Quilts completed!

I finished my big and little quilts a couple of weeks ago, a satisfying end to a fun project.

 They both have the same striped backing material and edges bound in black.

I've made 4 pockets on the back  for Barney to put his favourite little toys in.

This quilt is a little premature, as Barney is still  in his cot, so it will live at my house for a while.

Below is the little one I made for Barney's soft  toy doll, Max, who has a little wooden bed  shared with various other toys; I've used some of the same fabrics, again with a little pocket.

My first attempt at free machining on anything that mattered!

I had to look in my old school needlework folder to remind myself how to work blanket stitch....a long time since I did any embroidery!



I've been ill for over a week with a lousy cold, but yesterday felt a little better and did some screenprinting. Thinking about a small piece with a trees/ wood theme... in black and yellow, not sure why...maybe because of the lack of sun outside...

over printed in grey....

first playing around....more fun ahead.



Fabric printing course part 1

Recently I went on a great screen printing on fabric course at Cottenham Village College with a friend Annie, who had been to this before. The tutor was Ricki Outis, who was a super teacher, sharing ideas and techniques with great enthusiasm.

 Fellow 'students' were mainly experienced screen printers and it was good to see everyone's work during the week. I'd done a little block printing on fabric but no screen printing, only on paper. Obviously it's very similiar; it was interesting to transfer ideas onto fabric. I hoped to print a curtain for my studio door, using a design I'd tried out on paper. I'd had my plant designs put onto thermofax screens and used paper stencils for the landscape shapes.

Work in progress...I'd spent the evening before working out my 'plan' with masking tape, it was supposed to make it easier!!

It was tricky working with the size; it was a vintage cotton sheet, one of a pair I found in it's original wrapping, a relic from my family childhood home long ago - good recycling!

The finished item; spot the 'deliberate' mistake when I'd changed colours, washed my screen and then forgot to put a new stencil underneath! I thought of various ideas to disguise it but now I'm rather fond of my yellow rectangle and will sign my name on the panel when I find my permanent marker pen which has done a disappearing act since I used it the other day.

My lovely young builder Matt put up the curtain rail this morning. I'd made the curtain up the other day, with interlining and lining (a reminder of the time when I made soft furnishings for clients) and put the heading tape on today when I knew the length. I'm really pleased with the end result; I like the border down the sides and bottom edge..

A complete one-off: quite exciting!

Curwen week 5

After a week without any printing (half term) it was good to be back at the Curwen for week 5 of this term. This Tuesday it was photo screen, so more screen printing using photos as a stencil. First one had to alter the image digitally on photoshop or a similiar programme, to end up with a black and white image to print onto an OHP transparency. I prepared several photos before I went and also drew a cup cake design onto Truegrain with black felt tip, Truegrain is a transparent acetate with a grainy feel to one side.

Preparing the screen took all morning. Basically you had to degrease both sides with a special soap (sudless!) and then dry with a hair dryer. Then you go into the darkroom to coat the screen with photo emulsion, which is a light sensitive solution designed to create detailed long lasting stencils. The screen then has to dry for an hour, after which  you tape your transparencies onto it. The screen then goes into the exposure unit to expose the image onto the screen and then the image is developed by washing off the emulsion. Once the screen is dry you can start masking off areas of your screen with parcel tape and START PRINTING!!!

I had 3 images on my screen and managed to print some of 2 images. The cup cakes will have to wait until next week. The first image was from this school photo of me and 2 of my sisters many years ago!!

I printed it in a pale grey, then a greeny sepia colour.

I then overprinted the sepia over the grey, which looks good.



I remember my mother saying laughingly that we looked like little ragamuffins!!

It brings back happy memories of childhood.

The next image was from a photograph of the multi storey car park at Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge. My daughter's baby Barney arrived 7 weeks early by emergency C section, nearly a year ago. She stayed in a hostel on site while he was in the special care unit for 3 weeks. Normally you wouldn't see this view of the car park but I saw it on the way from the hostel back to the car and thought it would make a good photo.

I think it will be a good print to play around with; so far I've just printed some pale grey, next week I'll do some over printing and print some backgrounds for all 3 images

Today 3 friends came to lunch which was fun, I like being retired! On Thursdays I teach some 1:1 at a local school, that went well and then I played tennis; so a busy, happy day.