bits and pieces

Well my workshop was interesting. We had a slide show first on the work of Don Driver and some of his influences. We were to then do a small fibre collage based on what we had seen. Obviously we weren't working to quite the same large scale as some of his works but it was fun to work even on a smaller scale. With the speed that we worked it was all very intuitive in placement and design. We used staplers and glue guns to attach a lot of pieces. There was an amazing variety of fibres to work with - nothing really very traditional. Lots of feed sacks, tea towels and larger pieces to use as backgrounds and then lots of less usual pieces to put on them including cutlery, metal pot scrubs, suede, silver heat blanket etc. I can't say it is something I would do again but it was fun to do something totally different.

Our embroidery guild had a friendship day during the week and we had a very successful day with lots of visitors. I didn't get around and see what everyone was doing this time - ended up being very busy with a new piece that I have started. It took me ages to decide what to do for the day, not being a traditional embroiderer, and I ended up with a piece of calico that I had dyed and then ironed on a large piece of painted vliesofix (wunder under I think some call it). I am doing herringbone stitch in the crease lines with a little straight stitch and some couching. There are interesting lines of movement and shadowing that should make it look interesting when I have finished.

I also did some quilting. My maths was out in calculations and I need to do about four times as many blocks as I had originally thought. They are just some basic stuffed puffs using a lot of my scrap basket fabrics. It was started in an effort to radially use up a lot of my scrap basket and something easy to sew while I procrastinate in finishing a lot of other projects. I didn't want to start anything new that was too complicated and distract me from what I should be doing which is sandwiching and quilting about 6 tops. What I really need to do is take myself off somewhere peaceful where I can sit and quilt without interruptions.

Oh, and I did some paper collage - I tried to do something a bit different and it was fun - I work better if I work quickly and don't think too much about what I am doing and don't dither too much on my decisions. If I start to think too much about what I am doing and the whys and wherefores of what I am doing then I start to procrastinate about what I am doing and end up in a muddle and very unsatisfied with my choices and decisions.

Next week I must make a start on a quilt that a friend asked me to do for him. It is really easy peasy - just two large pieces of printed fabric to be sewn together and then bound and tied. It is a wonderful ethnic fabric that is too nice to cut up and really doesn't suit a lot of machine or hand quilting. It shouldn't take too much time to do once I get started so since he is coming next weekend for a visit I should at least make a start on it for him.