Doors - February 2021

 Hi everyone

I thought I would try just a piece of a door - so here it is. I think I'm going to call it Knock Knock!

Years ago I made a day visit to Manda island and saw lots of really old heavy doors, some of which you could peep through into fascinating inner courtyards. I thought heavy old iron door furniture was fascinating so decided to focus on that. The pattern is a simplified version of an old piece of wrought iron which I carved in lino and then printed onto heavy interfacing. This piece has a total of 4 layers - 2 for the dark front section and 2 for the paler back section. I cut out all the voids on the darker print and have stitched it on with spacers so it hovers over the background. By rotating the front print it makes for an interesting contrast to the rear. 

The moveable 'knocker' part was the biggest challenge. I have been exploring curved folds for a while and making extreme curves allows fabric to fold over on itself; this is the result - the origins are in god old Bauhaus again. I think it makes the perfect 'knocker'! Prints made with water soluble printing ink, knocker coloured with acrylic paint, gold flake and fabric medium. 

Hope you like it!

I also have some news that is good and bad at the same time. I have agreed to taken on a new role at SAQA which is going to demand a lot of time, which in turn means I have to stop doing so much. I have absolutely loved being part of this group, everyone is so creative and supportive and I have had great fun with the challenges, both making my own and seeing the incredible things everyone else creates. So sadly this is going to be my last piece - kind of fitting being a door!!!! Of course I will still look in every month and admire your work. 

Thanks for having me as a member. I have loved it and I hope you will welcome Momo who is going to take my place. Have fun Momo, I hope you love trying out new ideas as much as I have. Everyone in this group is so friendly and supportive I'm sure you will fit right in in no time. 

Love

Claire

x

Unhinged

“Unhinged “ is my idea of an old Medieval/Tudor door, with the old hinges falling of due to age. It only exist in my head. As so often, my inspiration came from the fabric.

Unhinged

This has been a dream challenge, I have always been attached to old doors. Thank you, Linda.

So these pictures of old doors are just a reference.

It helps me to use black and white, so I do not get distracted by the colours.

 

Old Doors by Ole Henriksen

This was my starting point

Materials used:

Hand printet cotton sateen (made in ca. 2014), mulberry bark, unspun wool and silk. Cotton and silk thread. Mother of pearl buttons (back to front).

Note: Due to lack of time the quilt and the starting point was photographed using my iPad, proper photos will be taken later.

A Door in Brittany

 Every since I remembered this picture I have been anticipating someone's reaction to it - with glee.  

Coincidentally I had already printed this on fabric a long time ago when I was experimenting with various methods.  And luckily I found it again! The frame around it was also a bit serendipitous.  I had been racking my brain to come up with something and then I remembered that I had done a large square in a class, learning a weaving technique - about 10 years ago!  So I cut it up and thought it did perfectly for this.  

I'm looking forward to seeing all your doors.  

ZANZIBAR INSPIRATION

The wooden carved and very elaborate in some cases doors of Zanzibar fascinated me during our stay in Tanzania so it was a no brainer that I would go down this route.  

     

I decided to focus on the various patterns that you see on the doors and create a tryptich of them.

      

Dyed fabric (over dyed many times before I got it right) ,designs free motion stitched, inktense blocks used to highlight the designs.  The gold buttons were an after thought as the piece appeared very flat and needed a lift.   Very large brass cone shaped are used on the doors.   I am not sure whether my buttons will remain.   Getting used to them but I might have a light bulb moment and try something else. 

      

 

KNOCK KNOCK!

I visited my best friend in Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE in 2013. She took me to check-out the local abandoned pearling village - Al Jazirat Al Hamrah. It was amazing! We took a photo with a door standing as a solitary reminder to the dwelling it once gave entry to.

Sue is an extremely funny woman and on a visit to another friend of mine many years earlier, had her young son in stitches with knock knock jokes* - a night none of us have forgotten. So, I couldn't resist combining the humour and the door memories with a bit of drawing, applique, free motion quilting, sequins and beads. It makes me smile every time I look at it. (I see the colour is quite different depending on whether I look at it on my phone or laptop. It is quite vibrant but may show as a bit flat.)

* His favourite was 'Knock knock!', 'Who's there?', 'Artichoke', 'Artichoke who', 'Artichoke YOU'! 

Here is an article and photos of the abandoned pearling village if you are interested.

https://thetravelhack.com/uae/al-jazirat-al-hamra-the-ghost-town-of-ras-al-khaimah/

THE NEXT CHALLENGE

 FENCES AND WALLS

Constructions designed to do one or more of the following

Protect, restrict, divide, enclose, surround

Architects design walls and fences. However, not all walls and fences are designed by architects so I am hoping that my choice of topic does not stray too far from the overriding theme of architecture. (I won't be offended if you ask me to rethink the challenge.)

Over the years, I have been treated to up-close-and-slow views of all manner of fences and walls as I have walked through suburbia, across the north of Spain, along the wonderful SE QLD and Northern NSW coastline, and along segments of the Larapinta Trail in Central Australia.

It seems there are few places untouched by fences and walls of some kind – even in the desert it is possible to come across remnants of fences, and indeed the beginnings of a wall (which, thankfully, will remain unfinished)! Even the coast has fences and walls to, for example, to control erosion.

I am very interested to see what type of fence or wall you choose to translate and whether it is a literal piece or perhaps metaphorical!

A bit of fun

 I am looking forward to the big reveal day.  The only thing I can say now is:  Is this what she is looking at?

And the next challenge will be set by .......

The draw has been made, and Amanda is the lucky winner! Looking forward to seeing what you choose!

News, news and more news

First, the business side:  Linda F can you please draw a name 'out of the hat' for the next challenge, publish it soon so the person has time to set our next challenge.

        Names left:  Allison, Amanda, Patricia, Phillida, Mai-Britt, Hilary and Momo.

Who, you ask, is Momo?  Well, the sad news is that Claire is stepping down because of her new role on the executive of SAQA.  Congrats Claire, I know you will champion the quilters 'in the rest of the world'.  I am really sad to loose you because you brought a refreshing perspective to the group.  I hope you will stay in touch and keep a beady eye on us.

The really, really good news is that Momo is joining us.  Claire met her when teaching in Japan recently.  It is so exciting to have a quilter from Japan in the group.  Momo will introduce herself shortly when all the connections are set up.

I have joined the group who have finished their doors - quite a number I understand.  Jinnie, hope you are well and truly on the mend now but don't overdo it!

Mai-Britt it is so, so good to have you active in the group again - we missed you.  Welcome back.

The down side to finishing early is that I have to wait so much longer for reveal day - I'm used to taking it to the wire and almost instantaneously revealing.

Best wishes everyone, hope you are all safe and well and being careful,

Hilary

Try, try and try again

I'm not sure this is going well. One problem is having too many photos of doors for inspiration. Attempt 1 involved one of my favourite doors; our own front door. That got rejected as too similar to previous work. Attempt 2 involved taking several doors and combining them into a single image; too bitty so rejected. Attempt 3 got a lot further; this time an enlargement of a single part of the door. Rejected three-quarters of the way through the sewing; too many little problems cropping up with the attempts at remedying them making the whole thing worse, plus it was too static. So glad I started on this challenge earlier than ususal. Attempt 4 involves the same image as attempt 3, but hopefully without all the errors/problems. I have my fingers crossed this one makes it across the finish line! I hope everyone else is amnaging better than me. In the meantime, here's the image of our front door, just for fun.

Looking for inspiration?

Hi everyone

Not sure how everyone is getting on with the latest inspiration. I noticed Terri Shinn regularly put the most fabulous photos of doors on her Facebook time line. Have a look. 

https://www.facebook.com/TerriShinn

Nearly finished mine, got sore fingers though! 

Here is a peep. 

Keep well, 

Claire 

CHETHAM'S LIBRARY

 

  When the subject of libraries was chosen as the next challenge, I thought that I would like to do something based on one of the libraries in which I have worked. In the late 1980’s I was a newly qualified librarian who had been unemployed for a year, when I found a place on an MSC Scheme at Chetham’s library in Manchester, where I was involved in cataloguing books and tracts until I managed to find a permanent post eight months later. Chetham’s library was founded in 1653 by Humphrey Chetham and is the oldest library open to the public in the English speaking world. It is in a beautiful medieval building from the 1420’s, which you can see in this selection of photos: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Chetham%27s_Library I was really lucky to work in such a place and have fond memories of my months there. You can find out more about the library on their site: https://library.chethams.com/ and there are a couple of short videos about the library and its history:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ibnx-kabOw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDJeVNhogn8&t=17s

   I did some sketches from the photos that I found on line, and decided to make a lino print from them. I was quite pleased with my prints, despite the errors in the drawing, which resulted in a wonky door, and which I only noticed when I had almost finished cutting the block. I think I made the error when I was straightening out some lines after I had transferred the drawing to the block, and decided to alter some of the other lines. I had originally intended to transfer print the pattern of the leaded windows onto a sheer fabric and place that over the print, as if you were looking through the window to the other part of the building. Unfortunately it didn’t work: the sheer wasn’t sheer enough, the print of the building wasn’t dark enough and it just looked as though it was a very foggy day. The print on its own was too small for the size of the quilt, and I really wasn’t sure what to do with it after that. Quilter’s block set in, and it took me a long time to come up with any way in which I could use my print for this project. I finally came up with the idea of joining two of the prints together, but it was still too small, so in the end I gave up and made two small quilts, which are practically the same and put them side by side to make the correct size!