 

Llandrindod Wells.

CATCHING UP WITH PATCHWORK

In an effort to make more storage space I have spent the last few weeks finishing three projects.  About seven years ago, I did a 'Come and Cut Again' workshop with Edwina Mackinnon at the Bramble Patch in Weedon Bec and, finally, here is the finished work which will be (yet another) cushion:

The next piece was started four or five years ago when I was shown how to make a very easy patchwork block - pointless patchwork - and I've just completed a huge quilt using odd bits of fabric.  There is almost no hand-stitching and a minimal amount of quilting.  It's now residing on my bed but is going to be sold/auctioned to raise money for  charity.

  

Finally I've made a quilted table cover in traditional hexagons.  It was originally supposed to be a bed quilt but I lost heart.  I was given the patterned fabric and some made-up motifs by a friend who had started sewing it some years ago.  Everything is hand-stitched except the bound edges.

LAND AND SEA

Some recent and not so recent work, mainly machine-stitched:

A VIEW FROM THE BALCONY

The view from a previous home overlooking a small river.  The bridge joined the car park to a small wooded area which eventually was left to become very overgrown.  

NIGHTSCAPE  

Hand-dyed and black fabric, couched threads.
Based on a photo taken of the sunset in Scandinavia.

I SAW THREE SHIPS

Strips from bundles of sari silk, with appliquéd ships.

Based on a painting bought by a friend.

MAKING WAVES I AND II

with seagulls over the sea    

                                                                                                                                                                                       with flocks of birds in the sunset
           
              

CROCHETING ADVENTURES

I learned to crochet many years after starting to knit.  Another aunt - sister of the two knitters - lived some way away so I didn't see her very often.  I inherited two of her fantastic tablecloths.  This is a corner of one of them:

My crocheting started with baby clothes and blankets and progressed to adult garments.  I saved up all sorts of leftovers of yarn, bought some in charity shops and even used some new stuff to make these two jackets.  

The pattern came from 'The Crochet Sweater Book' by Sylvia Cosh published in 1987.  I bought the book some years later, but it took several more years to collect all the yarn and I finished the first one in about 2003.  When I came to do the blue one, I realised that I had misread the pattern first time around, so the colours of the diamonds are in a different format.  I still wear them and have been stopped in the street by admirers.

I'm still crocheting things like small brooches and these two mathematical objects:

A stellated dodecahedron (diameter of ahout 13cm)

An attempt at a symmetric hyperbolic plane - about 15cm in diameter - see a fascinating book by Daina Taimina - 'Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes'  The book won a prize in 2010 - the oddest book title of the year (it beat Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich). 

JEWELLERY

Over the last few years I've had various attempts at making jewellery.  In his forties, my father gave up the family business (a fruit stall in Petticoat Lane) and made his living by making cheap costume jewellery.  I eventually overcame my dislike of jewellery although have never had my ears pierced and, many years later, I'm surprised to find myself dabbling in jewellery-making.

SILVER BROOCHES & PENDANTS

I made these two brooches and two pendants at a class at the Midland Arts Centre (MAC).  The pendant in the bottom right is made from twisted wire (my father did a lot of that when he made wires for pierced ears) and offcuts from the circular pendant.  The 'chain' of the circular pendant is crocheted silver embroidery thread.   

KNITTED WIRE & BEADS

EMBROIDERED & BEADED BROOCHES

I like to use loads of bead with fabrics, including handmade felt.  The top left brooch was made at an Embroiderers' Guild away weekend at Westhope College in Shropshire and the bottom right one at Jacqui Lawrence's class at MAC.

WOVEN BEADING

Two woven bead 'purse necklaces' and a beaded necklace using handmade

silver beads and bought seed and larger beads,

 METALWORK

Two pendants made of annealed aluminium from drinks cans, patterned by denting with a pencil and machined-stitched onto black felt.  I made these at another Birmingham Embroiderers' Guild weekend at Westhope College.  In the top right-hand corner is an enamelled metal brooch made at a workshop at the RBSA in Birmingham  

KNITTING HISTORY

I first learned to knit at primary school at the age of six or seven.  The whole class was taught and we made a square which was to be a pot-holder.  The yarn resembled soft string and mine was a dull pea-green.  The teacher took them all home - there were well over 40 in the class - to sew in the ends but she also tested them for heat resistance and found that they needed to be sewn together in pairs to be thick enough, so only half the class got to take one home.  The teacher held each pot-holder behind her back and one of the pair chose a hand - I was unlucky but it didn't deter me from knitting.  Encouraged by my two aunts, I haven't really stopped since then.  At the age of eight or nine I knitted myself an off-white short-sleeved jumper (it had started off being white).  This is me knitting in the garden aged about 11:

My aunts were pretty hard-up but loved knitting.  They used to knit two colours together and make themselves jackets which they sewed up with sewing thread so that they could be easily unpicked.  Then they would recombine the colours and start again.  A third aunt crocheted (more about crochet to come).

Recently I've been knitting small jackets and hats for premature babies in the local hospital and, for a really worthwhile cause, vests for 'Fish and Chip Babies' - see

www.snvb.org.uk/Documents/Fish_and_Chip_Baby_pattern.pdf

Apart from clothing (and fish-hats), I've knitted all sorts.  The pictures below are the two sides of a cushion from the book 'Cushy Numbers', written by two mathematicians - see

http://www.woollythoughts.com/public.html

I've also made another cushion from their book '12 Pillows of Wisdom' for one of my granddaughters when she did GCSE Maths.   It was called 'The Other Two Sides' and is a really good demonstration of Pythagoras's theorem.

MOVING HOUSE

After 30 years in the same house in outer London, I downsized and moved to the Midlands.  Moving from a house to a flat meant disposing of a lot of furniture and deciding what not to throw or give away.  Apart from necessities I decided to keep all my sewing stuff, yarn and my long-neglected recorders.  I soon found recorder players and am now involved in several informal groups and HERO - the Heart of England Recorder Orchestra - and the local village band.

I found the Midland Arts Centre brochure which offered an embroidery course so decided to join.  It was scary at first.  The class were working on 'Trees', each member creating her own interpretation, and I was given pictures of trees, paper, scissors and paints and told to design something.  I wasn't sure that I would go back the next week but did for several years and learned almost everything I know now, including that I was creative.

This is the final result of that first attempt, which I made into a cushion.  The background is made of bits of old sheets and the trees are painted calico and old net curtaining.

Many of the others in the class were members of the Embroiderers' Guild which I thought sounded very important but I was persuaded to join.  The Birmingham branch is a thriving and go-ahead group, meeting monthly with a speaker or hands-on session, drop-in sessions at the new Birmingham Library, Saturday workshops and other activities.

MORE KNITTING NEWS

More ways to use up bits and pieces:

This jacket is my second attempt at Elizabeth Zimmerman's 'surprise jacket' using leftover double knitting yarn.  It is knitted in one piece and there is almost no sewing up.  My first attempt was rather too large but great in the winter over lots of layers.  There's a baby version too in her book 'The Opinionated Knitter'.  I've passed the pattern on to several people and have seen two lovely completed jackets.  My collection of bits and pieces is growing again and I can feel another jacket beckoning, perhaps in time for next winter.

Then I came across a pattern for fish hats and these are the first two I knitted for my youngest grandchildren.  Another great way to use up bits and pieces.  I've lost count of how many I've made.  

JAPANESE TRIPS

I've been lucky enough to visit Kyoto twice in the last five years on textile trips organised by Nancy at Kyoto Kimono (www.kyotokimono.com).  Apart from fantastic sights to see, practical workshops, shopping at a great exchange rates, particularly in 2014 for my friend Marion and me - the only English people on both trips - we visited markets to buy fabric, kimonos, obis and souvenirs as well as being inspired to sew more.  The 100 yen stores (actually 108 yen including tax) worked out at about 70p an item last year and because we paid for our trip, not including flights, in dollars we did well then too.  The weather was generally excellent (in October) and the food is a matter of taste.

We found a stall in one of the markets which sold second-hand kimonos at knockdown prices - two for about £5 on the first trip and two for about £3 on the second.  These kimonos were slightly soiled or damaged but couldn't be washed because of the two different types of fabrics used for the outside and the lining, and I am still recycling some of the fabric.  Kimono fabric is about 14" wide and the border on the picture below (wider than shown) is part of a roll of heavy slub silk.  The kimono shape is made of pieced and embroidered patterned kimono fabric and the pink background is part of the lining from the same kimono embellished with running stitches representing how the stones in Japanese gardens are swept.  I had intended to make a small quilt but, not being experienced in quilt-making, realised that the fabric was too floppy and unsuitable.

On our second trip I bought a couple of little stuffed buttons and was inspired to make the hanging below:

There are 162 (hand-stitched!) buttons each about 2cm in diameter decorated with gold or silver thread and a bead in the centre.  The design comprises parts of two Sierpinski triangles (Google it!).  (Well, I was a maths and statistics lecturer.)

HOW TO USE UP SAMPLES

I used to live in a house with a ghastly 70s fireplace which we had removed, leaving a large blank wall, so I dug around for all the bits and pieces I had accumulated over the years, made a few new ones and attached them to a piece of fabric I'd meant to do something with several years ago.

The hanging now occupies another blank wall-space and measures about 1.25m by 1.45m.  The sides of the squares are 12cm.

Here are three of the samples:

 Beaded and machine-embroidered handmade felt.

 A design from Stitch magazine  - appliqué, machine-stitching and sequins.

Hand-stitching on silk-painted fabric.

GOLDWORK

All that glisters is not gold, but gold materials are very effective, attractive and interesting to work with.   

'A' IS FOR ... 

Padded gold leather, wire, metal mesh, beads and threads on a silk background.  Sold to a neighbour who bought for his friends Ann and Andy.

A WEDDING GIFT FROM THE BRIDEGROOM'S PARENTS
Padded gold leather, wire, metal mesh and threads on a silk background.  The butterflies and date are couched gold thread.

                                                             CASKET

A constructed casket using pink grosgrain fabric, painted silk, couched gold threads, painted aluminium foil, Crunchie wrapping, beads, sequins, hand embroidery and other gold bits and pieces.  The design is based on a piece of jewellery using reflections.  It won first prize in a competition.

KNITTING NEWS

Great excitement on the knitting front: an American knitter I met in Japan last year recommended a pattern for an 'Einstein' jacket.  My first effort is dark green, soft and amazingly warm - made from Rowan yarn.

Then a neighbour offered me some wool - from Jacob sheep, I think - and gave me 57(!) balls in three shades of brown so I spent the last couple of weeks knitting.  This one has random stripes in  the three shades and I still have about 50 balls left.

QUILT AND STITCH SHOW AT UTTOXETER RACECOURSE

So far this year, Eclectica have exhibited at Bilston Craft Gallery, the Stitch Show at the NEC and at Uttoxeter Quilt and Stitch Show.  This hand-embroidered flower was shown at Uttoxeter two years ago and I sold it to a lovely lady named Jackie.  This year's show has just finished and Jackie and I bumped into each other there.  

ALDEBURGH BEACH, SUFFOLK

Front of Maggi Hambling's shell on the beach in Aldeburgh.

                                                                    Back of the shell

ECLIPSE PHOTOGRAPHS

20th March 2015 - the partial eclipse in Birmingham, England.

WELCOME TO MY NEW BLOG!

I am a member of Eclectica, an exhibiting textile group based in the Midlands but my background is in mathematics and statistics.  I worked as a statistician for the Medical Research Council and taught for many years in colleges and universities.

Now retired, I spend my time mainly making music, going to the theatre and cinema, being with my family and making textiles.  I've knitted, sewn and crocheted since I was a child but have only developed some sort of artistic approach in the last few years.  My work is truly eclectic – it just depends on what inspires me – and I use a variety of materials from fabric and thread to paint, paper, dye and metal.  My camera expired recently and I am enjoying exploring a new one.

Fibonacci Fish

Hand embroidery on pieced fabric.

The sides of the squares follow the beginning of the Fibonacci sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5. 

I won second prize in contemporary embroidery competition this piece of work.