Quilts

Lutradur Forest Workshop…..

/ Karen Lane / 8 Comments

Day two of the Lutradur Forest Workshop saw the ladies layering and stitching their Forest designs to their base fabric.

As often happens in a workshop, although all of the ladies worked constantly over the two day’s and the quilts are looking terrific, everyone has some finishing off to do at home.

Clare is adding clumps of bluebells to her Forest floor, hand embroidering them with Colonial knots

Janet’s design featured trees in leaf as well as these wonderful old gnarly tree stumps

Sue created lots of depth with her shading

Clair based her design on a photo she took while visiting a Canadian lake in the Fall

Janice is making lots of individual leaves which will be added to the foreground on the right of her design

Patricia has created a very strong contrast with her dark foreground tree and the lighter grey trunks in the background

Lyn will add stitched detail the her ferns to create interest in the foreground

Thanks to Nicola at the Simply Stitch Studio for being a wonderful host and to all the ladies for their enthusiasm and hard work.  I will look forward to receiving photos of your finished quilts.

Lutradur Forest Workshop….

/ Karen Lane / 12 Comments
A Walk in the Forest art quilt by Karen Lane

Walk in the Forest

Today was day one of a two-day Lutradur Forest Workshop at the Simply Stitch Studio, Wetherby.  Using my “Walk in the Forest” design as a starting point, eight ladies have begun the day designing their own “Forest” art quilt which will consist of several layers of Lutradur fabric.  Today the Lutradur has been cut out and painted and tomorrow we will begin layering and stitching the fabric in place.  As you can see from the photos not only is each design unique but also each student is displaying a distinct style of their own.

The ladies start by drawing out their design ideas on paper

The Lutradur is cut out and painted

Cutting out foliage using a soldering iron

This is where we are at the end of day one…..

Tomorrow we will bring all the main elements together and stitch them in place before adding any foreground detail and hand stitching.  I’m really looking forward to seeing how these pieces develop!

 

Tall Trees Workshop….

/ Karen Lane / 4 Comments

We’ve just come to the end of day one of my “Tall Trees” art quilt workshop at Simply Stitch near Wetherby.  There are thirteen ladies taking part, over two days, working with paint and stitch, layering sheer fabrics and netting to create beautiful backgrounds for their painted Vilene trees.   We have some fabulous quilts taking shape, this is how they are doing so far…….

Even our host, Nicola, is making time to join in with this workshop!

Inspired by Sir Isaac Newton…..

/ Karen Lane / Leave a comment

 

One of the textile groups I belong to is LINQS (Lincolnshire Quilters) and each year we respond to a challenge to make an art quilt based on the life or works of a particular person.  Our latest challenge was inspired by Sir Isaac Newton and the work will be on display over the coming bank holiday weekend at Waltham Windmill.  The exhibition is free and we will be having a sales table and demonstration area.  There will be lots of other things going on at the working Mill with shops, cafes, picnic area, miniature train rides and a model engineers marquee, etc so a great venue for a family day out!

The exhibition is open from 10am – 4 pm on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  Here are just a few examples of what we have on show…..

Gravitree by Jean Proud

Inspired by the life and work of Sir Isaac Newton by Karen Lane

The Mind of a Genius by Mary Jackson

Woolsthorpe Manor by Pat Cave

Inspired by Sir Isaac Newton…..

/ Karen Lane / 2 Comments

LINQS (Lincolnshire Quilters) will be exhibiting their latest body of work, 22 art quilts inspired by Sir Isaac Newton, at the end of this month.  Our first venue will be the beautiful Alford Manor House.  Built in 1611 it is thought to be the largest thatched manor house in the country.

I’ve finally finished my Newton quilt.  It’s 30″ x 40″ and the design is based on the fact that Newton spent a lot of his time studying and practising alchemy.  It consists of appliqué commercial fabric, Tyvek and painted vilene applied to a background of tea stained cotton fabric.  Other materials used include oil pastels, Inktense, permanent marker pen and metallic foil.

Inspired by the life and works of Sir Isaac Newton

These are just a few of the other fantastic quilts that will be on show……

Gravitree by Jean Proud (30″ x 40″)

Gravitree detail

The Mind of a Genius by Mary Jackson (30″ x 40″)

Snapshots of Isaac by Joan Plummer (30cm x 40cm)

This next quilt Is called “Wordsearch” and there are thirty words to find, all relating to life of Isaac Newton.  An ingenious way of stopping visitors in their tracks and making them really scrutinise your work!

 

Cranwell Quilt Show 2016….

/ Karen Lane / 2 Comments

This weekend the two Cranwell groups, Crafty Ladies & Cranwell Contemporary Textiles, held their first ever quilt show.  I’ve been a member for just over a year and during that time have seen many wonderful pieces of work produced by the members but to actually see all of this work, and more, displayed together was amazing!

The show was split between two venues with the contemporary work by the CCTG in Cranwell village hall and the traditional quilts by Crafty Ladies on quilt stands and draped over the pews in the beautiful village church.  The following photos show a selection of the quilts on display in the hall.

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The next four photos are quilts made in response to our themed quarterly “challenges”.

Challenge Quilts....what Winter means to me

Challenge Quilts….what Winter means to me

Challenge Quilts.....Flora & Fauna

Challenge Quilts…..Flora & Fauna

Challenge Quilts....shape & colour

Challenge Quilts….shape & colour

Challenge Quilts.....(left) Summer garden, (right) Poetry

Challenge Quilts…..(left) Summer garden, (right) Poetry

Dedicated to St Andrew, Cranwell church originates circa the 10th century and it made a wonderful venue for the more traditional quilts…….

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Three Tall Trees…..

/ Karen Lane / 4 Comments

At long last, after making 3 small quilts for the David Hockney Challenge and promising Mary from LINQS I would make a large one, I have finally made a start on it! It’s going to be a scaled up version of the quilt I made at the Cranwell Group earlier this year with the theme “what Winter means to me” (20″x 15″).

What Winter Means To Me

What Winter Means To Me

Last Winter had been all about trees as far as I was concerned. Researching Hockney’s work led to me developing a fascination of my own for trees and woodlands and I began photographing them wherever I went. This quilt is based on a photograph I took while out walking in the woods at Woodhall Spa.

The woods at Woodhall Spa

The woods at Woodhall Spa

I began by soda soaking my fabric prior to dyeing with Procion from Artvango. Unfortunately I think I must have used too much soda. Although I covered it before ironing I still managed to burn the entire area of fabric above the tree tops! The dyed area was fine, just the white space above was burnt. I decided, rather than start again, to cut out the trees, back them with Vilene and make a huge piece of appliqué. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it was so much easier to handle under the machine than the whole cloth would have been!

Coloured with Procian and Inktense.....prior to burning!

Coloured with Procion and Inktense…..prior to burning!

I’ve layered organza and netting and machine stitched the background trees in various coloured threads, the same way as I did for the smaller version, but this time using more variety of colours.

Layered organza and netting.

Layered organza and netting.

The next step was to add the woodland floor before layering my appliqué woodland, sky fabric and wadding. The foreground trees have now been tacked in position and can be machined once the finer branches have been hand sewn.

Foreground trees tacked in position

Foreground trees tacked in position

I’m not particularly looking forward to quilting the three tall trees in place as the quilt sandwich is already very bulky.  With hindsight I should have sewn the three trees on to the “sky” layer before I started quilting……..another lesson learnt!