I have now completed 80 days of my 100 week day challenge and have created 52 small pieces of art. (Go Leah!!). They range in size from 8 x 8 inches to 12 x 30 inches and all can be described as quilts. Each has 2 layers held together by stitch (and bondaweb). They can definitely be called 'textile' art.
I am going to spend the last 20 days of the challenge creating small pieces using the breakdown / monoprint process that I have been experimenting with. I'm not sure about the size yet or how I will present the finished pieces. Nor have I decided whether to add stitch yet. I've been sampling different ideas and I am not sure if the individual prints look better with or without stitch.
Not adding stitch is pretty radical for me. And it makes me wonder whether 'just' printing onto textile is enough to call it textile art? Artists who paint onto canvas are not called textile artists even though canvas is a textile. So if I don't add stitch to some of my work what should I call myself?
Sometimes you just get into something and you don't want to quit! On Wednesday I spent 5 hours cutting things out - which is very calming but hard on the hands. Yesterday I spent 7 hours working on a large Ruins piece (4 hours machine stitching and 3 hours sewing in ends, which is also very calming but hard on the shoulders). And today, day 65 of my 100 (week) day challenge I have spent 3.5 hours collaging and sticking things down. Which wasn't hard on anything - it was just great fun!
It is 4 weeks since I restarted my 100 (week) day challenge and time for an update. After completing 40 days I decided to take a two week break – family stuff plus Festival of Quilts made it pretty impossible to hit my target of spending two hours every week day evening working on small art. I was, and still am, absolutely determined to keep going however it has not been an easy 4 weeks.
It has been a quiet year for submitting work as everything I do is focussed on my two exhibitions in 2018 so it was very nice to be able to submit an older piece to Quilt-Art-Quilt. And even nicer to be selected! Ruins 1 will be travelling to Auburn, New York for the exhibition at the Schweinfurth Art Centre. Exhibition dates are 28th October to 7th January.
I've completed 35 days / 7 weeks of my challenge and I'm really happy with my output but it still feels like hard work making myself go to the studio some evenings.
After four really productive weeks of making small art I have had a disappointing week; struggling to get any level of momentum. I spent the week as I planned to - researching and creating cloth for the third string of work that I will exhibit next year. The inspiration comes from those industries, and those structures, that no longer exist - the coal mining industry around St Helens, Lancashire being a great example. I wasn't working completely from scratch. I have learnt from a couple of failed attempts at printing cloth so I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to achieve and how. And I'd already found a great resource on line - the 
So what have I achieved after 20 days of my 100 (week) day challenge? The answer - an awful lot more than I was expecting. Albeit they still need stretching over canvas I have completed three 12x30 inch Kilns pieces with another one ready to stitch. I've also completed twelve 8x8inch pieces in a mini-series called Canal Street with another eight pieces ready to stitch. Wow!
It was exciting and scary news time this week when 
Two weeks in and my 100 (week) day challenge is working. I am a lot more enthusiastic about making small works and the ideas are really flowing. Kilns 2 is finished, albeit needs stretching over canvas. And, in between working at my print bench this weekend, I have completed the background stitching on a third piece. I thought that committing to finishing at least one piece each week would be a stretch but already I'm finding that I am quicker and more decisive when building backgrounds.