Quilted vessel

I want to join the art quilters blog ring so 2 of my 5 posts must be about quilting, so I thought I'd mention how I made my 3D vessel. As the segments are made of 5 layers, techniquely it is a quilt!

Each piece was made and stitched separately and then joined together at the end. In the middle of each 'segment' is pelmet vilene which helps it keep its shape but also allowed me to bend the shapes into curves. On either side of the pelmet vilene there are 2 layers of fabric. One is a dark brown/orange taffeta and the outer layer is hand dyed cotton. I have used reverse applique and lots and lots of machine stitching. It became rather like a production line, sewing multiple segments in the same pattern. This was one of the only C&G pieces that I was actually pleased with!

A photo at last?

That only took half an hour to upload! This may become the shortest blog in history

Embellished Quilting with Laura Kemshall

My local Embroiderer's Guild had the fantastic Laura Kemshall along to give a lecture and dayschool on embellished quilting (as mentioned on Sandy's blog http://smarcoux.blogspot.com). It was a fantastic day and Laura shared lots of tips with us. My aim now for the future is to be able to afford one of her quilts - prefarably a poppy one! Anyway, this was my first real attempt at free machine quilting, and boy is it hard! I decided to be difficult and go for Laura's angular stippling rather than the vermicelli that I have done on my embroidery course. I also picked a thread that stood out rather than blended with the background - probably not the best idea for a beginner. I really enjoyed it though and it's amazing how much you get done and how time flies on a dayschool.

I am going to post a picture of my sampler (if I can get it to upload - I hate dial up!). I need to add some more yellow stitching as that one area pings out a bit at the moment. Laura said that she was glad someone had used 'dangerous colour'! That's me - I love bright, acid colours and my favourite combination is lime green and hot pink. Yum

Having trouble with photos...

It uploaded at last but I had already published the post so don't know where the photo is - floating in cyberspace!

Here we go again!

This is my 3D assessment piece for City and Guilds certificate (part one). The design source is pacific american/canadian artwork. There are some goregeous abalone buttons on it that my relatives from Canada kindly brought across for me last year.

Another way for me to procastinate!

So...after months of reading everyone else's blogs and not getting any creative work done, I have finally given in to my inner demon 'the procastinator' and decided to do my own blog. My aim is that this will embarass me into actually doing some textile work to post...
Have spent my day off work snivelling with cold after by DB has given me his 'man-flu' and decided that as I can't get any sewing or housework (yuk) done I will start a blog!
Anyway, enough self pity and a bit about me. I am a textile obsessed 29 year old who has regular 'textile tantrums' about the fact that I can't create what I want to and nothing is 'good enough'. I seem to spend more time buying the gizmos and materials and reading the books than I do at the sewing machine. This might be a rebellion against the 2 years of City and Guilds I did which I found quite stressful with a full time job. Anyway, embroidery certifcate complete it is time to have fun and try to find my own way!

So to start the pictures off, I'll be very brave and show you some of my city and guilds work.

...except I don't have broadband and can't connect to blogger at the moment! Will have to try the photos from my dad's computer (with broadband).