Fenland Textile Studio

Snow Dyeing 2012

2012-02-06T15:38:00.000Z

Well it happened, snow fell and the opportunity to do some snow dyeing was too great to resist.

It was the wrong kind of snow, not icy enough and "fluffy" however I carried on. I normally lay fabrics onto a mesh tray so that the fabric doesn't stay sat in the dye. Today as I had only prepared about a metre of fabric I stuffed it into a large cullender and crammed the snow on top.

This was procion deep purple and I had mixed two different strengths.

It doesn't take long for the dye to begin to move into the fibres.

I decided to put this mix outside, the plan being that the snow would freeze again.

I did a lime green mix but this wasn't in a very high pot so I was unable to cram as much snow on top.

Daisy was very interested in what I was doing. I rinsed off the green today and am a bit disappointed in the results. Fantastic colour but not much texture and marks in the cloth. The purple still has ice on it and is looking much more promising. Results soon.

Angela x

Daffodil and Logwood

2012-02-01T21:21:00.001Z

In the madness of my life at the moment I am trying to find some quiet times to stitch using the last of my daffodil dyed fabric from last year and some logwood that has cooked slowly on top of the wood burner this Winter.

I have used the machine as well for small parts.

Lots of hand stitching to feed my soul and keep me sane.

I love this dyed doily over the daffodil yellow.

This photo is very pale, not sure why - blame the photographer!

A peek at how the final thing might turn out but still a pale image. This is upside down though (thanks Blogger)

Madder and Brazilwood dyeing results

2012-01-20T16:05:00.000Z

I took the mordanted fabrics out of the jar about three weeks ago now and was pleased with the results. The darker fabric in the photo below is silk scrim.

I will think about how I do this again as I did have to pick out lots of the small root and bark pieces from the scrim. I want to dye with Logwood next.

There was still lots of colour left in the water and after mordanting, I put the above fabrics back. It again sat on top of my wood burning stove for about ten days heating up each day.. I do have some photos of the washed and dried fabrics but can't find the lead to download them onto the computer at the moment. Normally when I dye with either madder root or Brazilwood I would use 50g-100g of each per 100g of fabric (hands up as I am never that accurate but try!!) Below is all the root and wood pieces after rinsing from the final batch of fabrics, I haven't measured this but judging it by eye tells me that I used about a third of my normal amount.

BEGINNERS KNIT & CROCHET WORKSHOP WITH CAROL PARKER

2012-01-09T22:33:00.000Z

SAT 14 JAN 10-12PM & SAT 11 FEB 10-12PM
UNIQUE COTTAGE FARM STUDIOS
ALL AGES WELCOME BUT UNDER 8S ACCOMPANIED BY AN ADULT PLEASE
£8 EACH

Come and learn a new skill in the wonderful environment of the Lincolnshire countryside. Refreshments provided and lots of different techniques to try: extreme knitting and French knitting, finger and body knitting and crochet.

Workshop may be of particular interest to teachers/TAs and Health and Wellbeing workers. Knitting encourages coordination, develops concentration span, is great for social engagement, is a therapeutic ‘relaxer’ and is said to delay the onset of dementia. All this and you can create something too!!!

Carol is a freelance artist with over 15 years’ experience of facilitating workshops with all ages and abilities. She was lead artist on knit2getherlincs, a Cultural Olympiad 2012 project where a 200mtr knitted Olympic track was created by working with hard to reach, community groups and schools in Lincolnshire (for images and more info see knit2getherlincs.wordpress.com).

Look forward to seeing you on Saturday!

Eco Natural Dyeing with Madder and Brazilwood

2012-01-06T17:49:00.001Z

All last year I wanted to do some"eco" dyeing, the type that you put your bark or leaves into a jar in the sun and wait. It didn't happen and I sat over Christmas looking at my wood buring stove wondering what if I put a pot of something on top to simmer away. Last week after I mordanted some cotton and silk scrim I scrunched them up into a large Kilner glass jar and sprinkled madder root and Brazilwood chips between the layers.

I then filled the jar with just enough cold water to cover the fibres.You can see from below that the pink started to come through virtually immediately.

It has sat in a pan of water to gently heat each evening this week when the fire has been lit.

I think I will take it out this weekend. I am hoping for some texture in the cloth and darker shades where the roots/chips have been touching the cloth. I am going to keep the liquid to use again which should give me some paler shades to work with as well.

New Books

2012-01-05T14:07:00.002Z

In December I had a birthday and Christmas so I become the proud owner of the following new reading matter.

I have read The Artist's Way some time ago which I borrowed from my local library but I have never owned a copy. I am loving India Flint's second book, Second Skin and have started reading Twyla Tharp. I have seen this book as a recommended read on many blogs and so far (two chapters in!) haven't been disappointed.

Just wondering what everyone else is reading?

Long Time No Blog

2012-01-01T11:38:00.003Z

Ok, it is official, December has passed me by in a bit of a blur. It was a month filled with highs and lows but we got through, travelled many miles to visit family and met a new niece who was 10 days old. Through out the madness that became December I managed to keep going with the City and Guilds Diploma final piece and now I am very nearly finished, this is what has been taking up my time -

Cow parsley and sprouts. I also have a panel with rape seed flowers but I seem to have taken about 10 blurred photos!! I have three panels, the first is 10" x 60", the middle 30" x 60" and the final panel (sprouts) 20" x 60".

I also have a little jar of something cooking very gently by my wood burner so more about that in another post.

It has been good to get more followers ~~this~~ last year, thank you for joining me. I hope you all had a peaceful Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

Angela x

Sunset and Sadness

2011-12-05T20:20:00.001Z

This was the sun setting at about 3.45 today outside my house, looking over the fields. The fantastic colours couldn't stop my sadness though as I heard about the untimely and sudden death of Sarah Lawrence of Crafty Notions.

She was such a very talented lady who produced stunning work. It only seems like a few days ago that we were chatting at Festival of Quilts. I am sending her family my sincere condolences and am sure that the many of you who knew Sarah personally will wish the same.

Godspeed Sarah x

Daffodil Dyeing & Jumble Sales

2011-12-01T23:38:00.001Z

If you are a member of The Quilters Guild then yesterday or today a copy of The Quilter should have arrived through your letter box. Inside is the article on daffodil dyeing that I have written. If you are not a member then I will be doing a little tutorial here in the Spring (advance warning to collect some daffodil heads). I just love the range of tones that you can get from this simple flower. I now have a basket overflowing with yellows, begging me to stitch them into them.

Last weekend I went to help at the Scout jumble sale with DS and this pile of clothing found their way home with me. So many lovely textures and colours just waiting to start a new repurposed life, these are mainly cottons.

I got several pairs of jeans with fantastic pockets, just right for box making.

I also got some laces, embroidered hankies, and some linen place mats . I am well known for taking in stained and torn things like the table cloth below.

Finally a peek at my City & Guilds diploma work. This isn't a great photo but shows the midday and night time sky before I stitched applique cow parsley and sprouts over the top. I think you might get a better idea of all the stitching if you click onto the picture. Its nearly complete though - yipee!!

Curved Piecing Workshop

2011-11-27T21:07:00.001Z

Last Tuesday I ventured up to Louth through the fog for a fantastic day teaching a workshop on free curved piecing. It was a group of very talented and enthusiastic ladies.

Everyone quickly learnt the technique and began to make their own unique blocks.

Everyone used different fabrics and some worked outside of their normal comfort zone. I loved the bright pinks with orange and my favorite lime greens. I also showed the ladies how to turn their curved blocks into sketchbook covers. I think the cover above is heading for a Delia Smith cookery book.

These two photos are from the end of the day, I did have others but they are very fuzzy as my camera battery went down to one bar. Thank you Lindsey Patchworkers for a wonderful day and good luck with your Lincolnshire Wolds Quilt.

Christmas Workshop

2011-11-23T17:29:00.001Z

Last week I traveled up to York for the annual Young Quilters Christmas Day at The Quilt Museum. I stayed overnight at The Bar Convent. This as the name suggests is a convent which is the oldest one in England founded in 1686. It still is an active convent with a resident religious community. All the guest rooms do not have numbers but have Saints names, I was in St Aelred. The accommodation was really good and very close to the station if you ever need to stay in York.

We had 12 children in the morning and 12 in the afternoon, all completed the Christmas Bunting project and really got to grips with using the sewing machines.

They made a stocking, heart and bauble and attached them to a canvas strip.

Everyone made something individual and lots of sparkles were used.

Yesterday I traveled to Louth and did free curved piecing with a very creative group of ladies. I have photos to share but will do that tomorrow as "mum's taxi" is needed by DS.

Grand Day Out

2011-11-17T23:25:00.001Z

Waring - this blog post contains no stitched images.

I went down to the Textile Group at Unique Cottage Farm studios today and the first thing I saw was the amazing grapes on the vines growing outside. It was great to catch up with everyone and share work.

It was also DH's birthday today and he had the day off work. This meant that we could actually get to have a meal together. He was very embarrassed when I got the camera out to take photos of the food. As it was his birthday I did a sneaky shot without the flash! Above was the started of goats cheese on a bed of Mediterranean vegetables and below the main course of tempura mixed vegetables with dipping sauces and a side salad.

Once both boys were home we could light the birthday candles (ssh he is 44 today)

On a Thursday I drop DS off at Scouts and often pop round to see a friend. I was able to leave my log burner to go and sit by Jackie's log burner.

I am off again to York tomorrow for a YQ workshop on Saturday (oh yes and a tiny bit of shopping).

Back soon

Updated Website

2011-11-16T21:07:00.001Z

Exciting news. DH has finally worked his magic and given my website a make over. There are still a few teeny tiny teething issues but all will hopefully be fixed in the next few days. It only affects the website if you use Internet Explorer 6 (most of you should have updated by now). Go have a look and let me know what you think, let me know if you find any more mistakes or problems.Click here to visit.

Catching Up

2011-11-13T18:30:00.000Z

I often have times when despite my best efforts blogging just does not happen. Life still goes on though at full pace, workshops taught, meetings attended, trees chopped down (don't ask about that) and making time for stitching. Last Saturday I went down to the Yarrow Gallery in Oundle to visit the Textile Lincs exhibition with Lorraine from the group.

I had never been to this part of the country before despite it being relatively close to home. I do not have permission to share the fantastic work of the other ladies but I will share mine. The theme was Memory and my first piece was "Memories of home" as when ever I travel I miss the flat landscape and vast skies of home.

This is a hand stitched piece and all the textiles are recycled and hand painted or printed. Tina gave me a small piece of a mohair scarf which became my rape field. It is mounted on a painted canvas.

The second piece was based on a stack of love letters from 22 years ago and the memories came flooding back when I read through them as I stitched, sorry I don't seem to have a close up photograph of this one. I wanted to be able to show the writing so in a way this became reverse English paper piecing. Again this was mounted on a canvas and there are three "holes" which just seemed to work and give space to the work. Hanging below are love letters cut into heart shapes and stitched round.

This was a quilt that I had to pries away from DS2. He is very tactile and this appealed to him as it is backing with a brushed cotton lilac sheet I discovered in the charity shop. It is made from recycled sheets and shirts, all cotton. Each of these fabrics brings its own memories to the work, who has worn them? Who has slept on them? Where have they been? How old are they? I decide to quilt this very simply as I wanted the fabrics to shine through and not be covered in stitch. This exhibition is on until Saturday November 26th (see post below for times).

I also received an amazing package from Ro Bruhn in Australia. I offered her some of my daffodil dyed fabrics and in return got some amazing sun dyed fabrics. They are all so gorgeous that I have tried to show them all. Thank you so much Ro, I already have an idea of how I will use them.

Memory by Textile Lincs

2011-11-11T08:28:00.001Z

It has been a few weeks since I last posted as things have been a little pear shaped here. I just wanted to pass on the information about this exhibition by the talented ladies of Textile Lincs (I also have some work in this exhibition). I went down last weekend and it is well worth a visit. It is on until Saturday 26th November.

Week in pictures

2011-10-21T14:11:00.001+01:00

I'm sharing my week in photos. Not many words though as I have got to be on a train in five hours to take me to York.

More daffodil dyeing as I found a few left at the back of the cupboard (definitely none left now until next Spring).

After the blanket felting disaster I managed to dye these blankets with procion dye (lime and magenta)

For a Christmas project that needs me to cut out lots of circles. This will be used in York so I will show the completed thing next week.

More procion dyeing, this time on cotton.

Samples for the YQ Christmas day in York at the end of November.

Boxes from jeans and a dress, the instructions will be on an ebook that I am working on

I did teach several workshops and teach a Year 3 class but I can't find the lead to the Kodak camera at the moment. maybe I will share photos next week of these. And finally I got through a huge stack of paperwork this week.

Have a great weekend

Angela x

Felted blanket disaster....

2011-10-15T20:54:00.001+01:00

Aarrgghhhh - I need this blanket for a workshop next week. This is only a small section of what I scrapped out of the washing machine. It did say 100% wool on the label!

Stitched Book Page

2011-10-13T22:38:00.001+01:00

If you want to take a look at what else I have been up to take a look at the Expedition Blog.

Daffodil Dyeing

2011-10-10T19:46:00.000+01:00

Last week I had a dyeing session using up the last of this years daffodil heads. I am amazed that I have any left as they have been used in many Natural Dyeing workshops over this year.

These are the dry heads before adding water.

Dyed fabrics and vintage laces. I love this image (which is now my blog header). Beautiful natural buttery yellows.

Can you guess what this is?? It is a close up of some weld I am drying, it this will keep me going through the Winter if I have the urge to dye more yellows.

Have you ever......

2011-10-02T18:39:00.000+01:00

Sewed onto your trousers?? (This is the 2011 Young Quilters Christmas project)

Reflections

2011-10-01T17:38:00.001+01:00

Sorry no stitching today BUT DH and I had a very rare chance to spend an hour together without the boys. We walked down by Surfleet reservoir which is a kind of small inlet for boats. The weather was so hot and the water so still. I loved all the reflections and took lots of photos for possible design ideas.

I'm the shadow on the right taking the photo.

Not all the boats looked beautiful but there was so much texture that I photographed.

I'm planning a little change to this blog so come back soon and see the new look.

Harvest Time

2011-09-12T20:38:00.000+01:00

DH and I share a love of harvest but we agree to differ. He thinks about produce from the veggie plot, courgettes, sweetcorn, potatoes, onions, beans, pumpkins you get the picture? Me, well I dream in colour and harvest things that I can use to dye naturally through the Winter months. Today I have been processing elderberries which give me a lilac colour.

I freeze these in plastic cups. Each cup has about 85g-100g of elderberries. I am lucky enough to have a freezer for my non food stuff but if you don't have this just make sure that any berries are clearly labelled and well wrapped to prevent any contamination.

I don't freeze everything I collect. These rosehips have been dried in the oven. When I do collect berries I make sure that I only take about half from the tree or bush so as to leave enough for the birds.

I use fir cones as well but these stay in a dry box in the garage.

I am being very disciplined at the moment and resisting the urge to dye up some fibres. I really need to finally complete my C&G diploma and have made huge progress since FoQ as I am now over 50% finished. Trouble is life is starting to get in the way again, planning for workshops, making samples etc and I have a date with a Year Four class tomorrow. Oh well I will keep on stitching, keep on stitching and collecting goodies to dye with!!

Zebra returns home

2011-09-08T16:59:00.001+01:00

I was really pleased to have my zebra quilt returned today. I didn't get to attend the exhibition which was at a National Trust property in Sutton Hoo but did get this photo sent to me. It is one of the most simple quilts I have made yet I think has the most visual impact. I have an idea in my sketchbook for another one based on the same theme. Thank you Nan for looking after it safely.

35 flowers, parrots and first day nerves

2011-09-06T09:34:00.001+01:00

Thirty five flowers? For those of you who know me or have been reading my blog for a long time, you will know that I was completing a City & Guilds diploma in Patchwork and Quilting. Well, I am still completing it but am NEARLY there, yes NEARLY there. Since Festival of Quilts (I did go even though I haven't posted about it) I seem to have got my mojo back and have done alot of stitching in a relatively short time. The next step is to thread sketch 36 rape seed flowers, 8 are large, the rest small. The photo below isn't clear but give you an idea. I am stitching on a medium weight painted lutradur.

Yesterday DS2 started secondary school for the first time. He was ready to leave the house at 7am, we waiting and waited and waited. A phone call confirmed that the minibus would be with us soon. A further phone call at 9am told us that they had forgotten to collect him and would send someone back asap. We are about an hour from the school so it was 10.20am before he finally set off for school. This would be difficult for anyone but for someone with his emotional needs it was really hard and I can't blame him for not wanting to go to school.

After he had gone DS and I had decided to make the most of our rare time together to visit the local parrot zoo. It was a quick jump in the car and we headed north. We had a great day, lots of things to see. DS's favourite thing was to go into the walk in aviary where the birds fly onto you. I didn't like having my buttons pecked and three birds on your head is quick heavy!! They were all very tame though and beautiful colours. I have enough ideas to fill sketchbooks.............

They also had other animals, I loved the patterning on this giant tortoise shell.

Today is cold, raining and very windy. Off to stitch more flowers and think of Summer....

And it only rained once.

2011-08-29T21:15:00.000+01:00

I have spent the past two weekends at Springfield's Shopping Outlet Centre in Spalding. As part of their Summer Festival each weekend there was a craft tent and live bands, despite very grey clouds it did only rain once (honestly). Unique Cottage Farm Studios where I teach had a stand and all the artists have done about two weekends each over the past six weekends. This was the last one

It really wasn't very busy and I was determine to complete several projects. I finally sewed the binding onto two quilts and completed a small landscape. This is a piece that will be going into an exhibition so I can only show you the tiny part below (the black is part of the chair). It is also a bit fuzzy so I'm sure I'm not giving too much away.

I shared the tent with a very talented potter and a man who makes rocking horses. The two quilts were not for sale, just workshop samples.

These are examples of Rob's work, so talented.

Each day was a different live band, I heard rock, pop, brass, country and today was a soul singer. These two girls were really good as a tribute band. Bet you can guess who they were trying to be.

After completing existing projects I had to start something new. This involved a stack of love letters from about 25 years ago which got cut up into hexagons. Of course I had to read them as I went through so lots of memories returned. I'm sure though that if DH and I had met today lots of correspondence would be through texts which would be hard to look at (probably impossible) in 25 years time.

As I cut them up I included pictures, I am using two sizes of hexagons for this project.

This was cut from a London travel card dated 09 JUN 90 - has anyone else got 21 year old travel cards and bus tickets?

I always return to my love of hexagons. For this project you will be able to see the words.

I hate having my photo taken. A friend caught me off guard and took this with my camera. Jackie, see I have been very brave and posted it. Oh yes, before anyone asked I made very little money. Anyone want any hand made soap, hand dyed buttons or threads??????