Turquoise

Still using the theme of our daughter's marriage and thanks to my daughter's idea of what to do for this month's theme, I have managed to complete the above.

The wedding commenced at 5.30pm.  We were at the venue from 10am busy with hair-do's, make up etc.  During this time our daughter wore a turquoise blouse (you are going to have to trust me on that as it does not show well in the photo).

Using some of my precious Kaffe Fasset and Bali batik fabrics, I put this little piece together and quilted it with a heart design.  In the photo is our daughter Orah, in the dressing room, wearing the turquoise blouse, having just had her hair done.

PEACOCK FEATHERS

I found this wonderful piece of fabric to use as a background as it was such a good match to the thread colour we were given (which I had and which made it so easy) but was at a loss as to what to place onto it until my sister in New Zealand gave me this wonderful idea, so thank you for that Rosemary you can take all the praise for that.  I thoroughly enjoyed drawing out the design and then implementing it on fabric.  It was appliqued and thread painted and I was quite pleased with the result.  Apologies for this late entry but we had a huge storm yesterday and our internet went down.  Anyway, better late than never.  I hope you all enjoy this piece.

GAVRINIS

  For twenty years I have been fascinated by the 5-6,000 year old carvings at the neolithic site of Gavrinis in the Morbihan, Brittany. I finally got to see them for real last year and in the last two years I have filled a sketchbook and a half with prints developed from a couple of the motifs, which I then printed on fabrics. I had done a few samples, but then come to a standstill, with too many ideas as how to use them swirling in my head. Some of my fabric samples were printed on a turquoise background, so I decided to use those, starting three quiltlets. This one was finished first and is my favourite as it seems to say what I wanted to say best of all and has given me a clearer idea of how to continue. I'll show the others when I've finished them. It was printed with fabric paints and machine quilted. If you are interested in finding out about Gavrinis, you can see the carvings at  


http://www.culture.gouv.fr/fr/arcnat/megalithes/en/index_en.html

 

Where I really began *Photo updated

First of all my apologies for the quality of the image. I had this piece finished within days of the challenge being issued then completely forgot all about it. Hence an emergency dash to the i-camera this morning. Hilary, I'll replace it this evening assuming I can get enough light to take a better photo.
The reason I finished the piece so quickly is that I've had the central section, with stripes, on my wall for years. It was put together with offcuts from a fairly traditional piece, I loved the absence of straight edges and so my love affair with freehand cutting and piecing began.

Turquoise Challenge

Amongst Friends and Growth Rings

                                                 Amongst Friends      acrylic on mulberry paper

 

These two works are both studies using turquoise. I hope to work larger in my pod series on mulberry paper from textured collographs using cloth and sand gel. 

My other plans are to continue a series using abstracted natural forms as inspiration to make some larger themed works,  incorporating spheres and varied qualities of line. Lots of inspiration has come from attending the World Festival of Threads this week, in particular from the subtleties observed in the work of Karen Rips and powerful tribal totems of Alice Vander Vennen.

My observations here are that a small increase in colour intensity or a small amount of colour  against grey can go a long way in creating emphasis.  To create more unity, I will increase the visibility of the growth rings or intersect them, to promote a more dominant theme. Wax resist, fine white scribble marker or stitch could be used to further experiment with mark making.   

Malachite Kingfisher

Kingfishers are quite prolific around our part of the woods however our local resident is the Brownhooded Kingfisher. I chose the Malachite because it is one that has the most amount of 'blue'.  It has photographed slightly darker than in real life.

I have to admit I left this one rather late and I am not one hundred percent happy with it.  the idea was to have the look of a sketch lightly coloured in hence I have only stitched the blue and the white chin. the stippled background was a hasty decision based on lack of time. I might revisit in a few days and add some more (?) where needed.

Elevations

This started with a pieced of beautiful textured silk that I ice dyed and then stitched with multiple colours of thread, including our "turquoise".

Turquoise Challenge - Camden Town #3

This landscape in cloth was made just before Helena announced the colour for our challenge. As luck would have it, the turquoise was a good match. This 8.5" x 11" work has already been in three shows!

It has been suggested (Linda F? Lauma?) that the window panes should be darker, and I agree that would have been more effective. I could try to go in with paint or ink, I guess.

Camden Town #3

Here is the image that inspired it. The photo was taken through a window at the back of the Amy Winehouse Museum in Camden, just north of London. Love the rhythm of the windows.

Rif on Blue

This is not my first attempt, nor my first idea.  It always surprises me when I have an idea firmly planted in my brain that doesn't seem to want to work out in fabric!

This was influenced by listening to some jazz.  It's fairly simply "glued" down and quilted with my own dyed fabrics.  I was trying to work with the colour wheel, but I think I've gone beyond a bit.

Delft Canal

This is from a photograph I took this year whilst on a tour of northern Holland.  In Delft we climbed the spire of a church and could see the town laid out below us.  Throughout the town (and, indeed, throughout Holland) we could see canals of varying sizes, surrounded by trees and cobbled streets.  The water seemed the perfect colour for out latest challenge!

I've not quilted the water very much  (as you can tell)- and I can't decide if this was the right decision or not. What do you think?  There was a lot of weeds and shadows on the surface of the water, but I am trying not to be too literal in my translation of photos onto fabric.

Robin's Nest

I actually have two pieces on the go again and the one I really wanted to have ready is taking a bit longer so here's my other one.  I searched 'turquoise' on the internet and so many wonderful images came up but this nest caught my eye.

It was such fun creating.  The tree is made up of one fabric with bits of another appliquéd on and layers of net to create the shadows.  The nest is some packaging that I squirrelled away thinking it was 'bound to be useful' (my conscience is now clear).  It is made up of shredded paper and stuff that looks like fine vine twigs.

I promise to get on with the other piece as it is something I want to do in a larger format so this is a trial to see how it will look.

Hilary

Turquoise Grove

I used commercial fabric and added a bit of paint to emphasize the trees. The jewellery wire is covered with thin strips of fabric using Steam-a-Seam II.  The spools are made from the Kraft-Tex product and wrapped with fabric.