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The Art of the Brick

30/10/2014

Using 'everyday' Lego bricks, the sort that could be in the toybox or attic, the artist, Nathan Sawaya, has created artworks that are imaginative and fun. Some pieces are interpretations of classical pieces (David, Venus de Milo, The Thinker) and others are his own creations, witty and thought-provoking. The show is well curated with each piece individually lit and the shadows cast are as interesting as the works themselves, adding another dimension to the display.

Photography was allowed, much to my surprise and delight. Here are a few I was able to take before the battery packed up. Memo to self - check that your camera battery is charged before going out to take pictures!!

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The Quilting Book - Dorling Kindersley

29/10/2014

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Sweet as Honey

My work over the last five years or so has concentrated on mixed media and experiments with techniques far removed from traditional quiltmaking so it might be interesting to read how I came to be invited to contribute traditional quilt projects to the latest book from Dorling Kindersley.

As you might have seen in my 'About Me' page, I came to patchwork and quilting about 15 years ago. When I find something I enjoy doing it, I'm afraid it takes over my life! This meant that I was making pieced quilts well into the early hours of the morning as I was completely hooked on the processes. Many were given to family, friends and Project Linus but a huge number are all over the house - on beds, stuffed in cupboards and in numerous bags in the attic.

Naomi Harrison of Artisan 80, the gallery where my last solo show was held in February 2013, runs a Christmas pop-up show and last year some of my quilts were for sale. One was bought by the editor at Dorling Kindersley, who then came to see some of my other creations. The staff on the project were keen to feature seven of the quilts for which I provided the instructions to make them. This was an interesting process - most of my quilts are just made as I go along so I had to analyse each and, working backwards, write out the instructions and draw the accompanying diagrams, sometimes making a sample block to check dimensions, then make an estimate of the yardage needed.

The quilts were photographed professionally - a flat shot to see the quilt clearly and to help potential makers visualise it finished and pictures showing the quilts in a lovely setting. With kind permission from Dorling Kindersley, those pictures are shown in this post.

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WW1 Quilts

25/10/2014

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The group to which I belong, London Quilters, will be having its biennial exhibition from 17 November 2014 to 4 January 2015. The show is called 'Coming Home', inspired largely by the blue and white group quilt featuring houses.

Part of the show will include small quilts (12"x12"/30x30cm) about World War 1, interpreted in a free style by the makers.

I wanted to use an image of a poppy as the constant element in my quilts and found one in my photograph archive, a picture taken in Regents Park in the summer of 2013. This beauty formed the basis of my work:

I used the image in different ways for each of the quilts. For the top left quilt, I enlarged the image in Photoshop Elements, and printed it on fabric treated for printing, in this case EQ Printables. The names of the towns and cities were printed on with fabric paint, using an antique typeface set.

For the second quilt, top right, I traced the poppy image onto calico and free machine stitched it in red thread, together with the leaves. The battlefield names were again printed with fabric paints using a modern set of letters. I felt the piece was out of balance and painting the image with liquid acrylic paint improved it.

The bottom left quilt incorporates a 1900 map of France and the same poppy image, both printed on fabric. I cut out a stencil of poppy seedheads and used Markal paintstiks to create the images on the quilt.

The last quilt uses the same map of France, this time in monochrome. The image of the soldier was painted on fabric. The poppy image was manipulated in Photoshop Elements to give a sense of perspective and printed onto ExtravOrganza, silk organza prepared for printing. The poppies were highlighted with a fine black Sharpie and cut out before being machine stitched onto the background. The barbed wire and posts were inked in using the same Sharpie, the posts also being machine stitched for accent.

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The Art of the Brick

The Quilting Book - Dorling Kindersley

WW1 Quilts

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