Floating Heart

Can you guess what I used to make this pattern? I added Spanish onion and camellias from my garden to the dye pot, hoping to get a more pinkish beige.

Instead, I have a wave of neutrals that I made using - rickrack! The idea popped into mind because I wanted to change the Shibori's line spacing and thought a thicker kind of tie would also be interesting .

And I am participating in Jude Hill's Whispering Hearts series - not a class per se, but a match to what is very dear to my heart and how I work - noticing process and following it. Jude is sharing her process in real time - which is also my preference, as it is energized and alive, not after the fact. I had started this piece a few months ago and decided some of the flowers could become hearts - maybe flying hearts.

Handstitching is uplifting and I like allowing the breeze to draw me to where I'm going next.

Tonight is the opening of our Mark Making With Machine class exhibition at the Victoria College of Art and if it's like the previous one I was part of, it will be packed!

Turning Point

It came to me that a spiral of couched yarn might fit well here: I am liking this much better, now.

Contemporary Woven Boro is over and I am left with a deepened appreciation of fabric and how it can be put together, as well as of Jude Hill's dedication, knowledge and experience through her making. What a gift! Also, I mentioned Magic Bobbin Washers in a previous post and I am using them after experiencing some machine problems and the problems have cleared - so it seems they were a worthwhile purchase.

New Blooms

Here's a developing piece I'm making as part of the Mark Making with Machine class using fabrics I've dyed and stamped, as well as a few solids. I chose to rip strips and have the hems facing up for maximum texture. Former classes I've taken with Nancy Crow and Jude Hill came to mind, as it is strip pieced but looks a little woven. I will be adding stitch and any embellishment I think will enhance it. And my second year of blogging book arrived today, along with some crocuses in the garden.

And I have another fabric weaving on the go...

Keeping Pace

Contemporary Woven Boro has me on fire with design ideas. Such a pleasure to be 'weaving' again and working in a way that feels native. I am keeping up between my two classes, but dividing my time means less experimentation in either one, overall. Here are some various cords and braids I machine stitched

using a variety of materials. I also completed my thread painted flower - it takes a long time to fill a three or four inch diameter!

This and That

Here are some fabric scraps gathering ready for Jude Hill's Contemporary Woven Boro class and sorting through them is like taking a trip down memory lane for the last four years. I have alot of colour and fewer neutrals. I've also been basting fabric weavings and it's good to regain those pins, as I know I'll be needing them!

I've also been finishing my machine thread colour scales for my other class, and I overdyed these fabrics - adding bright green and magenta. They're more interesting now, but I may do another round of colour. I am curious about how different methods of dyeing compare to each other. I used low immersion methods here - with three hours of batching and a different recipe and the results are as vibrant as the tray dyeing. It seems to me there's room for alot of leeway.

And serenditpity plays a large role, too.

When It Rains, It Pours

Okay - you might wonder what this has to do with fibre art: Well - a few days ago I awoke to still pouring rain and found part of the driveway flooded, with water rising and pouring right over the top of the stone wall edging it. A quick clearing of the drain, some loud sucking and gurgling sounds, and it was all gone and back to normal in minutes. I've been thinking about how that can mirror the shift from being in the intensity of a class or workshop with the flood of learning, doing and relating rising in momentum and then, once it's over, the sudden void or space. There is just one class and the exhibition left of the six week long textile art class that I've been taking and unlike previous weeks, my homework is complete and I can work on other pieces that have been waiting since before the class - or start something new - maybe arising from some of what I've just learned. I am used to doing some fibre work everyday, but I noticed that with the structure abruptly gone, I felt that difference - like I had developed a bit of dependency on it and had to stimulate that inner muscle of will a bit, whereas at first when the class was on, I was eagerly wanting to get back to the work I had been doing, even as I was also enjoying the learning from the class. This is an issue I keep encountering - how to stay tuned in with my need to make my art and also to fold in new learning from classes. I am signed up for two classes in January that I feel excited about - the Mark Making With Machine textile art course at the Victoria College of Art with Lesley Turner and Jude Hill's online Advanced Cloth to Cloth. Aside from the substantial other learning and benefits involved from classes, the more techniques that I try, the more possibilities I will know to include in future work - but that likely means postponing making more involved pieces for awhile. What feels most successful for me is when I find a way to weave what I'm learning into a completed piece, and I have done that, although at a reduced quantity.

Changing It Up

I love the texture of this caterpiller, with its tiny feathers and whiskers - what a beautiful 'coat'! Quite awhile ago I bought this cotton jacket in a thrift shop, planning to alter it because the sleeves were too long and I didn't like the colour. Here it is before and after the mixed blue dyebath:

To me it's the colour of growth, and I'm adding meaningful symbols to it - small quilted patches in a group of three on the left front panel and probably a pocket to balance it, on the lower front right. This patch is cotton, linen and a diamond of my natural dyed silk with a feathery fringe.

And here it is with a heart patch Jude Hill sent me

Now to finish the transformation...

Meow

I was up in the night completing basting new pieces to this cloth and later I stitched in the face, those black dots next to it - which Jude Hill calls thread beads - and a variegated thread spiral moon.

This daisy from my garden wanted to leave a lasting impression behind after having smiled its sunny face in my kitchen window for some time. So out came a scrap of the hydreangea dyed silk, which I sandwiched with the flower between two canning jar tops and steamed, thinking I might get an imprint of the flower. Here is the surprise I got - more colour outside the circle then within! I don't really understand why this would happen, but now that I know it's a possibility I might put it to further

experimentation. Last night I heard Inge Heuber speak at my quilt guild. She is a pioneering artist in quilt art from Germany who makes textile art with the seams on the front using many colours she hand dyes on cotton. While her work is in numerous publications, has hung in prestigious shows like Quilt National, and is in the collection of the New York Museum of Art and Design, what I will remember beyond that and the beauty of her quilts is her long term dedication to her art form even when she knew no one else quilting in Germany, when she received no recognition or money for her work and yet she knew it was what she had to do - it was not a hobby, but her life's work. You can see her interpretation of one of her beloved places into textile art here: http://www.ingehueber.de/pageID_639797.html And today is the final day of the Spiritcloth class I've been taking from Jude Hill.

As our class parts ways, I am appreciating having taken a dip into Jude's world along with others for sharing and learning.

'Patchwork Beasts' - another online class with Jude begins tomorrow and who knows what will wash ashore for me there? There's always something - maybe something I didn't even expect!

Refreshment

With yesterday's very hot weather , I headed for Botany Bay and Botanical beach with their stunning scenery and interesting tidepools. Layers of sky, trees, rock, water and undersea life - and perfect temperatures.
Bliss...

The tide happened to be out and we were able to cross the coastline on the rocks from one bay to the other. I took nearly 300 photos - so much texture, line, shape and colour to sink into!

Some of the holes filled with sea life are very deep and I could imagine that I was walking on ice broken by fishing holes, instead of rock. I met many other creatures enroute, including these ones:

Maybe some of them will show up when I take the Patchwork Beasts stitch class that Jude Hill is offering, beginning next week. And here is a video clip with sentiments I appreciate, of Renate Hiller speaking about the value of handwork...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfoByYLSBY8&feature=player_embedded

A New Story Begins

I am loving the dialogue in Jude Hill's online Spiritcloth workshop, with it's gathering of participants bent on sharing our creative expressions, exploring our questions and being inspired from that. This is my native way of working only it's amplified with others sharing and delving into their questions, as well - like being plugged into an electricity outlet! I have decided to do a series of six inch blocks that will unfold a story and I will put them together at the end. For the first block I wanted to reveal just part of something - a flirt of face and tail. The second block is of the Question Monster who keeps and guards all questions locked inside a treasure chest. Stay tuned...

Weaving Processes

I decided to combine a variety of weaving possibilities in one piece. The pale peach silk strip is from an old tie and nearly all the rest are garage sale remnants. For me, this weaving visually captures the movement from basic block weaving to expanding by using other techniques - and Jude has posted yet another variation in her online class to try, plus I have other ideas ... The bottom doily has words I've printed on organza woven in. I am reminded of a sentence I once wrote as the opening of a paper on the function of narrative in therapy and I notice that the weaving metaphor I used was years before I was doing any sewing or work with cloth: 'The words we weave both form and inform the fabric of our lives, creating colourful cloaks of security and obscurity from others and ouselves." Some parts are hidden, some rise to the top... All in all a very interesting process.

Weaving Along

Here is some more of what I'm weaving - regular and irregular shapes, curved strips and stripes woven with space between. My studio counters are heaped with fabrics as I act on idea after idea. I notice wanting to complete each piece or add it to a larger whole, as I usually work on one thing at a time. However, I think it's important to try alot of ideas so that I learn the various techniques in the workshop and then I can apply them to a finished piece. I just want to work 24 - 7!

The Wonderful World of Weaving

Out walking last night I went past an opening in the trees and my attention was grabbed by the pattern of white and red 'strips' on the door and I was thinking weaving and fibre, not wood. I am also dreaming about weaving, so you can tell what's on my mind! The block in the second photo has another type of weaving within some weaving, so now I have tried the 3 methods Jude has given us in the online class - and - I have so many more ideas. I just had to try weaving some felted wool and ribbon...

Playing With Blocks

Here's the woven piece I'm working on so far. Jude has given us several options for weaving cloth strips, including the one I"ve done in the corner above. The top photo shows my small blocks surrounding the larger centre (unsewn) and I'm going to play with them and maybe make different ones to see if I want to keep this design or make changes. I am enjoying myself and can see so many ways to take this further.

Studies

I decided to weave with a uniform small size and try out a variety of values, number of strips, orientations and fabrics, including lace. I am very interested in taking my diamond or 'x' shaped weaving further, as that is a shape that I especially like and used as part of a personal symbol I once developed for a former business. Cloth to Cloth is lively - Jude gives us a little of what she does and everyone responds with their own creating and what's really great is that she is going to develop the information she gives us in response to where we are heading - a very alive approach that I think is ideal! She is what-iffing right along with the class.

Victoria Quilt Guild Show

The Victoria Guild's quilt show opened yesterday and I was there for the entire day, feasting my eyes on over 200 entries, from the large traditional variety to smaller original designs to wearables to a tablerunner challenge to community quilts to cloth dolls to fibre explorations - plus the items for sale in the store and the merchant's mall! I have two pieces hanging in the show and you can see them here: http://fibreheart.blogspot.com/2010/03/sea-change.html . 'Sea Change' (pictured above) is part of a group of seven fibre explorations hung together, each one made to uniform size, based on inspiration from another artist of any genre, and including a 'green' element. My piece is inspired by Jude Hill (Spiritcloth). Today is also the start of my online course with Jude on 'quilt weaving', and I had that in mind as I perused the merchant's mall, picking up a few silk and cotton fat quarters, here and there (okay - and a few books :)). As I was leaving, I saw a shadow quilt on the lawn - the perfect end to a delight-filled day. Thanks to everyone for all the effort involved in putting on the show, which continues all weekend.

New Moon Musings

A new moon and a new work in progress - this is not the final design but an experiment to use the strip piecing method to see what I learn and to explore further with it. It has already changed many times, just as the moon we see appears to change shape throughout the course of the month, even as the whole of it is always there, and our ability to see is actually what changes. A good mirror of the design process for me - like the final design is there already and waiting for me to see it in its final wholeness, if I persist. I also tried an experiment using crumpled wax paper ironed to paper and then painting dye over that - to see if I could get the crinkled pattern where the ironed on wax acts as a resist. The results were more successful when the paper was still wet. Once dry, the pattern faded substantially. I also tried ironing the wax paper to some interface fabric and not realizing it was the fusible kind, accidentally fused the wax paper to it. I dye painted it, too, and a faint outline appeared where the circle of wax paper was (on the opposite side of the interfacing) so I fused it down over top of the first circle imprint of the waxed paper on paper - it's the small rectangle and I used a purple pencil crayon to outline the small circle further, as well as other colours for the rays. It makes me think of the sun and moon aligning and bringing together masculine and feminine energy. I am also thinking of my work being at the intersection of a heartfelt approach combined with 'just do it' spontaneous energy. Another work in progress... Oh - and I've signed up for an online course about experimental quilt weaving called 'Cloth to Cloth' with Jude Hill, that will start in a month.