Yes, I finished it

I decided to treat today as if I were going to work in paid employment. Got up, had a shower, read some of the paper while I ate breakfast and then entered the sewing room.

Start time: 8.15 am.

I set up both of my machines to do different tasks. The Orchidea was for free motion quilting with transparent thread; the SE was to do edges with a copper metallic thread. I finished all the stitching by 2pm and I had had two breaks as well. Very proud of myself. Now to assemble it.

The next three hours were less fruitful. I eventually decided to drop my original idea of using eyelets. The ones I had bought were meant for paper and were too small to work on a sandwich of 2 layers of fabric with heavy interfacing between. I even went down to Teena's to look for others, but they were much too big.

Got out the accessory reference book and learned to make an eyelet with the machine. Yay, another technique! Better, but still too big. OK, rethink connections.

Faggoting! The Spanish hemstitch foot is a breeze to use and the results were great. So by 6pm my entry for Stitched and Bound was finished, except for a label and the photography. That will happen tomorrow so it can get into the post tomorrow evening. I do hope it is accepted.

I've done it again

There is less than a day's work left to do on the fan - even though brainstorming with Juliet has made me make some changes in the overall presentation.

So what do I do? Drop it and focus single mindedly on another project!

I had always intended to enter the WA contemporary art quilt exhibition Stitched and Bound which will be held later this year. It is a juried exhibition and only completed pieces can be entered. I have been planning my entry for a long time.

Yesterday I decided that I either needed to forget about it or try to produce the piece that I have in mind. The deadline is this Friday - April 4th.

My piece is based on photographs printed on fabric. I had already done most of the preparation - sizing and modifying the images. I finished that on Saturday. Printing was this morning's task.

Of course the printers wouldn't co-operate. Running out of ink, refusal to accept refills, difficulty in getting the rollers to pull the prepared fabric sheets through - every problem I have ever had with printing on fabric occurred today.

Eventually it was all resolved. I have the images I want printed on fabric, I have made a sample using a couple of the failed prints, the interfacing is cut, I have scrounged some essential construction bits from Alcira (who leaves for Argentina tonight - thank you so much for fitting in my request) and I think I am ready to go. I calculate eight to ten hours work to get it ready for photography.

I will report in tomorrow.

Fan finished

Well, almost. I layered backing, stiff interfacing, the top layer and another layer of painted silk.

Stitched around the shape. Trimmed and graded the seam:


Cut into the back facing:


Turned it through and hemmed the facing. (No photo yet)

It's spending the night under a heavy layer of books. Tomorrow I will attach the leaves.

The Big Night

It's all over! The textile project has officially been unveiled. It was quite a show - probably 150 people present and lots of speeches heaping accolades on Juliet and Iris, which they had definitely earned.

Good wine and nibbles too. I was rather embarrassed at having a fuss made about my contribution. Juliet and Iris gave me a bunch of flowers and a voucher for the Thread Studio. Wow! I never expected any more than a mention in amongst the many who contributed.

The panels looked fantastic. When we arrived (rather early) they were flat against the wall and I wish we had taken a photo then. There were so many people milling around that it was hard to get a good shot.

This is the best of a rather poor lot. Kevin's will be better, I hope.

My part is done

and the Melville Textile Art Project is almost ready for the official unveiling on Thursday.

We had the last two panels to finish off today: we needed to trim and hem the sides, then do the tops and bottoms. Iris was with us today. We had just finished cutting the sides when we got a phone call. The guy installing the hanging mechanism had arrived at the Civic Centre , and we needed to take the finished panels down to check that everything was OK. It was a thrill to see a completed pair of panels hung, but rather boring as holes were drilled for the rest of the hangers. I kept thinking that I was wasting my time and should be sewing.

Juliet agreed and took me back to her house where I set about hemming the sides of the last panels. I had finished three edges by the time Juliet and Iris came back. The hangers were all installed, but one of them was not right, so it was going back to the workshop.

We finished the sides, then pinned the two panels together and, after measuring three times, cut the tops and bottoms. By then it was 6 pm. Juliet says she will finish the two panels completely tonight, so they can hang all of them tomorrow when the hanging guy brings the faulty hanger back. I am not needed, thank goodness, so I can finish off the fan at last!

Here is the first panel pair with the hanging guy preparing to install the second hanger.

Family Gathering

My sister Dorothy and her husband Mick came to lunch, as did Helen.

We had a very pleasant afternoon.

Helen brought a lot of stuff for us to store. She is moving into a beachside unit at Cottesloe with friends and is going to rent out her own unit. So we get to look after the unwanted stuff.

Dorothy brought dessert. Pretty impressive presentation.

The End is Nigh!

Full day's work today on the project.

Yesterday I called in to Juliet's after the Innovative Stitches session (great workshop on box making - thank you so much Helen) and found her worried about the wagyl tail. It didn't look right. We had trimmed quite a bit off the right side in order to finish the edges and we had not thought about how that would affect the overall appearance. We decided an equivalent trim on the left would do it, I took it home, cut the new shape with the soldering iron and finished it.

Today the binding was partly sewn on and we cut the tops and bottoms of the eight finished panels. Tomorrow Juliet will finish the tops and bottoms and the binding. This leaves 2 panels to go which we hope Iris will have finished by tomorrow afternoon. The wagyl bit is cut so it just needs to be sewn on, sides cut and stitched and then top and bottom finished.

Tuesday should see it all done. I am taking tomorrow off for a family gathering.

Countdown

I returned the blue panel to Juliet. She was a little stressed.

The guy who is doing the hanging mechanism was supposed to have it ready by today. When Juliet rang him he was rather offside - couldn't get it up before Wednesday next week. OUCH! that meant there would be less than 24 hours to correct any errors before the official opening on Thursday. I think Juliet vented a bit and he will now have it ready on Tuesday.

We will be working hard all over Easter. Tomorrow I will help with measuring and pinning to correct length the finished panels and with pinning and stitching the bindings that outline the wagyl. Whatever we don't get done we will do on Sunday.

Today I went shopping - everything is closed tomorrow. I got all the food stuff we will need for the weekend. Time to fiddle with fibre.

I started free machining leaves on vilene 541 for "THE FAN". Murphy's Law - the metallic thread broke and got sucked into the machine's innards. Lots of searching with torches and tweezers. Thread still lost. I rang David at Bestway for help and took it in for emergency surgery. Thanks, David. I wish these new "you beaut" machines were easier to fix when you had thread tangles and tension problems.

Finished 2 leaves and started the third. Thread problems again, so have stopped to let the machine recover.

I am doing a workshop on Saturday morning. Of course I hadn't checked the list and I needed some stuff from Jackson's (art suppliers). The machine problem meant I could detour and get what I needed - well, mostly. Bunnings is open all weekend for the rest.

Eight days to go

before the Melville Textile Art Project has its official public presentation.

Juliet finished the bindings on the blue panels yesterday. They look great and no-one (who doesn't read this blog!) will know that these are in any way different to the rest. I brought one of the blue panels home to modify the wagyl section so it finishes before the edge. In its previous incarnation it would have ended up in the binding.

A fairly simple job - unpick the previous stitching, tack a new cutting line and cut with the soldering iron, then restitch. Not so simple. I had tacked with black polyester thread and the soldering iron melted it as well, making ugly black bits along the edge. Freehand cutting was needed to get rid of them, but it's finished now.

Today we cut and tacked the edges of the red panels, and tacked the orange ones we cut the other day as well. Juliet reckons these are straightforward and she should finish them tomorrow. Four of the five panels almost finished.

The next major task is the bias binding to outline the wagyl. Juliet will make these strips, then I will help her pin them in place for stitching. I think this will be Sunday's job.

I went to aquarobics this morning for the first time in over a week. I thought I had hurt my back, but I now think I may have had a virus. Feeling good now, though.

Fan background finished

Since I last posted about this I have changed my ideas again but the overall concept is still related to "Place". The two fans I made in the workshop both have this as a unifying link. I wanted this fan to relate to an iconic part of WA - the karri forests of the South West - so I based my background on some photos we took some years ago.

The background started out as monoprints, which were not all that successful. Then I started to slap paint on it. I was planning to cover this with a layer of free motion embroidery on organza, but decided that the embroidery should be on the background. There will still be a layer of organza. Here is the piece at its present stage.


And a detail


I was able to finish the embroidery today because Dorothy is ill and couldn't make the Art Gallery. If Juliet doesn't need me tomorrow I will do the organza layer.