This and That!

I decided to set myself a daily 10 minute exercise. The rules were to tear and fold, (no scissors) and make a quick collage. Stitch and paint allowed!

You can see the results above, it was fun, and a good way to loosen up and get the creative juices flowing again. I broke the rules on the last one as you can see below, but what are rules for, if not to be broken!!

Then, as part of my ongoing 'Birdsong' challenge, I decided to make another crow piece, and started with a paper lamination. The crows outline was free machine stitched before filling with black gesso, and then lots of free machine quilting on the background and the bird. I inserted some shiny fabrics behind the voile where there were gaps, and also overlaid some lace scraps on top of the surface for texture.

 I'm very pleased with my first crow, so decided to make another larger one. Here I have included some photos of the process as I've gone along. You can see the paper lamination with a coat of white paint, and maybe a hint of blue, pink and yellow. I've placed some lace and net in some areas, which is held in place by the paint, just enough until stitched.

I drew the crow onto some paper, then cut it out so that I could lightly draw the outline onto the background.

After stitching the outline of the crow with free machine stitching, I filled in with a combination of black paints, some silk, some textile, and some acrylic, but all slightly different blacks. This helps to stop the crow from looking too flat.

The last three photos show where I have started to fill in the bird and the background with very intense stitching, and as you can see, I still have a long way to go! No more photos of this now until it's finished.

Finally, my JQ for August, and the last of four for the wedding rhyme 'Something old, Something new, Something borrowed, Something blue!'

Our daughter had all the buttonholes made in New Zealand from Flax, and the ladies buttonholes were a woven and dyed green and blue flower against a green leaf. The mens were a very simple weaving of natural and green flax. They were really unique and very beautiful, plus we have them to keep as a memento.

Well, that's about it for now, but if the the rest of this week is as wet as todays Bank Holiday Monday, then I'm going to be getting a lot of stitching done!! Thanks for dropping by.