A little work in progress

Well, we had some snow and it got really dark so it was comforting to draw some curtains....leaving one open to watch the snow, and do some stitching.

This is another piece of the ancient Durham quilt...a work in progress.
I have added a small panel of Victorian print cotton and quilted it, and have exposed more of the much older pink and cream printed fabric that would have been the original...very pretty quilt before it was covered on the red and white striped fabric, quilted and made useful again.
These layers of history are intriguing, and I love to uncover them and show fabric that probably hasn't been seen since it was covered and worked upon 100 years ago.

Antique fabric and lace, a work in progress for the proposed Etsy shop.

More Fragments...small details from some antique fabric collaged panels.

It's a very wet, grey old day here, but that isn't stopping the birds from singing...but the poor lighting is preventing me from taking as many photographs as I would like.
Here are a few snapshots of details from the antique fabric panels I am making at the moment. Stitching whilst it is so grey and cold .....and now snowing....outside is very comforting.


Blue striped fabric is the lining from a shattered silk Victorian jacket.




19th century Durham quilt fragment with antique tape lace motif and beads.

Fragments of two different antique Durham quilts.

 

 

New year, New Direction and New Work

Like many artists, I do use a sketchbook for each new major project, but unlike many, I very rarely draw in it, preferring to play with and arrange textiles and use photography and my written feelings about the work in hand to direct my sample making.

Along the journey I gather quite a lot of samples, and many do end up living in the current sketch book; however....as I really enjoy making these small pieces, and folk who have seen them seem to like them, I have decided to work on a collection with the intention of opening an Etsy shop in the next few weeks where I will have panels or collages of antique fabrics mounted and ready for framing by the new owners, and also cards with similar, but much smaller panels....these can be framed, or just used as cards...or the samples can even be incorporated into someone else's work, where it would gather more stories and memories.

I only use antique or very old fabrics, as most of my regular followers will know, and for new followers....please go back in time and look at very old posts where you will see the work which has always inspired the use of fragments of very old cloth.
I so enjoy using pieces of cloth and quilts which already may be 100 years old and into their second repurposing, so when I once again reuse them it may be a third or even fourth life for them, and all my stitching is worked by hand.
Cloth and handwork was valued so much in previous centuries, and indeed by other cultures like the Boro textiles of Japan which really started me on my journey 10 years or so as I loved the patching, mending and the over patching and repair of the garments.

My favourite textiles to use will show wear, and I often emphasize the wear, making a feature of it, as it is the untold life and story of other people, places and time.... I will add my work, and other pieces aiming for them all to blend into a new and beautiful whole where it may be difficult to tell which is the original wear and which is the new work.

From November 2013-September 2014 I was on my journey of surgery and chemotherapy, and this gave me much time for thought and from that has come this new work which I do purely for pleasure, which will run alongside, and maybe direct the more serious and research based art works.....here is just a little look...much more will follow soon.

I have also opened a Facebook page purely for my textile art; on it I am registered as Ellen Devall Textile Artist, and my Facebook page web address is:
 https://www.facebook.com/Fragments.by.EllenDevall?ref=aymt_homepage_panel





Some Fragment Panels in the making.

Different styles of work for different tastes.....getting ready for Etsy.

 

E.A.S.Ts New Exhibition "Between the Lines" is now At Braintree Museum, Essex.

I can hardly believe that the last time I wrote here was on October...such a lot has happened since then, and I had already shown images of my work "The Solace of Larks" back then, so I wont repost the photographs....however, I will post the advertisement for the ( East Anglian Stitch Textiles) latest venue for the show at Braintree Museum as they have very cleverly inserted the title of the exhibition into the lid of my suitcase.

Details of the exhibition, cleverly placed into the lid of my "Solace of Larks" piece.