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!

Colour, but without stitch or cloth!

Armed with my new camera, and in the company of a good friend, we made the most of this beautiful sunny day by going for a walk in Coombe Wood, just south of Croydon in Surrey.

My friend, who is an extremely competent and artistically clever photographer, generously shared lots of her tips for creating successful photographic images.

I just love the colour of these beautiful deep pink and lime green flowers. I'm not sure of their correct name, but I've always called them Christmas roses!

With my camera held underneath the blooms, the light shining through the petals really helped to reveal some gorgeous detail.

Such a wonderful shade of blue with the splash of yellow, beautiful miniature Iris.

And of course, one of the first flowers to herald in the promise of spring, the dainty, nodding heads of the snowdrops.

Finally, and one of the reasons why I don't have much stitch to show at the moment, is because of the many preparations I am involved in for our daughters wedding in May. Above is the painting I made for the invitations. Her fiance is a New Zealander, and although they both live there now, will be coming back to the UK for the marriage celebrations. I decided to incorporate the New Zealand fern with an English rose, and it had to be a lavender coloured rose as their colour scheme is lilac/lavender and green. I am also busy stitching the ring cushion, and will shortly be starting on the bridesmaid dress for our granddaughter. A very busy time, but one that I am thoroughly enjoying.

Thanks for looking in, and I hope you are enjoying whatever your creative life is presenting you with at the moment too!

A work in a very loooooong progress!

This piece of work is something that I started quite some time ago. I made an A3 black and white photocopy from a colour photograph that I took on holiday about 8 years ago. It was a photo of a prickly pear cactus, a rather large specimen, and I just loved the shapes of the fleshy leaves with the pear shaped fruits growing from around the edges. I may be wrong in calling the different parts 'leaves' and 'fruits', but that is what they looked like to me.

I laminated the photocopy to some voile, and rubbed off the excess paper after fixing, and soaking in water. This left just the image on the voile, which when backed with some cotton fabric, (I chose part of an old cotton curtain with a green print) gives a lovely soft, light handle to the piece for further embellishment. I started by adding colour with some silk and watered down acrylic paint. The very fine film of paper left on the voile takes up just enough colour for interest, and then I have used a combination of hand and machine embroidery in the different areas, together with further, slightly thicker acrylic paint applied in dots and spots. I've allowed myself to really go to town with the decoration, which gives this cactus a completely unreal appearance, and there may still be some further additional work added!

I have been asked to run a two day workshop this coming August, and this technique may well be one that I will offer to the participants. It's another interesting way of using some of the many photographs that we all seem to take these days, and then don't know what to do with!

If nothing else, it's lots of fun, and something colourful to work on during these cold, wet, grey winter days.

February JQ

I can't believe it's a month since my last post. I've not had the time to indulge myself with my art for the last few weeks, but I have a very happy reason for this. Our daughter is coming back from New Zealand in April with her partner and son, and they are getting married at the beginning of May! This was only decided very recently, so it's been 'all go', trying to organise and co-ordinate dates for the ceremony and reception venue. I have also been designing and making the invites, bunting is also now on the agenda, and I think I may be making one of the bridesmaids dresses too, just for good measure!! Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention that we've also been busy decorating our front room, which is still ongoing. In fact, the more I think about it, it's a miracle that I've actually managed to get my February JQ finished at the beginning of the month! Maybe I need to get the March and April ones made sooner rather than later. This month I decided to use of one of the photographs I took of the two bikes parked in the kitchen where my grandson's Mum and Dad live. They are constantly in training for Triathalon, and every week, they catch my eye with their many different shapes created by the frames, wheels, spokes etc. I cropped one of them, manipulated it in photoshop, printed it onto canvas, free machine quilted most of it, added some acrylic paint, and finally free machine couched some red cotton knitting wool to outline the frame.

I hope you are keeping dry and safe during this relentlessly wet weather here in the UK, and wherever in the world you are, I hope you are enjoying your creativity.

Longing for more shadows!

Another new year, and another journal quilt challenge for 2014. This year, the size is to be 8"x8", and I do love a square, so this has got me off to a good start! The only other stipulation is that each little quilt must contain a line that travels from one of the four sides, to another of the four sides, and can be any shape. I have manipulated the photo below of a shadow made by a garden chair on our patio, and then printed it onto some canvas before stitching into it, and adding some acrylic paint. My line has been made by machine couching some red knitting wool down the side of the shadow on the left.

I may decide to try and stick to this limited palette of black/grey, white and red for the whole year, or at least for the first four months. My only wish now is for some sunshine, so that we can all be reminded of what a shadow actually looks like! 

Wherever you are, I hope you are keeping warm and dry, and enjoying some time for stitch!

It's our Winter Solstice.....and my last JQ for 2013.

The last Journal Quilt for 2013, my theme, Patterns in the Landscape. I actually made this one back in January, but wasn't too sure about it, so I made another one instead. This one was inspired by snow laying on some Rhododendron leaves in my garden. I liked the way it was receding from the edges of the leaves, giving a lacey effect. I decided to use it for December, partly because having looked at it again after nearly a year, I liked it more, and partly because I'm rather pushed for time!!

And above, my 12 JQ's for the year altogether. 

It's our Winter Solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere, so I guess it must be the Summer Solstice in the Southern half! Well, my Stonehenge textile place mat that was one of a set made for my daughter last year can be a suitable image for both Summer and Winter. It's our shortest day, and I must say it's been one of the darkest too, with very high winds, and driving rain here in the South East of England more or less all day! At least it's uphill now for the rest of the winter, an uplifting thought on this darkest of days.

Only three more days until Christmas, so I will also take the opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas, and a happy, healthy and peaceful 2014, which will also hopefully include lots of lovely creative stitching!

Scrappy Cloth Moth Book........

.......Goodness, try saying that too fast! Anyway, I've been having fun again, making another scrappy cloth book. I can get quite inspired by moths, or rather, their wing patterns and colours can really inspire my imagination! The first photo shows the front cover. I made another card collagraph plate, loosely based on the Privet Hawk Moth, and printed it a number of times on a combination of either cloth or paper.

I've built up the backgrounds with odd bits and scraps of cloth, mostly from my own hand dyed or printed cloth. The remnants of colour/print on these scraps also informs the way I decorate them with either free machine stitch, or machine embroidery.

I find that as I'm machining, a little story starts to build up in my head.

For example, the scraps and colours on the page above, and where they were placed made me think about toadstools and snowflakes! These thoughts helped me to decide where to stitch, and what to hint at.

Some of the moth prints have been left without too much detail, like the one above, whereas the one below has far more detail, added with crayon as well as stitch.

These little books are all about experimentation, and will hopefully lead to me making some finished art pieces for the wall.

Above the back of the book, and below, the card printing plate for the moth, and  for the Christmas cards I've also been making which you can see below that.

The cards don't seem to have photographed very well, the backgrounds look a bit dirty, and the trees a bit dull. They are much brighter, but maybe it's the glitter glue that hasn't come out too well. Such wonderful stuff though, and quite addictive!

Christmas is coming folks, if it's something you celebrate too, I hope your preparations are well under way! See you next time.

A Little Sampler Book

I've been experimenting at home this week with the collagraph and layering techniques we were taught by Cas Holmes last weekend. I have used the same collagraph plate of the boat for all except one, but have used it differently each time. I decided to make them all up into a little folding book. The cover, which you see above has a monoprint of another boat, plus a collagraph of a lighthouse, both taken from my sketchbook. I've used scraps of my own dyed/printed fabrics for the layering up, and I think they have added interest as a backgrounds.

The above image was printed with red and black paint, giving the sky a stormy sunset effect. I decided to cover the boat with some light open weave fabric, letting the paint show through, but giving me a lighter, textured surface to stitch into. I also gave the lobster net a similar treatment, and added the shell for interest.

Just the lighthouse on this piece, with some lace for a stormy sea effect, and yellow netting for the beams of light. 

This time, I printed the boat onto rag paper, using brown and red paint. The paint probably wasn't think enough, so I cut the boat shape out completely, and appliqued it down onto the fabric background.

Collagraphed onto some rusted fabric, and then stitched.

I made a rubbing with brown and red oil pastels using tea bag paper over the collagraph plate. This was then placed pastel side down onto the background fabric, and ironed. The heat melted the oil pastel, blending it into the fabric with a good soft effect, and the stitching helped to define the boat shape again.

This is the back of the book, made from something I had stitched previously, with another shell print. I thought it fitted in well with the theme.

These last two images, are to show how the book has been constructed into a concertina. I have really enjoyed playing around with these different ideas, and the little book will remind me of the techniques I have used and experimented with.

Now I need to think of a new theme for my next project using another collagraph plate. Hmmm, I think this could become addictive!

Thanks for looking in!