Starting Layers

I thought I'd quickly chat about how I start my ATC designs for anyone who might want a little advice on it. Personally I tend to start all of my cards in the same way. I have a little think about the theme, possibly a quick Google or Pinterest to make sure the ideas in my head would work and get some inspiration on composition or colouring, or confirm shapes, and then I pull out a large handful of fabrics from my stash that might fit with the theme. 

I have been enjoying making little motifs with felt and, although several of the themes imply a large scene, I prefer to zoom in on one aspect and kind of focus on it. In this case, for Snowdrop Carpet, I wanted one or two big Snowdrops at the forefront and felt would be the perfect material to use for this as it doesn't fray, is easy to stitch, provides coverage from fabrics underneath and is another texture to add in. You can also use it to add little padded sections.

I don't tend to sketch ideas first, or do any planning, but because I make multiple cards in case something goes wrong with the swap and we need an extra couple to send out, I will sometimes need templates. For the Snowdrops I have drawn around the ATC backing card for the size, then drawn my main motif onto that so that I can create templates for the pieces to be cut out. Initially my drawing had two Snowdrops on each card but in practice, after cutting out, one flower was better. 

The design might change as I'm stitching and looking at the cards, thinking about what I might add next so you'll see that later on I've decided to add additional stems as the single stem was just too lonely and it needed something else at the front to balance the composition. 

I've just started the next set of cards for the Morning Chorus theme and I know that I want to include a Blackbird in it as I've been working really hard to create a balcony garden in our new home (which was completely barren and boring) with pots of primroses, ivy, daffodils, hyacinths, rosemary, lavender, mint, hydrangea....not everything is up and at 'em yet and some of them might be a slow burner as it's windy and cold on our balcony (actually a posh fire escape we use as our front door), but there is enough to look nice for this time of year. For Christmas I asked for bird feeders to add which I have securely cable tied to the railings and the first bird we got to visit was a Blackbird! Who now comes every day with his missus to see what Little F and I have put out as an offering. We do also get a lot of Jackdaws so can't put too much food out at a time, but we are trying to expand our bird range and have little seed feeders too. In the spring I'll try putting up a trellis with a climbing plant to provide more cover to help attract the little birds. 

But I digress, sorry - I'm very excited about getting birds in my 'garden'! 

At the Ardingly Quilt show I collected some fabrics that I thought would go beautifully with the Morning Chorus theme, a little bit like the colours you get in the Pride & Prejudice film with Keira Knightly, you know the scene I mean, purples and greys with a touch of glowing orange. 

These backing fabrics tend to just be roughly wiggle cut to fit four different ones over the space of the card. Unless I need a specific shape for mountains etc, they usually just provide a pretty backdrop, much like a colour wash at the back of a watercolour painting. Each one will be different due to the part of wiggle that they get, or the difference in the pattern. 

I've shown before that on the back of the hoop I draw around the card backing so I know the space I'm working with. Once I've chosen my fabrics and they are cut ready to go, I layer these up on the front and hold them in place with my fingers whilst I make large tacking stitches around this outline so that on the front I can see the size of the card due to the rectangular stitched shape. It's a bit of hoop flicking to check front and back at once but worth it afterwards.

I think for the rest of the card I will do an upright log out of felt in a dark colour and then try to make the Blackbird mostly out of fabric as I have a really pretty one with little speckles on it (that's probably more like a Starling but never mind!). 

I tried a couple of compositions for the bird as you'll have seen above but decided I preferred the right one as it is slightly larger pieces of fabric needed for the shape which is less fiddly and therefore likely to fray less. 

I just have to figure out how I'm going to do the feet! And actually get cracking on proper stitching. 

Working in Grey

I don't think I've previously mentioned on this blog that I've been working on a new kit? The idea for it probably came over a year ago, the fabrics have been sitting waiting for their moment for nearly a year, and this actual hoop was started a couple of months ago! Everything seems to run in slow motion at the moment! 

I have been determined to crack on with it but unfortunately it's not really a kit you can work on in the evening when the light is dim, unless you have already picked out your colours and it's just a case of stitching. The different greys are so difficult to judge when there is dull or artificial lighting, even when using my day-glo lamp! So I've been mostly working on it during the day when I have the odd moment. 

On Tuesday The Mother kindly offered to look after Little F for me whilst I sat and stitched pretty much all day (utter bliss!) so I came on leaps and bounds! Everything is noted down in a little pad I have, the quantity of threads I'm using (cut at 60cm at a time), what stitches, the thickness of the thread, how many twists around the needle for any knots, any tips or tricks that pop into my head whilst I'm stitching. 

I could go really overboard with the number of thread shades I use in this, there are just so many greys! I have had to restrict myself a little bit, especially as I have been considering using a pop of colour somewhere to lift it. With kit designs I have to be more restrained because the more I add the more it will end up costing and the less people will actually buy it because it's expensive. 

The sheep are the most time consuming layer with all of those knots and the seed stitches (which are actually in two shades of grey, can you tell? It's hard to see the difference with only one strand.). I have tried to keep the other layers fairly simple, and they'll also change depending on the pattern placement you get in each kit. So for the layer above the sheep you go around the dark leafy swirls and work running stitch between the sections, with a whip stitch perpendicular to those stitches - this is still a little more involved, especially with the two colour bullion knots edging this layer, but after that it gets a bit simpler....maybe? Single strand back stitch around the big shapes of the batik layer and couching down a deconstructed strand of Stylecraft Bambino DK yarn (a slightly odd choice I'll admit but I've made a lot of blankets for new babies in the last year and I had a lot of the misty grey left!!). 

Above that it's just french knots to edge the fabric, using 5 twist, 3 twist and 1 twist knots to trail down into the layer as you like, and the top layer is just a single strand of blanket stitch at the top with a decorative running stitch at the bottom. 

It's all about the journey - each layer is a journey and has its own uniqueness to it. You can't rush this project and, if you were to buy it when I've finished, it will force you to slow down and just stitch and breathe. That's what I love about hand embroidery, you have to take time to yourself - if you rush it you will just end up in a pickle with your knots so don't bother rushing and enjoy the ride!

Which brings me back to my pop-of-colour-bullion-knot-flower-dilemma. I was initially going to do the knots in a metallic silver thread but, when I thought about it, that is not at all beginner friendly. Sometimes it's not even me friendly and I've done a few bullions in my time!! So metallic thread was a no (although I may add some little clear beads to the bottom of the reeds to get a glitter to match the sparkle in one of the fabric layers) and I wasn't sure that I wanted the entire thing to be grey, I have done completely grey pieces before and they are ok but they can get a little lost sometimes. 

I thought yellow would work well as a contrast, it's a well known colour combo (my sofa for one with mustard throw cushions on a dark grey sofa), but what yellow is the question? I had two I could try, a pale one and a brighter one. The pale looks too washed out and the bright one is possibly too much of a contrast and too bright?

So I opened it up to social media with the below photo and the overwhelming response was the brighter yellow, with a few saying keep it grey and a between number saying the pale yellow. Then there were the few who said to combine them! Which, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of the colour appearing at you out of the mist. I might cut off a few knots and try the bright yellow right at the bottom of the piece, with a mix of pale yellow and pale grey in the reeds behind? It's something I'll need to have a play with as I could also just mix the colours throughout. But then do I need to balance the colour elsewhere? Tiny little yellow knot daisies in the field somewhere? This is where I can get carried away.... Watch this space!!

Ardingly Quilt Show Exhibition

The Mother and I went to the Ardingly Quilt show at the weekend. It's probably one of the best shows in our area (without having to go up to London) and they pack loads of stands in there stuffed to the brim with fabrics, kits, patterns, bits and bobs, haberdashery.... Really it's the one time of year that I purchase fabrics for myself and my stash (other fabrics are usually gifted) so I'm like a kid in a sweet shop! 

I love an assorted bits/remnants bag, as does The Mother - there she is above, rummaging. And I did purchase a lovely bag from here full of Makower prints. From other stalls I acquired several fat quarters, some samosas (folded fabric in a triangle), fun shaped sequins, different sized remnant pieces and a kit that I have purchased for 'research' purposes as it looks fairly similar to a Stitchscape and I was intrigued to see what was included and how much details was written in the book. 

Upstairs there is an exhibition of quilts and, as well as the traditional designs all neatly long-armed or hand quilted, there were a couple of exhibitors this year that we absolutely loved! 

This one is Claire Tinsley, who only seems to have a Facebook page, although interestingly is also the founder of the shop I purchased the research kit from! She had some really interesting techniques which The Mother and I loved, very painterly but also quite experimental - the piece above is potato printed! Lots of reverse applique too which was very different to all of the other quilts on display. 

You were allowed to photograph the pieces but I also wanted to include the information that she herself had given for each piece so I've written the captions below each set of photos for the quilts I photographed. Her words are in italic.  

Going Dutch 

2000

This quilt was made for a quilt competition entitled 'Traces of Travel Brought Home'. I didn't have much time to make this quilt, so thought a quick way would be to potato-print the veg for the top. I machine quilted around the shapes and cut back to a batik underneath. It came first, which surprised a lot of people. "Paint on a Quilt!!!!!"

Beneath the Trees

2001

A home-dyed calico top painted with acrylic paint and printed with potato. It is layered up with purple echo lamé. After machine quilting around the shapes, the top layer was cut back to expose the lamé. 

Woodland Seasons

2010

I designed this quilt for the quilt festival where we had a stall. It shows off three rather beautiful strata batiks. I have used bonded appliqué and it is machine quilted. 

Hibiscus Trellis

2009

This quilt and 'Orchid Star' were made to go to the Caribbean, which explains their rather bright colours. Batik patchwork with bonded appliqué hibiscus flower. The shading and details are painted with acrylic ink. 

These Are A Few of My Favourite Flowers

2005

The design is supposed to show flowers in my garden as seen through a wire fence. The flowers are bonded appliqué which was then painted with acrylic ink. I used batik fabrics for the background and flowers. It is machine quilted. Winner of the National Quilt Championships, Sandown 2005. This quilt also came second in Europe and was exhibited in Paducah, USA. 

Poppy Love

I started this quilt while teaching 'Layered Landscapes' in Edinburgh. Bonded pieces of batik are layered as if painting with fabric. The poppies are painted with acrylic ink and it is machine quilted. 

A Moment of Reflection

2019

This is my design using strata batik for the background. The trees are bonded appliqué. I used organza over the lower half to represent the light on water. It is machine quilted. 

Deep Down Deep Where the Fishes Sleep

2003

A home-dyed calico top was painted with acrylic paint. It is machine quilted and then cut back to the batik fabric that resembles water. The sea background was then machine quilted with silver thread. 

Forever Flowers

2019

This is my favourite quilt. The title is from a poem and represents our garden. The flowers were painted over time at shows to demonstrate acrylic ink. Needless to say, I had to paint a lot more to complete the design. It was quilted on my Gammill. It won a 1st at Malvern and a Highly Commended at the Festival of Quilts. Look and see how many bees you can see. 

Flower Border

2022

I began to make this quilt when the first Lockdown came along. Our garden was our sanctuary and inspiration. The wall is part of our walled garden. Flowers now fill our borders as well as the quilt. Bonded, painted flowers on a batik background. It was quilted on my Gammill. 

I hope that you can see how different these gorgeous quilts are to your traditional quilts!! Your mind might leap to the flying geese, log cabin, pinwheel or star quilts (which were also there in the exhibition) but Claire's were something else!! And the gorgeous piece with the ferns and leaves was right smack opposite the doorway as you walked in, almost glowing with brilliant green! Really lovely. 

The other designer/maker I liked was Vendulka Battais, who runs workshops and makes kits if you are interested - I've linked her website here. Her entered theme was Wildflowers and whilst the subject of several of the pieces was the same, her play with colours made them different and interesting. She said in her biography that she "didn't have the time or patience for intricate small embroideries, so was looking for a way to do most of the work on the sewing machine and only add some detail by hand."  

It's a little different to my working approach - the dust on my sewing machine is about an inch thick and I pretty much sew everything by hand! Perhaps I should dust it off though and create some quick quilted backgrounds. 

As before I've popped her captions below each piece in italics. 

Allium and Lavender

This is one of the first compositions I made. the shades of grey are a perfect background for these large allium flowers accompanied by lavender. My class or kit samples are usually simpler, but I really enjoyed adding the seed beads into the centre of each flower; it really lifts them up. 

Cow Parsley in Mustard

Grey is a great companion to lots of colours and mustard yellow is definitely a great choice. As the colour was used only in the flowers of the cow parsley, I then decided to have fun with the binding as well and pieced it from a few greys and just a touch of the yellow. 

Dandelion in Bloom

Dandelions are such happy flowers! It seems fitting to use the traditional colours to do them justice. Their leaves may have required more skills in free-motion quilting, but the flowers are as simple as straight stitch. 

Allium in Waves

In this wall hanging I was exploring the different ways of creating a background. Organic wave piecing is quite easy and very effective. This is also the only hanging I have properly quilted with free-motion quilting, rather than adding lines. This is to show that neither of these is better or worse, and there are lots of options. 

Daisy on Canvas

I wanted to make a composition with daisies, which required landscape orientation to achieve the richness I wanted. To show a different way of finishing, I decided to stretch it onto a canvas for a change. 

Cow Parsley in Winter

I have joined the strips with curved piecing, and I was exploring the shapes of the cow parsley with Bondawebbed organza. To add the texture, I have used nice fluffy knitting yarn for the embroidery to add more volume as it's a large piece and small French knots could be otherwise lost. 

It's a great show to go to and possibly you might find some inspiration from these ladies - definitely go and check out their websites/pages for more of their work!