Sketchbooks

I have resumed using my sketchbooks. I started the year well enough, doing something most days in January. Then I stopped - for no apparent reason. I have missed it, but this week I found the time have come to start again and have some lovely playtime.  And because this is the kind of stuff I love to see in other people's blogs - I thought I would share. 

This is my 'wet/play/messy' area in my studio. I have one in the conservatory too.

 In no particular order

Colours I rarely use - should try that more often

 Favourite colours

Mixed colours

Elegant colours

Not a lot of writing on my part 

  

Something new I have learnt this year: Zen doodling

Most relaxing 

This book by Sue Bleiwiss arrived in the post recently and it is as yummy inside as on the front. Looking forward to reading it. 

Look inside it here.

And see The Sketchbook Challenge blog here.

Why not have a go yourself? Enjoy!

I Have Passed My City & Guild Course

I have received my City & Guilds certificates Level 3 in Design and Craft - Stitched Textiles

It was done via Design Matters and my personal tutor has been Catherine Nicholls

It has been a joy and a pleasure to take this on-line course and I  can really recommend it, or any other of Design Matters' courses. You need a lot of self discipline though, something I lack - but I was saved halfway through by my friend Robbie, who joined the course and showed up at my house twice a week. You just can't procrastinate when you are with someone else. I recommend doing any on-line course with somebody like-minded.

Here we are finishing the last bits - yes, I know, hard work - but somebody has to do it.

(It's actually the only time we have sat outside, 

normally we would stand on each side of my cutting table)

The course was in 10 modules divided into two parts, the first being the design training: Colour, Line, Shape, Texture and Form. Lots of activities in both mixed media and textiles. What fun!

The next part was making things: 3D, Accessory, Home Accessory, Wall Hanging and Free Choice. More fun and still doing lots of other activities on the side.

 This is my take on a 3D object; a box in patchwork inspired by architecture. (Shaker style)

See more here.

Next up was an accessory. I chose to make a bag meant for a sketchbook and  drawing stuff. 

Ready to go. Based on one of my sketchbook drawings.

© Mai-Britt Axelsen

 Home accessory. A cushion - based on one of my husband's photos.

©Ole Henriksen
Some of his photos are now available as cards at The Image Vault (Cards 432 OH - 440 OH)

 Wall hanging: Ghost Mine. Based on a photo by Tony Howell. 

East Pool tin mine ©Tony Howell

 The back of Ghost Mine

I also entered this quilt into the CQ@10 exhibition, but it didn't get in. More about that and the book about the exhibition and Contemporary Quilt Group later.

 The final piece, also a wall hanging. Shining Through. And my entry at this years Festival of Quilts in the Art categori.

And one of the judges really liked it and I got straight marks (thanks Judith), even though it hung in a tight and low corner. The other judge gave it a mixed scoring, so I didn't make it to the finalist list.

Dark Light - my entry in the Miniature categori.

All in all I have learnt a lot and would no doubt have learnt even more if I wasn't such a procrastinator.

There - I said it! Again. But it will not be the last on-line course I have taken...........

Last, but not least: 

Robbie on dicovering that she had won 2nd price in the Pictorial category 

with Hawthorn Sky

Roberta Le Poidevin (soon to have a web-site)

Guernsey Contemporary Textile Artists Exhibition

Fresh Thinking: The Art of the Needle

This group's first exhibition in Guernsey:

The opening of the exhibition was great. From the start I was afraid that we couldn't fill the space and that nobody would come. Boy, was I wrong on both accounts! 

The day before the opening: I was very pleased with the space I had been given:

 It was the first time I have seen my work hung together, a very wonderful feeling. Except for 'Ghost Mine', all the rest is older work, work I am ready to part with.

And soon the little red dots appeared, I couldn't believe that I had sold five pieces of this lot and two that never got hung (not enough space) were bought by one of the owners of the gallery. My head is still in the clouds.

This is trick photography - the room is one long one.

Guernsey Contemporary Textile Artists:

Leila Le Messurier, Wendy Le Couteur, Sue Hutchkis, Robbie Le Poidevin, myself and Sue Payne in front of Sue P's work.

We were so pleased with the the turnout and the sales, as were the gallery owners, who told us it had been one of their most successful opening days. They had never done a textile only exhibition and so had been a little nervous, but now they have already extended this exhibition and are keen to have us back. ☺

Eagerly discussing my work. As you can see, the hanging system is not ideal for textiles, so for next time, we hope to find a better solution.

Coach-House Gallery

Les Islets

St. Peters

Guernsey

Open every day 11am - 5 pm

01481 265339

Our exhibition has now been extended to June 15th 2012

Quilt Exhibition - It is Official

Now I can finally believe it.......     Ever since before Christmas when my textile group made a agreement with a local gallery to exhibit our textile art, it has been a bit surrealistic for me. Our very own first "solo" exhibition - if you can say that about seven people exhibiting together. Very exciting!

Read more about us here

Still putting on hanging sleeves and labels.

Aurifil thread bonanza!

Look what came in the post today, how lucky can a girl be? All the way from Aurifil in Milano, Italy. Grazie, Alex!

Some of the threads are for Contemporary Quilts new challenge CQ@10 because of the group's 10 years anniversary. In the world of anniversaries 10 = tin. We are all to base our quilts on a photo of East Pool tin mine in the middle of the landscape in Cornwall, taken by professional photographer, Tony Howell. Very exciting. It's a juried show, so I can't show any details until I know if I'm in (or not). Cross your fingers for me. 

I'm not sure I'm allowed to show Tony's photo on my blog, so I won't. But you can see it here.

It's very dramatic photo in black and white. Although we can use colour, the quilts has to a clear link to the photo. They are going to be exhibited at the Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, UK in August.

As it happens my next City & Guild assessment is to be a wall hanging based on landscape......... Talk about killing two birds with one stone. 

The rest of the threads are for my entry to the Festival of Quilts, in the Art Quilt section. I already have several ideas on my design wall for this quilt, but again I can't show you just yet. Again this will also be the final assessment in my City & Guild on-line course.

Journal Quilts 2011

Here are my Journal Quilts for 2011, they have been great fun to make, and I can't help giggle when I look at them.

I have chosen 12 different languages for shoe:

English - Danish - Italian - German

Swedish - Spanish - Dutch - Portuguese

Czech - Croatian - Welsh - French

This is the very early days of the quilts. Sitting in the sofa, watching TV, thinking what could I do instead of my failed fashion/costume attempt. Then I suddenly thought of shoes, don't know why, still to do with fashion, perhaps? But as you can see, my drawing style leaves a lot to be disired. So I needed a template - and here it is:

Beautiful, isn't it - and it was even the perfect size on top of a 10" by 10" quilt.

 But I needed a shoe, not a sandal, so I traced it onto tracing paper that I then scanned.  I cut out the shoe and placed on top of some fused fabrics for the background.

 

Printed out 15 copies (room for mistakes) in a size that fitted my skechbook, and got my felttip pens out. Decided on three hilarous colour for each, plus black for the soles, binding and "grafiti".

Each of the 12 background was quilted in a different way.

The words was added using frezzer paper as a stencil and acrylic paint.

 

I used 'google translate' to find the right words. 

Making a false start, nerver mind, I still learned from it.

..............................................................................................................................

And for those of who are new to this blog, here is how it all began:

The brief for this years Journal Quilts with the Contemporary Quilt Group was more complicated than previous years, when size was the only concern.

This year is the size is 10"x 10" (25,5cm x 25,5cm) and...............
the first 4 is to have circles
the next 4 to have text
and the last 4 buttons

I have chosen to have circles (or semi circles) and text in all. Watch this space for the last four, I don't have a good relationships with embellishments.

I started this years JQs trying to do something with fashion history and ended up with something very, very complicated and not very interesting. I started from scratch and then I saw a picture of some shoes…… Yes, I had found my subject.

At quilt shows there are always those quilts I am drawn too, but never could live with - I guess it is the same with these shoes; in a shop I would look, admire and giggle over these shoes, but I never buy them.

The background in pale grays, was meant to be as neutral as possible, to give life to the bright colours of the shoes. A textile friend pointed out that it looks like pavement and I thought it could be wall as well. So the text must be graffiti then………..
Shoe spelled in various languages.

Background linen, silk and cotton. Raw edge fused and free motion machine quilted. The shoe is hand dyed cotton. Raw edge fused. The letters is stenciling using freezer paper and acrylic. Felt tip pen for the soles.
 

Brand New Web-site For My Textile Group

The Guernsey Contemporary Textile Artists are proud to present our brand new (and first) web-site, all tied in with our very first exhibition in May.

http://www.theguernseycontemporarytextileartists.co.uk

Do come and visit us there, and please remember this is only the start.

Forthcoming Exhibition: Coach-House Gallery C.I. May 2012

More details to follow.

Published........ again!

Yes, I'm so very proud to have been chosen to be profiled as Quilter of the Quarter in Kludemagasinet, the Danish Guild magazine. Four pages............
I know, most of you won't be able to read it, but you get the picture, and I just had to share. So proud!

 On the bed: First quilt

Thanks for looking in. :D

When I tried to share this blog on facebook the usual way this came up - quite hilarious..........:

Luckily I found a backway into facebook for this posting. For a while I could not add my blog name to an e-mail,  it would not send. It did not like the word 'silk' - it could be 'bilk', 'dilk', 'kilk' etc. 

Strange!