Out Hiking

A couple of days ago my husband and I went for a lovely 7 mile hike in the gently rolling hills south of where we live. Some years ago we came across this book with local pub walks. The idea is brillant. You drive to a pub often set in a small remote village, park the car, change into hiking boots and off you go following the trail set in the book. The hikes are circular so you will always end up by the pub and the car again. Sometimes we have a drink or a meal at the pub afterwards, sometimes we just head home. The one we did the other day is one of our favorites. Since we have done it before, we knew the trail, where to cross the fields, at what huge old oak break left etc. It was a beautiful weather and I ended up at times, doing a bit of stop and go, as there were so many great photo opertunities. My favorite photo is the one that I'm including in this post. I absolutely just love the contrast of the fresh lush violets pushing up next to the old dusty ivy leaves. The contrasts are so beautiful, so symbolic. I find walking/hiking very meditative and a fantastic way to clear my brain and just absorb my surrounding. Sometimes if I've come to a grinding hold with a project, a good long walk can inspire me to get going again.

Working Inside

The sun is coming out now. Otherwise it has been a grey and rainy day. A perfect day to stay inside and catch up on projects. I have this ambitious plan that I would like to have definitely two, preferable 3, exhibition pieces done or almost done with in the next couple of weeks. I like working with dead lines. Deadlines make me focus. I'm a fast and concentrated worker when I get going. But sometimes the "get going" part is in slow motion. Not that I sit idle. That happens very rarely. It is rather that I get side tracked. There are so many exciting and fun things to try, and oops...two days later....I haven't really accomplished a hole lot regarding the 'serious' stuff. I have lately been doing a lot of trial pieces with various ways of transferring images on to fabric. Something that I hadn't really explored before. But I rather like it. It definitely has a potential. This is one of the techniques I've been trying: I enlarged some of my design photos and made black and white photo copies. Brushed some acrylic mat medium on to fabric. Layered and firmly pressed the photocopy into the medium. Let it dry completely. Soaked the dry fabric paper sandwich in water and rubbed the paper of. And you are left with a transferred photo. Pretty neat.

Photo Challenge

I've been taking photos for my Etsy shop for new listings. Amongst others, photos of all the wonderful threads that I dyed recently. I have always taken a lot of photos when out and about, but photos for Etsy listings is a completely different way of taking photos. When setting up my shop there were a lot of things I hadn't really put a whole lot of thought into. One of them were how to take high quality photos. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I had never even downloaded photos before opening my SewDanish shop. It was sooo much easier to ask my dear husband :-) And photo editing, no idea!
I do think it is fun and paramount to try to get your items look their best, but boy, sometimes I just cannot get it right. I have learned a lot from the Etsy forum and from looking at other sellers photos analyzing what works and what doesn't. I have come a long way since I took the first item pictures and over the months I have redone most of my first photos. It is pretty sad though, when one of my best Christmas presents last x-mas was a tripod and when you start reading your camera manual in bed before turning off the light. I have a straight forward 'point and shoot' canon camera, which for now is plenty. I had no idea how many settings it actually had before I needed them, and I definitely have to graduate from my little 'point and shoot' before I upgrade to something more fancy.

White On White

In our daily lives we are bombarded with colour. But have you ever noticed how many shades of white there are? In one of my textile groups, The Advanced Textile Workshop, our tutor has made us work white on white. I have worked with shades of white for a long time, but for some it is a very neglected "color". Especially in free machine embroidery, it becomes very clear that a white sewing thread is not just a white sewing thread. Like with emulsion/latex paint you discover hints of blue, green, yellow, purple etc. Being aware of what's happening on the surface it can be used to your advantage. You can create very subtle yet powerful pieces. Since there is no color to claim the center stage, texture becomes very important. Textural areas can be build up to create a focal area. The area that eyes can be drawn to and rest, while taking in the piece of work.

Cambridge

I went to near by Cambridge, England the other day. Needed to pick up a few things, but wanted as well to take some photos of this fantastic historic city. Every where you look you can find design inspiration. By the way, the colleges of Cambridge are celebrating their 800 year anniversary this year. In front of one of the colleges, I think it was Corpus Christi, there was this wonderful pile up of bicycles. Some looked as if they had just been parked, others as if they had been abandoned. There are bicycles everywhere in Cambridge as it is a great way of getting around. But this heap of bicycles looked just wonderful in the sun. Muted, mat and bright colours intermingled. Beautiful lines and curves. I felt a quilt coming on! I did feel a bit out of place as a group of tourists were taking pictures of the beautiful ornate entrance to the college and there I was taking pictures of a heap of bicycles. Ah well, I'm sure we all were very pleased with our shots.

Traditional Craft

I've signed up for a weeks summer school today and I'm so excited, because I know what to expect. Quite physical work, lots of noise, dirty, possible a sore thumb... I've signed up for an upholstery class :-) I did an upholstery class last year, and loved it, but had to stop going, when I was invited to join the free machine embroidery textile group, Advanced Textile Workshop, ATW, that meets on the same weekday. For some years I have been doing basic furniture restoration and painting. I love going to flea markets, car boot sales and auctions. Especially at auctions one can often come across a wonderful furniture frame in need of upholstery. At our local flea markets one can pick up lovely antiques that needs a bit of TLC at good prices. Since upholstery is a craft and a skill that I hadn't touched base with, I decided to sign up for a course when we moved back to England. And it was great. I love learning a new skill. It is a fantastic process to strip a piece back removing the old upholstery, do the repair work if needed, treat/paint the the wood and see it come to life again. Then build the chair up layer by layer, horse hair and all. Tremendously satisfying. There is so much to learn and I have only touched the surface, so I decided to do the summer school i July. I cannot wait!

To See A Quilt Grow

I have been quilting making traditional quilts for about +20 years. The last +10years I have made art quilts and I have experimented high and low with lots and lots of techniques. I'm often combining fabric, papers, found objects... what ever fits, the project. This type of work is obviously not meant to be washed, nor handled in a way, one would a quilt made as a throw, lap quilt or bed spread.

I still make traditional quilts and I'm nearly always working on one along side all my other projects. I love the process of figuring out a pattern, cutting up the fabric and then sewing it all together again. To see a quilt grow is a lovely process. I usually like the more straight forward quilt patterns. When stitching it all together on the machine, it is blissfully mindless. Quite meditative in its own way. The tactile feeling of the fabric is lovely. Seeing the quilt top change expression when being quilted always amazes me. It is as if the quilt top starts to find its own identity. I love hand quilting, but now mainly do free motion machine quilting. From a time perspective it is not realistic for me to hand quilt large quilt and I would end up with too many of UFO's (unfinished objects).