OVER CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR I WAS GOING TO HAVE A CHANCE TO WORK ON MY NEW SERIES-ABSTRACTS REFLECTING JAPANESE TEMPLES. INEVITABLY A COMBINATION OF A SORE THROAT AND LOTS OF COOKING MEANT I GOT DISTRACTED….INTO TRYING OUT PRINTING LEAVES ON VARIOUS FABRICS I HAD DYED LAST MONTH. USING REAL LEAVES, STENCILS, SHAPES ETCHED INTO FOAM AND GELLI PLATES I MANAGED TO CREATE A PILE OF FABRIC FOR MY NEXT PROJECT ..AFTER THE CURRENT ONE!
printing fabric from nature
I have just finished another series of great workshops with Pat Archibald which inspired me to create this quilt for the annual festival exhibition. Inspired by Sanjusangendo temple in Kyoto, the temple of the 3,000 Buddhas- the emotions it evokes for me- the strangeness of the orient but also the warmth.
When I was in Harris earlier this year the weather kept me happily inside my studio watching it from the window while I worked. In between when searching for inspiration, I also tried out new recipes on my husband who is always appreciative- crab and asparagus clafoutis and Greek courgette slice were the winners.
IN PRINT- part of an exhibition at Redditch Textile Museum.I was inspired by the patterns
humans and animals leave on the landscape -which disappear as rain falls or grass covers them .
The snow showed the prints made by birds and sheep and also the tyre tracks and footprints humans leave on the landscape. I used these ideas for a piece which I entered into a contemporary quilt guild exhibition in February and was delighted when the piece was accepted.
It is rare to see snow on Harris but we did manage to have one day when the garden was white and sparkled
– gone by the next day but definitely an idea for another piece
cabbage
Inspired by the class with Nancy this Summer I made this piece. the shapes were inspired by the prehistoric megaliths on Harris and this is in my studio on the island.
Megaliths
Students of Pat Archibald, including me, spent the last year working on ideas around a poem entitled Let there be peace by Lemn Sissey. As always the results were both dramatic and colourful but also each unique. Here is my quilt which I called Puzzle and which tried to capture a number of the images in the poem, magpies,waves, Ethiopia, fireworks -but in an abstract way.