Going all girly

Last Saturday was Kambra Challenge day. I've mentioned this annual challenge here previously. We've been challenging each other for more than a decade now, and the results are always fascinating and unexpected.

I couldn't make the unveiling this year, which was a shame, because I really wanted to see what the others did with our challenge fabrics! They were eight dyed fat eighths from Lisa Walton at Dyed and Gone to Heaven:

Challenging fabrics, aren't they? They're so very... what's the word I want? Oh yes... pink.The challenge, from Donna, was to use these fabrics, plus a single print fabric. The group reactions were predictable - I don't think we've reacted with enthusiasm to any challenge yet! The problem was to avoid something really cloying.

However, the one group in the world that really loves pink is small girls, and I just happen to have one of those in my family. Granddaughter Kate is rarely seen without some pink about her person, so she seemed the logical person to receive my pink project. I wanted to make her something she would use, but I just didn't love the fabrics enough to make her a quilt. So a small project was needed.

It was quite hard to find a fabric that worked well with the pinks but wasn't too sickly. I didn't find any commercial fabrics I liked, so I decided to paint and print my own. I used Setacolor paints and an Indian woodblock.

And here's my project - one side:

...and the other:

 

Kinda cute, isn't it? I'm pretty sure she's going to love it.

 

If you want to see the other Kambra challenge works, they're over here on the Kambra Challenge blog.

More about the book

Once I'd painted the cover picture, it was April 1 and I started work on the pages. April 3 was the first quarter of the moon in April, with the full moon on Apr 10, and the last quarter on April 17. The new moon fell on April 25. I won't show all the pages here, partly because that would be tedious to look at, but also because, when you are working quickly on the final sheet, not all pages turn out as you imagined! Here are some of my favourites:
The first page I did -

April 6, a Fibrecircle meeting day - paper tissue collage
April 11 - undeciphered scripts This page shows a page of the undeciphered script of the Indus Valley civilisation, with the letters of UNDECIPHERED SCRIPTS hidden among it. On this day, I was thinking about the parts of everyone that are hidden from view, that appear unexpectedly.
The next two are pair of pages about limitations, associated with the changing season, the waning moon and my life at the time.


Tissue poppies for Anzac Day, for those dead in war and the new moon, with the words of the poem that begins "in Flanders Fields the poppies blow", written at Ypres by Dr John McCrae, who himself did not survive that terrible war.
A fantasy landscape, just playing around with colours. Painted with Setacolor paints over the original blue background.

It actually took me until mid June to assemble the book in its final form. I added colour with Prismacolor pencils to the end papers, and added text.

This was a brilliant project to do, I really had a ball. It was structured enough that I wasn't trying to find things to make each day, but free enough to let me follow whatever elusive thread captured my attention. I learnt a huge amount by doing it, although I now see ways I could have done things better (of course!). I think I got way more out of it than I would have done making a quilt (or a bag) for the challenge. If you want to see the other challenge pieces, they're on the Kambra Challenge blog.

Lots of new stuff to share

I've been quiet here lately because so much of what I've done lately has been secret. Finally I can share one thing that took up a lot of my life back in April. I belong to a group that does a challenge every year. This year, the challenge was to make something with these fabrics, a pack of 40, 7in squares of 20 Hoffman 1895 Bali Watercolors, blue-green color roll.

I was away for some of the challenge period so I wanted to make a small project, that I had a good chance of finishing in the time frame. I thought about making a bag, or using the square to embellish a garment. But when I looked at the fabrics, they reminded me of phases of the moon, so I decided to make a book that referenced the moon phases over one month. The moon in astrology relates to emotions, and receptiveness to change, since the phases of the moon mean it is in constant change. In the past, I've made diary-style year quilts, which were about what was happening in my life during that year, but I wanted to make something that focused on my inner life, what I was thinking and learning, rather than what I was doing. So I made April Moon. (I worked through lots of possible fancy titles, but in the end, simple seemed best!)

I decided I needed to keep the pages separate until after I had done whatever I was going to do, so I was free to stitch them if I wanted. Then, as I went, I could assemble flat sheets into signatures, and stitch the signatures to the spine tape, so final assembly wouldn't be too time-consuming. (I'm never really motivated by those final fiddly bits!) The Bali fabrics would be used to edge each page, so the colours would show the moon phase. I also wanted the book to be able to stand up, but each page to lie flat when it was opened, which influenced me towards a more standard book binding, with a spine tape attached to a cover, with end papers.

First I made the cover and the base pages. I didn't want to be daunted by cream quilters' muslin pages, so I painted all the pages in shades of blue. I used the same paints to make monotypes for the end papers and the cover. The end papers were printed from a glass plate with rubber bands scattered on it. The cover monotype was pulled from paint on the glass plate. (The overlay shows where the spine was going to be) Then I began to sketch in paint details of my imagined moon garden. It was utterly absorbing, as the more I added, the more areas I could see needed more work. Eventually I stopped, and this was my moon garden cover:

Just a little teaser

I've been busy lately but sadly, most of what I've done is Sekrit Stuff, so I can't put any of it up here. But I thought I'd give you a teaser, so you can see I have been busy and not swanning around the Caribbean on a cruise ship or lying on a beach in Bali, like some lucky friends of mine.

So what are you looking at? OK, one of these 2in virtual strips represents my Kambra Challenge 2009. Remember, I belong to a group that has been meeting for an annual challenge for, can it be a more than a decade? You can see some of our previous challenges here (and yes, most of my unfinished ones are still unfinished). This year, our challenge was to use a pack of 40, 7in 1895 Bali Watercolors in delicious blues and greys and browns and the unveiling date is fast falling upon us. I don't want another unfinished quilt so I have a cunning plan... Another of these shows my piece for a Like Minded Artist challenge that came originally from a Fibrecircle activity. It's coming along nicely and may even make the Mar 30 deadline, after which time you can see it in all its glory. And another image shows a slice of another Fibrecircle activity, which we were challenged to use to make into ATCs. These are due on Apr 8 and then I'll show them, either here or on the Fibrecircle blog. And not only will Fibrecircle members get an ATC, but a couple of people who have set me ATCs might actually get one back. Progress! Of course, along the way I've painted a whole lot more fabric pieces, which at this stage look remarkably like painted fabric so I won't bother to put them here.

Meanwhile I'm also thinking about my Voyages and Passages piece for ATASDA's Palm House exhibition in 2010. So many possibilities!

I haven't been entirely locked in my workroom. Yesterday, I went on an expedition with my friend Carol, to Petlins for some essential weaving supplies, and via an Aladdin's cave of a fabric shop to NSWeave aka NSW Spinners and Weavers Guild. I managed to find some delicious organza and some acrylic felt (everything I have here now is wool felt that doesn't melt, darnit!), some silk tops and yarn for later dyeing with Fibrecircle, a weaving book I couldn't live without and these cute little stamps.

Aren't they fun? Just called out to me to take them home. A most satisfactory excursion.

Challenge quilts

OK, here are some others of the 2007 challenge group, posted with permission.
Maggie's "I wish I had a dog" quilt:

Lyn's quilt:

Robbie's quilt:

Kathryn's quilt:

Pennie's quilt:

Aren't they a clever bunch?

Pennie is currently setting up a blog for the past challenges, which you can visit at http://kambrachallenge.blogspot.com/ She's up to about 2004 now!

Those challenge pieces

So many people asked me about the challenge pieces that some of the members of the challenge have kindly allowed me to share their work here. Not all of them have blogs themselves and access to our photo files is limited to group members. Hopefully one day soon the group will have its own blog.

Most people in the group were less than thrilled with the fabrics chosen this year, and it was a real struggle for some to make anything at all!
Brenda's block, which she has promised to turn into a quilt by next year

Donna's stunning jacket....

And the back!

Michelle's amazing woven pieces, beautifully framed

Stephanie's vest....

...and the back.

Loz's trip around the world, with a clever map print on the back.


Stay tuned for more tomorrow!

Aren't we lucky?

I’ve had a great weekend, socialising with like-minded people. All are people I’ve met through the Southern Cross Quilters list, the original and best of the Down Under quilting lists. That list has given me so much over the years, including some great friendships. We're so fortunate to live in a time when communication is so simple. I can chat to people across Australia and across the world, and share ideas and techniques so easily. But most of all, I can develop relationships with people who are interested in the same things as I am but don't happen to live in my backyard. Even after more than a decade on the net, it still blows me away!

First was the great unveiling of the challenge quilts. I ran out of time to turn mine into a quilt (is anyone surprised?) but I can finally show you the top.
I’m so pleased with how it’s turned out. (It actually isn't green at all, it's black red and cream, but it seems to have been a difficult quilt to photograph today.) We only had 1/8 metre of each fabric and it was very hard to buy more, but happily we could add whatever fabrics we liked to those original fabrics. I really love the way mine has turned out. I’m afraid there’s no publicly accessible link to show you what the other members of this challenge group did with the fabrics, so you'll just have to take my word for it that they were all incredibly different and very striking.

Then we celebrated the Significant Birthday of my friend Sharon with great enthusiasm. The strangest part of the evening was the way her quilting friends, from three different groups, all congregated on the one table. Quilters must just recognise one another as kindred spirits. (When do we get to the funny handshake?)

So I’ve been partying rather than stitching this weekend. It’s also been a time of rationalisation. I’ve finally recognised that a) things take twice as long as I anticipate and b) I can’t do everything I’d like to do. Simple, isn’t it? You’d wonder why it took so long for me to realise. So, in the second half of the year, I am cutting back on my expectations, and trying to focus on specific things I’d like to get finished. So I probably won’t be making as many postcards and small pieces, though I have remembered to incorporate some playtime into my schedule, something I’ve been conspicuously without for some months. We’ll see how that goes!