Messing about

My gold squares are coming on, but I thought I would have an injection of colour this week.

I have been messing about with paper, acrylic, home-made funky foam stamps and dyes.
No plan, no rules, no objective, no purpose, no thinking, no need for good results.

We had a day of blue sky and warm sunshine - in December!!! I couldn't resist the temptation to get back to working in the garden.

In no particular order, with no rhyme or reason, the results:

Thanks for visiting...

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @  http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/

I Quilt Thursdays @ http://prettybobbins.com/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @  http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk   

Finish Friday @ http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.co.uk/

Going to Pieces again

I have finished Going to Pieces!

...at least for the time being. I got a little bit carried away when I was doing the piecing and I still have a lot of strips left over. But that will be for another project. 

I had a large piece of sage green dyed fabric which fitted the colour scheme quite well, so used that for the back. I did all the quilting in a sky blue thread in both top and bobbin and I quite like the effect of the seemingly randomly placed patterns.

As the sage fabric wasn't quite large enough I added a couple of strips of darker green. I thought I would spice it up with bits left over from the quilt top. This turned out not to be such a good idea. The FMQ patterns do not marry up and quilting over two sets of seams was VERY bumpy!

I wanted both variety and repetition to hold it together. I think there are about 20 different patterns in total, but many many more strips. There is a lot more repetition than noticeable on the photos.

 I quilted each strip with one of the patterns. Where a strip was constructed out of pieces I used one motif adjusted to fit each piece.

And a few more close ups.

Thanks for visiting

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Anything goes Mondays @ http://marelize-ries.blogspot.co.uk/

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

Fabric Tuesday @http://quiltstory.blogspot.co.uk/    

Sew cute Tuesday @ http://www.blossomheartquilts.com/ 

Let’s Bee Social @ http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.co.uk

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WOW = WIPs on Wednesdays  @ http://www.estheraliu.blogspot.co.uk/  

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @ http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca

I Quilt Thursdays @ http://prettybobbins.com/

Really Random Thursdays @ http://www.liveacolorfullife.net/

Needle and Thread Thursday @ http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.co.uk/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Fabric Frenzy Friday @ http://fortworthfabricstudio.blogspot.co.uk

Friday linky party @ http://www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @  http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk   

What is in a name?

The last few posts have been all about black and white  so I thought it was time for an injection of colour.

Here is some printing done with another stencil made with a fabric soldering iron. See my post 'stencils, soldering irons and inattentive mothers' for the story  here. 

I decided to use the letters of my name for the design. All the letters are right - but not necessarily in the right order! I needed to overlap the letters to make a good design, and since 'Hilary' is shorter than 'Florence' - which went on the 2nd line - there was a bit of jiggery pokery to fit all the letters in.

Of course, making your stencil this way, means you actually end up with two stencils - the positive and the negative of your design. Here, I have started with a yellow negative stencil, overlaid with a positive in red.

In the next example I have added some dark blue to the mix and inverted the stencil so some of the letters are upside down.

This time I've only used the negative stencil, but turning it through 90 degrees to give both horizontal and vertical text.

Here, I have first used the positive stencil - again overlaying horizontally and vertically - then gone over with a sponge roller.

I really like this last one. I've used both positive and negative versions in a kind of checkerboard pattern.

All the prints are done with procion dyes thickened with manutex.

Thanks for dropping by...

Hilary Florence

P.S.

I have become a convert to linky parties. They are a great way to see and be seen. Please find below a list. I may not link to all every week, but I do link with some most weeks. Please go and have a look at all the lovely work there.

Anything goes Mondays @ http://marelize-ries.blogspot.co.uk/

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

Fabric Tuesday @http://quiltstory.blogspot.co.uk/    

Sew cute Tuesday @ http://www.blossomheartquilts.com/ 

Show and tell Tuesday @ http://ihavetosay.typepad.com/randi/

Let’s Bee Social @ http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.co.uk

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WOW = WIPs on Wednesdays  @ http://www.estheraliu.blogspot.co.uk/  

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @ http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca

We did it Wednesday @ http://www.sewmuchado.com/

­­­­I Quilt Thursdays @ http://prettybobbins.com/

Really Random Thursdays @ http://www.liveacolorfullife.net/

Needle and Thread Thursday @ http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.co.uk/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Fabric Frenzy Friday @ http://fortworthfabricstudio.blogspot.co.uk

Friday linky party @ http://www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.co.uk/

Trio of Leaves - free motion quilting cameo 26

Trio of Leaves - free motion quilting cameo 26

This is a spin off from the previous post 'Leaf Triplets'. The leaves have become more stylised and symmetrical. The curved stem has gone and the straight veins jet out at a 90 degree angle, each vein with an ending - triangles for the first leaf, circles for the second and kites for the third.

Thanks for stopping by...

Hilary Florence

Banana Bunches - free motion quilting Cameo 12

Banana Bunches - free motion quilting Cameo 12

May be Banana bunches isn't quite the right name for this one - may be Jungle Leaves? Anyway, it's another one that has many possible tweaks, each of which will give it a different character. Each 'finger' here, has a slight curved and slanted sharp cornered finish, which echoes the motif above. These fingers could be finished with a straight edge, or a rounded end, or a point. Each side of the central line could have three or more fingers. The fingers themselves could curl in or out. And so on.

That is the joy of doodling to create designs - there are so many possibilities and variations.

Enjoy

Thanks for dropping by...

Hilary Florence

Sherri Lynn Wood and improvisational duets?

Sherri Lynn Wood is a quilter who uses improvisation in her piecing and quilt construction, or as she puts it 'improvises quilts as a life practise'. You can learn more on her blog daintytime.net. If you scroll back a bit, you can read how she applies her insights from a course in improvisational theatre to her life and quilts.

She is currently writing a book about her improvisational piecing and looking for quilters to try out her projects. Our styles are very different, but as a musician myself, (and a quilter who never follows a pattern!) I was intrigued and volunteered.

This post is manly for Sherri as she asked to look at applicants' blogs. Since I haven't been blogging very long, I thought I'd put up some past pieced pieces, to show when I am not dyeing, printing or machine quilting, I do actually do some piecing!

Sherri, if you get this far, I hope you enjoy it - as I hope the rest of you do too!

Catching the curve - a first piece in curved piecing

 This was one of my first forays into curved piecing, using an idea by Ann Johnston in her book The quilter's book of design. Slightly curvy strips are sown together to make blocks. Using a 'stack and wack' approach, the blocks are cut with  gently curving 'V' shapes before reassembling.

Blue and Brown Boundaries

 This piece basically uses 2 colours - a bright turquoise and a russet brown. The variations come from 'dulling' each dye by adding differing amounts of its complementary. I admit that there is a touch of gold which I did not dye!

The piecing is entirely improvisational - there was no plan at all. A real, have rotary cutter - will travel and make it up as you go along - approach. Each piece is outlined in a bias of the complementary colour and the pieces assembled in ever increasing sizes.

Cross-roads

Here is the next piece using the same technique. The dyes are a scarlet and charcoal and I've livened things up a bit with a touch of silver. This time, the bias insets vary in size and also have their own curves.

Sunset Trees 2

Autumn Trees 1

 Tray dyeing provides the backgrounds for a series I did on winter trees. Biased insets give the tree outline. Cutting the tree free-hand with a rotary cutter makes sure that each tree is unique. I've finished them off by quilting a free-motion leaf motif.

Nine Lives

This piece started off life as 'ten not quite green bottles, hanging on a wall', but the more I looked at the pieced 'bottles' (now the bodies), the more all I could see was cats. In the end, I gave in and appliqued heads and tails and 'Nine Lives' was born.

Nine Lives - detail

The cats' bodies and the blocks are cut free-hand with a rotary cutter. The quilting is meant to be a kind of stone wall. There are also a few mice hiding around - but not on this detail.

Improvisational piecing - work in progress

No curves for once. This is really inspired by using up scraps - with a splash of gold because even scraps can be special. I've got quite a lot more, so not sure yet how this will end up, but there will of course, be some quilting. I'll post about it when I get there.

Enjoy

Thanks for dropping by

Hilary Florence

Notan leaves and more Procion Paper Play

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Notan Leaf 1 - printed on paper with thickened procion dyes

I thought it would be great to start the year I hope to go on - namely with some creative fun.
I have played around a little with Notan - that is motives and patterns that balance negative and positive space. I made a few leaf stamps with funky foam, thickened some dye and off I went.

Grid stamped Notan Leaf 1

I've overlapped the stamp here to make a loose grid. The background overlaps but not the leaf itself. Extra texture is added with another stamp, made from rubber bands stretched across a base.

Overlapping Notan Leaf 1 stamp

Here I've overlapped the leaves in this one - not sure I like this.

Notan Leaf 1 multi-directional  overlapping

And pretty sure I don't like just overlapping in all directions

Notan Leaf 2

 Here is Leaf 2...

Notan Leaf 2 - mirror repeat

repeated and with mirror image..

Notan Leaf 2 stamp half drop repeat

different colour scheme and a half-drop repeat grid.

Notan Leaf 3 - simple repeat

 Notan Leaf 3 - very fiddly stamp to make this one, not just cutting out all the little bits of foam but sticking them on to the other side!

Notan Leaf 3 horizontal half drop repeat

Enjoy!

Thanks for dropping by

Hilary Florence