Creative stitch with paint, thread and wax

It may be cold at this time of the year, but there's lots to inspire the creative mind, 

especially when Debbie Lyddon comes to teach in the studio, as she did last week!  Following on from her very successful exhibition at The Knit & Stitch show we asked Debbie to come and explore paint, thread and waxed collages with us for a couple of days.

She brought lots of her own work to inspire us

and some objects to give us focus.

 We were encouraged to paint on paper and fabric,

we didn't need much encouragement it has to be said.  We all were in our element very quickly!

Debbie was always on hand to offer advice as well as provide a challenge or two.  It's often good to be made to think the unexpected, don't you agree?

Cutting, auditioning, folding and pulling threads until we were satisfied with our compositions before

moving on to sew, by machine or by hand.  Both were encouraged, as was liberal use of the wax pot.  Now that's something to try!

And here are the (nearly) finished results, pretty amazing don't you agree?:

Apparently Joan's inspiration was trifle...

and Gill likes seed heads.

Sarah's was full of colour

whilst Valerie's was blue.

Birds feature again

and again, here on Terry's sea themed piece.

But Japan was Teresa's inspiration perhaps

whilst Nina chose a winter landscape.

Goodness only knows what inspired Hazel, but the loops look effective.

Joan tried the loops too, and

Jane produced a peaceful summer's day.  Now, isn't that something to look forward too?

Debbie is a fantastic and inspirational teacher and we all thoroughly enjoyed our two days with her.  She'll be back in the autumn to teach this workshop again however it is already fully booked .  BUT we have asked her to come and explore 'Sculptural forms' with us in the summer - all the details and booking details can be found here: http://www.institchestextilecourses.co.uk/debbie-lyddon---sculptural-forms.html

Inspired by Debbie's work and want to see more?  Visit her web site here: http://debbielyddon.co.uk/

Is this art?

All the competition categories at the Festival of Quilts are open competitions, ie anyone who fulfills the entry criteria may enter and have hung, a quilt.  However there is one exception and that is the Fine Art Quilt Masters, which is a juried competition and is judged by a panel of leading figures drawn from both the art and quilting worlds.  Anything goes!  Here are just a few we liked that are on offer in this year's gallery:

Sara Impey, social fabric

Helen Parrot, Nine yards or thereabouts 

Helen Parrot, detail.

Maria Thomas, Borrowed ( Henry Matisse, Tom and me)

Alison Garrett, Headlines 2015

Alison Garrett (detail)

Sarah Welsby, To thine own self be true

Sarah Welsby, detail

Julie Bunter, Layers of meaning: define art quilt

Jette Clover, In other words

Jette Clover, detail

Mary Bird, The Stour in winter

Ruth Singer, Criminal Quilt.  Winner

Leah Higgins, Ruins 5

Liesbeth Williams, The lie of the land

Janet Twinn, Green Blooms

Anne Smith, Gabriel is missing.

Jackie Ketley, Betty.

Jackie Ketley, detail.

Seeing sound?

It's summer (honestly, it is!) so not only does that mean it's time for cotton dresses, sandles and Pims, but it's Festival season!  Having reach the grand ages of ** years I decided last year it was time to see what all the fuss was about and took myself off to Latitude 

- brilliant time, sunshine, pink sheep 

and plenty of music, all in a big field in Suffolk, dressed like a pixie...

So good I'm off again this year, but I just can't persuade Terry to join me: we have different musical tastes. And this got us thinking; what difference does the sounds we hear when we're sewing make to the stitch mark we make?  When we're teaching students to either hand quilt or free motion quilt we often suggest that listening to music will help the rhythm of the stitching but we've never really questioned how it could affect the mark made.

One textile artist who actively considers the effect of sounds on mark making is Debbie Lyddon, so we we were excited when she agreed to come and work with InStitches recently. Debbie, who is based in Surrey and Norfolk, says of her work 

'I am not only inspired by things that are seen but also by those that are heard and can be touched and I record objects, happenings, sounds and textures that I have noticed in the environment around me. I make mixed media cloths, sculptures, installations and drawings which originate from thoughts and memories that are a consequence of experiencing place and paying attention'

Although we wondered what on earth we had let ourselves in for when the she asked us to hold onto two ends of a piece of thread on which a wire coat hanger was suspended...and then stick our fingers in our ears - as you can see Terry's face sums it all up!

But do it for yourself....the results are quite surprising.  Before long we'd all moved out of the classroom and onto the veranda tapping and banging as we went.  The sounds were amazing!

Then Debbie herded us all back inside and we all took out a huge piece of paper and got busy recording the marks summoned up by the sounds we could hear.

Debbie played snatches of sounds she had recorded and asked us to mark make both while we listened and then from memory.  

We'd all been asked to bring in a found object to make a sound, so in turn our sounds were made and recorded visually...

Look at the photographs, can you guess the sounds which have been annotated?

Variation in pitch, beat, harmony....all can be visually recorded.

After lunch Debbie moved us from paper to stitch after discussing some of her own work with us.

Some broad marks made with ink or pastel were made onto firm artist canvas and heavy weight calico,  this was stable enough to hand stitch without a frame.

Aren't the stitch marks wonderful?  By keeping to neutral colours it allows the eye to focus on the stitch mark - can you hear the sound?

They may not resonate with you but to the maker the sight of the mark will recall the sound.

A small dash of red adds to the sound/ visual scape.

A long, drawn out note perhaps?

And here there is lightness and darkness?

Surely this one is mixed vibrations?!

By the end of the afternoon we had marked both paper and fabric, listened and stitched with intent and  when all our work was laid out, end to end, it was a symphony!

So the next time you turn on the radio, plug in your iPod, place a needle on a disc (I wonder- does anyone listen to 'vinyl' these days??)

maybe you'll be more mindful about your aural selection,

music or the spoken word? Take your pick and perhaps photograph your marks and email them to us!

It you would like to see more of Debbie Lyddon's work then visit her web site www.debbielyddon.co.uk