Really Essential

I received this book this week and am slowly working through it. I have only studied about 10 pages and already I have learned lots about photo software that I never knew, as well as having my vague ideas about reasons for doing certain things made clear.

If you are into playing with printing photos on fabric or photographing your own work for submission to exhibitions it appears to be an essential reference.

Another technique

to try. And I couldn't resist this book when Kevin and I visited Elizabeth's warehouse in Fremantle today.


The large metal bound Bible had gone (sold?) but the Bible and Concordance in the velvet lined wooden box is still there. It remains out of our price range.

If it's the second Friday

of the month it must be the Contemporary Quilt Group meeting. And it was.

Rather sparse attendance (and very little Show and Tell) but an excellent meeting. Janet has been playing with fusing fabrics using a soldering iron (ref: Fusing Fabric by Margaret Beal, Batsford, 2005) and demonstrated some of her results using techniques from the book.


They were so delicate, especially her Seminole type pieces in organza, that I am inspired to revisit this technique. I confess that in the past I have been more interested in deconstruction. I took along a couple of pieces that demonstrated that.

Then I went to visit my elderly friend Jean who is still very alert, despite her physical frailties. She is legally blind, but has discovered that if she uses morning sunlight she can complete the crossword. By the afternoon the light is insufficient. I am in awe - the crossword she does is the cryptic version. I doubt I could get more than a couple of the words.

Books bound in fabric

When I commented on the binding for India Flint's new book the other day, I had a sense of deja vu. Surely I had written about fabric book bindings before? So I spend a LOT of time searching my past posts with no success. Then I remembered that I do write occasionally in a journal. I had intended to make THAT a regular occurrence: lots of sketches, colours, interesting ephemera . . . I have much more writing than drawing, very little colour and ephemera and irregular entries. But I found what I had written on the 6th of February and it is now quoted verbatim.

A New Trend? - Fabric Bindings for Books
* I thought "Stitch" (NZ textile artists) was incredible - bought it basically for the fabric cover :) contents are AOK
* Maggie Beer's new cookbook has embroidery as well - pity it is so expensive $125 :( NB watch for remainders on this one!
* An Encyclopaedia of Needlework (pub pre 1890) also has fabric binding (moire silk) Checked this one out on the Internet - found a copy (different publisher/?incomplete) for 150 pounds. Need to follow up

The last mentioned book was part of the chattels we acquired when we bought the Bicton house as a deceased estate in 1975. I think the Murray sisters would be quite happy that another textile fanatic is cherishing their needlework possessions.

Contemporary Quilt Group

It was the last meeting for the year so we all took along yummy food. We were asked to bring examples of textiles that had meaning for us as well, so I took along the 1930's quilt that I rescued from Martin's car some years ago. He was using it to wrap his guitars and was quite happy to exchange it for a blanket.

Cherry spoke about ways to get started on making a contemporary quilt. Coincidentally, I received in the mail this morning this book which had been highly spoken of by several people on one of the internet mailing lists I subscribe to, so I took that along too.


I am resisting the urge to just flip through this one. I intend to at least attempt to work through the exercises. We will see.

After the meeting I went to visit my 95 year old friend Jean. I hadn't seen her for a couple of months, since we were in NZ in October and I was still full of cold in November and didn't want to risk passing it on. She is well, but more and more frustrated with her poor vision. Even large print books and a magnifying glass are now difficult and she is down to a book a week, sometimes less. For a previously avid reader this is disappointing.

Magazines

A few days ago I said I was addicted to books. Now I must admit that I am also addicted to magazines.

Not the Women's Day or New Idea kind (my hairdresser has them and I confess to indulging when I visit), nor the House and Garden type (my doctor has them plus the more upmarket versions and I am quite happy to dally with them when he is late, as he usually is), nor news magazines like Time (that is what I read at the Bloodbank). My magazine addiction is textile magazines.

I have a few subscriptions. I have been subscribing to the American Threads magazine since 1990. My subscription runs out in September and I am tossing up whether to continue with it - I have not been overly impressed with the last few issues.

I love Textile Fibre Forum and happily send off my subs every couple of years. This is definitely the best Australian textile magazine.

I used to buy several Australian quilting magazines, but now only buy Down Under Quilts from the newsagent.

I have all but one issue of the Australian Textile Art and Machine Embroidery, though I have only been a subscriber for a couple of years, but I think it is time I stopped buying this and won't renew my subscription. It comes in the mail, I flip through it and rarely find anything that engages my attention. Pity - the earliest issues were cutting edge.

I also occasionally buy Stitch, an English embroidery magazine, from the newsagent if a flip through reveals some interesting subject matter as it usually does.

The magazines that involve me at the moment are Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors. CPS #12 arrived yesterday and I will need to spend days poring over it. I have pages and pages of notebook ideas derived from various issues of the two magazines. Maybe one day the ideas will transmute into actual pieces.

Reading Matter

I can (and do) spend hours and hours with textile books. I have had Val Holmes' latest book since before Christmas, but have only just got round to reading it, as opposed to just flicking through. I found it very inspirational and it now has a forest of paper scraps poking out the top, scribbled on with ideas of things to do derived from some of the techniques and examples.

I also finally received my missing copies of Threads magazine from the States. I am a subscriber and I wrote to them in November when I had not got either the current magazine or the two before it. They were happy to send me back copies, but it has taken a while for them to get here. I am looking forward to reading them tonight.