Studio Time

Today was a very productive day. It’s been over 6 months since I’ve had a full day in the studio and I’d forgotten just how productive I could be given half the chance! Mom decided that if I didn’t knuckle down there would be no way I’d meet the exhibition deadlines that are fast approaching so she volunteered to look after Amelie all day. Amelie by the way, is doing really well, 6 months old tomorrow and just starting to sit up and tuck in to the odd spoonful of mushed carrot or mango. Yum.

So for the first time in a long time I have the opportunity to spend several uninterrupted hours in my studio, but of course, I don’t know what to do with myself. The answer, procrastinate and tidy up of course! I tackled all of the piles on my desk and two of the piles on the floor, along the way discovering all sorts of things I’d forgotten about and at least finding out all the bits and pieces for the projects I ought to be doing.

With surfaces revealed once more I did get on. First on the hit list was my second new piece for SiX – Orientation which has to be handed over next week ready for the exhibition hanging in a couple of weeks. This morning I completed the quilting and this weekend the binding will go on. I’ll photograph it once it’s done but for now here’s the first one in the series that I finished last week.

It’s a digital photograph that we printed to cotton poplin here at Fingerprint. I’ve simply free motion quilted it with contour lines on the hands and a Japanese sashiko design in the background.

With that bit of quilting done I moved on to new work. Although over recent months I haven’t always been able to do anything I have had lots of thinking time to plan new work. I have a very long list of paintings to paint, drawings to draw and quilts to quilt, let alone the new designs I want to do for the Fingerprint range. I can’t ever dive straight in and paint or quilt though, I always have to work through ideas in my sketchbook first. To maximise time I’ve worked today in two books at a time so I can switch to one when the other is wet and back again. For some of my new work I’m going back to the hedges that inspired me right at the beginning of my quilting career. In fact, in digging out the piles in my workroom I came across samples and drawings of hedgey things that date back to my degree show. That feels like a LONG time ago! I still love all that stuff though and at this time of year the hedges around here are at their best. I’m not going to get cross that our new neighbours have massively trimmed the blackthorn hedge between us that I’d been allowing to grow so I could collect it’s thorns. Well, not really, really cross.

I’ve been drawing with charcoal, working direct to the page and onto some found papers. I love charcoal for it’s immediacy and (I’ll probably scan them) and then print them to fabric. Jamie’s got a long list of print jobs at the moment so I better put my name down!

It’s been a fun day. Amelie had a great time with Grandma and I even managed to get my new paints wet! I realised that comments on this blog had been turned off, but they’re back on now. I’d love to hear from you!

Bye for now,

Laura

xx