Tin,oak alder and birch.

Liz,as usual, had been beavering away at new pieces.She likes a folk group called 'Show of Hands 'and these pieces relate to tin mining.Their music and her love of Cornwall combined in some stunning quilts.

For her' Crowd' piece Liz has chosen a small pot covered in oak leaves.This 'log cabin'  pieced quilt is made from fabrics dyed with oak leaves.She plans to add surface decoration of leaves and words.

More small pieces with naturally eco dyed cloth 

and beautifully hand stitched.

She had also been dyeing more cloth ,these I think,with Birch bark and an alum mordant. 

Not finished yet,she had collected oak galls and made ink from them to use to make marks on khaki paper for some books.

Then there was this which had been wrapped in a piece of corrugated ironing is beginning to have applied strips added.

We were interested to see these ceramic pieces,not made by Liz.

While in St Ives she happened across a pit firing on the beach.The pieces are buried with wire,copper etc.What results is a reaction of the clay ,heat and whatever it comes into contact.No two pieces are the same.

It's a little like the process of Eco -dyeing but with a different medium.

Full steam ahead.

With 'Natural Selections' at Nature in Art  hoving into view everyone is having a last push towards completion of pieces.

Sally has had her nine pieces beautifully framed by Joe Cashman of Bedminster Framing.Each is held in place with camel bone beads at each corner.

We loved her original idea of pottery shards and fragments,and she has gone ahead and produced one based around the idea.She scanned and printed the images from her drawings onto T-shirt transfer paper before using Bondaweb to attach to the the pottery shards.

Do you remember her bundles from months back? Well, they are making an appearance too.We thought they were too good to set aside.

Combined with her drawings they make for intriguing work.

Nearly done.

Jane had spent a lovely few weeks in Venice over the Summer and despite having to suffer being eaten by mosquitoes she had visited The Biennale.She plans to make a record so we look forward to seeing it.

On her return she had made time to complete her final bird piece .It just has to be put into a frame for NiA.

Using her digitising skills for the pieces she has also used the outcome to create these lovely patches .They will look good on jeans,bags etc.and we're sure will "fly" off from her Etsy shop.There will probably be more in NiA.

Deryll, meanwhile,had been creating elements for a second piece for NiA.

We love the quiet colour way,chosen in response to her Crowd object.

lots of lovely detail,with the "flower stitch foot"creating button like additions.

The linen looks as though she has spent a long time withdrawing threads,when in fact it is machine stitched !

Colour

Marilyn loves colour and she treated herself to this lovely Kantha stitched wrap/scarf at the South West quilt and textile show.

She also bought a marbling kit but was disappointed that the inks seems to be much more liquid than in the demonstration.

Nevertheless we think she did brilliantly for a first attempt.Debby suggested taking a viewfinder to find the bits of interest to her.

She acquired the book of Chris Ofili's tapestry.He designed it, but it was woven by Dovecote Studios in Edinburgh ,taking them two and a half years to complete.

there are some stunning colours within.

Now we came to her next challenge ,a piece for The Clothworkers Guild who exhibit every two years This time it will be in Southwark Cathedral and has to be a new work.

At first she found it difficult to find inspiration but eventually decided on water,more specifically the River Thames.

There is a plain weave weft with the warp threads interlaced.This is then dyed and felted.Marilyn had tried out some colours by painting directly onto the threads .

She is wearing her sampler here and is as yet undecided as to the final piece 

It may end up as a wrap for wearing or a wall hung piece.So many,many hours of work.

Busy.

Debby had picked up this little pack in Tiger in Cabot Circus and had put it to use making these sweet little brooches and pendants.

She had been on several courses and workshops,these fish were produced on a printing course with Rachel Toon in Queen's road this Summer

and these cranes were etched on plastic sheet.In addition she went to Spike Island for a screen print course

She has begun to work on ideas for her CROWD piece for NiA.

Her inspiration is a piece by Neil Dalrymple.

She has decided to use her signature batik.Her experiments included using gutta and wax rubbing .Then she thought she would go large .The initial stage,above,uses Intense colours ,fabric paint and colourless textile medium over to stop fading.Its application changes the hand of the fabric slightly but as this is a wall piece and will be quilted it is fine.

She was wearing this amazing piece of silk as a scarf.

She had picked it up on one of her visits to Brighton in Ditto fabrics.

So much going on !

TWEET !

I bet you can"t guess who made these? They look as if they've been on the booze but once they are anchored to their perches they'll be just fine.

They have such character and there is a great attention to detail.

As to Crowd ,Kirsten has been making some sketchbook drawings trying to decide her favourite inspiration.

She has also been looking to pare down the recognisable characteristics of chosen birds.We wonder how she will resolve this?

Slipping into September.

Our numbers were down on usual as September seems to be a popular month for late holidays.We sat in Marilyn's sunny conservatory for our meeting.

Finding it difficult to come to a conclusion with her 'Crowd'  piece Jenn had leapt ahead to thinking about our Newark Park exhibition next May.She had been taken with the blue and white teapots and jug sporting hand painted  bees.She chose some fabrics and stuck them to a base with "gloop"before adding in some stitch and some free machined bees,there is still more to add.

 A recent purchase of a Xcut Xpress machine ,to use for a cheap printmaking press , gave her the opportunity to use a hexagon die to cut out some papers for patchwork,not something she would normally attempt! Some silk samples that had been around for a goodly while were hand pieced in honey hues.

More bees were free machined on a piece of blue silk and will be destined to populate the hive.She also brought along one of three newly framed pieces destined for Nature in Art.

Viv presented her now completed tiny,we do mean TINY,Liberty pieced doll's quilt.It's a shame we forgot to put a coin for scale as they are about the size of 10p piece.

                                     

It is to be used on a very old doll's bed and will we are sure be an heirloom of the future.

As normal wadding would be overpowering Viv used a bamboo fabric usually sold for use as dusters !