Final Piece and Unit Evaluation

I have really enjoyed unit X and feel very proud of my final piece as well as all of my samples.

I have used a variety of fabrics that reflect the bright lights and the hustle and bustle of a fairground. For the pouch for the hot water bottle I have embroidered the outline of a ferris wheel. For the fastening I have made four small rouleaux loops and sewn  buttons to secure the hot water bottle in its pouch. 

This unit I feel I have learnt lots of new embroidery skills, and techniques for patchwork and enjoyed experimenting with different fabrics and materials to get different results.
I have enjoyed working with lots of new people and using discussion to help generate and evaluate ideas. I have also found doing contextual and initial research very helpful in creating my final design and giving an overall theme to my project.
However I could have organised my time better, and could have taken more advantage of the excellent embroidery machines, although I am grateful for the inductions and look forward to using them on later projects. I also feel that an aversion to mathematics has rendered my quilt ever so slightly miss shapen, and if I were to do it again I would make sure I was working with precise measurements in order to avoid this.

Final Product Designs and Planning

At the start  of the week, having been given the task of making a hot water bottle cover, I did some contextual research on Pinterest

http://www.pinterest.com/neongirlxxx/quilting/

Finding that often hot water bottles were associated with blankets, I thought it'd be innovative to create a patchwork quilt that has a built in pouch for a hot water bottle. Because of time constraints I thought it wise to aim for a small child's quilt as I'd be hand stitching the majority of it. I decided on hexagon patchwork as I loved the look my sample so much. I used fabrics that reflected colours of the fair grounds best.
After having tacked al my hexagons I wasn't sure of the arrangement.

This is the arrangement I have now settled for secured with masking tape to make sure I can transport the arrangement without messing it up.

I also need to consider how I'm going to secure the hot water bottle into the quilt. I think a pouch with either a velcro flap or buttoned.

Even More Samples

Having received the final week of learning new techniques I feel very well equipped for the brief.

This week we learnt how to crazy patchwork, which I really enjoyed, although struggled with some of the more extravagant hand stitching. Although we were a bit restricted with materials I still quite like this sample. 

I was also inducted onto the saddle stitch machine which has a very limited function, but does imitate hand stitching excellently, meaning that you can still get a nice "hand stitched" effect that is far less time consuming.  

Finally I was also inducted onto the Pfaff machine, which has enabled me to experiment with over 80 different, very complex and intricate stitch types. I think that this machine is absolutely amazing and hope to use it again soon!

Also over Easter were told to turn our hand to either hexagon patchwork or log cabin patchwork and I was quite proud to present this sample.

Refined Samples

During Easter I had some fun making some more refined samples having done some more research on Pinterest

 http://www.pinterest.com/neongirlxxx/fair-grounds/

I decided that I quite like the colours and shapes of ferris wheels.

I thought it would be fun to make a ferris wheel out of Kantha stitching, using a vibrant, colour changing wool. I am very pleased with this sample and think this might be something I will consider using later on.

This little sample was just and experimental piece of knitting, using the wool I purchased from Liberty, to see if I could effectively recreate a ferris wheel. I was quite pleased with the result however I feel if I were to use this technique in my final piece I would be straying from the quilting skills I have learnt so far.

Quilt Museum

In the first week of Easter I went to visit the Quilt Museum in York. I really enjoyed my visit and found the work of Jannice Gunner really inspiring. I really liked her combination of techniques and colour that really made her work stad out amongst the other more traditional log cabin pieces.

I also really enjoyed the contemporary quilt exhabition which gave me lots of ideas for using different techniques to create different affects.

http://www.quiltmuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/archives/cabin-fever-log-cabin-quilts.html

London Trip

I really enjoyed our class trip to London! I found the quilt exhibition in the Somerset House not too useful as the exhibition was very denim based and so was all a bit monotone in colour for me. Although it was nice to see quilts being displayed in a gallery context instead of interior design.

However I loved visiting all the different fabric shops between Soho and China town, the variety was fantastic although a little pricey. Finally I really enjoyed having a good rummage around Liberty. I found loads of inspiring materials and it was very comforting to see the kind of job prospects the future holds.

Investigation - Samples

I have learnt a few new techniques this week which have been good fun.

I have learnt Kantha stitching, which although time consuming, I think gives a very nice effect especially when using  some of the more colourful threads. Most of the other girls in the group opted to use plain fabric to stitch into, but I felt this checkered fabric gave me a geometric advantage.

This sample is an experiment using a see through front fabric, inserting ribbons and cord and experimenting with using ribbon as thread. I love the variety of colours in this sample and the idea of using some thing a little different to sew with. 

This sample is just simple bead work, I have chosen to use a fabric that has an opaque pattern with a transparent negative pattern and decided to experiment with wadding by knitting a bright pink middle layer. The beads really remind me of the little lights that light up fairground rides and I think the two contrasting colours really work.