Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Toronto Townscape by the Lake

Always a favourite city since my first visit in 1980. A very stylized representation all stitched onto black felt for impact. Stitched in blocks of colours, brights at the front and pales at the rear helping to add a feeling of depth.
Sorry to have been missing for such a long time but family illness can be very time consuming and the months fly by without realisation. Hopefully back in the swing of things now.


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6 comments:

  1. Unknown21 October 2014 at 16:50

    This is so effective Ann.I love the colours and the reflections in the water.Did you colour the fabric,or just choose the parts of the material to give the right effect?

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  2. Ann Beech21 October 2014 at 16:55

    Thank you for your comments Hilary, all the fabrics are hand dyes, even the water which was a piece I had plough dyed at Summer School with Jo Lovelock. I always have remnants of hand dyes and even experiments which don't always quite work come in very useful for these small pieces.

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  3. Mandy21 October 2014 at 17:20

    Welcome back, and what a stunning piece.

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  4. Diane23 October 2014 at 02:27

    This is wonderful. So many details in such a small quilt. The townscape is wonderful and you did a great job reating depth.

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  5. Jenny28 October 2014 at 18:12

    May I ask what 'plough dyeing' is please. I am conjuring up all sorts of images of ploughs being driven over fabric!

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  6. Ann Beech29 October 2014 at 11:35

    Hi Jenny, plough dyeing is a technique where you soak fabric in soda ash, wring it out and then pleat it into a cat litter tray either very accurately or slightly more casually. The whole is then covered with diluted Procion dyes by dripping them through a turkey baster or carefully trickling from a plastic jug. Because the fabric is packed together and no salt is used it is possible to have tight control over where the dye goes on the fabric and even using three primaries will not make the colours end up mixing to brown. By dripping along the folds it is possible to create wonderful watery effects and the depth of the colour varies according to how much you add to the fabric in any once place. I usually divide my dyes in two adding additional water to one; then I alternate the dripping between the two so that I achieve a much greater depth of tones. Hope this helps, Ann

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