Some small quilts and a big sky!

A New Year, and twelve Journal Quilts to look forward to thinking about, and making. For 2012, the criteria for size is A4, and the only other rule is that the first four are to be shades of red, the second four shades of yellow, and the last four shades of blue. They can all have up to 25% of another colour added. Above is my first one for January. I was thinking about that game where you write down the word for a colour, but in a different colour, and you have to read out aloud the colour that the word is written in! Confused? I'm not surprised!  Anyway, I chose some bright shiny turquoise silk for the lettering, and it really zings against the different red fabrics. The beads were added for extra interest.

This funny little quilt was made in response to another challenge set by the Contemporary Quilters' Guild. Sixty of these 10x10cm quilts will be chosen to make one large quilt, to celebrate the Diversity of British Culture. My contribution is a mixture of our obsession with the weather, and the map of the British Isles which also includes the emblems for each of the four countries that make up Britain, as well as the weather symbols which are also symbolic for  the diversity within the citizens of this land. 

Finally, I have included two photos I took recently whilst out on a Saturday afternoon walk not far from where I live. The sun was just beginning to go down, and the light seemed just right for the trees and teazles to be silhouetted against the evening sky. I also loved the trails left by the high jet planes that had passed overhead on their long journeys. Sometimes, when the sky is clear here, I'm amazed at how many vapour trails there are at any one time! I wonder how many planes there are in the sky worldwide at any one time? I dread to think!

On that note, Happy creativity to you all, and thanks for reading!

Snowdrops, teazles and a robin.

In my previous post I showed a piece of fabric that I had prepared by spraying silk paint over some stencils, followed with some printing using white acrylic paint. I continued to work on this piece by 'sketching' with my sewing machine, using my favoured method of free motion stitching, and added the snowdrops, teazles, a robin and the holly, ivy and mistleto. I used some colour on the teazles, robin and snowdrops, but didn't feel it was necessary to add more colour, especially as the background colour is quite strong, with some interesting detail. The snowdrops  in the forground also benefit from some handstitch. I have a feeling that this textile piece may well be printed to produce this year's Christmas cards. Nothing like preparing early for Christmas eh?



JQ for January, 'Will it snow?'

January's JQ is the last of the year's twelve. We started them in February 2011, so this, and not Decembers is the final one of this series. It is also the fourth one that had to incorporate a button. I used the piec of cloth shown in my last post that I created after the workshop video. I continued by free machining leaves, snowdrops, snowflakes and a robin. I also added some hand stitch, and finally the snowflake button. I will now be looking forward to seeing what the themes, if any, and the size requirements for 2012 are going to be.

I have also created another piece of cloth with the stencilled background, silk paint, acrylic paint and fabric crayons. Watch this space to see what I do with this piece!

A positive start to the creative New Year.

A positive start to the creative New Year. I signed up for a free workshop with Strathmore Artists Papers, and a workshop called 'Doodles Unleashed' with instructor Traci Bautista. I have watched the first video, and decided to make a start this afternoon. I worked on some old white cotton sheeting instead of paper, and used silk paints in a spray bottle, with stencils, and followed this with some fabric crayons, and white gesso painted thinly onto embossed paper which I pressed into the fabric surface. When it has all dried and been 'heat set', I shall start stitching into the piece.

Before lunch, I had a lovely leisurely walk with family, and took these photos.

This view seemed like a reminder to keep my creative focus for the next twelve months!

These tree roots made me chuckle, maybe another reminder about friendships, and how important it is to value them all.

And finally, a reminder to look for the beauty in everything, even when things seem to be decaying or changing, there is always a silver lining. We just need to look that little bit harder.

December's JQ, a mermaid and an e-reader (Kindle) cover.

December's JQ is called Button Moon. I have used self dyed fabric, overlaid with sheers, and free motion machine stitching. The tree is knobbly knitting wool couched down with yet more free stitch, and the moon is a clear button, covered with white net and a cream sheer,, held down with silver stitching. I've finished the piece with some clear beads for the appearing stars in a sunset sky.

This little mermaid was an extra present for my six year old grandaughter at Christmas. I had recently made her a pair of curtains for her newly decorated bedroom, and with the leftovers, I had enough for a small bed quilt, and a scrap for the tail of this mermaid. She was fun to make, and very well received on Christmas morning.

I was very pleasantly surprised on Christmas morning myself, because my husband gave me an e-reader, (Kindle) so ofcourse, I've just had to make a protective cover for it. I decided that it needed to be quite rigid, rather than soft and floppy, so used some medium weight pelmet viline, Decovil from here. It has a sticky side, so I ironed on a strip of some hand painted fabric that I made a few months ago.

As you can see above, I free motion machine embroidered all over the surface in green and pink thread, filling in some areas for added texture. I then placed two linings onto the back, rounded off the corners at one end, and then zig-zagged around the edge. I folded up the front to fit the Kindle, and then stitched and zig-zagged the edges together, I've used a small square of velcro for fastening.

I hope you've enjoyed this post, I haven't given any measurements, because it's all really  very obvious and easy to make this pouch to fit. This is also my first attempt at downloading a short video, so fingers crossed it all works for those of you who choose to watch.

Happy stitching everyone, and a very Happy, Peaceful New Year to you all!

Getting out the paintbox!

 I like to make a small textile or watercolour with the name of the new babies when they arrive in our family. The one above is for our newest addition, a grandson. His Mum and Dad both enjoy taking part in triathalon, so I decided a watery theme was called for.

I haven't done much in the way of textile work this month, the run up to Christmas is always so time consuming, but I shall be looking forward to getting back to my beloved sewing machine early in the New Year. I still have Decembers JQ to make, and then the last one of the series in January. I think I've more or less worked out what I'm going to do, but it will now be 2012 before they are made!

As we are looking at watercolour for this post, I thought I would include a painting I made of our cat Elsa a couple of years ago.

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas, and a Peaceful New Year.

Lavender Ladies and Hearts

The two photos at the top of the page show the reverse sides of one Lavender Lady. She has been made from my self printed fabric, and embroidered and embellished, and then stuffed with lavender from my sons garden. The two Lavender ladies below are also hand emboidered and embellished with beads and sequins. They are lovely to hang near a radiator, the warmth helps to extract the florally lavender scent. The alternative is to hang them in a wardrobe to keep the moths away, but it seems a pity not to be able to see them., The hearts below are also stuffed with lavender, and I'm making lots to put into Christmas cards. They can be hung on a Christmas tree, or also hung in a wardrobe, or placed in an undies drawer! Lots of fun to make, and something easy to pick up and stitch whilst watching the TV on these dark winter evenings.

November JQ, and some gallery pieces.

Here is my JQ for November, and I've called it 'Trapped Button' This group of four JQ's has to have a button/buttons included somewhere. It is inspired by yet another of my Dungeness photos, this time of the inside of a very weather worn and derelict Fisherman's shed. There are plenty of them on this part of the Kent coast. I've used self dyed fabrics, some black sheer, vegetable netting, and just a whisper of inktense pencil on the background. I also zig-zagged some black wool around the broken planks of the shed wall, free machine and hand stitch.

The above three images are my latest pieces to make a set of four. The fourth one can be seen in my previous post. They are all now for sale in a local gallery, so fingers crossed that they will sell.

That's it for now folks, enjoy the fireworks and November 5th celebrations!!

A Busy Half Term

This is a small piece that I made today, black cotton with cream totem shapes overlaid with natural cheesecloth. I free machine stitched the patterns onto the totems, outlined them by zig zagging some black wool around the edges, and then hand stitched onto the cheesecloth. I've mounteed this onto a small canvas.

Above are two images of another piece I have been working on for most of the week. The top image shows the whole, underneath is a section in close-up. I started by rolling on sweeps of royal blue print paste, inspired by a photo I took of some blue rolled up hose pipe. I drew in blue lines between the curved sweeps, and when the dye was dry, I scraped over the whole surface with some diluted brown dye paste.

After the fabric had been cured and washed, I had to decide how to continue with the surface decoration. I backed it with some loosely woven linen, and started by outlining the broad blue sweeping curves. I used the same technique described above, outlining by couching down blue knitting wool with a zig zag stitch in a heavy blue quilting thread. I then filled in all the spaces with a variety of free motion machine stitching in various blue and neutral shades of thread. It is quite dark, which is a shame, and in retrospect, I wish I had used a lighter coloured thread for all the stitching.

My final three photos show the results of a very enjoyable day I shared with my KAIROS friends on Saturday. We decided to 'have a go', at some of the suggestions in Cas Holmes latest book, The Found Object in Textile Art, and we played with paper, cloth, threads and wall paper paste! Great fun, and now I'm looking forward to working on these samples further, maybe with some machine stitch, one of my favourite techniques!!

Some stitch has now been added, results above with a section in close-up. I decided to stitch leaf shapes, as the colours in the piece were autumnal. This is really experimental, but I enjoyed using cloth and paper together, so will have to take this technique further.

Funky fun, bird and egg table mats.

Funky, bird table mats and coasters! I made three thermofax screens from my sketches, and printed with a discharge paste onto some black cotton sateen. I made each print, three of each bird, and six eggs into a quilt sandwich, and then free machine quilted with some cream thread. I've backed them with fabric gifted to me from New Zealand. They are fun, and will look good on the table, especially when the grandchildren are visiting! I also still have the screens, so I can print more funky birds and eggs.........maybe some curtains to match?........I think not, but they could be used for some fun cloth bags.

October JQ, The lost Button!

  

For the next four Journal Quilts a button, or buttons has to be incorporated somewhere. I decided to use a photograph that I took last year of a rusty drain cover as my inspiration. It was partially covered by gritty soil and bits of dried grass, so lots of texture for me to play around with! I used self dyed wadding for the base, and other self dyed fabrics. I trapped bits of snipped wool under a sheer, and then used hand and free motion machine stitch to complete the surface. There is a button, half hidden under some of the gritty soil, it obviously fell from someones cuff or shirt front!!