summer

Summer seems like an age ago.  

These are a couple of the highlights. First trip abroad for the children. We went with family to Paris, stayed in the suburbs, enjoyed the sights and foods and had a ball at Disney.

Back at home we made the most of Londons free museums and galleries with loads of days out. We celebrated my 40th with cream tea too, yum!

It was great summer, with a few crafty makes too, more on those soon.

all aboard

Back in June we went to the London Transport Museum. Alongside all the buses and trains you can explore, there is simple design style that is constant throughout the ages that I love.

The current Poster Art Exhibiton is stunning and a real walk through history. The 1930's posters are all so stylish and glamorous, a stark contrast to the War Time posters which were very grey and full of practical advice. Followed swiftly by the fun and modern 1950's posters, it's a real journey!

It was great fun for the children too, a stamp trail and 'driving' buses seem to equal child heaven. Hoping we can squeeze in another visit before the end of the holidays, which are flying by waaaaay to quickly for my liking.

imagine

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Naomi, editor at Japanese magazine Patchwork Tsushin. The magazine is doing a feature on Modern Quilting and Naomi was coming to London to meet Kaffe Fassett at his home and to see his exhibition. Whilst here she wanted to come and meet me, with a photographer and to talk about my handprinted fabrics and modern quilting. 

I was thrilled, excited and slightly panicked all at the same time. I don't have many quilts. Though I do have a lot of prints, the result was my juicy cubes quilt. I also finished off these mini quilts.

I love text on fabrics and printed this wonderful quote by Pablo Picasso onto a pintucked mini.

This scraptastic mini started way back in September and is tiny scraps from dresses and projects I've made for the girls. 

I was super nervous on the day that Naomi and Hugh (the photographer) came, but I need not have worried. Naomi was lovely and very interested to discover how my quilting and printing journey have developed together. 

I showed Naomi my very first pieces of printed fabric, created using everyday items such as corks, empty spools and blocks of foam. We discussed screen printing and how I got started after a workshop with Lucie Summers and I showed her the stencils and screens I am currently using to create my fabrics and the objects and forms that inspire me. 

Naomi had sent me a copy of the magazine before she came to London, my goodness it is lovely. I wasn't familiar with it at all, and despite not being able to read Japanese it's a fascinating read. There are lots of picture tutorials I'm quite sure I could follow, and of course lots of stunning quilts.

Before they left we exchanged gifts, I gave a bundle of my handprinted fabrics and Naomi gave me a gorgeous and beautifully packaged Japanese handkerchief. 

I can hardly wait to see the magazine, which isn't out until the end of the year. 

But now I have no WIP's lurking about, time to start something new I think.

hand printed, hand quilted

I've had my head down and been beavering away lately, you know I'm not a speedy quilter, so I'm really chuffed to have finished  this one recently.

I'm really excited by this quilt, as it is my first one using fabrics I have screen printed myself. I love a juicy solid colour and thought these prints and solids really complimented each other.

I went for a simple design and used a printed square, within a solid square. I'm calling this one Juicy Cubes.

The back is strips of prints and solids on a mostly plain pale grey back.

Hand quilted in cotton perle.

I love this so much! 

There's so much more to share, I'm going to try and do a bit of a catch over then next couple of weeks. x  

finished

I finished this a couple of weeks ago and I'm so pleased with how it has turned out.

After much agonising over how to quilt it, I just followed the zigzag created by the triangles and quilted it in yellow, which really stands out on the back.

It was my intention to give this to a charity, it's a little too small for the Siblings Together project (it measures 105 x 114cm), so let me know if there is a shout out for quilts somewhere.

I'm in printing mode at the moment, lots to show you soon...

Take a peek at what's going in other creative spaces.

wonky houses

I bought this sample pack for the Umbrella Prints Competition with plenty of time to get on and make something. Dumdeedum, roll on a couple of months and I realise I have just 3 days to think of something and make it.  

The pressure.   No ideas.   Not inspired.

In a very unprecise and unlike me fashion I set about chopping up the already small fabrics quite randomly in an attempt to make some wonky houses.

I printed some windows and doors and added a wonky roof. The seams don't all match at the corners, they lean more than I intended and I've over stuffed the tower block.

I don't think we have a winning entry here but I quite like them. I stitched them freely without worry and just enjoyed the process. That's what sewing is meant to be about, right? 

You will be able to vote for you favourite entries over here from the 1-5th June, I'm sure there will be plenty of stunners.

p.s. apologies about the quality of the photos, someone stole the sun and I had to use a flash, which wiped out the details.

Kaffe Fassett exhibition

Last week I went to the Fashion and Textile Museum to see the Kaffe Fassett exhibition. 

It is incredibly inspiring. I'm a 50/50 fan, some of his work I love, some I'm not so fond of, but I'm completely fascinated by the way he works. 

There are references to painting and ceramics throughout and you can really see the work unfold from the original inspiration.

The quilting was so varied, simple geometric shapes are brought to life with a bold use of colour. 

The exhibition is very rich and you will see some wonderful still life paintings, mosaics, tapestry, knit, quilting, ceramics and of course the inspiration behind so much of his work - nature.

If you get a chance to go you'll definitely be inspired.

A bit slow on the uptake, but blindly following the crowd and jumping on the Bloglovin bandwagon.... join me? 

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It seems wrong to post without a picture, so here we go. I basted  this last week and it's now quilted and half bound, will show it off soon...

Handprinted Swap III

It was so exciting waiting for the parcels from overseas to drop through the letterbox, knowing that they contain handprinted fabric from the swap.

It's amazing how different they all are.

these remind me of swirly clouds, from Charlotte 

 the slightly mad quilt lady

I love all the different clouds in this from 

Holly - bamboo bear

gorgeous keys from Carolyn  - telltale thread

Thank you swap partners! Now, what to make with them?

handprinted fabric swap III

The handprinted fabric swap, hosted by Leslie from Maze and Vale was great fun, as I thought it would be. Nothing like a deadline to get me to make a final choice and stick with a design.

I made acetate templates and printed the pebbles randomly onto the fat quarter, once dried I added the ladders over the top in a diferent colour.

Theses two are my favourite, I did them in colours to suit my swap partners and I love them. 

I think less is more, the red ones have too many circles, sorry partner! You live and learn right?!

all ready to go (they left before the deadline, just slow at posting about it)

I can hardly wait to see what will be dropping through my door, it's so exciting. 

You can see what everyone else has been up to over on flickr.

Playing along with Creative Spaces.