Predictably, I did not exactly follow instructions in Gloria Loughman’s 2-day class on playing with colour. It was a super class, with fantastic exercises in how to combine and blend colours. She brought an amazing selection of quilts that glowed with subtle light changes. Students were assigned the task of cutting diamonds or squares from hand-dyed fabrics and blending them from light to dark from the top to the bottom of the quilt onto another hand-dyed background. I had already decided that I wanted to use leftovers from Bifrost but those neon colours needed to be more scattered. Smaller squares and cut-outs were layered on top. Gloria remembered my subversive approach from the class that I was in 6 years ago when I put together the yurt panel, “Salmon Leap” and declared that she had not expected a different outcome this time round. My finished piece is loud, not subtle and I have decided that I might as well go the whole hog and print with some Indian stamps using neon paints before I quilt it with lots of circles. Despite not working on quite the same task as the teacher suggested, I have thought about how I could put her ideas into practice on an almost monochrome piece. I have so many other things that I want to work on that I will just have to jot that idea somewhere safe until I get around to it.
I spent a lot of time and money online this week sourcing and ordering materials for forthcoming projects. My recalcitrant Postie will be busy delivering paints, rulers, and some unusual materials that will relate to the top-secret parcel that arrived from India. This is one that will definitely be kept under wraps for a while!
A large bag of fancy yarns from “Wool for Ewe” in Aberdeen is waiting for me to find time to test their couchability. This is just one technique that I hope to employ when I finally get around to dealing with BzB. I still need to work out how I am going to tackle this behemoth of an anti-wholecloth…
I am not entirely sure what the appeal was, other than I like to work with unusual fabrics, but I decided to make the Merchant & Mills classic top 64 for myself in antique British oilcloth. It was rather nice to work with as it moisturised my hands the more I handled it but it did not have any “give” in it at all. Just try to imagine something made from the waterproof wrappings that might have encased secret plans in WW2 on a dangerous submarine mission. I have to say, the top went together beautifully - I managed to follow the instructions and the top-stitching looked good. However, it only just fits me and I discovered that once it was on it seemed destined to stay on unless I could summon help to peel it off. On the plus side, it seems to be totally wind proof and I should think that water will run straight off. If I can find a keen gardener or fisherman, smaller than me who wants a most useful top then I will hand it over. I had high hopes that I would make myself lots of useful tops in denim and wool from my sturdy cardboard pattern but I think I might need to order a larger size.
The one thing that did seem to work out well this week was peeling off the old garden yurt cover that was teeming with earwigs and find a couple of dry-weather hours to throw on 3 brand-new, large tarps that should keep the worst of the winter rain out. Instead of cutting the spare ends off the rectangular tarps, I have rolled them up and trapped them under the top cover, hoping that water will run off the old roof cover and down the outside of the walls. I will just have to see how it survives the next blustery wind and hope that it does not just become a new way for stagnant water and creep-crawlies to collect.
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