The Guilty Party

Well most of the guilty party at least. I think we have to share the blame with Melanie Cook the colourist as well. From Left to right, we have Stephen Downey, the artist, me, and Cy Dethan the writer of Cancertown. It was odd seeing my quilt hanging in a comics show, but very cool. Somewhat scary having 'real' artist looking at it, but I guess I will get used to that. I was pleased that the visitors to the show appreciated the quilt. I was a little concerned that it might be too far from their chosen media, but apparently not. They are a generally friendly bunch ready to accept the weird especially when it's from a story they have enjoyed.

I also got to pick up a copy of Bryan Talbots latest, Grandville. Oh wow, does he know how to produce a book. It's a proper old feeling hardback with a fabric texture cover. Apparently the issues in other countries are even nicer!? I think my copy is pretty wonderful, and yes the fact that he signed it and put in a sketch doesn't hurt at all. I can't wait to have a chance to read it. I will take it with me this weekend in case I get an early night.

I also came across Stephanie Bryant. Well actually I mostly directed people to her, as they saw the quilt and assumed I would know of her. They mentioned knitting and I had noticed that much about her stand so I was able to direct them. Sunday afternoon Nic asked if I had seen them, yes....what did I think of the concept? Um? Turns out Stephanie has produced a comic for knitters. Each part of the story comes with a pattern, how cool is that. The patterns are good too. She also had a few stand alone patterns, which may yet follow me home. If you would like to see her wares in the flesh (yarn?) she will be at the Knitting and Stitching show that starts tomorrow and runs until Sunday. It is at Alexandra Palace, London. If you're there on Friday I might see you around. If you can't make it, do take a look at Handknit Heros, it's great.

Is this a first?

You see quilters crossing over into all sorts of other areas, but I wonder if this is a first. Having my quilt displayed on Forbidden Planets web site is something I never expected. I am thrilled it has captured their imagination. I would love to see this craft being picked up by more people with different ideas. There are already plans for me to do a couple more projects with comic artists and I am really looking forward to them. They have their own set of challenges and well, they are different. I'd love to take this further, but well you will just have to watch this space. Right now I have some celtic knots demanding my attention.

Bad Rain - Day 10

Well that's it. It is off the frame. I didn't realise while I was working quite how big it is. When Cy described it as a "Bad Rain: A Double-Page Bedspread" he was quite right. The picture doesn't show all of it because it more than covers our king size bed. Of course it wouldn't actually be any good as a bedspread, it's too fragile and too heavy, but size wise it looks the part.

I thought you might be interested in some facts and figures about this monster of a quilt.

• When bound the quilt will be at least 90"x70"
• There is over 4000m of thread on the front of the quilt
• About 40 pre-wound bobbins were used in this quilt
• More than 1/2m of solid black appears in the quilt - it surprised me, as most of the black - isn't
• 4 1/2 cans of 505 spray baste held the pieces down so I could stitch them
• 3/4 roll of freezerpaper was used to make patterns
• 5m of washaway stabiliser was the pattern and quilting design
• over 15m of ombre fabrics went in to this quilt.
• the master pattern was 112 sheets of A4 paper
  

In ten days all that had come together to make my version of the double page spread from Cancertown. I am thrilled with it and I can't wait to see it hung in my gallery at the Festival of Quilts. It will be the first chance I get to have a really good look at it. I hope some of you will be able to join me there.

I think I will take the rest of the evening off, and get on with a small art quilt tomorrow.

Power of photos

Last night when I stopped I had a couple of concerns. The biggest one (in more than one sense) was the fist under the eyeball. The problem is I didn't think it looked like a fist anymore. It looks fins in the book, it looks fine in the pencils but my pattern and the quilt looked wrong to me. This morning I've taken a look at the photograph and I can see it again. I find this happens quite a lot when I am working on big pieces. They are hard to take in and see what they really look like. It's something I also see in students when they are working on my art quilts class. They can't see their picture is working so I take photos for them with my phone. It always helps, even if one lady declared her rose a yellow cabbage!

Feeling somewhat encouraged I think I will start the day by cutting my fist. It will take a disproportionate length of time, as it is a large piece of fabric, but it will bring the overall quilt on in a leap so it will help encourage me for the day. I also know it has lots of very satisfying quilting to be done on it to make it's muscles at least two and a half d. Fun fun fun.

Bad Rain - Day 5

It's reached the point where it is too big to photograph, or indeed see properly. I hope the pictures will give you an idea of how it's going. I've got a new favourite badmouth. I have always liked the ones with their arms folded, but now I have a new fondness for the dark one with it's arms out. It is in the crease of the book, so it doesn't get much appreciation, which is a shame as it is a very detailed badmouth. I wonder if if was one of Stephens pets as well, as it seems to have a lot of work in it. Maybe that is party why I like it so much, I've spent a lot of time working on it. I think each line takes about a minute whether they are 1/2" or 3-4". Most of the time is in the starting and stopping the line, so the areas that have more lines in take a long time.

As you can imaging the side of the building has been another very time consuming area. It's been fun too. In fact I've been really enjoying working on some thing completely different. I'm also starting to think about which of my other projects (hmm I nearly typed problems, how Freudian is that) I will move onto next. I have two small ones that need to be done before the show and I think they might be the next stop. They are more the sort of thing I usually do so will be another complete change and being small I should be able to finish them relatively quickly. I find it helps keep my going if I can have a few quick targets then a longer one.

Bad Rain - what I am aiming for

As Stephen has borrowed a picture from me I thought I would do the same from here, exchange is no robbery and all that. He is the artist behind this image, and this is what I am trying to recreate. I am only using commercial quilting fabrics, so I won't be getting a perfect colour match. However I do think I should be able to capture the essence of the image. I have discovered a lot more detail in the picture than I had noticed when I saw it in the book. There are huge variations in the pencil strokes, that will be a huge challenge to reproduce. The most problematic areas are the human faces. They are very small relative to the whole piece but very important. I am happy that I have got them just big enough to render them. I have to admit I am really enjoying working on this. It is very different for me, but I like the locks of colour I am using then adding the 'inks' over the top. Look out for more updates tomorrow, remember I am on a very tight schedule with this one.

Bad Rain - day 2

This is my current project, Bad Rain. It is taken from the Cancertown graphic novel written by Cy Dethan and illustrated by Stephen Downey. I am very lucky to have been granted permission to make my version of this image which appears in the book as a double page spread. You may recall that I have said some of my recent quilts have been test pieces for another quilt, well this is it. I've needed to come up with new ways to approach making art quilts to have a chance of pulling this one off. I've made two pieces recently where I have tried very hard to maintain the style of another artist, I am pretty happy with them and will be applying what I have learned on this one. I've also been playing with ways of assembling large patterns. It's helped, I needed to have less distortions in this one and I've got it. I've also had to have a think about which fabrics I can use and how I can get them in place. I'll let you know how that goes as I progress.

I realised yesterday that this is the biggest and most intricate art quilt I have attempted. It's over 90" long and I am not sure how tall yet. I had to scale it up to that size to be able to get the level of detail that was in the original. I felt that the detail was an essential part of the image, it is what gives it the feel of the busy crowded street, so I had to keep it. Also the main character appears in this double page spread so I had to be able to stitch the details of his face as well. Fortunately I've managed to get all those features in and keep the piece just small enough to make on my frame. I could theoretically have made the piece sideways but I find that a lot harder so it's good I can work on it the right way around. I spent most of yesterday tracing the first 40" of the quilt. I decided to work with it pinned to my blocking boards as there is nowhere I can lie it down to trace. It makes it more tiring but it is quicker and easier in the long run. Today I've been able to crack on with putting the fabric in place, although having been teaching today I didn't have much time.

Now for the really exciting bit. I need this quilt finished ASAP. I would like it complete by about Thursday this coming week. I've still got other quilts I need to make or finish before the show, so I have to get on with this. If things had gone to plan I would actually be at Santa Pod this weekend, but the weather forecast is for rain so I have gained a day to work on the quilt. I would rather be racing, but I am grateful for the extra time to work. I will try and share progress photographs over the next few days. The picture on this post shows the first few pieces of fabric laid down on the sky . The black lines are all my markings for where quilting needs to go, hopefully I will get that stitched tomorrow morning then I can roll on and place more fabrics.