Yet more of those moths, 'lurking' in the shadows!!

Yet another 'moth' piece, this one is 'Moth and Bird'

Above is the piece that had the white moth. Well, no more! I decided to colour it in, and knock back the background with paint and crayons. I much prefer it now.

This is something that I started about a year ago, mostly stitched by hand. I've finished it off this week by adding a little machine stitching, and appliqueing some standing stone shapes, so of course, it's now called 'Standing Stones'.

Three more brooches, which I'm also hoping to sell.

I feel as though I'm on a bit of a roll at the moment, probably partly because I had a break from being creative while my daughter was here for about 6 weeks. It's also a form of therapy for me so that I don't miss her too much!

Maybe still a few more 'moths' lurking in the shadows, so apologies if you're not as fond of them as I am!!!

Sunny, and Scrappy Happy!

Making the most of this lovely recent sunshine, I made a few sunprints yesterday. Not sure yet what I'll do with them, but they can always keep for a rainy day!

Yesterday I made the above still life using scraps of cloth for the background which I knocked back with some white gesso. I free machine stitched the background in black thread, to give a sketchy sort of interior looking out from a window into a garden beyond. The flowers and fruit were also cut from scraps, and appliqued down and secured with raw edge free stitching in dark grey.

Today, and still in a 'scrappy' mood, I dug out my moth collograph that I made a few months ago which led to this little cloth book here. I made two more scrappy backgrounds in the same way as for the still life, and printed one moth directly onto the background, and after printing the second onto some gesso painted fabric, cut it out and appliqued it down onto the second background. Again, I dug out a previously appliqued moth in white, and just needed to add some extra fabric to this, to bring it up to the same size as the two above.

The gesso gives the fabric stability for the free machine stitch, and is also then ideal for adding extra colour with my Karisma pencils. I've included a photo of the backs of these moth pieces, below, because I have to say that I quite like the effect of the stitching on the plain backing fabric.

Finally, above is my June Journal Quilt, and in keeping with last months, this one is called 'Something New', and is a free machine sketch of our daughter in her wedding dress that I took from one of the wedding photos. I made this on a patchwork of cream and white fabrics.

I have an idea for 'Something Blue' for my August JQ, but am at a bit of a loss for next months 'Something Borrowed'!!

Hopefully, inspiration will strike from somewhere soon, (without knocking me out though), so watch this space to see what materialises! ;)

Moody Maps

Maps have always fascinated me, and whenever I start to think back to places I know or have visited, I often see them in my minds eye as if from a 'birds eye' view!

Above is an experimental piece I've been working on for the last couple of days. It's the River Thames as it snakes it's way through London, with a few famous landmark buildings for added interest, and obviously by no means accurate! I have enjoyed making it though, and filling in details with hand and machine stitch onto  rag paper which I have previously coloured with silk paints.

This second piece is actually smaller than the top textile, but looks larger for some reason! It was made from a small section of a paper lamination of a map of Brighton and the South Downs. However, I used an ink jet print instead of a laser print, and the colour mostly disappeared during the soaking process! Anyway, I decided to add my own colour with my Karisma coloured pencils, and then finished it off with free machine stitch. I'm quite pleased with the results, and will be doing some more of these too!

Thanks for reading, enjoy your week.

Happy Wedding Memories, and 'Something Old'!

It's been quite a few weeks since my last post, but we've had such an exciting time since then, with the wedding of our daughter, which has also meant that both she, our new son-in-law, and gorgeous little grandson have stayed with us for five weeks. 

They are now all safely back home in New Zealand, so I have straight away got stuck into some stitch, and decided to make my Journal Quilt for May which you see above. It is called 'Something Old', and has been made from the table cloth you see below, which was on one of the tables at the wedding reception. I scoured all the local charity shops, and bought enough cotton cloths for all the tables. Much nicer than paper cloths, and all were a bargain!

I have painted it in the colour scheme our daughter chose for the wedding, lavender and green, and I then appliqued the silver heart and bells on top. The cloth had a border of embroidery around the edge, and I've incorporated part of it across the top to fulfil the criteria of a line going from one side to another.

Above is the watercolour I painted for the wedding invitations. I wanted to incorporate an English rose with a New Zealand fern, and it worked well in forming a heart shape.

We needed a box for guests to post their wedding congrats cards into, and so I made this, with a padded and embroidered top. Again, all in the chosen colour scheme.

I have also made a ring cushion, but forgot to photograph it! I will ask my daughter to send me one, and show it in a future post.

I made the bridesmaid dress for our 8 year old grandaughter, it had a little bolero over the top, and a lovely bow detail on the back.

A quick sketch I have made of the bride and youngest bridesmaid before they left for the Registry Office. My idea is that I may try to do some more with free machine stitch.

And finally, While saying our teary farewells at the airport, a lovely young Australian guy plonked this bottle of champagne in my arms! Apparently it was presented to him as a gift just before he was about to go through security, and as no liquids are allowed, he needed to either dump it or give it away. I must have been in the right place at the right time!

Until next time,

CHEERS!

Using up the scraps!

Well I've managed two more of these 61/2" square textile pieces, and I feel that I'm on a bit of a roll with them! However, things are going to be 'hotting up' again for the next few weeks with the final wedding preps, so this will probably be it now until after the end of May!

I decided to photograph the process of this last one, so here goes.

Above is a piece of fabric I printed quite some time ago. In fact, so long ago that I can't quite remember the process, but I think it included elastic bands and some left over thickened dye through a silk screen. It was rather dull and boring, which is probably why I've not used it until now! However, I dragged it out yesterday, and attacked it with some waxy fabric crayons, the results of which are below.

I selected some other scraps of leftover dyed and printed bits and pieces, plus a piece of commercially printed cotton, and cut them up into spirals, ovals and wriggly shapes which I'd prepared for appliqueing.

After stitching the appliqued pieces down, I continued to embellish the surface with lots more free motion quilting in colours that added more interest and depth to the background.

Both pieces are very similar individually, but as you can see from the first photograph at the top of this page, they would also work well together.

I've really enjoyed working on these smaller pieces, and they are a very good way of using up small, leftover scraps of fabric that are too good to throw away! 

Beginning with flour and water!

Below is the piece of cotton fabric that I created from a flour and water paste experiment made previously, Here. After painting it with acrylic paint, I cut it in half today and appliqued a few yellow cotton spots and some yellow net over the surface before quilting heavily with shades of blue, green and yellow viscose thread. They are the same size as the two from yesterdays post, 61/2" square, so quite small. I do enjoy working on smaller pieces, they feel more manageable for the detail that I like to add, and of course, they don't take as long to make! Well, not usually anyway.

Two posts in two days!! Somehow, I think there may be a bit more of a break before my next one, but thanks for reading, and have a good week!

Night and Day, or Many Moons?

Sometimes, trying to name a piece of work is harder than actually making it! I didn't have any plans when I started these, I just wanted to play around with some fabric that I had dyed and printed a couple of years ago.

They remind me of outer space, day and night, light and dark, moons, suns and planets etc. I just decided to travel with them to see where we ended up!

And when I put them side by side, they seemed to flow into one another. I'm not sure what to do about that, I don't want to join them, but maybe they could be framed in such a way that they make a pair.

Finally for this post, is my April Journal Quilt. A couple of posts ago I included some photos of the zentangles I had been playing around with. Well, I decided that they fitted in with my black, white and red theme, so printed this one onto some canvas, quilted along the black outlines, and machine couched the red knitting wool. Now I have to decide whether to continue this black, white and red theme for my next four JQ's, or to do something different. Hmmmmm decisions decisions!!!

Useful Little Fabric Scraps!

Yes, two of the above are the same from my last post, but I've added some colour to them after all! I decided they were a bit too bland, and have added some colour with my Karisma pencils.

Not sure if you can still buy Karisma pencils, such a shame as they can be used heavily for really dense colour, and also blend really well. Prismacolour may be similar, but I've not tried them.

These two, above and below have been made from some small scraps of fabric that I've kept. After forming them around my piece of felt covered rigid plastic, I've added a few beads for embellishment. So simple and quick to make, little stocking fillers to put away for friends and family at Christmas!

I always knew those little fabric scraps would come in useful one day!

Black thread drawing!

Bluebells and a butterfly.

Two more brooches. This time I decided to use my favourite technique of free machine stitching, or as I like to call it 'drawing' with my machine needle! Both stitched/drawn in black thread on scraps of cotton fabric that I had previously painted with acrylic paint. I think I prefer these simpler styles to the hand stitched brooches in my previous post.

Working small.

A couple of brooches I've stitched this week. It has been good to do a bit of hand sewing, and the wedding preps are nearly all done now, so I've got a bit more time again. I'm going to make a few more, and then I'm hoping to sell them.

These zentangles are also quite small, about 4" square, and something that's easy to do while sitting in the armchair watching TV. Lots of websites on how to make these, so I won't go into details, but they are an enjoyable way to relax with a pen and paper.

That's about it for now, but I hope you are enjoying your time with creative pursuits, have fun!

A Recycled Cornish Sky!

This months journal quilt is called 'Recycled Cornish Sky'. I suppose it could also have been called 'March Winds!' I have cropped this piece from an abandoned quilt that I was making for the Tin Mine Challenge, cq@10 in 2012. It wasn't working as I'd planned, so I started again. I always keep everything, even stuff that I consider to be a total disaster, but somehow, they always seem to be just right for future projects, including book wraps, and postcards. I have just added some red stitching to this, in keeping with my January and February jq's, and the 'line', is the bottom left red line of stitch from the left side to the bottom.

I'm still extremely busy with wedding preps, so not much else to show for now, apart from bridesmaid dresses, but they are to be kept under wraps until after the BIG day!!

Thanks for dropping by, hopefully I'll be back soonish!