The January Challenge

Weird Auto-Collage of The January Challenge images

In my 'end of year' blog post I wrote about the Instagram challenges I'd taken on and how I'd found it a good way of keeping up with a regular creative practice. With this in mind I decided that I'd do 64 Million Artists 'The January Challenge' to kick off 2018. The basic premise is that everybody is creative (something I believe very strongly) and the challenge gives you a prompt/small task everyday to get you thinking and creating. I'm also trying to keep up my daily drawing (so far, so good) so I was hoping that the two might tie in together quite nicely. 

Day 25: Potion
Solar Dye Jar

Day 28: No Place like Home

The challenges were not at all like I expected, I had been expecting more of an artistic challenge but many of the challenges were much more along the creative/try something new line. This is not a bad thing, it just wasn't quite what I expected. Some of the challenges I really didn't enjoy; mainly the ones to do with dancing and noise but what I did like is that all of them made me think. I've enjoyed having a 'focus' each day as often it's been something I wouldn't have come up with myself. I didn't share all of the challenges but I did do them all, even the ones I didn't like. Doing the challenge is definitely good for mindfulness and I think there are a lot of things I've seen and learnt from this challenge that I'll continue to think about and maybe develop going forward. 

Day 10: Paper

Day 14: Sink or Swim
Boat made from baking parchment and yarn

Day 24: Quote

Not surprisingly the challenges I enjoyed most were the drawing and making challenges. I particularly enjoyed Day 19: Over my Shoulder challenge which was to draw with your non-dominant hand what you could see over your right shoulder. I really liked this as it made me draw things I wouldn't normally and pushed my drawing practice. I also really liked Day 10 which was to create something from a sheet of paper. I twisted and wrapped a piece of A4 paper to make a little bird, something I've been meaning to experiment with for a while but not got around to so it was nice to have that incentive.

Day 19: Over my Shoulder

Day 2: Five faces in five minutes
Five 'blind' self portraits

Day 20: Advert

I also surprised myself by really enjoying the writing challenges. I like writing and spend quite a lot of time doing it but I rarely do any 'creative' writing. I often write things in my head but I never get them onto paper so I enjoyed the challenges as it gave me a chance to do this. I really enjoyed the challenges involving poetry, as I created 'accidental' poetry and I really love the random, unpredictable nature of the process. For instance, for Day 12 I created a poem using lines from the books by my bed. I chose a line from page 64 (for 64 million artists) and then pages 12,1,20 and 18 to make up the date. The resulting poem was mostly nonsensical but I enjoyed it! 

Day 12: Our Poem

Abominable is described,
Wearing a pretty painful glove
And over every living thing
Dare to suggest
The most important rule

Day 23: Blackout Poetry
Page from a gardening magazine

One of the things that I have enjoyed most about the challenge is seeing how other people have approached things. Part of the aim of the challenge is to share what you do and I've been really inspired by seeing how differently people approach things and I've enjoyed being part of the community, sharing ideas and inspiration and quite a lot of humour. I've enjoyed taking part in this challenge but I must admit that I'm pleased it's finished! I'm looking forward to keeping up with making a little creative time for myself each day but I'm also looking forward to focusing more on my drawing again.

Day 26: Spirit Animal

Day 16: Story

The light fades fast, the sunset unseen behind dense banks of cloud drifting at speed across the wide sky. Still she sits, waiting patiently, a solid still point in a spinning world.

Darkness gathers but street lights and headlamps keep it at bay. Waiting still, the world slows a little as curtains close and doors shut.

Then the turn of the key in the lock, the sound she has been waiting for. Slowly, carefully, she gets up and stretches out, ready to greet him. They have stories to share and the world keeps turning.

A Quilt for Cumbria: The Heathlands Project

Completed patch for A Quilt for Cumbria

Usually at this time of year at The Heathlands Project I'm cursing quilts and promising myself that we're never going to make another quilt again. This year, however, I've found a cunning way to run a quilt project with my groups without me having to put it all together. Up for Arts Cumbria have been working on a BBC Get Creative project to make 'A Quilt for Cumbria.' They're asking people across Cumbria to make fabric patches showing things they love about Cumbria which will then be joined together by The Quilters Guild to make a beautiful community artwork that can go on show across the county.

Ideas sheet and designs

Designs and work in progress

Work in progress

For the past six years I've made a quilt each year with my textiles groups at Heathlands. The members and I always enjoy these projects and over the years we've created some beautiful and quirky pieces of textile art and I've seen their skills and confidence grow with each quilt.  Last year our theme was 'On the Beach' and we experimented with felt making which was a lot of fun. It's always a bit stressful at the end of the project as I never end up with quite as much time as I'd like to put all the work together as I like to give the members as much time as possible to work on their patches. This year I don't need to worry about that as I just have to support the guys to create their patches and then deliver them for someone else to construct. Lucky me!

Finished Patch

Finished Patch

Finished Patch

I think the idea of a quilt for Cumbria is a lovely one, it's a great way to celebrate our county and bring people together. Various groups are running patch making sessions and I'll be running a session later this month at The Eden Workshop to encourage as many people as possible to get involved. Crafting can be a really powerful social activity; it can bring people together with a shared purpose but is also nonthreatening, allowing people to come together and make new connections and get creative at the same time.

Finished Patch

Finished Patch (detail)

Finished Patch

My groups at The Heathlands Project have made some fantastic and very personal patches for the project. We've mostly been using fabric pens and pastels and stitch along with a bit of applique. Some of the patches are very densely worked, with layers of fabric and stitch. Some are packed with imagery whilst others focus on a particular area of interest. It's been really interesting finding out what Cumbria means to us and what each individual values most. One of the great things about a project like this is that provides opportunities to talk about important topics in an easy and accessible way.

Finished Patch (complete with a portrait of me!)

Finished Patch (detail)

Finished Patch

If you want to have a go and create a patch you have until September and finished patches can be dropped off or posted to BBC Radio Cumbria in Carlisle. I can't wait to see the finished piece, I hope the Quilters Guild know what they've let themselves in for!

Finished Patch

Finished Patch

Finished Patch (detail)

If you'd like to join me at The Eden Workshop on Friday 28th July for a patch making workshop please contact them for details.

Finished Patch (detail)

Recent Textile Based Antics

Setting up for a workshop

I originally began this blog as a way of documenting all the different creative things I was doing. Over time it has grown and changed and it's become quite a reflective place for me and as social media has grown and grown I've been using other platforms to share and record my work. (If you have a little look on the right of this page you can find a link to some of those platforms.)

Making Suffolk Puffs with the WI

Making Suffolk Puffs with the WI

Making Suffolk Puffs with the WI

Recently I've been blogging less and less about the workshops and participatory projects I'm working on and I think there's a couple of main reasons for this. Firstly, I've been using Flickr to share images of the projects I'm working on and as I've shared the images (a picture paints a thousand words and all that) I've been writing less. Secondly, I've been working on lots of 'ongoing' projects so there isn't always a definite start and finish so I've tended not to blog as I think "I'll write a post when..." but of course the 'when...' never happens!

Making Suffolk Puffs with the WI

Making Suffolk Puffs with the WI

I don't think that sharing my work on these other platforms is a bad thing in any way but I do find that sometimes I miss the writing up and regular writing practice that blogging provides. There is an obvious and easy way to solve this and that is to get back into the habit of regularly blogging! So, with that in mind here's a summary of a couple of recent workshops that I've run.

Making Suffolk Puffs with the WI

Suffolk Puffs with the Women's Institute (Warwick Bridge, Carlisle)

This was a really relaxed evening with a very lovely group of ladies. Making Suffolk Puffs is fairly easy so my main focus was showing the ladies what could be made with them; in particular textile jewellery. I'm always quite nervous working with groups such as the WI as often I'm working with people who have much more knowledge and experience of sewing than I do but I always find that what I can bring is a bit of inspiration and a different way of looking at things which encourages people to be a bit more creative.

Embellishing Printed Fabrics with Brampton Art Club

Embellishing Printed Fabrics with Brampton Art Club

Embellishing Printed Fabrics with Brampton Art Club

Embellishing Printed Fabrics with Brampton Art Club

This is one of my favourite workshops to run and this session was so relaxed and enjoyable. The ladies were so engaged in embellishing their fabrics that at times the room was almost silent but in between those times we had some really interesting conversations about needlework and how the way something is taught makes such a huge difference to not only your understanding but your enjoyment (or otherwise.) I'm really pleased to have been asked back so in September I'll be running another of my favourite workshops for the group: Sketchbook Making.

Embellishing Printed Fabrics with Brampton Art Club

Embellishing Printed Fabrics with Brampton Art Club

Embellishing Printed Fabrics with Brampton Art Club

Somme Commemoration Quilt

Children looking at the unfurled quilt, 11th November 2016
(Photo from Cumbria's Museum of Military Life)

Earlier in the year I was commissioned by Cumbria's Museum of Military Life to make a simple crochet and knitting pattern for a poppy for an installation they were planning as part of their commemorations for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. The poppies have been displayed from the windows of the museum building, each month more poppies have been added to the display, corresponding with the number of men who died each month in the Somme 100 years ago.

Somme Poppy banners, Cumbria's Museum of Military Life 2016

Another aspect of the museums commemorations has been to commission Prism Arts to create a community quilt. The aim was to work with schools and community groups from areas that recruited for the Border Regiment (which Cumbria's Museum of Military Life represents.) Making a community quilt is often a good way to work with multiple groups as it lends itself to being made in sections (if you make a patchwork or pieced quilt, obviously.) 

Participants ranged in age from 3 to those in their 80's

Patches from summer drop in workshop

Patches from summer drop in workshop

The museum did originally suggest that perhaps a patch for each fallen soldier from the Border Regiment could be made, as that would have been in the region of 1700 patches (and I knew I'd be the one sewing it together) I said maybe that wasn't the best way! The other issue with having a set number of patches is that, especially with community groups, you never know how many participants you will get. My feeling was that this project was about remembrance rather than numbers so I wanted to come up with a concept that prioritised this aspect.

Patches from Helena Thompson Museum Craft Group

Patches from Helena Thompson Museum Craft Group

Patches from Helena Thompson Museum Craft Group

During the First World War there was a 'recruitment line' from Carlisle to the West which more or less follows the route of the A595. The schools and groups we've worked with are all roughly along this route and I thought that rather than making a traditional blanket shaped quilt it would be interesting to do something different. I was also thinking about lists of names and roll calls and came up with the idea of making the quilt in a long thin strip that could be rolled and indeed unrolled. 

Patch from Prism Arts Studio Arts group

My patch

The next issue was imagery for the patches. As the museum had already done a poppy installation I didn't really want to go down that route so after discussion with the other Prism artists we decided that anything to do with the Somme could form the imagery. We put together a set of images (animals, comforts for the troops, insignia) avoiding weaponry and decided to limit the palette to the colours of the Border Regiment so that the finished patches would have some coherence. 

Patches from Tullie Textiles

Patches from Tullie Textiles

Whilst researching for this project I cam across the 'Christmas tins' that Princess Mary had sent out to each of the troops. Carlisle has a history of metal box making and I thought the tins would be an ideal size for each patch (12.5 x 8.5 cm.) As it turned out this was a bit small so after the first workshop we made the patches bigger (15 x 10 cm.) Although this size lacked the conceptual link it was much more practical! 

St. Catherine's RC School, Penrith

St. Catherine's RC School, Penrith

St. Catherine's RC School, Penrith

We worked with five schools, two community craft groups, two of Prism Art's groups and we ran a drop-in session at the museum. I thoroughly enjoyed the workshops, I was so impressed with how much thought, care and effort every participant put in. One of the wonderful things about textiles is that they are familiar and non-threatening, this means that whilst working with them people feel relaxed and comfortable and are able to talk about really quite difficult topics. We found this time and again on the workshops, alongside comments such as "this is so relaxing" we were able to talk about conflict, loss and sacrifice. I think we also inspired several of the children to take up sewing, I heard more than one of the students saying they were going to ask for a sewing kit for Christmas!

Brook Street School, Carlisle

Brook Street School, Carlisle

Brook Street School, Carlisle

The schools workshops were really interesting, we were working with Year 6 students mostly (and some Year 5's in the smaller schools) and it was heartening to see how thoughtful they were about the whole project. We had deliberately not included any weaponry in the image packs but even so I was pleased at how little emphasis there was on the mechanics of war. Discussion focused much more on the soldiers and the animals! For the school workshops parents were invited to join their children and when this happened it was lovely to see them working alongside each other. The Somme still looms large in our collective consciousness and I found it interesting how everyone reacted to the project with great respect.

Victoria Juniors School, Workington

Victoria Juniors School, Workington

Victoria Juniors School, Workington

Once all the workshops had taken place it was time to construct the quilt. I had asked each artist to sew the patches from each workshop together so that I would have several strips of patches to work with. I backed the strips of patches with khaki felt to represent the uniforms of the soldiers and to tie it in with the soldier puppet that lead artist at Prism Arts Ali McCaw  had also been commissioned to make.

Original embroidered postcards from WWI, from the collection of Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery

Original embroidered postcards from WWI, from the collection of Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery

Original embroidered postcards from WWI, from the collection of Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery

We had 353 patches, which when all sewn together created a strip 46 metres long. It was very hard physical work manipulating all that fabric, we tend to think of textiles as a very gentle art but actually it can be very physical and demanding. I couldn't lift my arms above my head for two days after making this piece! I constructed the piece roughly along the route of the A595, so that the patches from Carlisle workshops were at one end followed by Penrith, followed by Keswick, then Cockermouth, Workington and Distington at the far end. As I was rolling up the piece it struck me that not only was it like a roll call but also a bedding roll which was a connection I hadn't thought of before but that worked well.

Making the quilt

Making the quilt

Making the quilt

As part of the Remembrance Day events at Cumbria's Museum of Military Life the quilt was unfurled. All the schools were there performing songs they'd written with Prism Arts artist Mark Newport and Prism Arts Studio Theatre company performed part of their 'Tales of a Long Conflict' production. After the performances they were able to walk the length of the quilt, searching out their patches. The quilt will now tour each of the schools before coming to live at Cumbria's Museum of Military Life. This has been a very demanding project to work on but has also been very rewarding. The time, effort and thought that participants have put into their patches has been inspiring and I feel proud to have been part of this project. I think it is a very fitting way to remember the men who fought in the Somme 100 years ago.

The quilt rolled up

To see more pictures you can look at my Flickr album, Somme 100.