Catherine Parkinson: Around the world blog hop

My quilting friend and art group buddy Rona has invited

me to join the Around the World Blog Hop.

See Rona's blog post here

I am so excited to be part of this blog hop. It is so interesting to read what other people are up to with their quilting and other projects. If you want to to catch up with all the other posts in this blog hop follow the blog trail back through Rona's post. There are some great posts that are well worth reading !!!!

1. What am I working on?

At the moment I have a lot of different projects on the go. I generally work on a few projects at once. It keeps my busy brain more stimulated (that's the theory)

First of all I am building my web page and I am preparing to launch that this week. It is looking amazing and I am so excited to have it published.

I am also preparing for the upcoming Pirongia art fair and the Waitomo art society exhibition where I have been invited to be the guest artist for the show. So I have been building up a portfolio of work for these shows.

Lots of yummy quilts

Almost all ready for my shows

All uploaded and ready for my web page launch this week

I have been experimenting with a new technique combining a scrap applique and painting technique.

You can read about this technique here These 2 quilts use this technique.

Floral Sea

Floral rust

'In his image is a quilt' is a quilt I have on the go at them moment. It also uses this scrap appliqué technique. This quilt is of Adam and eve. The clothes are made using the scrappy appliqué technique and the faces are painted.

In his image

A close up of in his image

Another quilt I have just finished is ‘Caught reading” This is a picture of my daughter Kelsey when she was caught reading instead of doing her homework. I have painted white fabric and then machine quilted all the details into her face.

Caught reading

15" x 15"

38 x 38 cm

I am also making original art pouches of different sizes. they are really fun a quick to make. You can learn how to make them here with my tutorial.

This little pouch is made from a machine quilted practice cloth and you can learn how to make it here

Some more little pouches

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I work very differently from a lot of quilters. I am not a traditional quilter. I work in a contemporary abstract and pictorial style. I use a variety of surface design techniques, different mediums and materials. I love to experiment with different mediums, media and textures. My favourite surface design technique is painting. I really enjoy bring boring old white fabric to life with textile inks.

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

I couldn’t live without being creative it is like the air I breathe. I have to make things and I always have done. As a child I was obsessed with touching fur, velvet, soft materials. I loved to cook and make birthday cakes. I made my siblings soft toys, made my own clothes and furnishings. I have always loved to create. I have great satisfaction in making things. I really love Seeing the finished product but I mostly love the process of making art. I love being so immersed in my work and that the world just dissapears for a time.

"a musician must make music,

an artist must paint,

a poet must write

if he is ultimately

at peace with himself.

What one can be, one must be."

Abraham Maslow

4. How does my writing/creating process work?

I have so many projects buzzing through my head that I will never have enough time to create them all. When an idea settles I sometimes begin by sketching the idea with permanent black ink pen and water colour paints and acrylic paints.

Some of my art journal pages that are upcoming ideas for quilts

Sometimes I just play and experiment with different textures, mediums and ideas. Sometimes I take a photograph that I work from. This is the process I worked with for caught reading The first picture is the original sketch.

Painting on fabric

The beginning of the quilting

The face quilted

The whole picture quilted and metallic paint stick added for more colour and depth.

Carol Brungar is following on from me next Monday. She is an amazing and very talented textile artist from the beautiful Levin in New Zealand. I am honoured that she is following me on this blog hop. I love her beautiful work. You will find her blog here. She will be posting next Monday 22nd September and I am really excited to see how she works with textiles.

I am going to leave you today with this quilt called "Floating" that is the beginning of a new series of work.