Would you believe....

...that I own a JMW Turner watercolour landscape?

How about a landscape by Cubist painter Juan Gris?

No?  They are some of my "in the style of" paintings that I'm doing for Painting class.  Here are the originals:

 I haven't painted with watercolours before, so I think my Turner is nowhere near like the original.

My Juan Gris was not a direct copy of the original.  I rather like his style.

Nothing much else happening due to pressure of school work.  Two weeks left of this term.  Roll on, Easter!

Weekend at Wanaka

This weekend was the 75th A&P Show (that's short for Agricultural & Pastoral) held at Wanaka.  Last year, over 15,000 people attended and there were probably more this year.  Quite an achievement, since only around 7000 people live in the area.

 Wanaka town lies at the southern end of Lake Wanaka in Central Otago.  It is surrounded by mountains.

 This stall had delicious doggy treats.

 These sideshow clowns have been around for at least 50 years - I remember them from wen I was a child.

 I loved this sign - and bought some of their delicious sheep cheese.

 There were a few alpaca....

 ...plenty of sheep....

 ..preserves.....

 ...children with Angry Birds hats......

 ...the guy on stilts who was blowing bubbles.....

 ...man's best friend, of course.....

 ....lots of horses.......

...and this champion bull was just enormous.   I also caught up with my friend Donald, who lives in Wanaka, and you can see more photos on his blog here.

Hibiscus

I made this convergence-style quilt (in the style of Ricky Tims) some years ago, but have only just bound it.  Its name is taken from the quilting design, which I may have invented.  Click on the image for a closer look.  It's entirely fused, not sewn, and made from 2 pieces of hand dyed fabric.  I'm making an effort to complete some works this year, small ones anyway.

And my studio/sewing room has had to be converted back into a bedroom for the next couple of months, as I have a Year 9 student from Thailand arriving next weekend.  ....just when I was getting used to having my own space.

Thoughtless Thursday (because I missed Wordless Wednesday)

Wordless Wednesday

Quilting malfunction

What is a quilting malfunction?  It's rather like a wardrobe malfunction but not as rude.  The pattern I was using for this latest quilt (this is unusual, readers, I do not usually make things from patterns) had  unusual instructions for the corners and edges.  It's an "on point" layout, where the blocks are set into the top in a diamond pattern instead of squarely.  Normally, you then require setting triangles to make the top a rectangle.  This pattern, however, merely used rectangular blocks and told you to trim them afterwards.  This I did.  Knowing that the long sides of triangles have a tendency to stretch, I sprayed all the edges with spray starch.  I added a narrow dark border, and then a wider outer one.  I felt some disquiet but ignored my misgivings.

When I lay the quilt top out to photograph it, the sides rippled like a stingray swimming.  Oh dear.  It was clear I had a serious case of Wavy Borders, something I have only experienced once before, many moons ago, and (due to lack of internet in those days to provide solutions) fixed with tediously cunning quilting on the borders.

I won't bore you with the details of unpicking both borders, measuring, trimming the corners, remeasuring, nipping and tucking and re-doing just the outer border.  Oh sorry, I just did.  The border fitted, they're the correct width, but still look slightly wavy in the photo.

I like how the colours have come together.  I think it'll be ok provided I don't quilt the borders in a horizontal manner.

Today's dilemma

Today's dilemma is:  Shall I make a quilt, or sort the garage?  A no brainer, really.

I needed some fast inspiration for a quilt I could make easily with my 6 metres of fabric from yesterday's post.  I found it on Amy Butler's website  and chose the "Belle" quilt design - circles inside squares, one of my favourites.

Here's what it looks like in her fabrics:



Way, way too busy for my liking, and the fabrics don't really go together well.  However, here's what my circle blocks look like:

I like the way these are looking.

A spot of dyeing...

I bought 3 Rowan fabrics that caught my eye in the local Bernina store's sale.  I have no idea what I'll do with them, but decided to dye some multicoloured fabric to go with them, rather than dye fabrics in just one colour as I've done for the striped quilt.  Here's the results -

Matching colours is never easy, and I'm out of Lemon Yellow which I use to make lime green, so I was attempting to make a green using Tangerine.  However,  I was only dyeing metre lengths so each colour I used was 100 mls or less.  This makes colour mixing quite tricky with such a  small quantity so there is far more yellow than lime.  The blue background is difficult to replicate, too, as this is not a shade of blue I have in a dye.

Dyeing the fabric is the easy part.  Now I have to think of a way to use these 6 metres of fabric together.  Any suggestions?

Wordless Wednesday

Astounding Aboriginal Art

There's an exhibition of art from the Torres Strait (between Australia and New Guinea) at our local museum/art gallery.  Mostly, the work is linocuts, some of them huge.  The photos below are not in the exhibition, but are indicative of the artists' work. 

This is by Alick Tipoti....

...and this is by Dennis Nona.  They were the 2 artists whose work impressed me the most.  Why?  Because these are not ink drawings, they are prints from linocuts.  I have dabbled a bit with linocut prints, and I am absolutely in awe of anyone who can produce highly detailed and exquisitely executed work like this - especially when you consider that some of the blocks could be 2 metres by 1 metre in size.  The amount of control and understanding of design elements is highly sophisticated - yet these are a people who, a century ago, were considered so backward and unintelligent that the ruling British colonists controlled their lives, including their wages, their ability to visit family in other areas and other things that we take for granted.  No doubt some of the reason for this was the absence of written language - like Maori, Aborigines had an oral tradition; and also their lifestyles were very primitive compared with those of Victorian England.  

Wordless Wednesday

Transformation

 I've been busy the past couple of days re-arranging things in the house because I have an international student coming to live with me this year.  As her room has the only double wardrobe, this was full of STUFF - you know the kind of thing I mean.  Fabric, wool, patterns and so on.  I moved half the boxes so that half the wardrobe was useable, and decided that I'd take the opportunity to tidy up the little 3rd bedroom seeing as I'm not getting a second student.  This one has been used as dumping ground for the aforementioned STUFF, but before that, it looked like the photo above.

I visited my friend Angela yesterday afternoon to give her the patchwork fabric kindly sent by Amanda Greenwood of Kiwiquilters - Angela having got interested in p&q after I gave her the red and grey recycled quilt you will have seen late last year.  As  I was telling Angela about the above mentioned tidying, she suggested that I turn the room into a studio.

Lightbulbs flashed.  In my garage, I had a futon-style couch-that-opens-into-a-double-bed belonging to another friend, Haley, who didn't want it.  I measured it, the room, and then all the various pieces of furniture I wanted to re-arrange, and drew it up on paper.  It all fitted.  I would like readers to know that this is the only thing I am anal about.  Really.

I put the queen-sized wooden bed on TradeMe that evening, and it was gone by 9.30 this morning.  Gone. Removed.  I lured Haley over with the offer of a cup of coffee and then made her help me cart the futon and a table from the garage into the room.  I had already moved the Scotch chest out, and eased the computer table and trolley contained all my school books around the corner.

So, less than 24 hours after the birth of the idea, here is the studio.  Actually, I will sew, paint, draw, use the computer and study in here.  I may even do some ironing!  The futon is protected by a piece of fake fur - not classy, but it stops the animal hair and dirty feet (theirs). My household has a lot of feet, and most of them aren't mine. This room gets afternoon sun, and is very pleasant then.  I'll be able to sit by a window to sew, and will not have to spread stuff all over the dining room table like I do now.

I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.  I gave Haley an office chair on wheels that I didn't need but she did.  I'll do something else nice for Angela.

Paper clay

I've spent the past 2 days doing a class in paper clay.   This is any kind of clay to which paper pulp has been added.  The addition of the pulp means you can do all kinds of things to the clay that are not normally possible.  This is our tutor, Jill Nicholls, of Riverton.

 Above and below are examples of some of the things Jill has done with paper clay.

One of my classmates, Ellie Bailey-Wright, was also at the class.  Here she is working on a thumb pot....

...and holding up a Picasso-style mask that we all put bits on.

One of the things I made was a bowl made from woven clay strips.  Below, it's sitting in a plaster bowl to keep the shape correct.

 Once the paper clay had dried overnight, I added a plaited edge....

...which was put out in the sun to dry and harden.

 Here are some of the things that the others in class made....

I've brought all my pots home, so that I can paint them and use them.  As I'm not planning to eat out of them or fill them with water, they don't need to be glazed.

Notorious Sock Knitter

Most of you will be unaware that I am a Notorious Sock Knitter.  Or I was.  This is the name given to those who join the Rockin' Sock Club, run by Blue Moon Fiber Arts, which I did last year as a treat.  Quite a big treat - I see the price this year is US$310 so it's not on my radar at all.  You get 6 shipments of wool a year, predominantly multi-dyed, of beautiful merino/nylon wool, enough to make 1 par of socks but with 2 exclusive designs to choose from.  It's very professional, the wool is lovely but I haven't been very keen on the colours and colour combinations.  Anyway, I have completely failed to knit any socks for various reasons.

Reason #1 - short attention span.  I may actually complete one sock but then I've lost interest in knitting the second.

Reason #2 - aforementioned lack of excitement about the wool colours

Reason #3 - following on from #1, inability to learn how to knit 2 socks at a time.

Breakthrough!  I found this book at the local library.  I did in fact use to own the author's first book, at which I totally failed etc. I sat myself down with the latest RSC wool ( because I've paid for it and therefore need to use it) and attempted to teach myself to knit 2 socks at once from the toe up.  As usual, the casting on method totally flummoxed me.  I found it unnecessarily awkward  and difficult to follow, so I thought "Stuff this!" and used the longtail cast-on.  Which worked perfectly,  And was so easy to do.  So here are the socks so far:

The top photo is the part underneath the foot, and the second photo is the ribbed instep.  These are SO easy to knit!  Slow, unfortunately, as I'm knitting with teeny weeny 2.25mm needles.  Perhaps the cast-on area is not the most beautiful but it works and it's simple.  Perhaps I'll finally get to knit up all my sock wool now. 

Also on the needles is this very, very simple garter stitch scarf which I'm making from lovely laceweight wool given to me for Christmas.  I wanted to make something that required no thought at all, and which can be large enough to be a stole as well.  I like the colours of this wool much better.

As well, I'm knitting this scarf, which is part cashmere, as a gift.

The fur family likes to gather on my bed in the sun - here they were yesterday. 

Striped Quilt tutorial part 2

 I am not using a pattern for this quilt, which can make fabric requirements a bit tricky.  What I have done is devise 2 blocks of the same size (18" unfinished").  Block 1 starts with a 6.5" centre square, followed by a contrasting 2" row, then a 2.5 row and finishing with a 3" row, in the Square Within a Square style.  Above, I've cut strips in these widths to start the blocks in the yellow colourway.

 Here's the first 2 rows of Block 1...

 Three rows....

 ..and the completed block.  I made a second block starting with plain in the centre, ending with stripes around the outside.

Here's Block 2.  The cutting sizes are 5.5" centre, 3.5" strip for row 2, 2' strip for row 3 and 2.5" strip for row 4. 

Here's the 2 different versions of Block 2. 

All the blocks are then cut into 4.  I fold the block in half one way and finger press the fold, then cut along this with a rotary cutter.  Repeat for each half to get 4 identical quarters. 

Once all the 4 blocks for each colourway are completed, the blocks will be re-assembled into 17.5" blocks with each quarter being of  a different colour.   As the strips of the 2 block types have different widths, there will be no need to match stripes.