New designs - Tea Time!

So I've been thinking about themes for the quilts that I want to make for my MA project. I've previously been working on the theme of 'Great British', so would like to stick with this. I've been thinking about creating quilts that celebrate Great Britian; its heritage, landmarks, customs, etc. I feel we all need to become patriotic again in this country, and its so great seeing all these England flags around for the world cup, so lets have a bit more of that I say. Anyway, back to the point...I've been working on some designs based around these ideas, and the first quilt that I'm going to attempt to make (hopefully will get round to it in the Summer holidays) is going to be based on the British custom of taking tea - we brits love our tea! It's an old favourite of mine, and its very on-trend with many fabric and paper prints currently, so this will help when it comes to selling my work. Here I've designed a coat of arms, which pokes fun at the British love for tea, having the lion and unicorn holding a tea-cup and tea-pot. This will be a central design that I will print and then quilt in to. The other design depicts tea-time, with illustrations of cakes, tea-cups and tea-pots. This will be printed and cut in to panels or strips to make up patchwork around the central coat of arms image. This will possibly be combined with fabric taken from second-hand table cloths.

V&A 'Quilts' Exhibition

Yesterday I went to London to visit the 'Quilts' exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum. I was so inspired by the quilts that were featured in the exhibition, all so very different from one another. This visit has inspired me to continue with my patchworking and quilting ideas for my MA studies, and I'm now fired up to start drawing up some new illustrations to be printed as fabrics for patchworking and quilting.

Patchwork experiments

I've been sampling a few patchwork techniques to beging my uni project. So far I have begun with the simpler techniques in order to get the hang of it. I've sampled the log cabin technique, arranging the modules in to diagonals; the triangular patchwork technique; and the square patchwork technique combined with some applique and trapunto quilting on the teddy-bears.

Patchwork Cushion

I've actually become really obsessed with patchwork just lately and would like to explore this further in my MA work, combining it with quilting and embroidery. This is a cushion that I made using the log-cabin patchwork technique (which currently is my favourite), and using my own printed fabric with denim.

Quilted Cushions

I've been quilting cushions and bags for a while now. These are two of my favourites...mainly because they involve cake, plus I love the fabrics that I used (they were scrap pieces that I found and lovingly put to good use). I made them by hand-painting my illusrations on, and then quilting around all of the outlines. I don't tend to quilt in the traditional way, instead I tend to merely quilt round my imagery, however this is something that I would like to explore more, and maybe inject some more traditional linear quilting in to my designs.

The good old days

So here's my first upload. This is a quilting that I created last summer and found it so totally therapeutic. Since beginning my MA I've gone off on a tangent, and this is what I want to get back to...my original labour of love - SEWING!!!

Getting to Grips

I'm just getting started here, currently haven't got a clue, so bare with and all will be revealed eventually!