Sheila Hicks retrospective

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Today I went to the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and saw a retrospective of Sheil Hicks’ work. She has taken tassel making to a whole new level. I’ve only used tassels once in my current work, on Traveler’s Mizrach. You can see it under Quilt Gallery 2013, above. She also had small tapestries, which I neglected to photograph, as well as other sculptural pieces. These ones using the wrapping/tassel technique were my favorite.

Here are some more photos of the retrospective.

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The one above gives you an idea of how tall these pieces are. imageimage

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Even more quilty ideas

imageHere’s a tile floor from the castle at Azay Le Rideau. Very quilty!

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How about this window from the same castle?

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Or this window, from the abbey we visited yesterday? Also quilty.

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It was because we saw this amazing roof in a book that we decided to visit this abbey. Isn’t it wonderful?

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More quilty ideas from non-quilts

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This is a tile floor from the abbey where Eleanor of Aquitaine is buried. If it were a quilt we’d call it snow balls, or robbing Peter to pay Paul. Here’s an effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine, reading a book!

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Below, is the wall of a building, across the street from the chateau of Angers. I think it would make a wonderful quilt!

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Below are more tiles from the Abbey.

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Here’s a nine patch, growing in the garden.

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I Love these multi headed creatures from a 650 year old tapestry in Angers. I think Hagrid would want one for a pet.

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Cathedral Window mini quilt finished!

 

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This is the beginning of sewing in the penultimate triangle.

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This is the last triangle of this mini quilt. I’m almost done!

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Here it is, finished. I had to take a screenshot of it because my phone was misbehaving. But I’m really happy with how it turned out. I forgot that I used to do a lot of hand sewing, and got good at it. And that I used to like hand sewing. It’s been really great to have a hand sewing project to do on this trip.

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Quilt ideas

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This is a tile floor from the abbey on Mont Saint Michel, in France. It looks like a streak of lightning setting for triangles. The way the color is worn away, it looks like “scrappy fabric” choices. It would make a nice quilt.

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This is what it looks like from another place on the same floor, where the glaze hasn’t been worn away. I also took a photo of a wooden floor that looked quilty to me.

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This the floor of the AirB&B we stayed at in Caen, France. Doesn’t it look quilty?

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I can’t resist adding a photo of Mont Saint Michel, which has been on my bucket list for years. It is only an island at high tide. I’m so glad I finally got to go there. It reminds me of my ceramic sculptures which frequently had small houses or castles on them.

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Bayeux Tapestry/embroidery

Today I went to see the Bayeux Tapestry, which is really wool embroidery on linen.

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It is about 150 feet long, and shows how William the Conqueror became king of England in 1066. They believe it was made within 20 years of 1066! It’s amazing that anything that old, made of fabric still exists (outside of Egypt where it’s so dry that 1000 year old fabrics aren’t unusual). This tapestry/embroidery is amazing!imageHere is a description of the embroidery stitches used. I’m  sorry that the photo isn’t very good.  I took it through a pane of glass.

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More hand sewing

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I’m continuing to sew this cathedral window sample. At the Voices In Cloth quilt show I learned something interesting from Youngmin Lee, a quilter originally from Korea. In Korea they have their own tradition of making what looks exactly like cathedral window blocks. But their name for it is “wish fulfilling jewel”.

As you may or may not know, I’m on vacation in London. Here are some lovely desserts, stacked up at the cafe at the British Museum.

 

imageHere are some more non-eatable yummies.

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I think these are from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

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This last one is made of off cuts from military uniforms by a British woman taylor around the time of Napoleon. It’s appliquéd and embroidered on top.

 

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Hand sewing cathedral windows

imageI’m working on a hand sewn 4 block cathedral window sample for the class I’m teaching at HelloStitch on June 10. In this photo I’m sewing 2 of the blocks together with a tight whip stitch. The nail clippers are because I’m on a trip, and I’ve had my sewing scissors confiscated in the past. This is a small, very doable project for traveling. The orange and yellow squares are to insert into the window between the blocks.

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Cathedral window quilts

old cathedral window

Here is a cathedral window pillow that I made in the 1980’s, entirely by hand. I hadn’t made one since then, but I’m teaching a class on how to make them at HelloStitch in June, so I’ve been researching them. A lot has changed since last time I made one. I found 5 different ways of making them: entirely by hand, 2 versions entirely by machine, and 2  that are a combination of hand and machine. I stayed up till 1:30 last night making a postcard sized one for the Berkeley Public Library’s quilt show. I made it entirely by machine, because I was in a hurry, and I wanted to see if I liked it by machine.

postcard cathedral window

Here it is, above. I’m pretty pleased with it, but the craftsmanship is much higher when it’s done partly by hand.

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My new video!

Watch this brand new video of me, teaching you how to make a matza cover for Passover, without any sewing. Of course you could sew on it if you wanted to. I used fusible web, and it is more permanent if you stitch around it. Here’s the link: https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2Fg-eahCRuTM8&data=02%7C01%7C%7C39a297b12199448a0f7e08d595d976a2%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636579683578643329&sdata=%2FokKMHo7swq7PML9MFIPkoi9RrvBMvzx%2FUeWfwp53gs%3D&reserved=0

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