InStitches Creative Textile Courses
  • Home
    • Courses and workshops at a glance
    • Contact us
    • Want to stay locally?
    • About us >
      • The story of InStitches
      • How to find us
      • News and events
      • What our students say
      • Gallery
    • The Small Print
    • Privacy policy
  • Bursary
  • Create your own cloth
    • Create your own cloth play days
    • Create your own cloth - with surface design
    • Create your own cloth - in a bucket
    • Create your own cloth - with a screen
    • Create your own cloth - using resists
    • Create your own cloth - Paper lamination
    • Create your own cloth - Exploring Indigo
    • Create your own cloth - Breakdown your palette
    • Create your own cloth - with earth pigments
    • Create your own cloth with Nature's colours
  • Guest tutor workshops
    • Guest tutors 2025 >
      • Judith Needham - weave your own chicken
      • Claire Benn - Intent on abstract Composition
      • Anna Woodhead - Paper lamination
      • Matthew Harris - Chain reaction
      • Sam Jones - Exploring Indigo
      • Leah Higgins - Breakdown your palette
      • Claire Benn - Out of this earth
      • Sam Jones - Nature's colours
      • Richard McVetis - A stitch drawn
      • Polly Pollock - Coiled baskets
      • Karina Thompson - Free motion for the terrified
      • Claire Benn - TEXTure
    • Want to stay locally?
    • Guest tutors 2026 >
      • Kate Findlay - Procreate for textile design
      • Sue Brown - Mixed media sketchbook
      • Leah Higgins - Breakdown your palette
  • Other courses
    • Courses and workshops at a glance
    • Creative Journeys 2025/26
    • InStitches at Home online workshop
  • Shop
    • Workshop Gift Vouchers
    • screens4printing

The story behind the quilt: Do you remember the cherries?

25/5/2018

2 Comments

 
We’re both members of SAQA and earlier this year we each submitted a quilt into the Europe and the Middle East members’ call for entry for the Wide Horizons VI exhibition . The way this works is each quilter submits two images, a whole quilt image and a close-up image, for consideration by a jury panel. Then you sit, wait and act as if you don't mind one way or another! In our case we’ve both been (and still are!) very busy running the studio, sorting next year’s programme out and getting ready for Thread and Festival of Quilts, so this part at least was quite easy.

It was a delightful surprise therefore, in the midst of a very busy day, to receive an email announcing that my quilt Do you remember the cherries? had been one of the ones selected. And it was a double delight to find that Terry has also received an email saying her quilt Black across the sun had been selected as well. In total over 80 quilts had been submitted with 27 making the final selection. Just 8 quilts come from the UK and two of those are from the InStitches Studio!

The Wide Horizons VI exhibition will be at various quilt shows through out Europe during 2018/19 but at the moment we don't have the UK dates so we thought we’d give you a sneak preview of our entries, first up this week is my quilt Do you remember the cherries?

Picture
Measuring 84cm x 103 cm, this quilt included foundation piecing and free motion quilting. Unusually for me, I have used a selection of commercial fabrics for the log cabin background. They’d been in my stash for years and had originally belonged to my friend Anna, and while this quilt isn’t about her, she’s part of my life story and I think she’d have been thrilled to know I’ve finally got around to sewing with them. At the centre of each log cabin and in the bottom right hand binding are hand painted squares - at the end of a painting session I used up all the leftover fabric paint on scrap fabric, because you never know when it may come in handy! I didn’t continue the log cabin below the shelf, using instead a commercial black cotton sateen which I then free motion quilted with the quilt’s story; you’ll have to wait to see the quilt to read the whole text, but at the end of this blog post you can read the catalogue entry.

The wooden shelf and cherries are all hand painted cotton poplin; I like using textile screen printing inks because they are a more fluid textile paint and being translucent I can layer up different shades of colour.
Picture
When I’m sewing my art quilts I’m constantly pinning them up on the design wall to see what they are saying and as you may know, sometimes quilts just demand to be made; this quilt knew it’s own mind and how it was to be. I also had in the back of my mind a postcard, sent to me many years ago from another friend, by the Japanese artist Tomoi Yokoi. I didn’t want to copy her artwork, but using the dark background appealed to me and put me in mind of the Flemish still life artists such as Caravaggio and Bruegel and the female Dutch still life painters, Rachel Ruysch and Clara Peeters. The food is central to the compositions but the accompanying textiles and china all have important roles too. With my bowl (incidentally this one I bought on a trip to Warsaw and it holds many fond memories, not just of cherries) constructed it was time to audition fabrics, I like to use my Ipad for this aspect of the design process: pin, click, view. Easy!
Once I’d selected my fabric drape - a piece of wax resist hand dyed cotton sateen, I pinned and tucked it into place before removing it and snipping (very carefully) the excess bulk away. I wanted to incorporate text into the pale areas so I used a piece of removable paper stabiliser behind the fabric as I free motion embroidered the words. It was then machine appliquéd into place before the bowl was finally positioned and stitched down.

The final step for my still life collages is to add extra dimensional detail using Derwent Inktense pastels and in this case, a quick touch of gilding paste for that just picked look!

Artist’s Statement:

Alison had bought them on her way home from work: you didn’t have much appetite by then
and she thought cherries would tempt you.
Our clever girl, she knew you so well, after all she has your sweet tooth.

Plump, sweet and ripe, the juice ran down your chin
And as we carefully wiped it away we saw the delight and happiness in your eyes.

Two summers after you went away I planted a cherry tree for you
And last summer I was able to fill a huge bowl full.

Plump and juicy, each one I ate reminded me of you.





Until next week, when Terry will tell you all about her quilt, Black across the sun, enjoy the weekend,

Hazel & Terry




2 Comments

Places to inspire you: a sculpture park with a difference

18/5/2018

0 Comments

 
Hazel takes every opportunity to visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park because its such an inspiring place , but last bank holiday, when spring and summer finally arrived all at once, I went to explore a different sculpture park. Set on the northwest corner of Portland in Dorset, Tout Quarry sculpture park is a fascinating place with views over Chesil beach and Weymouth to die for.
Picture
Tout Quarry is one of only two remaining quarries where Portland Stone was extracted using the old methods. The last stone was taken from there in 1983 for the sea defences at West Bay (30000 tons of it) and since then the landscape has been left to nature. The Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust Project protects the site, and artists have created over 60 hidden sculptures from the stones left behind by the quarrymen. It’s a great place to explore and gives a sense of the geology and ecology of the area, as well as the history and of course the art.
Works are carved into rock faces, extracted boulders or built from shale, and there is something to see around every corner of this magical landscape. Some are inspired by animals, with detailed carvings or simple line drawings. . .
.. . .others by the human form: the work on the left & middle below, entitled Still Falling, is by Anthony Gormley, and is carved into a massive rock face of unquarried stone in the centre of the area.
One recent sculptor took inspiration from the grizzly local folk tale of the Roy Dog, which hunted smugglers and ate them, weaving their eyes into its fur so they can still see. Look closely at the picture on the right and you’ll see the eyes!
All around are remnants of quarrymen’s work - tramways, bridges, caves and the places where the spoil was tipped over the cliff.
As you wander around the park you will discover a wealth of marks and lines to record and inspire you. (The ones bottom centre are known as Portland screws - fossilised shells in the rock - often seen when Portland Stone is used in building.) Nature has been left to reclaim the area and it is managed as a nature reserve.
We had only intended to stay for an hour but ended up staying all day, walking to the local town centre (Easton) and buying a picnic from White Stones Cafe and Gallery, which is a gem with an artist’s garden and well worth a visit.

We’ll definitely be back to discover more in this fascinating corner of Dorset. Put it on your list if you’re ever in the area - you won’t be disappointed.

Until next week

Terry & Hazel

0 Comments

Hanging Sleeves

11/5/2018

0 Comments

 
It’s not the most enticing of blog titles is it? But nevertheless it’s an important one if you are finishing a quilt ready to enter into one of this summer’s quilt competitions, hang it in an exhibition or on your wall at home. It never ceases to amaze me when I walk round a quilt show such as the Festival of Quilts, how badly some quilts are hanging. Very often it isn’t the fault of the show’s hanging system but the quilt itself. So here’s the InStitches method of hanging a quilt and preparing it for an exhibition!
Picture
First things first, make sure you’ve given your quilt a good press and sewn your binding in place. Now you are ready to attach a hanging sleeve. A hanging sleeve is just a simple tube of fabric attached to the back of the quilt which needs to be generous enough to accomadate the width of the pole without distorting the quilt top. Finished size is 4 - 5inches.
Picture
Cut fabric 9-10 inches wide and at least the same length as the width of the quilt.
Picture
Fold in half an inch twice on the short edges and machine stitch the hem close to the inside folded edge. Some people (Terry!) prefer to make the hem on the right side, to minimise the pole snagging on it when inserted. Hazel can never remember.
Picture
Fold in half lengthways (wrong sides together) and stitch with a 1/4 inch seam. The seam stays on the outside of the tube against the quilt back. Press the seam open and then press the sleeve lightly, so that the seam is in the centre of one side.
Picture
Line up the sleeve close to the top edge of the quilt to prevent the top edge flopping over - but not so close it will be seen from the front. In this case, I lined the sleeve up just below the binding. The sleeve should finish approxinmately one inch short of the side edges so the hanging pole and wall fixings can be hidden if desired.

Hand-stitch the sleeve into place using a hemming or slip-stitch with the stitches at least 1/4 inch apart. Sew down one side, along the bottom and up the second side, starting and stopping about half an inch from the top of the sleeve.
Picture
Roll down the top layer of the sleeve (it will ‘stop’ where the stitching begins) and pin. Sew along the top edge. Doing this introduces extra fullness to the profile of the sleeve to accommodate the pole.
Picture
When we are sending our quilts off to a competition or exhibition we also like to give it a bespoke rolling tube and travelling bag - after all we’ve gone to all that effort in the designing and making of the quilt, we want it to arrive at its final destination in the best condition possible.

Fortunately in the Studio we have a ready supply of sturdy cardboard rolls, but try asking at fabric shops for something similar. So that the quilt doesn’t slip down the when rolled and stood on its end, we cover the cardboard tube with a piece of wadding (or in my case an off-cut of curtain inter-lining) - cut it two or three inches longer than the roll so the ends can pushed down the tube to secure it in place.
Picture
For extra security, slip-stitch the wadding in place around the tube.

Don’t forget: when you roll a quilt, roll it right side out and from the top to the bottom. That way you’ll minimise the creasing.
Picture
For the travelling bag cut a piece of fabric wide and long enough to accomadate the rolled quilt and sew into simple bag. It’s a good idea to write the name of the quilt and your contact details on the bag so if you store your quilts rolled you won’t have to keep unrolling them to find which one you are looking for, and also to make sure you get it back from a show!
And don't forget....no quilt is truly finished until it has a label!

So now I need to go and make sure my quilt entries are all finished and ready for dispatch!

Hazel & Terry
0 Comments

The influence of nature

4/5/2018

0 Comments

 
Last week’s blog was about how we take inspiration from nature for our InStitches’ dyed fabrics and threads, so I was particularly intrigued to visit the exhibition, Fashioned from Nature, which opened recently at the V&A, London. The exhibition aims to explore the relationship between fashion and nature from 1600 up to the present time. Not only does it show how fashion has been inspired by nature but it also highlights the effects on the natural environment of the fashion industry. I didn’t have a enough time to view the whole of the exhibition in one go so in this visit I focused on the more direct and troubling interaction with nature, which is featured on the ground floor.


Here are just a few of the exhibits which caught my attention.
Picture
Thank goodness for female emancipation, it has spare generations of women from many things, not least the constraints of a whale bone corset
Picture
and the dresses which required huge hooped underskirts. I just can’t begin to imagine how restricted and constrained life would have been wearing such garments.
Picture
The clothes we wore reflected our social status so having such a tiny waist (just look at the female jacket modelled above!) was a way of showing the society that you were wealthy enough to employ the servants to do the work you obviously couldn’t given the clothing you wore!
Picture
The production of the raw materials and the subsequent processing had huge social and environmental effects - think of the cotton plantations, polluted rivers and working conditions in the huge northern cotton and woollen mills.
Picture
Many animals and birds were slaughtered, some to the point of extinction, in the pursuit of fashion. Most of this part of the exhibition was both sobering and fascinating in equal measure.
Picture
Fans of Alice in Wonderland will recall the mad hatter. Mercuric nitrate was used in the felting process from the early 1700s and mercury poisoning was a common occupational hazard for hatters. To this day the V&A still keeps its many felt hats in sealed bags!

There are so many interesting and thought provoking exhibits that I think I’m going to have to visit several times to really get the most out of this exhibition. Fortunately it runs until the end of January 2019!


Until next week, enjoy the (finger’s crossed) warm weather forecast for this bank holiday weekend,


Hazel & Terry
0 Comments

    Welcome to our blog! Here you'll find out what's been going on, plus plenty of ideas and inspiration and the odd cake recipe!

    Check back often to see what we're up to - it's great to have you along

    Hazel & Terry
    Picture

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    #10minutedrawingproject
    And There Was Cake!
    Artists To Inspire You
    Blog Changeover
    Bringing Colour To Life
    Colour
    Craft Ptoject
    Creative Play
    Creative Warm Ups
    Creative Warm-ups
    Festival Of Quilts
    Finding Inspiration
    How To...
    Inspired By Cloth
    #institchescreative2020
    Line
    Places To Inspire You
    Quilt Shows
    Take Two Stitches
    Text
    Texture
    The Story Behind The Quilt
    Tools Of The Trade

    InStitches travelblog
    InStitches textiles travel blog
    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    April 2016
    March 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013

    Visit InStitches's profile on Pinterest.
InStitches: exciting courses for people who love textiles, dyeing, design, stitching and sketchbooks

Connect with us

follow us on Facebook
read our blog
Instagram inspiration
Pinterest pinnings
newsletter signup
follow us on Facebook
read our blog
Instagram inspiration
Pinterest pinnings
newsletter signup

Courses and workshops

Courses and workshops at a glance
Create your own Cloth
Creative Journeys
Guest tutors 2025
​Online workshop


InStitches

About
How to find us

Support

Contact
​
The small print
Privacy policy

Our address

Sunfield Studio,
Unit 12, Sunfield Business Park
New Mill Road
Finchampstead
Wokingham
RG40 4QT
We support
Just a Card logo
Copyright © InStitches 2010-2025
All rights reserved.