Too much on my mind

Not only am I working on tapestry design and making, I have also enrolled for a Dijanne Cevaal online workshop, the Traveller's Blanket.  (It was on the front cover of Quilting Arts Magazine recently.)  This is not just a technique workshop, it is about having a story to tell and then using that story to influence how the blanket develops.  So there is a lot of thought involved - as well as the actual dyeing and sewing. My story hasn't started yet, there are just nebulous ideas floating around - in with all the other ideas, very confusing.

I have dyed the fabrics and sewn them together to make the quilt part, now I just have to start thinking about what fabrics I will use for the appliqué and what embroidery threads and stitches I will use.  Simple!
I am actually looking forward to the sewing, it will be hand sewing that I can do while watching tv (as long as it isn't sport).  It is not really the weather to be holding a blanket on your lap but autumn will be here soon and the weather will be more conducive to it - I hope.

And then there is the attempt to do some daily doodles and lino cutting.  And the fortnightly playday group.

I miss the textile design course I did, the discussions of how people are developing their ideas, how they are going about making the pieces, etc.  I think it focussed me as well as gave me other ideas and approaches to think about.  But our assignments usually worked in conjunction with each other and I didn't have too many ideas floating around (well, not all that often).  Although I enjoy the challenges of the different groups I am in, I need to compartmentalise them, or reduce the number I am trying to develop at one time.

Doodling and Zen

I have been a bit slack about the black line drawing I wrote about a while ago.  Even though I really enjoyed it and had this (sort of) resolution to do some every week, I haven't done any recently, till the last few days.

I am still working on my bark images and trying to utilise them in my drawing - partly because I have plenty of images of tree trunks to use.

However, I have come across references to zen doodling, zen drawing and zentangles (which seems to be a trademark of the same idea as the other two). There is a whole lot of chatter on the internet about the meditative elements of this doodle drawing.  The recommended way to do it is more freeform than I have been doing but there is a definite similarity.

I also came across an article by Laura Wasilowski in Quilting Arts magazine about zen doodling for designing quilts. It has colour in it rather than the black and white of the zen doodling that I have seen online.  It takes the idea in a slightly different direction, one I don't want to follow at the moment.  But it is worth keeping in mind.

Trying a new technique

I have played around for the last couple of days with a technique that I saw on a video and also in the last Quilting Arts magazine (Dec/Jan).  It is by Beryl Taylor and incorporates reverse applique.  It looks so simple on the video and sounds so easy in the article.
I have spent three days working on it.  I decided to adapt her work and use my own design, based on tiles I saw in Turkey.  The simplest was of stars as they gave me plenty of pieces to cut out to get the colours showing.  However, I had decided to try to use a blue palette based on the blue and white tiles we saw.  Consequently, the design is not clear - it doesn't 'pop'.

This was despite having 45 different fabrics in the piece - 9 piles with 5 fabrics in each.  I had done the classic quilter thing, finding fabrics that go together beautifully. I needed to use some that I would never put together, to get the contrast.
However, having seen the video, I will put this aside and think about some of the other things Beryl uses on her art quilts, things I would never have thought of doing.  It will be a good experimental piece, if nothing else.

Back to the drawing board.  I then thought about other designs we had seen in Turkey and realised that we had seen somes that had circles as part of them, the same shape that Beryl had used.  So more cutting out and putting together of colours - ones that would have a greater contrast this time.

After I had sewn and then cut them again, I attached the squares to the backing and started playing with the sewing machine.  It is a long time since I have done any free motion sewing so the circles are quite wonky - fortunately that is not only allowable in this design, it is necessary, otherwise you don't get the small sections for cutting into.

I even found some metallic thread in my stash.  I could have sworn I have never sewn with metallic thread but there was a bobbin with some on it.  After many re-threadings, I know why I haven't done a lot of metallic thread sewing.