Quilt 1: Window

I made a small textile piece a few months ago in response to a photograph of the huge window structures at Dubai airport. I enjoyed making it and thought it would be an easy job to create a new quilt using  windows as a starting point.  I kept thinking that an idea would emerge, but with 2 days to go still nothing new came to mind. Time had run out, so it was important to do something. As a result the quilt I have made is pretty enough, but not very satisfying. I guess it is good to acknowledge that not every piece turns out well.

This is my interpretation of one of the windows at Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi. If you have seen or visited this mosque you will know how incredibly beautiful it is. Despite visiting, I don't have any photos of my own of this mosque, but if you do a Google search you will find lots - and I am sure you will be amazed.

And this is the quilt. It doesn't have a black border,  that is just the background cloth I put it on for the photo. The window shape has been cut out and the carved wooden pattern has been made using 2 layers of heavy weight interfacing with organza sandwiched in between. I have taken the photo with a light box behind so as to illuminate the window void.
The floral decoration is free motion embroidery / quilting which has been coloured using Derwent Inktense pencils and fabric medium. In the mosque this decoration is created in the most incredible relief using marble and other semi prescious stones and on such a sale that it takes your breath away.

In hindsight I think the composition would have been stronger if I had made the window very much smaller, but as the theme was 'window' I got sidetracked by that.

This is also the first time I have made a 16 x 20 inch quilt. I am not used to this format. My first reaction is that I am not very keen on it, and I think I need to try again for the next piece to see if I can manage the size better.

Thanks Jinnie for starting us off. I am looking forward to seeing all the other great pieces - and to the next challlenge.

A good idea goes bad ...

I had a couple of ideas early on for this challenge. The one I chose to develop was based on what we see depending on which side of a window we are on and the difference the view makes. There are lots of touch points for me in this idea which I'd like to explore but the quilt I’m showing today doesn’t do the idea justice.
I had to leave the making of the quilt until I went on our NWCQ retreat but I’d forgotten that clearing the kitchen for re-development meant restricted access to my fabric. So instead of a series of windows with inside/outside views I’ve had to capture my idea using basic frames and text and the result is sadly underwhelming.
I thought about re-making the piece and submitting late but there is still little time for stitching.  By the end of April the majority of the work on our new house will be complete, and my commitment to our wonderful Quilters’ Guild over, so hopefully I’ll be able to give our challenges more time.

And the next person is...

Rosemary

Next challenge

Sorry I seem to have taken my eye off the ball.  Jinnie will you please pull a name out of the 'hat' and post the name here on the blog?  Sorry, but that person has a day or two to come up with the next architectural challenge - to be posted here as well.

I am also struggling to have mine finished by midnight tomorrow - fingers crossed...

Good luck everyone.

Hilary

I might not be finished in time!

I'm working away at my new piece of work, but at the same time am trying to do lots of work in the garden whenever it's not raining (and those in the UK know that those times are few and far between at the moment!), plus help supervise and project manage our new extension.  I have also committed to making some 180 tea cozies for a car club event, and frankly am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the deadlines lurking at me from every dark corner.

I'm very much hoping to have the main work done on my piece before the end of February, but it's very unlikely I'll manage to get it quilted in time.  To make up for this, here's the piece for our challenge before last, which also failed to get quilted before the deadline.  As you can now see. it's quilted and bound and completely finished.  Hurrah!!!!

Some time later . . . . . alas, I'm having problems with my computer and it won't pick up any images from my phone.  I'll try again later after rebooting the system!

Once upon a time

Stopping to have the car’s battery checked, I noticed this derelict building next door. The window seemed to cry out, willing me to listen, wanting me to tell its story of neglect and decay, so I took this picture, knowing I would one day share it through my art.

Looking through my fabrics a while ago, I came across a piece that had got wet and was covered in mildew. I simply couldn’t throw it away, so I kept it in my special stash.

When Jinnie chose ‘Windows’ as the new theme for the next ’12 by the dozen’ series, I remembered my saved photo and the fungus fabric; I had my first piece of fabric just waiting for me to start!

I built up the total picture by dividing it into sections, allowing me to work on each segment separately. In this way I could remain focused. When one segment ground to a standstill through flagging inspiration, I quickly changed over to something more interesting. As I worked, I could hear the window talking to me … … “Once upon a time I was new … I was freshly painted … the wall around me was smoothly plastered … I was not always in a state of deterioration and dying … tell them I lived!” 

With this piece I have tried to tell you the story of that window.

Allison

 A Big Thank You

Thanks to you Hilary for sorting my email address and signing me into our blog.  I was in meltdown when I found out I wasn't signed in when I deleted my late husband's email account which I was using for all these years.  You are a star of note!

I may be late!

We had a leak in the basement.  From the ceiling.  Onto many bolts of  fabric.   And we didn't discover it until they were well and truly wet.  So Robbie is in the midst of trying to find the source.  Please note the ceiling in the second photo, yes, that black rectangle.  It's a big hole  now.  The table below was where all the fabric was "stored"........  It's all washed and dried now, but I need to find a place for it.  I guess work harder faster and use it all up will be my mantra.  Oh, and I only discovered the leak because I thought that there was some fabric I needed at the bottom of the pile for my 12btd piece. 

Apologies and thanks

Hi everyone.

First, please accept my apologies for for being so late with responding to everyone's latest pieces. It's been a difficult time for my family for the past few months and I've not been able to keep up with all my commitments as I would have liked. 

Sorry too for causing confusion with posting my contribution à whole month too soon! You can probably tell, my head has not been in the best place and mixing up the months on the advanced posting led to the error. 😉

Thank you so much for the kind words of support and condolence I received. It means a lot to me and my family and is very much appreciated.

I trust you will all have a very happy Christmas, wherever you may be! 

Love Claire 

X

An introduction and a thank you

I am surprised at how challenging I have found making this introduction to be. It has made me stop and think long and hard about who am I in the creative sense, what it is I do, where I see my creative journey taking me and what are my motivations for accepting the invitation to join your group - 12 By the Dozen.

The fact that I am posting as 'creativitylifestyle' gives me a starting point. I had forgotten I had set up with that name years ago. Seeing it now feels strangely reassuring. It tells me that, despite living a life characterised by change, there is one constant and that is, my working towards a lifestyle that is informed by creativity in some form or another. It is no surprise that I had forgotten 'creativitylifestyle' as I am forever having new ideas, trying to set some structure and direction to my life and then, well, getting distracted and, inevitably, heading off in another direction. This is reflected in the creative interests I have had - painting, pastels, weaving, painting on fabric, embroidery, bags, boro, clothing, quilting, applique, bojagi. Each time I learn something new I think, 'This is it! This is what I was put on this earth to do!' But then something else comes along. I'm not sorry about this because there is a benefit to not settling on one thing - learning different techniques and building up a good supply of all the necessary notions, equipment and fabric!

Other than a bit of sewing and art at school, I hadn't been really creative until I went to uni in my 30s and ended up doing my master's thesis in Social Anthropology focusing on a quilting group in Auckland. I was moved to do this because I had witnessed the transformative role that quilting had played in my mother's life. Spending a year with the group, I became a quilter myself for a time. That then lead to trying other arts and crafts, some mentioned above.

I live on the Gold Coast, Australia but I am selling my apartment and likely moving over the border to Lismore in northern NSW. This is a smaller town and has a very strong creative community that I am looking forward to becoming part of just as I am looking forward to becoming part of the 12 By the Dozen online community. I saw your works of textile art at the NZ Quilt Symposium in October and was very impressed and now, well, somewhat nervous about accepting your invitation. It is so easy to compare ourselves to others and feel that we fall short but I will resist doing that and instead, embrace the opportunity, look forward to being inspired by creative others and have some parameters to work within to force my creative self to flourish.

I can't promise that my work will be the most joyful - I am feeling overwhelmed by the decimation of our natural environment in Australia as a result of the drought, fires and 'development'. I love taking photos of flora and fauna with the intention of painting the image and then translating it into a textile form. I do this to celebrate nature but I now also want to use my art to draw attention to the ways in which we are affecting its beauty, abundance and ultimately, its survival. Let's see what I come up with.

I have set up a Facebook page and Instagram where I am, slowly but surely, recording work I have done both past and present. You can find me @artcraftsamanda.

Well, that is probably more than enough! It just remains for me to say a big thank you to Rosemary for putting my name forward and to the group for inviting me to join. I am looking forward to meeting you all in this forum and would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2020!

Amanda

Happy Birthday 12 By The Dozen!

If our blog is correct we are 10 years old!   A group of us met at Houston Quilt Festival and one evening at 'show and tell' back at the hotel we decided to form the group.  Our first theme, based on Words, was Connections and the reveal day was in February 2010.  Haven't we come a long way?!  And what fun.

Happy Birthday everyone - old and new members!  🎂

And I am delighted to welcome a new member - Amanda Doyle who lives in Australia.  Amanda will be introducing herself  as soon as she is connected to the blog.

Hilary

Poppies Galore

So sorry this is late but here goes.

Back this summer there were several wonderful fields of bright red poppies in our area.  This one was a few miles away and I took several photos - climbing over gates and fences and getting thoroughly covered in seeds and weeds!  All worth the hassle.  My piece is a combination of a couple of photos because I loved the Queen Anne's Lace in the foreground ere but in another I was in amongst the red poppies.

Now, I have done a silly thing (too many projects on my mind) and made my piece 20" x 16"!  I am 'fessing up'.  Here's the full piece...

Poppies Galore

And here's my submission...

Poppies Galore - square

I am  mostly happy with it and maybe after Christmas I will play some more with it to accentuate the QA Lace heads.  I did think of adding the plants using white acrylic paint on the edge of a credit card - very slightly smudged to create that van Rensburg look of his animal heads.  I will try this on a another piece.  The stems are cord couched down.

Hilary