Filling The Gap week one

I find myself in the envious position of having four weeks between teaching commitments with very few demands on my time. My online Breakdown Your Palette workshop is ticking along smoothly, there are no hints of impending crisis / distraction on the family front and my ‘bits and bobs’ to do list is pretty short.

So I am free to make ART! I have a ‘Cadence’ quilt in my head that is screaming to get out so the timing is good. This new series is inspired by the joy of process, the joy of making. And it certainly is joyous to be able to immerse myself in it. The fact that spring is here and we’re enjoying a spell of warm, sunny weather just adds to the sense of well-being that comes with making.

Now that I’ve cleared out the drain on my screen washing trough (it’s a glamourous life!) I have been able to spend this last week breakdown printing. I started by making and drying 25 embedded object type breakdown screens. I used the same set of objects over and over again so that there are common shapes and marks on my printed fabrics. I worked with seven of the darker value colours from a colour family and kept each colour separate so have printed a set of mostly monochromatic fabrics. And what a glorious collection of fabrics they are! Ranging from turquoise to a muted grey-purple these are definitely fabrics that make my heart sing. And I have plenty - I printed about 18 square metres this week and have lots of lighter value fabric in the same colourway left over from an earlier printing session.

Next up - cutting the fabrics up then ‘composing’ the quilt! One week down, three to go.