imagineke

blog move

2009-10-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

I have moved my blog to my website: www.inekeberlyn.com.
So please have a look there - it was getting a bit much trying to keep both blogs going.
I will try and update it regularly.
It is really good to get your comments etc.

Scotland and France

2009-09-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I came back from a few days teaching up in the north of Scotland. I did a workshop with the Aberdeen Quilters, stayed with my friend Jenny Harper and then moved onto Cullen, a small picturesque fishing village on the north coast. The cottage overlooked the bay and the sunsets were fantastic. At night I could hear the sound of the waves.
On Saturday I walked the beach with Jenny and her granddaughters Katie and Lousia - the girls had composed their own beach installation using driftwood and shells - isn't it wonderful?

Cullen consists of two parts - the seatown shown below and the town on the cliffs, where you find Puddleduck Patch - a patchwork, gift, knitting, tea and restaurant shop - all in one.

The people up there are so kind, Morna runs the shop with the help of Avril, Alex and a host of others. Avril is in the process of making a record of all the old knitting patterns of the fisherman jumpers, most of them exist only in the heads of the old ladies - so she's fighting time.

Before Cullen we had a couple of weeks in France where we enjoyed the sun and some printing as well.

To get into the autumn colours I started printing this piece of fabric, and although it looks fantastic - when I washed it most of the top colour came out. Probably because I thickened my procion dye with a cornflour mix, as I ran out of Manutex. You live and learn, but its already had a soaking of soda and is waiting to be printed over again.

These lovely shells were a find on the beaches.

In France, the fields of the Vendee were warm and golden from all the sunshine this summer and the sky was a clear blue. I managed to get some more printing done in the garage, inspired by the blues of the sea and sky and watching Claire Benn at the Fesitval of Quilts. The results are shown below.

I was printing with a big wooden silkscreen painted with thickened dye on cotton fabric that was soaked in soda. Between each layer of dye I let the piece dry - the result was a gorgeous long piece of fabric. In time I will find something to do with it.

Festival of Quilts

2009-08-25T12:10:00.000-07:00

Then it was off to the Festival of Quilts - I'm showing some of my favourite quilts here. I didnt have much time to see the quilts. It was a real quick run-by before the show opened, by the end of the day I was just too tired.
Its not that its Dutch - but I do like this one, part of the SAQA collection - must join!

And this is by another Dutch lady, Wietske Kluck - in the Educational Stand, some fab work here.

And another lady with a Dutch history, Liesbeth - she found a unique way of using all those bits and pieces of family history and created a true heirloom - not to mention her quilts.

August

2009-08-25T11:56:00.001-07:00

August has been a very busy month, we started on the 13th with an open house and studio to launch the new book 'The Quilted Object' - the weather was glorious and the house, garden and studio were covered in colourful quilts. We had a good turnout and finished it all off with a BBQ. This was followed by the summerschool - we had a truly interntional turn-out. 5 Ladies from Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, with 5 British Ladies. We worked very hard, lots of fabrics were dyed with procion and indigo, designs were made into thermofax screens and fabrics printed and discharged, whilst keeping notes and colouring wonderful pages in the sketchbooks. Lya from Holland shows her gorgeous range of neutrals she dyed.

These are the colours Eva-Maria dyed, dont they match her inspiration picture perfectly? It will be interesting to see what she makes with it.

At the end of the 3 days we had a mini exhibition - a real riot of colour and 10 proud pupils.

After the three days everyone moved on to the Festival of Quilts - more quilts, more colour.

New Book

2009-08-04T03:31:00.001-07:00

Its here at last my new book: The Quilted Object.

To celebrate we are having an 'open house and studio' book launch party next week Thursday 13th August at our house from 11 am - 9 pm so if you're in the area please call in and have a cup of tea, coffee and a cake etc. and feel free to bring a friend.

I've also got some copies left of the little catalogue: 'Sketchbooks and Journal Quilts'.

Hopefully the weather is nice and we can be outside.

I'll also have lots of quilt and sketchbooks on show.

Hope to see you next week, if not come and see me at the Festival of Quilts the week after, my little stand is right by the Virtual Studio in the far corner.

Vendee

2009-07-19T03:06:00.000-07:00

We're still in France, weather has been glorious, but last three days a bit off. That means a bit of time to catch up with internet matters and plenty of time to do some stitching, painting and preparing for things at home.

Also been catching up with my journal quilts and July here is inspired by the lovely harbour here. Also still working hard on getting my LBD done for the Festival.

france

2009-07-05T04:48:00.001-07:00

we're in france - another month, another country. Lots of butterflies and bees and dragonflies. As you can see life is hard, having to sit by the pool and on the beach. I did do some teaching last week, with just one very happy student - we did some dyeing, printing and lots of sketchbooking.

We visited a dragonfly farm on a very hot day - this is me doing the sketchbook thing too.

sea fever finished

2009-06-24T00:41:00.000-07:00

This week I finally got round to finishing a few projects. One of them is a quilt for an exhibition in Ledbury at the Weavers Gallery next week. All quilts have the theme 'Sea Fever', a poem by John Masefield. I put some pleats in giving the quilt some movement. I also made a quick baby quilt for a friend - I used my new screen with Dutch houses to print some rows on it with white ink. Again the sheep couldn't keep away - anything to get in the picture!

I also did a workshop for the hexagon quilters near Reading. We made bookcovers or wallhangings and the results were very colourful and inventive. The blue seemed to be the favourite choice of colour for many, which made the pink and greens stand out a bit more.

All the quilts started with a backing fabric with fusible 80/20 Hobbs Heirloom on top and then ripped pieces of fabric in mainly one colour way were 'composed' on the top - then ironed to fix most of it. Then we screenprinted using thermofax screens. After lunch the sewing machines came out and a grid was stitched to keep it all in place, before stitching nice threads, bits of dyed scrim, bondawebbing pieces of velvet, gold and silver etc. They are going to be fabulous book covers or a wallhanging.

I particularly loved the flying geese - a screen design that has hardly been used, but looks stunning combined with the bull rushes printed around them.

Another reminder for those readers around the Midlands area; we've got our exhibition this weekend at Bromsgrove Rugby Club - both Edwina's Textile Inspirations and my Landscape Explored groups are showing off our work on Friday from 2 - 5 and Saturday from 10 - 4.

There are traders, a textile book tombola and Laura Kemshall is demonstrating machine quilting.

And if that isn't enough - the cakes are delicious and all home made!

See you there!

2009-06-18T04:24:00.000-07:00

last week I ran the printed denim bag workshop at Bromsgrove Rugby Club, the results were fabulous as you can see. Jeans were put back together again, printed with a choice of numerous thermofax screens and coloured inks

then whilst it was all drying, handles, pockets and lining were constructed and by the end of a hard working day most of the bags were ready.

Well done ladies!! I've booked a couple of more dates at the rugby club on Friday 18th andMonday 21 st of September.

The weekend weather was glorious and it also meant the end of my wildflower meadow, but I managed to salvage the daisies and the big vase formed a perfect foreground for the sheep on the hill, if you look closely!

They're our new friends.

Apeldoorn

2009-06-03T13:27:00.001-07:00

Whilst teaching at the group Tegendraads in Leiden, one of the ladies had made this jacket, cutting up a navy sweatshirt and stitching raw edged shapes onto it, as shown right.

One of the nicest ones I've seen.

I've been back a week but only just found time to catch upand have a look at my last few pictures taken in Apeldoorn, the town were I was born, grew up and where my mum still lives. The markets in Holland are always very colourful, last Friday there was an annual geranium market with sunshine to match. Just look at all the plants and their colour, so many everywhere.

All the shops show off their best arrangements, I always come back with the best of intentions to do something like this at home and never seem to get round of it, perhaps this time. Just before getting on the train I just had to take this picture so Dutch.

Where in the world would you find so many bikes, perhaps China I suppose.

friesland

2009-05-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

I'm in Holland now, teaching tomorrow in Friesland, but today I took my mum for a drive round this beautiful place to see where her family came from. I came across this perfect picture - an old windmill going full flow and surrounded by the new wind mills.

Its a country of contrasts, beautiful old places surrounded by modern concepts and art. This is the village of Hindeloopen - narrow cobbled streets and beautifully restored houses on the edge of a lake. In the 18th century it enjoyed fame and wealth - their costumes were an interesting combination of chints and checks in wonderful colours. The museum is well worth a visit with rooms set out as they were 300 years ago. As you can see the weather is glorious.

We went on to find some of my mums long deceased relatives, their headstones were still there. You might think this a bit morbid, but they tell such stories and my mum remembered each one as a relation and the kind of person they were.

We also found a small furniture maker, he was

in the middle of painting this gorgeous glass cabinet

as a commission, in the patterns and colours that are specific and traditional to Hindeloopen.

back home

2009-05-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

We're back home again.

Kids fine, dog fine, chucks fine - house in need of a good clean, football on the tele and its cold outside.

Going through my pictures I find some that I still like to share with you.

After seeing the stone piles on the westcoast of New Zealand, together with some of my sailing mates we build our own on the uninhabited strip of sand from the 'where the hell are you?' ad, we build our own and with some clever photography you can just about see our boat on the top.

Back in Airlie Beach I sit on our little balcony overlooking the bay, and spend some time updating my diary when all of a sudden this nosy white cockatoo with its bright yellow quiff comes and sits on the railing with a loud screech. I get the chance to do a quick sketch and when it returns a bit later he or she even lets me take a picture.

Later on its joined by a few other feathered friends, the very pretty and colourful rosella.

Looking back through all the pictures I notice birds figure quite prominently in many of them.

They get more exotic as well - starting with simple seagulls on a jetty and finishing with these rosella beauties on the balcony. We also see and hear the cookaburra perform its song, but it wont pose like the others.

whitsundays

2009-05-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

I've been too busy to update my blog.

And not always within reach of a wi fi hotspot.

We've done Sydney in a day - such iconic buildings - we stayed in a hotel just by the bridge.

The opera house at night was quite a sight - almost better than the day.

We spent a couple of days with friends in the hills north of the city and were taken to some beautiful places - even Summerbay of Home and Away fame - although it decided to tip it down there.

Melbourne was different again - also stayed with friends, we visited a lot of galleries there and got a fair share of aboriginal art. A couple of days at their beach house in Torquay and a trip on part of the Great Ocean Road finished that visit.

We did a quick stop in Brisbane and walked the city - again very cultural and a lovely green area by the river with more Aboriginal art and some good sculptures set in fountains etc.

They do art well here in Australia.

We're now in Airlie beach and done a cruise on a catamaran round the Whitsunday Islands - amazing again. The most beautiful beach in the world is here at Whitehaven. Pictures will follow.

Weather here has been dubious although clouds are breaking up - as we leave.

At the end of this journey of following in our kids footsteps some of the way, we really felt like the flashpackers we aimed to be. Airllie beach is full of young backpackers - doing what we've done, having fun and taking in those awesome sights.

After 5 weeks I look forward to going back home to see my kids, home, dog and chucks and get back into normal life again. That might not be easy......

Kaikoura

2009-04-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

Got to the last stop on our NZ tour and are in Kaikoura.
We were hoping to go whalewatching but the whales were too far out and the sea too rough.
We could go tomorrow 7.15 but that means 3 hours on a boat, 3 hours in the car and then 3 more in the plane to Sydney. Instead we went for a tramp as they say, along the beach, first we came across a fresh crayfish stand - where they were so nice explaining what crayfish was and so we just had to taste the lobsterlike fritters then on to bump into some seals hiding in the seaweed - frightened John to death.

It's a colony and they were all over the place.

Took some pix and did some sketching. Just as good as whales really - and some good exercise with it. Took us 4 hours.
Now John's doing the ironing - its doesnt take a lot to keep him happy!!

West Coast

2009-04-24T13:47:00.000-07:00

Just had time to upload this one picture I took yesterday on the road.

Good thing I was driving - and turned.

I give John things to look for now, a load of sheep, a row of nice orange trees - we've done the postboxes now, just some deer I think and the odd loo!

Driving up the west coast we came across these little beauties. The waves crash upon the shore, but passersby build these rock structures. You have to be quick because you risk being soaked and stoned at the same time.

The glaciers were good but were not very photogenic - I think the light was wrong.

We're staying at a place calle Hokitika - resemble a town out of a wild west movie. They produce the finest green things here - and somebody has to buy it for you.

Who knows!!

Milford Sound

2009-04-23T22:13:00.000-07:00

Weather still beautiful. John's relaxing as you can see.

Bought him a Tshirt today saying

'No work, no worries, no traffic, new zealand'

which just about says it all!

Had a good day at Milford Sound - tourists are few and far (mainly from Japan) and the drive was no trouble at all - quite nice actually. Stopped off for a walk here and there and returned to our sweet motel on the lake.

We cooked - first time in three weeks for me and watched a couple of films.

I did anyway - John's still struggling to keep awake till late.

Today drove all the way up to Haast on the west coast.

Stopped inQueenstown to see Sue Wademan - a fellow quilter and a cake and coffee/tea.

Onto Lake Wanaka on empty roads - where is everybody??

Now we're nar the sea again at Haast - a quiet sunset and wild night at the Antlers beckons.

Tomorrow's Anzac day, a public holiday.

For us its the glaciers.

Wednesday Te Anau

2009-04-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

We left Queenstown quite early this morning - after all the peaceful places we stopped Queenstown seemed very busy.

We drove to Te Anau and found a motel as recommended in the Lonely Planet, fab again overlooking the Lake and its got a kitchen too.

Awesome scenes are becoming quite common.

This afternoon we took a picnic and walked around the lake - I even got round to a bit of colouring.

We decided to book the room for another night, just because its so peaceful.

Tomorrow the big trip to Millford Sound, no doubt some more amazing scenery.

queenstown

2009-04-20T23:19:00.001-07:00

Together at last!
We met up at Christchurch airport and after a night at our friends house we set off, first to Oakarua - a pretty french fishing village and then onto Lake Tepako - the views are amazing. As its autumn here, the bright orange and yellow colours of the trees set against the blue of the sky and the turquoise of the lakes is stunning.
This morning we drove upto Mount Cook which was shrouded in clouds, but as we sat down with a delicious cake and coffee - the clouds broke and the snowy tops appeared. Real WOW factor there.
After that it was a longish drive to Queenstown, with some beautiful views on the way.

Our motel has a lake view, tomorrow we'll drive to Te Anau to take the trip to Millforrd Sound - another must do.
Weather is glorious as you can see from pix.
The teaching went so well - all students brilliant.
Made lots of contacts and hope to get back for the world cup rugby!!
Just managed to upload a couple of pics -

both stunning.

Easter at Wellington

2009-04-11T22:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter from NZ - a busy one. Weather is absolutely beautiful. On Friday there was snow on the mountains in the distance, but its all gone now. I spend Friday walking around the quay side and visiting the Te Papa museum - lots of New Zealand culture - even found Charlotte Badger for those in the know! She was the first European woman to live here and she came all the way from Bromsgrove. There is a lot of art about, and poems like this, with pigeon, are all over the place.

I thought I'd include some quilts as well.

These are by Jenny Bowker an Australian.

Did my second day of teaching today (Sunday) - which went well. They made bags and here I am with a finished item. Hope you can see the harbour view in the background and the glorious sunshine. All I've got time for is looking at it!!

Jet lag is catching up a bit, but managed a sleep at lunchtime, as its party night tonight - gala dinner at the museum.

Found a nice lively square last night for an Italian meal with some new Zealand friends, although one of the girls partner was from Cheltenham. Katherine from the last blog won Best of Show with her recycled blanket quilt, deservedly so. Will put her quilt on next time as it takes a while to upload them.

Wellington

2009-04-08T22:38:00.000-07:00

Hi from windy Wellington, full of people running, cycling, skateboarding and of course quilts and quilters.
Having a wonderful time, with hardly any jet-lag at all.

I' meeting up with lots of well known quilters around from all over the world and still trying to find out what they do.

First visited the quilts at the main exhibition, almost 300 quilts beautifully hung in a big shed on the harbour and in the Academy. They are very talented here.

this is Stone Relic by Sarah Ward.

I also loved the quilts by Merrilyn George and Yoke Helwes-Martens, but no pictures yet. I'll take some pics tomorrow - hopefully.

I was going to go back after a first look, but met up with Katherine Morrison and Anna Prussing who I persuaded to show me their exhibition at Porirua. Katherine recycles old hospital blankets with lots of love and stitches and Anna works with neutrals. Both incorporate crosses in their work. Here they are surrounded by their work in Pataka gallery.

This exhibition was called Thrift - the art of making do. Which they certainly did with fabulous results. Also visited the most fantastic bookshop called Minerva in Cuba Street, a very trendy area. I have such a weekness for books, but having to cart it all around with me for the next few weeks stopped me from buying any of it.

So much to see, probably not enough time to do it all.
I'll try and keep you all posted with more pix and words.

Recycling Denim

2009-03-30T03:05:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with an old pair of jeans again and printed it this time - have a look at the result. This bag takes just one pair of jeans - I unpicked the two back pockets and the bottom seams and the thick inner leg seam.

Then pieced it together quite roughly before printing it with the same thermofax screen as in the March blog, first in white which was a bit stark, then printed over that with black.

This made it a bit better, but I decided it really needed some red to brighten it up

I found a screen with a rough rose pattern and added those here and there.

Then ironed it onto fusible wadding and stitched up and down in almost straight lines.

Then used one of the 'Longchamps' bag as a pattern (one of the smaller ones) and made up the bag.

One of the back pockets was perfect for the little flap.

The other pocket is on the inside.

Bits of washing line strengthened the handles and little pieces of bright pink suede finished off the zip!

Its already popular and I've organised a workshop to make

the bag on Wednesday June 10 at Bromsgrove Rugby Club.

There is also another workshop on Friday May 29 (half term) for the big seaside Recycled Denim Bag.

The Summerschool in August has been a sell out and I have

booked another three days at the end of July on the 28, 29 and 30.

My website is being given an update - keep having a look there. We're going e-commerce and from June you will be able to buy a selection of workshops on the web!

Next Monday April 6 I'm off to New Zealand to teach at the Quilt Symposium - so it will be a while I think before I update this again. Although I should have internet access and it's a nice way to keep in touch.

Bye for now!

march

2009-03-09T02:57:00.000-07:00

For some time I've had the urge to do some proper patchwork and had been looking at the big Nancy Crow book for a while - so on Saturday - having dropped my mum off at the airport and resisted the temptation of lunch and watching Bromsgrove play rugby at (cold) Burton on Trent with my husband - I warmed up my cabin studio and picked out some hand-dyed and started strip-piecing - very fast and intuitively.

Of course this was only the beginning. Some time ago I made a lovely thermofax screen from some photocopied very old finely crochet squares, borrowed from a friend. This was a good opportunity to use this screen. I first printed my piece with discharge paste and left it to dry.

On Sunday I ironed it with my steam iron and the colour came out differently out of each different fabric. Grey out of the black, white out of the red hand-dye and yellowish out of the indigo dyed cotton.

Next I ironed some wadding and backing on and started quilting in simple straight lines with plain black thread, changing direction every so often. My Pfaff Grand Quilter races along beautifully - just love it.

It always amazes me how quilting changes the whole outlook of the piece.

During our walk on Sunday Morning I took this picture which reminded me a bit of what I was working on - it could well be the inspiration of my next piece.

If you like what I've done above - then you might enjoy coming to my Summer School this summer.
I've got 3 days planned full of dyeing, printing with all kinds of screens and if there is time left you can use your fabrics to create something similar.
The dates are 17, 18 and 19th of August, just before the Festival of Quilts - have a look at my website
www. inekeberlyn.com for more info.

Worcestershire sunset

2009-02-06T09:33:00.000-08:00

Just been out walking with my dog and my camera and managed to catch this wonderful sunset. Below is the view towards the Clent and Malvern hills.

The pink one above is the opposite side, which coloured the sky pink - even more beautiful with the stubble of the cornfield in the foreground adding texture and perspective.

Red Kites

2009-02-02T05:02:00.000-08:00

As promised in my last blog, I finally got going using the red kites as my inspiration.
Here are a few pages from my sketchbooks.

My initial response always is to do some rough sketches in my sketchbook and ripping shapes out of magazines. I coloured the pages of my sketchbook first with some watercolour or Koh-i-noor (very intense and bright sort of watercolour). Then I cut nine 3" frames out of a page and printed little birds with Chromacoal through a template.

I continued printing through the stencils onto some painted Lutradur which I stuck onto some black Lutradur and cut 3" squares with a soldering iron. These were then stitched - by hand!! - onto yet another piece of painted Lutradur and to keep it interesting I cut a bigger kite and stitched this one on the top by hand. I now need to find a nice frame for it and will have a go with some other colours. I've painted some Lutradur in blue, which I love working with.

Hopefully all these pieces can go into an exhibition and perhaps even be sold!

2009-01-05T03:05:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all.

In between Christmas and New Year after the heavy frost I took this picture of a weather vane in my garden and just loved the way the frost had settled on the spiders web.

This morning there was snow on the ground under heavy skies - very January and inspirational for another journal quilt.

The red kite sculpture in my garden looks equally good covered in snow against these grey skies.

I hope to produce something with these images this week, before getting back into teaching mode later on.

2008-12-20T05:28:00.000-08:00

The news on the radio today mentioned Samantha Davies trying to get to one of the skippers who broke his leg in the Vendee Globe single handed round the world sailing race.

This event has inspired me for the last few years. In November we saw the boats getting ready at Sable d'Olonne in France and this first pictures is Sam in her boat Roxy leaving the harbour. The previous day, in much more pleasant weather I took the picture below.

I love all the angles, the flags, the sun behind the beam and can you see the guy hanging in the ropes in the middle fixing something?

I printed out the picture in black and white and made it into a thermofax screen. I first printed on some painted pages in my sketchbook, on the right, with white and black ink.

I'm a member of the Contemporary Quilt group - which is part of the Quilters Guild in the UK - and we made a 12" quilt every month this year.

For the November quilt I stitched two strips together, a narrow one for the base in bright sunshiny colour and a wide indigo dyed strip for the sky. I quilted the piece with angular lines with a few little flags, then printed over the top with the thermofax screen in the same way as I did in my sketchbook. It's good to sample first. Finally I painted in the little flags with some Lumiere fabric paints (see 'The Painted Quilt' by Linda and Laura Kemshall).

If I'm not back before Christmas I wish everybody a very happy time and an inspirational 2009!

2008-12-12T08:45:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my first ever blog entry.
Having had, what seems the busiest year ever, I finally have found time to start a blog.
I've seen Mai-Britt's and Jane Dunnewold - so I will start posting some pictures that inspire my textiles and hopefully share some ideas and progessions with you.