Tyvek Leaves in Waltham…..

/ Karen Lane / 4 Comments
My blue/green handmade leaf stitched with metallic thread and embellished with tiny coloured beads.

Tyvek leaf with metallic thread and beading.

I’ve just got back from spending a wonderful day with Jacky Hopkin and her group of ladies who meet at Waltham Windmill on the outskirts of Grimsby.  I was invited over to teach them the technique of making a Tyvek Leaf using coloured fabric Tyvek and a wire armature.

Once again we ended up with a variety of different shapes and colours, each one very different to the next, and each leaf will look beautiful when the stitching and beading has been added.  The ladies will finish these off at home and bring them back to their meeting next month for a “show and tell”.

Many thanks to Jackie and the group for inviting me over and thank you to Brenda for providing me with a delicious lunch!  I shall look forward to seeing you all again.

Louth Panorama Update…..

/ Karen Lane / 10 Comments

All the Louth Panorama quilts, being made by textile group Meridian, have now been handed over ready to be sewn onto a black background.

The individual quilts laid out prior to being sewn onto the black background.

Sheila had photographs of the two original canvases, painted by William Brown in the 1840’s, reduced in size and printed onto cotton fabric which she then quilted using free machine stitching.  These two panels will form the centre of our collaborative quilt with the rest of them being grouped as shown above.

 

Centre two panels free machined by Sheila

Click on each of the images to see the detail that has been put into the quilts, they really are beautiful pieces of work.

Quilt created by Pat Cave

Quilt created by Sue Jackson

Quilt created by Gill Lewis

Quilt created by Eileen MacKenzie

Quilt created by Gwen Harlow

Quilt created by Sandra Goldsborough

Quilt created by Margaret Fulwood

Quilt created by Karen Lane

 

 

 

Yellow Poppies Workshop…..

/ Karen Lane / 2 Comments

I’m really pleased to be announcing that I will be holding a two day workshop in August to recreate one of my favourite pieces, the wet felted wall hanging I call Yellow Poppies.  Since my quilts started touring with Grosvenor Shows earlier this year I’ve received more email comments about this piece than any other, which is really nice, with several ladies asking when I will be running a workshop.

The venue will be the beautiful light and airy Simply Stitch Studio at East Keswick owned and run by textile tutor Nicola Hulme.  The facilities are perfect for encouraging creativity and with over 400 bolts of patchwork fabric from Makower, Lewis & Irene and Cloud 9 as well as Hobbs quilt wadding you can take the opportunity of a little retail therapy if the mood takes you!  Nicola offers an extensive workshop programme so it’s well worth taking a look at her website to see what’s available.

 

 

 

 

 

The Louth Panorama…..

/ Karen Lane / 4 Comments

 

Art quilt based on a small section of the Louth Panorama

I’ve just finished working on my little section of a collaborative quilt with ‘Meridian’ a textile group who are based in the market town of Louth.   The overall quilt will be a tribute to the Louth Panorama, painted by William Brown, which is an all-round view of the town and district as seen from the top of the spire of St James’s parish church in Louth as on a summer’s day in the 1840s.  It depicts local life, the pattern of streets and the market place, with a roofscape little changed today. The painting consists of two canvases which have an interesting history and more information can be found on the Louth Museum website.

We each chose our favourite section of the painting to reproduce as a mini art quilt, either A4 or A3.  My choice was the graveyard which I’ve made in A3.  We were given free rein to use whatever techniques we wanted to use,  I’ve created mine as a whole cloth, painted with Inktense and then hand and machine embroidered.  I’ve used a bit of artistic licence to square up the layout and omitted the tiny figures.  You can see the original section below.

My chosen section of the Louth Panorama

I will add an update once we get all of the quilts joined together.

Needle Felted Toadstool….

/ Karen Lane / 2 Comments

This morning I travelled down to Pode Hole, in the Lincolnshire Fens, to deliver a needle felted toadstool workshop for the Spalding Embroiderers.  The ladies had expected to be doing a beading class but unfortunately the tutor couldn’t keep the booking and I was asked if I could step in at short notice, which I was only too pleased to do.

 

We began by making the three main components, the stalk, base and top of the toadstool using white Cheviot wool from World of Wool.  Cheviot is a good choice to use as ‘core’ wool as it is inexpensive and needle felts quickly.  Once we had joined together the three elements we covered the top of the toadstool using WoW’s carded Corriedale in sour cherry (Tutti Frutti collection) and Pinwheel (Galaxy range).  The base was covered in a combination of Tadpole and Sombrero, again from WoW’s Galaxy range.

For a lot of the day you could have heard a pin drop….the concentration was so intense!

Detail was added using small skeleton leaves and tapestry wool for grass.

Once again it was a really enjoyable day in the company of a very creative group of ladies.  My thanks to Liz and Mavis for inviting me back and I’m now looking forward to our next workshop!

The Spalding ladies with their toadstools

 

Sir Isaac Newton…..

/ Karen Lane / 2 Comments

The handover date for the latest LINQS challenge, to produce an art quilt inspired by any aspect of the life or works of Sir Isaac Newton, is fast approaching and I’ve still got a lot to do!  When I began my research I was surprised to learn that Newton had been an Alchemist (obvious really given the age he lived in) and spent a lot of his time and effort in pursuit of the Philosophers Stone.  I used this fact as my starting point and designed my quilt along the lines of an Alchemy illustration using a limited colour palette.  Materials used so far include oil pastels and transfer foils on cotton fabrics and pelmet vilene.  As I said, still a lot to do so back to the sewing machine!

My Sir Isaac Newton inspired art quilt is still work in progress

Bergschaf Necklace…..

/ Karen Lane / 6 Comments
Chunky necklace made from wet felted Bergschaf wool

Chunky Bergschaf Necklace

I’ve just finished an experimental piece which was started during  Mandy Nash’s workshop in Belchford last weekend.  It’s a chunky Bergschaf necklace made from shades of grey and natural Bergschaf wool with yellow, pink and orange spots and hangs from a thin cord.

 

Josie’s Tyvek Leaf…..

/ Karen Lane / 2 Comments

Tyvek Leaf made Josie at the Louth Textile Group.

This gorgeous Tyvek Leaf was made by Josie, one of the Louth Textile Group, at my Tyvek Leaf Workshop last Friday.  The addition of stitching and beading has transformed it……absolutely beautiful!  Please keep the photos coming in as and when you finish your leaves.

Tyvek Leaf Workshop…..

/ Karen Lane / 2 Comments

Tyvek leaf

Last night I was invited to deliver my Tyvek Leaf Workshop to 24 creative ladies from the Louth Textile Group who meet once a month at the Conoco Rooms above Louth Library.   Time was going to be a little tight with 24 participants and less than two hours to make our leaves but all of the ladies rose to the challenge knowing that they would have to complete their project at home.

We began by colouring our Tyvek using our chosen medium, either felt markers, fabric paint, acrylics or watercolours.  While this was drying the ladies made their wire leaf framework.

Every leaf was a different shape and there were some interesting colour schemes taking place………

Tyvek Leaves created by ladies at the Louth Textile Group

Selection of Tyvek Leaves painted and distressed and  ready for embellishing

It was a fun night which went all too quickly…..I wish I had made the time to take more (and better) photos!  With no time at the end for a “show and tell” I’m hoping to receive images of the finished work, complete with stitching and beading, when the group meet again next month.

Many thanks to all the ladies for making feel so welcome.

 

Weekend Workshop with Mandy Nash…..

/ Karen Lane / 5 Comments

My little group, Felt Inspired, have just played host to a wonderful wet felting weekend workshop with felt maker Mandy Nash.  The four “Inspired” regulars myself, Rosie, Dreda and Pat were joined by Jane, Enid, Joan, Helen, Sandra and Robyn (Feltybits).  As well as being an inspiring tutor, Mandy, who travelled up from Llantrisant, is Vice Chair, exhibitions officer and a regional co-ordinator of the International Feltmakers Association.

Mandy Nash

The morning began with Mandy showing the ten of us examples of her wonderful wet felted objects, including hats, bags, funky fish and vessels, mainly created using Bergschaf wool.

A small selection of Mandy’s work

Some of the ladies were keen to experiment with the “book” resist technique with five of them making vessels while  Robyn decided she would like to make a fish.

Sandra working with a book resist

Robyn’s fish & bowl, Rosie’s festival hat, Sandra’s coastline inspired vessel (centre) and Pats four-sided vessel (right)

The rest of us chose to make a hat using a flat resist and added embellishment.  In addition Mandy talked us through the various surface design techniques she uses and demonstrated how we could achieve these effects using Bergschaf wool batts.

Rosie working on her festival hat

Joan made a beautiful bowler hat with slash detail

Enid’s 3 sided two-tone grey vessel, Jane’s dark blue & Dreda’s light blue vessel.

Helen and I were both smitten with Mandy’s “fern” hat so chose to make that……

Helen’s “fern” hat

My fern hat

Many thanks to Mandy for an inspiring two days and thanks to all the ladies who participated.  If anyone would like to join our group we meet on the second Wednesday of the month at Belchford Village Hall.  For more information please use the contact form.