This week I have worked on several things, finished off a few, framed and hung a few in “la maison musée”, done some blind drawing, gardening, cooking, started knitting and have been to the virtual Quilt Show!
Blind drawing is a loosening up technique for drawing. You are not looking at what you are drawing so much as looking at / observing what it is that you are drawing. You keep the pen or pencil on the paper – it is also sometimes known as continuous-line drawing. It helps stop the inner critic as you draw. I tend to use a pen because you can’t go back and rub out later. It also helps with practice for free-machine embroidery, as again you tend to have a continuous line and it makes you think about how to link various elements together.
I’ve re-stitched the tiny gold beads down round a mother or pearl button in the centre of a Kamal Kadai piece I did at a group with Alex. It’s a traditional Indian needle-weaving technique which can use beads or buttons too.
I had planned on it being a bigger piece with lots of mother of pearl buttons but, having done the one, I realised it would stand alone and to do more would have killed it.
So it was just a case of stretching it and finding a suitable frame. This little ornate gold coloured frame works just perfectly, I think. I did try the piece on the diagonal too, but this way works best.
One of the highlights of my year normally is to go to the Quilt Show at the NEC in Birmingham. When my dad was alive this was simple; he lived a 10-minute drive away from the NEC, so we combined a visit to him and a day (or occasionally two) at the Show for me.
I always came away inspired, often unable to sleep with ideas buzzing around my head. It was a veritable feast of colour and texture, buzzing with like-minded folk.
So, along with so many other things this year it was cancelled. Obviously this was essential for the safety and well-being of everybody involved in any way. BUT the organisers have come up trumps with a virtual Quilt Show, Beyond the Quilt Show.
What a treat! On Saturday afternoon I “went” to the show, and viewed dozens and dozens of quilts: modern, traditional, contemporary, miniature, art, 3D…… The list went on. A photograph of each whole quilt, close-ups, and the back along with details of subject, technique and materials used. All without leaving my chair, no achy feet, no rush to see everything before the Show closes, no having to decide on which if any workshops or lectures to go to and balancing that against time to shop, no empty wallet (yet). And throughout this week I’ve dipped into workshops and lectures without losing time to look around and shop. Also there are virtual shops which I’ve not visited yet – may then have an empty wallet.
I have looked at things since, and they are there to go back to, so have made less notes than I normally do; nor will I have the problem of some vital stage or ‘ingredient’ missing from my notes or memory.
Big names in textiles have been available to access; India Flint’s virtual lecture / film was wonderful, and she is normally so over- subscribed that there is no chance of seeing her; Cas Holmes (also on TextileArtist.org); Wendy Gardiner (new to me) – but demonstrates some useful techniques and accessible to beginners and more experienced stitchers / quilters……. Check it out for yourself.
It was all really well done, and a huge thank you to all involved.
Between visits to the Quilt Show I’ve had a fairly productive week. I’ve started knitting again – for the first time in several years. Crazy as it may seem, a pair of socks! My feet are nearly always cold and it has to be very warm for me not to have socks on – as it is at the moment. But it won’t last long, I always used to say I could tell when it was September because my feet were cold! Last year it was in August!
These socks are for when it gets really cold, but I don’t knit quickly so they may be finished in time for when I need them. I have only ever knitted one pair of socks before. A self striping sock wool, almost predicable colours yellow, orange, red, and less so pink and the main burgundy which repeats between the other colours.
Again colour-wise it’s only partly in my comfort zone; love the greens, but the blues are less in my comfort zone.
The yarn this time wasn’t the right one for the pattern, so I thought it would be worth doing a tension square, something I’m usually too impatient to do (must be getting old!). No, it was mainly that I thought it wouldn’t back easily if it was wrong. Strangely, the pattern only gave the number of stitches over 10cm / 4”, not the number of rows. So I ended up only doing a few rows to check the width, fortunately this was fine. Also checking the metrage /yardage there is less per 100g than the burgundy stripe wool and there wasn’t a great deal leftover from that pair, so I don’t want to run out.
I’ve used a different pattern, but compared the two and adapted this one slightly. The leg on this one was either plain or a double rib, the other a single rib at the top, so I have done just over 3cm / an inch of double rib before going into knit, which gives a stocking stitch on three pins, and knitting with the fourth.
On checking the patterns against a couple of sock making books, I discovered that the Germans sell sock needles in fives, using four to have the work on and knitting with the fifth! The another thing I learnt from the books was to cast on over two needles to give a looser top; I think I have cast on with a one size larger needle but never over two before. A good tip, as it does fit, but suspect it wouldn’t have done casting on the normal way! (I couldn’t resist testing it on my foot once I’d done a couple of inches.)
The colours look like a miniature landscape as I am knitting, but they will be the other way up when I wear them.
debbidipity 