It's all very strange!

Unconventional materials?  They all very strange and alien to me. I do not use unusual materials in my quilts.  I use hand-dyed cottons, in particular cotton sateens, and I use specific palettes for consistency, each palette dyed by a different specialist artist.  I have my own hand-dyed palette as well, although I do very little dyeing myself. I like consistency!

I have really been scratching my head as to what I could use as unconventional materials. I have stacks of paints which I haven’t used, and other odd materials such as Evolon and Lutradur, which I collected with the idea of using them, but haven’t.  Some of them are still in their original packaging.

I have one or two ideas about what I may do, which actually do appeal to me.  But new ideas and methods require some experimentation, rather than slapping odd things together, to meet a deadline.

I’m just too busy in July and August – the busiest months this year - with shows to attend, lots of teaching, a jurying process, a couple of trips abroad, and making one quite big quilt and several small pieces, for forthcoming exhibitions in the Autumn, with deadlines in September – not to mention it is school holidays, so I help look after the grandchildren.  Experimentation requires a mindset which is related to availability of time and mental space. Which in fact is something I have planned to do later in the autumn.

I suppose I am giving notice that I am very unlikely to make the end of August deadline for Challenge 3…. Sorry about that!  But better late, and good, than never, or bad.