Monday 26 September 2011

City & Guilds completed and a new Quilt Group - all in the same day!

Saturday 24th September 2011 was a big day for me! I finally completed FOUR years of City & Guilds studies. I have now completed my 7113 in Creative Textiles which goes with my certificate in Patchwork & Quilting and award in Machine Embroidery.

Anyone who cares to scroll further down this blog will see it is a very long time since I posted.

The reason for this is that this time last year I was on the verge of giving up. I had had a very difficult journey with my Machine Embroidery which led to a severe blow to my confidence which made me question my ability to complete the course.

But I am not a quitter and even though I needed to complete three units in the last 9 months I decided to stick with it and try to overcome some of my issues.

And I have overcome them - I have produced some work I am proud of both from the design and the quilting perspective.

So what about this blog? I was thinking of deleting it but have decided against this. The reasons for this decision are these. Firstly I still have 14 followers, now I know some of you are my quilting buddies but the rest of you have obviously hung on in there just in case I started posting again. Secondly I have noticed that I am still getting visitors who may find some of my experiences useful in their own C&G journey. Thirdly I have decided to try and keep doing a small amount of more experimental textile art and this blog would be a great place to share it.

So that brings me on to the second important event of Saturday 24th September - I joined a new Contemporary Quilt Group. It is affliated with Region 14 of the Quilters Guild and is hoping to meet monthly in Clifford, near Wetherby, North Yorkshire.

I have joined with my friend Hazel and the first nice surprise was finding that another quilting friend, Davina had decided to come.
We had a lovely day, organised by Sandra and Penny and it was lovely to do design exercises (arty farty stuff!) with no strings attached! Just knowing that now you can do this for pleasure, work on it some more or just chuck it in the bin was so liberating!

First we started with a collage!! One of my most loathed art forms in City & Guilds!
But not this time - I just got on with it and had one put together in about 5 minutes!
And here is a photo to prove it.


Then we had to take one of the images (I chose the caterpillars in the top right) and draw some lines to represent what we saw. We then cut this drawing into strips and reassembled them to make a new design. Now I know this is pretty basic design stuff but I just got on and did it - no messing. Here is a photo of the result.

I wonder if I will take this design any further - or just throw it in the bin?
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