Trying to find enthusiasm

more encaustic folded book
You would think with a reasonably clear workspace I would find some enthusiasm to get working- but instead simply bleghh. The photographs are of little folded books I made awhile back which have been coated in wax. This gives them a really nice cardy textured feel. In the acqua coloured one I also hand stitched and the wax had the effect of embedding the stitching which I really like. Other than that I have been cutting out more pomegranates and auditioning fabric to add . I did tie dye some cotton/silk fabric I had- a 2 metre by 50 cm length and am not happy with the result- a lot of effort for very little.

And for those of you not part of the Artful quilters ring check out what Cheryl Sterling has been doing in the last few days- very productive! She has made some books fabric cards and a long and narrow quilt.Wish I had been that productive these last few days.

I did make some Lebanese eggplant pickle- which is yummy- couldn't wait the week for it to infuse with the flavours. If you love eggplant this is a really flavourful pickle. You simply
slice 3-4 longish ( but big) eggplants - sit in a colander and sprinkle with salt to drain off any bitter juices. In a saucepan heat two cups of white wine vinegar and two cups of water and bring to the boil. You add a handful of slices of eggplant until they are cooked but not so soft that they fall apart. You repeat this with all the eggplant ( you can also add some sliced green peppers- I use the long yellow ones). When all the eggplant is cooked and drained you are ready to pack them into clean sterilised jars. I crush about 3-4 cloves of garlic with fresh parsely and marjoram with a little salt to bring out the juices ( I do this in a mortar and pestle) and slice some fresh red chillie pepper finely ( hot ) In the bottom of the jar I put a little of the crushed garlic herb mixture- pack in some of the eggplant slices then some more garlic/herb mixture, chillie etc until the jar is full. Then I add olive oil, banging the jar to get rid of airbubbles and seal with the lid. This pickle lasts for quite awhile as long as the olive oil level is above the eggplant.

encaustic folded book 

Auditioning fabric 

down the road
Some of you know Sandy and I started walking every morning before I left England- I loved it, as you see the world in microcosm and see daily changes. We really did walk every day for a fortnight and I have tried to keep it up since being back ( and Sandy has too!). Yesterday I wrote about fires being closeby, well the projected wind change came with a vengeance, but the rain followed within 15 minutes, thankfully, so the world I walked in this morning was pretty sparkly. I am beginning to love the walking despite the hills!

on my walk 

Pig Ugly Fabric

Close-up, yes this really was the piggy ugly fabric....
Let me start by saying - I sure do hope that this is not someone's favourite fabric if it is please do not read what follows, and I do not wish to offend pigs. Like many of us I belong to a couple ( well a few too many actually) lists and when someone on one of the lists I belong to proposed an ugly fabric challenge because he simply could not live any longer with this fabric in his stash I bit ( I don't do many challenges- what do you do with the things afterwards???). I was intrigued as to what his interpretation of ugly- uggo- might be and I have to say we are of like minds! For a start i don't like pink, and cute is not my strong suite and this fabric is soooo"cute" that it defies words. What to do??? Well for a start ,see if I can get rid of the pink sort of- although I did want to keep a little to the challenge of actually using this fabric- and then disguise those pigs!!!! Anyhow I then ended up with a pinkish, piggy, blackish tie dyed fabric- my goodness no inspiration arrived and the muse abandoned me- so then I asked myself "What would Matisse have done???" When really really stuck I try and think how a favourite artist might have resolved the issue. I can see Matissse sticking his fingers down his throat in the background as he looks at this and gagging, even his love of fabric would not surmount this or would it? - but hey I did the challenge!

Someone asked about the elastics I use to tie with. The elastics are about half an inch across and I buy them in the Newsagents in bulk- and there is no special way of tieing- just get it on and as tight as you can- I have a grazed finger for my efforts as the elastic rubs across the top of the first joint of my forefinger.

And Sandy.... I am still walking-- have only missed three days- the first day back, Easter friday and one day last week.

The fire chopper with its bucket, has been going back and forth all day- there are a couple of fires up on the ridge and one in the valley- there is no immediate danger near our house and thankfully the wind is quiet, but the air is smokey. Fire restrictions went off yesterday- and today was hot hot hot- so keep away wind- keep away and fire stay away . Collin is going to Apollo Bay to play a gig tonight and will stay overnight rather than drive back and we have still not bought another car- so I am not entirely happy about being here without a car. It is unbelievable that we should have fires at this time of year. Collin would normally be out on a fire like this ( he is in the voilunteer fire brigade- known as the CFA) except he is working, but they must be anxious to put out fires before the forecast wind arrives- hence the chopper.

Seriously challenged.... 

Ugly fabric after dyeing 

Ugly fabric in dye bath 

pig ugly fabric... 

more dyeing 

What to do with icky Brown Fabric

On the washing line
I finally finished tieing this relatively large piece of cotton fabric which was a pretty non-descript brown colour. I also tied two of the damask napkins that i brought back from England one of which I had dyed orange to start with. I am not sure what i am going to use them for yet, but I am sure the muse is hovering and all she needs to do is strike- I am ready, my room is ready even my threads are ready!

It is really warm today about 30 degrees celsius- hard to believe for an April day- but I am not complaining! We had pesto last night made with basil from the garden- if ever there was manna from heaven it has to be pesto!
I bought some more acrylic paints so the kids and I can make some altered books over the holidays and also picked up some board books and larger format kids books to alter. Even if they don't like it I shall!

In the dye bath 

Tie tie tie 

Close-up

Close-up of tulle and fabric
Here it is Sandy, a close-up of the tulle and fabric piece. I hand stitched the squares on , I suppose I could have done it by machine , but I like the irregularity of the cut-out fabric squares and the hand stitching. All the fabrics have been dyed and some have been printed and most are left overs from other projects.
I have been doing a huge tidy- up, my work room needed it, but it started because i knew somewhere I had a bag of elastic bands with which to finish tieing the piece of cloth I have been tieing ( I found the elastics eventually).I have two baskets of red based scraps which I can't part with, one lot that i was using for the above piece. I have another couple of huge bags of scraps. I think I am going to have to have a garage sale in the near future and rationalise my space a bit better .

Mulling

Mulling
I posted the picture this morning but for some reason I could not publish the blurb. We spent the whole day in Geelong and Melbourne getting supplies ( of the edible kind- needed olive oil for Lebanese eggplant pickle and parmesan and all other mediterranean goodies, and dyes and some microwax which i think might work ok for impregnating handmade paper with wax to give it a really lovely texture feel).
I cleaned up a large part of my workroom yesterday in an effort to kick start some motivation, and also to tidy up the piles of stuff that accrued as I did the work for my masters ( which I have now got, the masters that is- graduate on April 6 though I won't be going) and I am still waiting for the return of the work so I can get it properly photographed. I think it has changed the way i think about textiles and how I will be using it in future- I am really finding it difficult to think quilts as such and the pic I posted is of little fabric squares sewn onto tulle by hand- I think I shall finish it as I find the transparency and the counter balance of the more weighty fabric quite pleasing. Anyway it was something I put aside last year. I am also thinking of doing some more kantha inspired straight stitching on muslin and flannel curtain lining I picked up in England. These are very heavily hand stitched- and really for my own pleasure for the motion of stitching- that is why i was so chuffed to pick up the rayon threads in England.

I would love to do a course with Michael Brennand-Wood to find some inspiration and motivation but alas Textile Fibre Forum is always in the school holidays and I am away so much that i do try to be home in the school holidays for the kids. I wonder how many other mothers miss out to going to the forum because of the timing?

Back to Work!

Sunflower
I wish I could say I had been productive on the weekend in a fibre way- but apart from dyeing 6 damask napkins which I got at Chilford, and tieing another napkin, I seem to have spent the weekend in a social whirl interspersed by a few walks and bouts of cooking. The garden is so full of produce that I decided we should sell some at our front gate and the wheelbarrow shows some of the things we sold. We don't actually live on a main road, but people do come past to go to one of the camping grounds in the forest.

It has just been full moon the tomatoes have gone crazy and I have a seriously delicious recipe for slowroasting them from The Paris Cookbook by Patricia Wells. It is so simple and absolutely delicious when you have garden fresh tomatoes and can be used as is, or as part of a pasta sauce, added to ratatouille or any other dish requiring tomatoes ( it is sublime on toasted home made bread). Here goes; Peel tomatoes ( it is easy to peel them if you first soak the whole tomato in boiling water- the peel will simply slip of after about 5 minutes)- quarter the tomatoes into a baking tray. Fill the tray with tomatoes in a single layer and then sprinkly a small amount of icing sugar and salt and some basil or other herb and drizzle with olive oil - bake in an oven for about 3 hours at the lowest temperature setting , giving it an occasional stir and voila you have a dish fit for a king. I haven't tried freezing it ( it doesn't last that long here) but you can store it in the fridge for about a week especially if you put a film of olive oil over the top.

Today I need to get cracking on fibre things again- and find some kind of rhythm.

Produce for Sale 

Apples

apples
I am home and my kitchen has several washing baskets full of quinces and buckets and buckets of apples- plus there is still many apples on the trees. I am not quite sure what to do with all these apples- there are so many! And then there is the tomatoes. Those I will make into pasta sauce for the freezer- but there is so much to do that I am not sure where to begin! And then there is quilts that have to be made for the exhibition with my friend Annelies in Gelderland- as I want to have mostly new work and the space will take at least 10 quilts!
I am still waiting for my lace work to come back from my masters exhibition as I need to get it photographed- I did not have the chance before I went away.

Going Home

Threads!
These luscious threads ( and some more) arrived Saturday morning from the Handweavers Studio in London. I am lamenting the fact that I ordered no greens, yellows or reds- what possessed me? These threads are rayon and a lovely weight for hand quilting( I do use a big needle and big stitches- I want to see the stitching I do!). Some moons ago I purchased some of these at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Alexandra Palace, and have now quilted several quilts with them.
Today i go home so my next entry will be from Oz. I spent the weekend at the Spring Fair at Chilford and was a bit disappointed there were not more threads there- after all quilters need threads don't they? But I sold a quilt- yay! I needed to sell a quilt as that is what generates my income to some extent.

Pomegranates and Persephone

pomegranate
I have been fascinated by Greek myths since childhood days, and even co-wrote a play in high school years, which was performed ,incorporating the Narcissus myth. The myth that particularly appeals to me is Demeter and her daughter Persephone, and she also appears in other cultural myths. I must admit I came to this myth without any preconceptions - simply a love of Greek myths , but as I get older I wonder what my attraction was and I find many points of reference which interest me. I would love to know what the Eleusinian Mysteries were and have in my mind some kind of Greek version of the Guerilla Girls. In my lounge at home I have a quilt depicting Demeter- as a quilt it is rather awful, but as something that describes my house it is pertinent. The pomegranate is the symbol for Persephone , Demeter's daughter and is also symbolic in other faiths , but for me it has it's more Greek meaning- of sewing the seed under the soil and growth- and what lush seeds they are! If I had been at home I would have searched high and low for a real pomegranate in order to work up my design but as I am not ,I resorted to the internet and found a rather good photograph of pomegranates on a healthy vegetable site which I reduced into grey scale and then traced some of the pertinent aspects of the lines- I then used the scan program on the computer to alter some of the lines and fill in areas so that I ended up with a positive/negative image and then traced it onto vliesofix ( Bondaweb/wunderunder) and voila there it is in fabric. I haven't the black thread to sew it with ( tomorrow I shall get some) otherwise I would be sewing it instead of being here! When working with the image I consciously was thinking of the many fabric designs over the centuries that have incorporated pomegrantes in their design and I wanted to create that lush feel. I love the portrait of Eleanora de Toledo by Agnolo Bronzino and the lush fabric of her gown and I have in mind that i want the pomegranates to have that richness. I can dream...... And I just found a diary of someone- Sahrye- who makes gowns inspired by renaissance gowns.

Persephone is believed to have lived in Sicily and if there ever was an island where you can feel the aura of the ancient Greeks it has to be this island- Agrigento is just the most magical site and Segesta is pretty good too.. A terrific book about Sicily is by Mary Tyler Simeti called Persephone's Island and I have just ordered her book on Sicilian cooking ( I will have to invent the dietary version!), and of course Lawrence Durrell wrote a book about sicily the name of which escapes me and I can't find it on Amazon.

pomegranate 

pomegranate 

Lino-cut

The print made with the lino-cut
I made this lino-cut on Saturday and printed up some fabric yesterday.It is inspired by kuba cloth from Africa though some of the shapes happen because cutting the lino lends itself to those kind of shapes. One day I will standardise the sizes of the pieces of lino and maybe make a book with some of the prints- or maybe I will just print all the lino-cuts I have at home and make the book anyway. I always feel that if I make a book I will want to add text. I have been reading the Matisse ;His Art and His Textiles and think that one of these days I will somehow collate all the references that are made to paitnings being constructed in'patchwork' like patterns- there are quite a lot of novelists who also use the term to connote connections.

Lino-cut I made 

Dyeing on a Sunday in Cambridgeshire

And dyed
Yesterday Sandy and I spent- 6 hours with no wine like refreshments ( we're abstaining you see and dieting and exercising-daily!!!! and there's little yellow things growing from the tops of our heads- and they're not horns- actually there halos in danger of plummeting...- this is day 6 of a new 'life' regime meant to thin us down and make us no fun) stitching pieces of cloth to create resists. We got up with excess enthusiasm on Sunday morning before the church bells ( and with not a hint of cockies cage mouth) went for a walk and did an extra mile just for the heck - came back pulled up the threads- and put it in the dye pots. Whilst we were at it we did a few fold dyes as well. As you can see abstinence does not a good resist dye stitcher make but a brisk walk will do wonders for fold dyeing.