Been very busy since last posting - yes months ago. I decided to do rather than write about what I might do...
Have been dyeing - which I love more and more than I ever did - and I still have SO MUCH to learn. Been doing a little piecing (patchwork) with some of my dyed colours. a little knitting etc etc. Still dabbling and doing bits here and there - and of course some of the dabbling I had my helper Beth (niece) - who loves the new dyeing method with all that measuring and pouring.
We have together done several value gradations of our favourite colours.
Also took nephew, his girlfriend and his little sister - my niece Beth to Istanbul for a long weekend - where a fabulously wonderful time was had by all and Beth was completely delighted as it was the first time she had been on a plane.
My real achievement over the past few months is that I completed a piece of work and entered it into Festival of Quilts - Quilt Creations Category.
A few years ago I used to atttend a masterclass 4 times a year with Cherrilyn Tyler and a small group of fellow students. One of the ladies lived near our venue and those of us who stayed B&B were often very kindly invited over to dinner on the Friday evening of our weekends. These evenings were huge fun and quite delicious.
We became 'Footlose on Friday' and decided on a group entry to Festival of Quilts at Birmingham in the summer of 2005. We each made a shoe and a shoe bag - the idea being a shoe shop. All the usual pains of working to a deadline etc - but ultimately we enjoyed it.
Last year I did not enter anything. But this year's entry we had decided on corsets - and as I've always wanted to make a textile art one - I joined in again.
I chose Byzantium as my source material - all the photos and sketches etc etc Ihad collected over several visits to Haghia Sophia in Istanbul.
I looked through all my accumulated books, postcards, photos etc and chose my colours. I went to my new colour Bible from my class back in April and chose those colours, the recipes and dyed my colours in cotton lawn, silk organza, cotton scrim and viscose/silk velvet. I was SO pleased with the results - the colours I really wanted and it was so easy.
I did some sketchwork and some samples of stitchig around a mosaics theme, and I had a pattern for a 16th century corset that I wanted to use as my 'canvas' for the embroidery etc.
Delighted with the end result - which was achieved after a week and half of early mornigns to bed ie 1 or 2 each mornign, and the last night 04:00 to bed!!!!!!! For once though I wanted to push through and finish it rather than give up - I knew this was going well and part of the cause of the very early to bed mornings was that I was off sick with a very nasty stomach bug for almost a week - during which time I had zilch energy to move the project on so I lost a significant number of hours that had to be made up.
Anyway - I was pleased with it on display at the show. I should also say that the person who won the Amatuer award for that section was a fellow member of our little group, Joy and her piece based on coral reefs was a delight and I was so happy to learn that she had won - an extra treat as she had been quite poorly for a while - so something definately to lift the mood. My friend Pam and I attended the show and took great delight in calling her on the phone as we stood next to her piece and watched other people's delight too.
