From 'Containment' to 'Unrestricted'...

A more sedate meeting took place this month. Final decisions were made on our flyers, it's so exciting when all the elements for an exhibition start coming together. 'Unrestricted' has set the Maids thoughts soaring, so we had interesting conversations at show and tell about ongoing pieces and also readjustments to previous work. All in all a delightful gathering with delicious coffee cake to keep our energy level up.

Here's a mixture of themes to share with you... 

Debbie - 'Containment' 

Sue - 'Fragility' work in progress

Jane - sketchbook cover

Jenni - sample piece for 'Containment' 

Chris - samples for 'Unrestricted' 

Margaret - samples for 'Unrestricted' 

Rosemary - 'Unrestricted' work in progress

Maggie - sample for 'Unrestricted'

Liz - 'Unrestricted' work in progress

Thanks for visiting, back soon.
Sue

Cornwall.Collected at Exeter...

Here are a few snaps of our work at the Spring Quilt Festival, Exeter to share with you...

Top row...Margaret and Rosemary. Bottom row...Sue and Jenni

Liz

Top row...Debbie and Jane. Bottom row...Chris

In memory of Margaret Garrood

Thank you to Grosvenor Shows for inviting us to exhibit with them once again.

Bye for now,
Sue

Busy March meeting...

With our chainREACTION exhibition getting ever closer, we thought it was time to make a start on the designs for our flyers and advertising. Each of us brought two pieces of work to be photographed, we then discussed the layout, after a little tweaking we'll make a final decision at the next meeting.

Also on the agenda was our final theme...'Unrestricted' was chosen. We should complete these pieces by June giving us time to concentrate on exhibition planning and any finishing touches.

We then discussed our next body of work after chainREACTION. I can't reveal any details just yet, but I can say it sounds pretty exciting.

Alongside all this we had our Cornwall.Collected pieces with us, packed and ready for delivery to the Spring Quilt Festival, Exeter, which is on this weekend from 6th-8th April.

After all the organising was done it was good to sit and listen to the show'n'tell for 'Containment' and a few pieces from previous themes that we hadn't seen finish.

Below are detailed snaps to share with you, starting with a very tactile lampshade...

Jenni - 'Undulating' 

Margaret - 'Fragility'

Diana - 'Fragility'

Chris - 'Fragility'

Jenni - 'Fragility'

Rosemary 'Fragility'

Moving on to 'Containment'...

Debbie -'Containment'

Diana - 'Containment'

Jane - 'Containment'

Liz - 'Containment'

Sue - 'Containment'

Maggie - 'Containment'

Chris - 'Containment'

Rosemary - 'Containment'

Hope you enjoyed our post today and if you visit our Cornwall.Collected pieces at Exeter please let us know what you think.

Bye for now
Sue

Progress on 'Containment'...

An unusual weather occurrence, for Cornwall at least, prevented us from meeting at the end of February. But, not to be deterred we met this week with tales of being snowed in and sharing beautiful photos of snow covered landscapes.

A change in the date and Maids having prior engagements meant we were a little thin on the ground, still an enjoyable gathering but I've only a few snaps to share with you...

Margaret - 'Undulating' piece

Working on her 'Undulating' piece, Margaret had an experimental day sampling the effects of adding tissue paper insets. Since the last meeting more orange French knots have been added and this has, somehow, made the stitched words stand out.

Sue - 'Containment' piece

My work on Loe Beach and re-purposing continues with my piece for 'Containment'. Previously this was a cushion I had on the sofa and no longer matched my decor. I added free motion quilting, couched wool, French knots, acrylic paint and painted bondaweb. Originally the colours were blue, rust and mustard. I'm considering cutting this piece up and re-joining to resemble the layers of a stone I picked up at Loe Beach and used for colour inspiration, I may also add some painted papers...samples in progress. I'm thinking this will sit along side the stone in a box.

Jane - 'Containment' piece

Jane brought her beautiful finished piece for 'Containment', I wish I could have shown you the whole piece. It features one of her carefully embroidered birds, this time a falcon, which was hooded and tethered, skilfully representing containment.

Rosemary - 'Containment' piece

Another piece for 'Containment', this time Behind Bars was from Rosemary. Detailed hand stitching, painting, locks and keys all gave a good representation of containment.

Maggie - 'Containment' piece

Maggie continued to add hand stitching to her 'Containment' piece. This was felted from the back giving a delicate feel to the landscape on the front.


We'll have our finished 'Containment' pieces at the next meeting and choose our final word. We should be back to full strength so I'll have more snaps to share with you.

Bye for now,
Sue

Coffee, chat and stitch...

When possible we try to meet up mid-month at one of our homes, yesterday it was my pleasure to be the host. It's not an official Maids meeting, just coffee, chat and stitch if you feel like it.

I did manage to get a few snaps to share with you, the first being the 'From the East' postcard, which I missed, from our New Year lunch featured in a previous post...

'From the East' textile postcard

Liz - work in progress

Liz is creating a wonderful piece for her 'Containment' theme using Tumbling Blocks. Liz has machine quilted the top and is now adding hand embellishments.

Margaret - work in progress

Working on her 'Fragility' theme, Margaret was hand stitching into her delicate felting which will become a soft draping scarf and will be joined by two further pieces.

Maggie - work in progress

Maggie stitched a mass of glorious French knots in various threads, (and you know how I like a French knot), this piece is for her 'Containment' theme.

Debbie - work in progress

And the last snap is from Debbie, who was hand embellishing into her beautifully hand printed fabric for 'Containment'.


Hope you enjoyed this brief look at some of the work that's being produced. With only one more word to choose in March, we're all very excited how this body of work is progressing for our forthcoming exhibitions.

Back soon
Sue

From 'Fragility' to 'Containment'...

Yesterday was our first 'proper' meeting of 2018, and although we were missing a couple of members, (gone to seek sunshine), we had a lot to catch up on.

Our pieces for 'Fragility' were mainly approaching finished...and the challenge of 'Containment' was chatted through.
It's always amazing to see such varied responses to one word, not just in the subject matter but in the approach and techniques used!

Margaret is so passionate about her felting, loves it and it shows in her work. She had quite a collection to share with us yesterday from calm, cool cobweb to bright and vibrant, with luscious inclusions producing a sleek and chic designer item!

Margaret - 'Fragility' theme

Margaret - 'Containment' theme

Jenni has concentrated on her hand stitched piece, looking lovely, and the care put in just oozes through the "cloth". Nothing beats the rhythm and pattern of hand stitched pieces in my mind.

Jenni - 'Fragility' theme

Jane has surpassed even herself, she has really found her own speciality with hours of precision work in her bird themed creations. The skilled detail needs to be seen, and you'll love it when you can!

Jane - 'Fragility' theme

Chris has just found her Mojo again, and has firm ideas for her way ahead with this latest word.....it might well include some watery element, an area she has successfully stitched before. But maybe more abstract, we are excited to see.

Chris - 'Fragility' theme

Diana had a change of heart with her last piece, how many of us can understand that feeling of trying to persist with something that just doesn't seem to work. However a fresh start "netted" a good result, with a thought provoking piece, and more to come with our next challenge.

Diana - 'Fragility' theme

Diana - 'Containment' sketchbook ideas

Liz has cultivated an off piste approach to her textile pieces for this current body of work, and has given them all friendly nicknames, the roll call sounds like something from a children's TV programme, "Zippy, Wavy, Snowy". Her latest for 'Containment' is really 'out of the box'!

Liz - 'Containment' theme

Liz - 'Undulating' theme

Sue spent yesterday adding detailed French knots to some exquisite little squares to make cards, reflecting her main pieces. She has such a flair for the depth of layers...strata.

Sue - 'Fragility' theme

I had had a couple of really happy days printing, stencilling and over dyeing some fabrics ready to work on yesterday. I was back with my favourite palette of colours, but overlaid with black and white. Now the thinking commences as to how to construct!

Debbie - 'Containment' theme

Debbie - 'Fragility' theme

As always, we chat things through together and the mix of ideas usually helps to resolve any issues that are stopping us making happy progress!

As I type we are collating a few representative pieces from our Cornwall.Collected. exhibition, to travel to the Spring Quilt Festival at Westpoint, Exeter in April. We are so pleased to be included in the Grosvenor Show again, and we will also have some of our dear, late friend's work on display, Margaret Garrood, thank you to her husband for supporting this.

On top of all this good stuff we had double cake, a mix-up that we all benefited from on a cold grey day in winter.....just delish

Chocolate mocha sponge

Summer fruit gateau

Back soon,

Debbie