Barbara Weeks - Portfolio 11

Portfolio 2011

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I use layered and stitched Textiles to evoke memories of time and place.

I shall be continuing with my monthly 'Journal Quilts' as well as creating larger pieces.

'Trapping Colour, Catching Light' explores imagery from the Great Barrier Reef, 'Where the rainforest meets the Sea', in Northern Queensland, Australia. Fish, Coral, and Rainforest all have sustained my interest. A Gallery at this years Festival of Quilts provided a focus for bringing together Journal Quilts and larger Textiles to celebrate the rich diversity of Rainforest and Marine environments.
A trip to New Zealand and Fiji has also inspired new work.

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		January Yellow and Blue make Green. (25 x 25cm 2011) 'Green' is my theme colour for now. Playing with dyed greens, piecing a tricky mix of cotton, silk, and bamboo fibres. Quilted with bamboo/cotton wadding.

February Cyclone Yasi (25 x 25cm 2011) Cyclone Yasi Hits Townsville, Queensland, 2.2.11. This one is for the guys on The Strand. Machine and hand quilting on painted silks. Embellished with textured frayed silks, stones and circular shells.

		March Rain Forest (25 x 25cm 2011) Zooming in to explore the steamy layers. Felted wool and silk fibres, cut back appliqué in silk chiffon. Embellished with circular glass beads.


Rainforest 1

Rainforest 1 (56 x 140 cm 2011) Steamy ethereal layers. Merino wool fibres and hand dyes silk fibres with trapped torn silk strips are felted to create a wool wadding base. Cut back appliqué silk organza leaves, machine and hand quilted, embellished with glass beads.




April Rain Forest 2 (25 x 25cm 2011) Design for March interpreted in painted silk. The fragmented design is bonded to textured silk, closely machine quilted and embellished with French knots.

		May Ferns (25 x 25cm 2011) The native NZ fern, dynamic energy, unfolding. Design elements arranged with waterfall ferns. Free quilting on dyed cotton sateen with wool wadding (pre-felt).

June Ferns 2 (25 x 25cm 2011) More Kiwi Ferns. Machine quilting on dyed sateen and wool wadding. After quilting I masked out areas with freezer paper and applied discharge paste with a brush, dried naturally and then steam ironed and washed. Risky, but like the effect.

		July Eat Your Greens, Kiwi (25 x 25cm 2011) The Kiwi fruit is a great symbol for NZ, a very green country. Renamed from ‘Chinese Goosberry’ in 1951. Pre-felts of background and ‘pips’ are stitched and felted again. Text ribbons written on habotai with pigma pen, hand stitched with ultrafine thread. Further machine quilting.


No Stone Unturned I - IV


No Stone Unturned Nos.1 - 4 (30 x 30cm 2011)
Visiting Hertford Museum, the collection of Puddingstone connected me with the flint walls typical of the Sussex villages where I grew up. There is a simple beauty in the natural colours and the patterns revealed by a casual arrangement of the stones. I have explored this theme in a sequence of panels, each one informing the next in a serendipitous fashion, playing with the materials of my craft. Wool and silk fibres are wet felted, dried and stitched, and then felted again. This process is both physical and contemplative, connecting me with crafts people all around the world for whom ‘making’ is both a way of life and life enhancing.

August The Coral Triangle (25 x 25cm 2011) The Coral Triangle links the marine environments of Australia , the Philippines and Fiji Islands ; a focus for the establishment of Marine Protected Areas. Thermofax screen print on silk scrim, layered with painted chiffon and two layers of ice wool wadding. Machine quilted.

		September Marine Protected Area (25 x 25cm 2011) A 'wordle' orders the words of a document grading the size in relation to the number of times a particular word is used. Taken from Rebecca's research project, a thermofax screen printed onto a loose weave silk-cotton mix, quilted with viscose -wool wadding and washed to distress and distort the text.

October Hibiscus (25 x 25cm 2011) These delicate ‘paper’ like flowers withstand the torrential downpours in tropical Fiji and open out to welcome the sun. Pre-felt incorporates merino wool, silk fibres and torn strips of chiffon. Hibiscus shapes are cut out and replaced with painted silk. Another layer of pre felt as backing and more felting shrinks and manipulates the silk flowers. Embellished with buttons and embroidery.

		November Hibiscus Fragmented (25 x 25cm 2011) Saturated steam fixed colours on silk dupion in intense pinks to create the flowers. Bonded mosaic appliqué onto a fern print bought in NZ. Machine quilted, embellished with knots & button.

December Hibiscus in the Rain (25 x 25cm 2011) Tropical rain appears to crush and flatten these delicate flowers, but they soon reopen in the sun. Flowers painted onto printed fabric, layered with three more prints, stitched and slashed through the top layers, a technique that gives this impression.


Coastal Walk 4

Coastal Walk 4 (31 x 36cm 2011) Giant hogweed against a Northumbrian coastline. A restricted colour palette allows more interest in the textures of linen and silk fabrics and the marks made with stitch.

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