Update on The Mind of a Genius…..

…..by Mary Jackson.

Stages two and three of my quilt are complete, i.e. the background is sewn. I’m not worried that it is somewhat distorted since it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. I’m working on the basis of you have to break eggs to scramble them  It’s all raw edges because I am overlapping rather than doing normal seams, so that means lots of ends, threads, frayed bits etc

The yellow bit is the ‘idea’ in the mind of a genius and is not supposed to be in the centre. Next step is to make some holes with facings.

 

Gravity…..

Carole Hagan is the latest member to send in her “work in progress”.  Carole says…….”Just thinking and playing with fabric and templates – the quilt will probably be called ‘Gravity’.

I have completely changed what I am doing after seeing some of the other quilts! One was too similar to my original thoughts.”

Gravity – work in progress by Carole Hagan

Fractured Light…..

Please keep those images coming in so we can show folk what we are up to!  The latest photos we’ve been sent are from Pat Sperr who says of her hand dyed, whole cloth quilt……”this is a photo of my Newton “work in progress”.  It is based (loosely) on Newton’s discovery of light refraction, and will be called Fractured Light.”

Fractured Light by Pat Sperr

Detail from “Fractured Light” 

The Mind of a Genius…..

Thanks to Mary for sending in her Newton “work in progress”, this is just the sort of thing we need to give the rest of us a push!  Mary is trying out a technique which is new to her, so making this a double challenge!

Can you tell what it is yet……..?

“Long way to go but here is the tentative start to my Sir Isaac quilt. It’s just the centre part, it will be landscape so lots more strips either side. Then more cutting up, re-sewing, appliqué, painting, stamping etc. Or maybe not………I may change my mind.  I’ll see how it goes. It’s not exactly planned.  I haven’t joined the strips with 1/4” seams, but overlapped the raw edges which I have discovered is much more difficult………they wander! Oh, and the inspiration is ‘The Mind of a Genius’.”

Sir Isaac Newton Quilts…..

Our Isaac Newton Challenge is gaining momentum and I would like to have more images of your quilts, either “work in progress” or “finished” work, to feature here on the website.  The first two quilts to be revealed are from Joan and Deborah.

Jean Proud has sent this image of her beautiful representation of the famous apple tree in the garden of Newtons home, Woolsthorpe Manor.

Newtons famous Apple tree

Deborah Mullins has sent two images of her ingenious Newton “Word Search” Quilt.

Sir Isaac Newton Word Search Quilt

Deborah says…”I wanted to create something that would detain people, make them want to stand in front of it and scrutinise it, rather than just wander past. So I chose to create a word search about Sir Isaac Newton, his work, his contacts and his life. There was so much material to choose from, enjoyable research to find some more obscure aspects of his work, and a bit of fun putting the word search together. There are 30 words to find, which can be put on the ‘label’ next to the quilt – some obvious, others a bit trickier”. What a great idea!

Out and Onto the Canvas…..

…..by Lynn Carr.

“Out and Onto the Canvas” is the title of the quilt made through a process of collaboration by the seven members of Textile Lincs. Hopefully you can see what the concept of the quilt is all about. David Hockney used his observation skills and through his painting skills transformed what he saw to give new life to his subjects in his distinctive painting style. Through fabrics, threads and using our own skills we aimed to capture some of the essences of his work. However, making a group piece is not necessarily an easy thing to do. As anyone in LINQS  will know, there are many considerations and decisions to be made in our own individual pieces, but in a group piece everyone has to be involved and everyone has to be happy about the final outcome.

All members were involved in the early stages of deciding just what would be our subject. We wanted to show something of the diverse images of Hockney’s work; we wanted cohesion in the colour palette and yet we didn’t want to produce individual squares and sew them together. Sounds easy when said in so few words, but getting there took a lot of talking and a lot of googling! One thing we decided early on was that the colour palette would be based on The Arrival of Spring.

The colour scheme was based on Hockney’s work “The Arrival of Spring”.

Then, as often happens after much talking in the early stages of a project, we decided, “Well, we have to start somewhere”, and so we each went home to choose a painting that interested us and convey it in fabrics and threads. At our next meeting all these pieces came together for consideration as to what worked and what didn’t in the overall image. You will see imagery inspired by Hockney’s wood paintings, his fields and furrows of Yorkshire, his dancers and his totem motif.

Having selected the images to go into the final piece, we then arranged them within the overall size of 30 x 40 inches and discussed what was needed to bring the whole piece together. This was achieved by using stitchery and fabric collage, again using our chosen colour palette. Both hand stitching and machine stitching were used throughout and a variety of fabrics such as cottons, silks and velvets.

As you can imagine “Out and Onto the Canvas” has travelled a few miles already between members’ locations at Lincoln, Grantham, Spalding and our meeting place of Sleaford. It truly has been a collaborative project and even though one of our members lives outside of Lincolnshire and so was precluded from joining in on the stitching, she was very much involved in group discussions, the final design and the many considerations to be made along the way. Other members involved were Lorraine Appleton, Lynn Carr, Angela Daymond, Anne Dolan, Jenny Harrison and Krisztina Theisler. We hope you enjoy the final outcome.

Three Green Waves…..

……by Sandra Goldsborough.

 

Three Green Waves with Orange Sand

The title of my DH Quilt is “Three Green Waves and Orange Sand” which was inspired by the painting that Hockney did in 1989.  I originally intended making it a lot more textured and using many more fabrics and have some lovely green dyed scrim I was going to use.  I also meant to include quite a bit of hand stitching and embellishment.   I have had limited time to do it and, to be honest, am basically more comfortable using fabrics already printed so I choose to reproduce the image from my (fairly large) stash!

I made my pattern, altering the proportions as necessary, to produce a 30 x 40cm quilt.  I found the suitable fabrics and machined the “waves” in place on top of the sand and sea background. I then machine quilted on top of the bonded fabrics using a straight stitch and walking foot (it is not free machine quilted).  I then wanted to add some more colour and got out my Faber-Castell Gelatos which I bought from Hilary Beattie at last year’s Festival.  I had never used them before but found they produce the effect I wanted.  I used them dry but they are water soluble so suitable for either technique. I can imagine they will have lots of uses so thank you Hilary!

You can see Sandra’s work in progress on this quilt here

Abstract woodland….

…..by Sheila Evans.

  
My DH quilt was inspired by all of Hockney’s tree paintings. I could not choose just one to base by design on so I did a kind of abstract piece. I used Oakshott fabric for the background. The appliqué trees were applied using Heat ‘n Bond and heavy machine embroidery with some couching to add depth and the quilted background was created with hand stitching.

Work in Progress….

…..by Sandra Goldsborough

This is my DH quilt, “Three Green Waves with Orange Sand”, inspired by Hockneys painting of the same name which he did in 1989.  I’ve chosen to do the smaller size of 30 x 40 cms, landscape orientation.

I love seascapes so this was a natural choice for me. There is a similar piece in the gallery at Salt’s Mill at Saltaire.

I have used cotton fabrics, some bonded onto a background of sea and sand. It is machine and hand stitched using a variety of threads.

  

  

Hockney at Tate Britain…

Tate Britain is to mark British artist David Hockney’s 80th birthday with the “world’s most extensive retrospective” of his work.  To find out more visit news.sky.com by clicking HERE.