Infinity

I enjoyed a fabulous holiday and came home feeling rested, blessed and relaxed, what a precious feeling!  

The Creative Energy 2015 National Quilt Festival is now part of our South African quilting history.   It really was an enjoyable and friendly festival, just the way we love our festivals.  Congratulations to Twigg Hartwig and her very capable committee.   The baton was passed onto the Dias Quilters' Guild for the Siyadala - We Create 2017 National Quilt Festival to be held here in Port Elizabeth with yours truly sitting in the hot seat.

While I was working on designs for the Diversity Fibre Art Exhibition earlier in the year, I saved one design as my quilt entry for the festival!   It was the fourth piece which I made this year.   I kept it for last as it was a mandala and I knew exactly where I wanted to go with it...   I was also running out of steam/time and thought that as the process was familiar, it would help me over the finishing line.

As the design was already drawn full size, it was a relatively easy start.   I chose jewel colours for this quilt and before I knew where I was, the table was covered with batiks, silks, linen, felt, papers, applique paper, yarns, threads, pencils, the usual big mess!   And don't forget the empty coffee mug... The amazing thing is that I can always find everything under all the clutter!

Creative mess

I loved working on this quilt, maybe because of the colour palette.   The design is in a few layers.   I firstly covered the base cloth with the first layer, adding detail in the second layer and then added a third 3-D layer.   I used a variety of silks for these accents which gave it a rich glow.   Rolled fabric as well as wooden beads in a variety of colours were used to balance the raised 3-D surface elements. All the 3-D motifs were backed onto felt which provided an interesting dimension.  Raw edge applique technique was used throughout and couching a variety of yarns sealed certain edges which added another textured element.   3-D elements were also made with a soldering iron.   The quilt was machine quilted.

Some close-up detail of 3-D elements and couching.

Centre section

The initial choice of colours were cerise/magenta, jade/seagreen, blues and purples.  As the cutting progressed, I realized it needed a zinger to pop the colours!   I tried silks in lime green and watermelon pink which seemed to do the trick as it added the sparkle which was missing.   I repeated the lime colour by stitching additional detail into the border section.

Infinity 2015

Looking at this quilt makes me happy!    I love the simetry, texture and rich colours.  It won a Highly Commended award in the Masters Freestyle Category at the recent 2015 National Quilt Festival as well as a coveted Best Use of Colour.

En-twine-D

I have previously mentioned the Diversity Fibre Art Exhibition which I organized earlier this year.  It was a resounding success and all the work can be viewed on the Diversity Fibre Art Exhibition facebook page. 

 

En-twine-D 2015

The first piece which I made for this exhibition was En-twine-D.  I once again used my sketch book to make various rough sketches and rather liked this one...

Rough Sketch of En-twine-D 2015

I prepared a background of 3cm x 3cm fused squares using a variety of silks and cottons in earthy shades.  Somehow these colours have such a soothing effect on me, maybe because of my deep connection with the earth.   I couched course string to seal the raw edges of the blocks which doubled up as the construction method .   It gave a lovely natural and textured look which I wanted for this piece.

The second aspect of this piece, was planning and making the "pelmet" at the top.   I wrapped discharged black fabric around three dowels.   The next step was to plan the spacing between the dowels.   Fabric beads were made and inserted as spacers between the dowels.  Somehow this construction had to be sewn down onto fabric which in the end was not too difficult!   The spaces on the fabric looked rather empty, so small pieces of fabric was stitched down into the spaces and embellished with natural beads, it provided the necessary interest and also gave a raised surface effect which worked well.

Pelmet section of En-twine-D 2015

The original idea was to make hanging elements which would hang from this pelmet section.  I changed the original idea of round shapes to a combination of half rounds and rounds.   It looked much more interesting and provided an easier way of attaching the top half round to the pelmet section.   The amazing thing was that after attaching the top section of the hanging panel to the pelmet, it immediately changed the quilt into two layers.    I was really pleased that the surface height of the pelmet section and the half round was similar!   At this stage I decided to add more colours and chose purples, cerise and lime greens in various shades.      I used a similar but slightly thinner string to couch around the edges of the different sections of the background.   Fabric beads and 3-D silk leaves were made to embellish the panel.   The silks added a lovely sheen.

Top section of hanging panel

Two more round and another half round completes the hanging panel strung together with a combination of fabric, wooden and metal beads.   As wrapped dowels were used in the pelmet section, I thought it best to repeat it at the bottom with another half round shape hanging from it.

Bottom section of hanging panel

When one works against the clock, every minute counts.  In South Africa we experience electricity supply problems at the moment which results in regular load shedding periods...   With the aid of a LED lamp, the work could proceed....
  

Assembling the hanging panel during electricity load shedding!

It was much easier naming my children or dogs than my quilts!   I don't know why I find it so difficult, but it really is...   With this piece I thought of my inner self, my thought processes, work ethic,the design etc.   Although I'm mostly a creative free spirit, the need also arises for structure, to be in control of the process…   Designing on paper using geometry tools satisfies this need.  After all this thinking and soul searching, I still could not title this piece....!   The piece was pinned to my design wall for a few weeks and while looking at it intently again, it struck me that string was actually used in almost every aspect of this quilt.   It was used to seal the raw edges around the squares of the background, to string the fabric beads on the pelmet while holding it all in place, to seal the raw edges around the round and half round shapes of the hanging panel and also to string all the beads of the hanging panel.   The outer edge of the quilt was also sealed with string....     Entwined came to my mind and using creative license, it became En-twine-D! 

Diversity Fibre Art Exhibition

Diversity Fibre Art Exhibition is currently on show at the Theresa Hardman Art and Design Studio in Port Elizabeth.   29 exhibits created by eleven fibre artists living and working in the Eastern Cape Province, are on show.   We believe this is the first fibre art exhibition in Port Elizabeth and well worth a visit, whether you can do so personally or on the Facebook page.

Diversity Fibre Art Exhibition 
Theresa Hardman Art and Design Studio, 59 Main Road, Walmer, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
17 March - 17 April 2015

The image above was taken at the end of the opening night and shows a few of the exhibits. Personally I have three new pieces on this exhibition which I will share in due course.

Please visit the Diversity Fibre Art Exhibition page on Facebook and "like" the page.     Click on "photo's" to view images of all the exhibits.  All work is for sale.

It will be great to receive feedback.

xxMarilyn

Playing with Mandalas

Creatively I've had a very busy year so far and I will soon spill the beans...

I started playing with Mandalas last year and decided to make two cushions for our living room which can also be used as teaching samples.   I'm scheduled to teach another Design a Mandala workshop in May in Port Elizabeth and really need samples.

I love the pencil and paper aspect of mandalas, somehow I find it comforting to see how a design develops on paper before I actually start cutting and stitching.  Maybe it is a control thing as I can navigate balance, scale and proportions better...!

I made the two cushions to lie on the seats of two cane chairs to add some colour in the room.   As the rest of the furniture is upholstered in beige, it screamed for colour, so I used the colours in the floral curtains as my palette.

Untitled Mandala Cushion #1 - 2015

I taught a Design a Mandala workshop at the 2014 Dias Quilters's Guild Spring Show and while the students were merrily busy designing, I got this overwhelming urge to join in the fun and started this design.   As I was so busy with other obligations, it was put on the back burner for later...!   The interesting thing was that I used the size of the seat of the chair as the size of the cushion. However, once I finished the cushion and put the inner in, the cushion was too small!  Never thought of that!   So I added a small border around the cushions which actually added to the design.   These cushions amount to a lot of work and one cannot really put a price tag to it.

The second mandala cushion...

Untitled Mandala Cushion #2 - 2015

Every small motif was fused into position and stitched using the raw edge applique technique. Some raw edges were sealed with cords made from cotton yarns.   Additional detail was stitched into the designs.

Next time I'll share En-twine-d...