George and More

Here is the reason we went down to London

which was

  a-maz-ing

But we made the most of our time away

with my first trip to the V&A

to see a few pieces of ceramics

Just a few pieces

and of course the textiles,

I love this mini dress.

We saw the ballgown exhibition as well but weren't 

allowed to take photos.

They have  a new exhibition opening soon

with  hollywood costumes which my daughter and I 

are planning to see at some time.

Sunday was a day just wandering around Central London

and I had to look twice when I saw this on the outside of 

Harvey Nichols.

We then went onto Green park to see the new memorial 

to WW2 Bomber Command.

My Father was on Bombers and I really wanted to see this.

It really is impressive which I sort of expected having seen 

news coverage of the memorial

But what I hadn't expected

was the photos,stories and poppy crosses piled under

 and around the figures and the effect these would have on me.

Knowing it was only an appendicitis that saved my Father

from being shot down with the rest of his crew

I was very moved by these personal memorials.

Thank you to everyone for your  comments

and concern.

 I am feeling much better now

 which is lucky as I'm going on holiday 

to Italy on Friday so I'll see you all when I get back.

Gillx

Monthly Makes

Normal service is being resumed today as my course

has finished although I have got my final piece to finish

which I'll show you when it's done.

I've also been ill this week and for the first time in 

goodness knows how many years I've been on anti-biotics,

so I have been watching a lot of daytime TV which I never do

usually do.

I have to admit, and I know some of you will disagree

 but

 I'm hooked on Loose women. 

For those who don't know it it's a morning chat show

which is like having a coffee

and a gossip with some out spoken, and at times, outrageous 

women who have been around the block a couple of times.

I's great fun.

Anyway I have managed to do a couple of other things this month

other than my Arty stuff.

This cushion is for one of my great nieces for Christmas in the colour

of bedroom, I just have to make the pad now.

I have to add she wasn't named after Kiera Knightly as she wasn't

 famous when my niece was born. Her Mum gets 

so cross that everyone assumes that is where the name comes from

and now so many little girls are called Kiera.

I remember we  noticed after we decided the names for my eldest daughter

that all of a sudden all the baby girls I met where called the same

so at the last minute we changed it.

So talking of babies, my friends daughter very unexpectedly

( yes you did read it correctly)

had a baby boy recently so we have all been buying (and making)

baby clothes.

These I love , I found the pattern among hundreds on Pinterest,

and they turned out great but I now can't remember which pattern I used. 

The friend was loves them too and they were

all wrapped up in the beautiful paper below.

I've never bought double sided paper before

as it's so expensive but this was just so sweet.

Well I'm off to London now to see George Michael in concert 

hopefully via the V&A so I'm tell you about it when I get back.

Have a great weekend.

Gillxx

Weeks 4 or 5

I'm feeling slightly poorly today so I've taken to the sofa

with a blanket and thought I bring you up to date

with my course work.

WEEK 4

Free Machine embroidery

Sewing onto paper seemed really strange but that is what we did  here.

Our work from the previous week was photocopied 

and we did some free machine machine embroidery onto the copy.

The back was interesting.

I then found this really strange piece of fabric,none of us could work what it was,

but the threads pulled really easily and when pulled it made some interesting shapes.

I then used a couple of the techniques we had been using and added some colour

It now covers my old Singer. I love the mixture of bright pink and

lime green.

WEEK 5

The cut work was fun,

this piece was only 3 layers but I want to try it with more.

I think this might look quite nice as the front of a small bag.

Then the fun started.

I absolutely love using dissolvable fabric

This thread is such fun and gives a fantastic effect.

My last piece I am so proud of I love it.

I cut a motif out of this fabric

Then just got totally carried away

creating this edge in autumn colours

and lastly adding some gold to lift it a little bit more.

This is my last week and I will really miss it

but can't wait to see what we do.

Gillxx

Textile course weeks 2 & 3

WEEK TWO

The second week of my course was looking at using Disperse Dyes.

 When Gina (our Tutor) talked about using dyes  I immediately 

thought of Dylon or natural dyes such as woad so this was all totally new to me.

Disperse dyes only work on made fabrics such as polyester and are painted onto  paper first.

The paper is then put face down onto the fabric and you dry iron over the top to transfer the dye.

Once the dye is in place it is indelible.

This piece I did by starting with 2 solid colours  which were cut into strips and woven into 

a check and then putting lace between the paper and the fabric so it acted as a barrier.

It doesn't show up very well in the photo but was really quite effective.

This  design was painted straight onto the paper

and then ironed onto a voile so you could see right through it.

This had to be my favourite piece.

This one had leaves as a mask under  solid blue,

then they were moved slightly before putting  red

over the top  so it looked a bit like a shadow.

The background fabric was grey and I think it would have looked better on white

but it was fun trying things out and seeing what effect you ended up with. 

WEEK THREE

The third week we moved onto mixed media and using different techniques

to attach fabrics to each other.

We again used the beams etc of Dragon Hall as our inspiration

looking back at the Marks we made in the first week

before choosing materials to make our picture.

I will explain the idea behind mine as it really isn't very clear.

It is supposed to be windows above beamed walls

and this picture was taken some way through.

So far I have used wood veneer, buttons, wool fleece,

and about 4 different weight fabrics some of which I have pulled threads out of to them a different texture. I have also embroidered some bricks onto it.

This was the one Sue ( my course friend) was doing. 

I like the colours she has chosen better than mine.

Sue had an embellishing machine that we had a go at 

to attach the hand made wool down the centre of the piece

and I did some free machine embroidery in the arch.

Although it has been fun to do it I can't say I like the results or the colours of this one.

I keep thinking it needs something more but I have no idea what.

It's a good job this is just for fun and I don't have to make a living out of it isn't it. 

: ))

On my next piece I would think about what I want a bit more before I start

rather than jumping  in with both feet which is how I approached it this time.

Tomorrow is week 5  and we're using dissolvable fabrics so I will show you how I get on 

with that  and what we did last week soon.