David Hockney In Stitches…..

March 15, 2015September 9, 2015 / Karen Lane / 2 Comments

Yesterday afternoon saw the 3rd meeting of LINQS, the Lincolnshire Quilters group, which was formed last year with the aim of creating “inspired” quilts to form the basis of a travelling exhibition. Our first “inspirational” theme is the work of David Hockney. The brief is to take influence from his work however you want to do it, whether that be colour, shape, subject matter, etc. it’s up to the individual. Gill set herself the task of reproducing, as accurately as possible, a specific Hockney painting using textiles, threads, beads and found materials. The finished quilt is shown below with a photo of Hockney’s 18th VN painting. Isn’t it beautiful?

Click here for more photos and info about LINQS.

Hockney self portrait update…..

February 4, 2015October 12, 2015 / Karen Lane / Leave a comment

Thanks to Maggy for pointing out that I hadn’t posted a picture on here of my finished quilted version on Hockney’s self-portrait. I have just added it to “Hockney gets a scarf” under the “Art Quilts” category.

If anyone reading this is interested to learn more about the Lincolnshire Quilters “David Hockney Challenge”‘, which is gaining momentum nicely, we have a blog at http://www.linqsblog.wordpress.com

Second LINQS Meeting…..

January 24, 2015October 12, 2015 / Karen Lane / Leave a comment

Last weekend saw the second meeting of the LINQS group at The Coach and Horses in Billinghay. It was a very good turn out with 25 ladies attending the meeting, most of whom arrived early to take advantage of the delicious lunch time menu.

Sheila chaired the meeting and it was great to hear that, as well as now having 39 members, we also have a number of venues showing an interest in exhibiting our DH quilts when they go on the road next year.

Several of the ladies brought along the quilts they have started, while others were keen to show which of the DH paintings they are intending to use for inspiration for their work.

Jean’s quilt is inspired by Hockney’s Woldgate Woods.

Jean took her inspiration from Hockney’s paintings of “Woldgate Woods”. This beautiful, hand sewn quilt has been created using a jelly roll for the background and appliqué for the foreground.

Karin’s quilt inspired by Hockney’s painting of Garrowby Hill.

The shapes and colours in Karin’s quilt have been influenced by Hockney’s landscape painting “Garrowby Hill” with its winding road and patchwork fields.

Rosie shows the fabrics she will use for her quilt.

Rosie is also taking Garrowby Hill as her starting point. It’s all in her head at the moment but her fabrics have been selected and are ready for the cutting mat!

Sandra’s choice is Hockney’s “Three Green Waves with Orange Sand”.

Sandra’s choice is a little known image entitled “Three Green Waves with Orange Sand” which features in the book “Hockney’s Pictures: The Definitive Retrospective”.

Molly and her quilt.

Molly designed her quilt after seeing the Hockney collection on a visit to Salts Mill Gallery.

The red background for Carole’s quilt.

Carole has created a background for her quilt using curved strips of fabric in various shades of red. The foreground will feature a wine glass with a reflection of Hockney’s face. Carole told me she is experimenting with a new technique for creating the wine glass. Once it’s finished we will show a photograph and get Carole to explain in her own words how she created it.

The next meeting was scheduled for March.

Olga’s work in progress…..

October 19, 2014October 19, 2014 / Karen Lane / Leave a comment

I wanted to share theses images showing the work of one of the ladies taking part in David Hockney challenge. Olga explains in her own words the influence of Hockney and how she is interpreting this in her design.

“I first became aware of David Hockney through a television programme about his forthcoming exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2012. It was the colours he showed in the landscapes that made me look around and search for those colours. I found them in the surrounding landscape, but realised he paints them with more intensity and energy. I didn’t get to the exhibition but did splash out on the catalogue. At the same time I was getting into dyeing my own fabrics and using the cold primaries as in the Ives Colour Wheel.

When this challenge came up I chose from the catalogue, the painting The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate Woods. I liked the vibrancy, energy and movement in the painting and those three elements are the inspiration for this quilt.

I like working with layered squares, and I like frayed edges. Initially, as can be seen in my sketch book page, the quilt was to have more colour, I was thinking about the colours of the tree trunks, and I tried lots and lots of different permutations, but wasn’t happy with the result, so settled for different shades of turquoise (Procion dyes) as the background, with a, light, dark, light, layering, and small amounts of brown/red, trying to make it POP, i.e. give it a bit of energy. In the painting the leaves falling from the trees are outlined in blue, and I am planning to have a strong vertical line of falling leaves, down one side of the quilt, with a balancing leaf on the right, possibly in sheer, layered fabrics, possibly Lutrador, and with a blue outline. In these photographs I am trying it out with translucent paper.

After looking at one of my quilts Sandra Meech suggested to me that the strong vertical line could be a ‘signature’ of my work, but would need to be developed. It’s that development I am also trying to achieve in this quilt.”

LINQS…our first meeting

October 5, 2014October 6, 2014 / Karen Lane / Leave a comment

A selection of David Hockney books displayed on a table.

A selection of David Hockney books were available to browse.

Yesterday saw the first meeting of LINQS, the Lincolnshire Quilters group which is responsible for the David Hockney Challenge. The challenge is open to anyone living in Lincolnshire.

15 ladies turned up for our first get together at The Coach and Horses in Billinghay and to quote Mary “there were no shrinking violets”! It was a lively session with lots of ideas, enthusiasm and encouragement.

Work in progress….it’s easy to see the Hockney influence in this colourful mini quilt.

Several of us took along quilts we have already started, while others were keen to talk through the ideas that they have in mind. Some of the members also brought their copies of various David Hockney books for the rest of us to browse.

Unfortunately the photograph below doesn’t do justice to the wonderful piece of work this lady is creating. The influence here is the colour and movement that Hockney displays in his work as the small, individual pieces of layered fabric gently ripple.

Work in progress….the influence here is the colour and movement that Hockney puts into his work.

An open sketchbook showing photographs of the countryside on the right and hand written notes on the left.

Fiona’s sketchbook ideas

Fiona has been taking photographs of the local landscape while out walking her dog. She has pasted these into her sketch book with notes of how Hockney might interpret these scenes if he were to make a quilt. This is the sort of thing I always tell myself I should be doing…..I just need to start doing it!

David Hockney gets a scarf…..

September 28, 2014February 4, 2015 / Karen Lane / 1 Comment

A felted scarf and my David Hockney mixed media quilt is nearly ready for quilting!

This evening David Hockney got himself a dark red Merino wet felted scarf so now he’s nearly ready to be put together and quilted.

To finish off I’v machined four rows of stitching at the back of the figure to represent the newsprint columns, quilted around the edge of the figure and added a black border.

My finished quilted version of David Hockney’s self portrait

Hockney gets a shirt…..

September 27, 2014February 4, 2015 / Karen Lane / 2 Comments

Work in progress

The mixed media Hockney quilt has been shelved for a couple of weeks but today I made a start on his clothing. Based on his 1954 self portrait, I am bringing him into the next decade. Along with his iconic dyed blond hair and round specs I decided to swap his check shirt for something a little more flamboyant!

Hockney Challenge…..adding the hair.

September 9, 2014February 4, 2015 / Karen Lane / 2 Comments

I want my version of Hockney’s collage ‘Self Portrait‘ to be a fun piece constructed from a mixture of materials and methods. The face is being built up with layers of synthetic fabrics, bonded together using an 18w Antex soldering iron. My first attempt was with a 30w iron and a fine point bit….it was awful! The fabric burnt and I couldn’t control the cutting edge as the iron was too hot and the point too thick. I took advice from Margaret Beal on her website and bought a lower wattage iron with an extra fine bit…..it’s a lot easier when you use the right tools!

For the mop of blond hair I chose to use a technique which I originally saw demonstrated by Jan Tillett on Youtube. This involved free machine sewing onto water soluble stabiliser which was held in an embroidery hoop. I traced the outline of the hair onto the stabiliser before sewing back and forth with yellow and cream thread, overlapping the stitches so that they held together once the background fabric was washed away. The hair took shape very quickly and I am really pleased with the texture. The next job will be to select fabrics for the clothes.

Creating the hair using soluble stabiliser.

Portrait of Hockney made from fabric and thread.

The mop of blond hair plonked in place!

LINQS David Hockney Challenge…..

September 8, 2014October 6, 2014 / Karen Lane / 2 Comments

Are you living in Lincolnshire? Do you enjoy quilting and fancy a challenge? If you can answer yes to both these questions you might like to join the ladies in LINQS (Lincolnshire Quilters) and create a quilt inspired by any work of David Hockney’s, past or present. Quilts can be made by an individual or a group and the work can feature any technique or style, including traditional.
The criteria we have to adhere to is…..

1. To be a quilt it must have 3 layers

2. The size must be either 30″x40″ or 30cm x 40cm portrait or landscape. If you want to make a larger size quilt you can hang several smaller ones together.

3. No matter what style we use we must be able to link the finished piece back to DH’s work.

For more information or to register your interest click here.

I didn’t really know Hockney’s work before signing up for the challenge but, after talking to one of the members of LINQS, I took a ride up to Salts Mill to see it for myself. Salts Mill is in Saltaire, West Yorkshire, a few miles from Bradford and it houses a permanent display of Hockney’s work. It also has a terrific book shop and a restaurant serving delicious food on the top floor.

The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate

Background of my monotone quilt.

Trees are added to stand away from the background.

Detail of foliage at base of trees.

I’ve started work on two ‘mini size, quilts, the first is based on The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate. I decided to strip it back to a monotone colour scheme and started off in a fairly traditional way using machine and hand stitching on the background. I wanted the trees to stand out so I used black acrylic paint on vilene, backed with black felt and attached them with my glue gun. The foliage at the base of the trees was cut from a piece of lace which has also been painted with acrylic. I’m not sure how I am going to finish this one…..do I add the large leaves and the vines? I’ll sleep on it a bit longer before deciding my next step.

The second piece I’m doing is based on Hockney’s early self portrait collage. This is going to be a mixed media quilt using paper, paint and fabric. The background is the ‘Newsprint’ wallpaper from my last post. I have stuck it onto cream netting using PVA. Once it was dry I turned it over, soaked it with water and gently rubbed the backing paper off until the image was showing through. This has created a nice thin layer which I can quilt at a later stage.

Hockney 1954 Self Portrait

Starting work on Hockney’s face.

More shading added to the face….the glasses are tried on for positioning.

Rather than copying Hockney’s 1954 self portrait I have chosen to show him as he styled himself in the 60’s with his trademark dyed blond hair and thick black round specs. After drawing the features onto cotton fabric I am trying a new (to me) technique for colouring the face, using a soldering iron to fuse layers of organza. I got the idea after buying the Margaret Beal book New Ideas in Fusing Fabric. The work in this book is so inspirational I had to buy the iron and have a go! I’m hoping to get some more of this quilt done this week so will post an update when I do.