Playday

I started playing with some bits today with nothing definite in mind about what will happen to them.

First I made some fabric paper - 50% PVA glue and water on calico with torn bits from paper napkins (coloured ply only). Then, when it was dry, I sprayed it with some Starburst Stains. I think I was a bit tentative with the colour and it needs more depth. I will spray a bit more and also add some stamping. The napkins have been saved from afternoon teas with the sewing group I met with on Wednesday - it has become quite a joke that I always put mine in my bag at the end. I look forward to showing the finished project off!

I was given this piece of knitting a couple of weeks ago. It is done with three yarns and I had no idea what fibres they are. I decided that I would try felting it. Into a pot with water, onto my new cooktop, power boosted to high and left to boil for rather too long. When I came back the water was gone and the knitting had scorched in spots.

No evidence of any felting so the yarns are obviously synthetic. Never mind - I will try some paint and then the embellisher.

The embellisher was put to work too. I finally changed the needles and it is meshing the fabric much better. There are a couple of pieces now in progress.

Fabric Paper

At Alcira's yesterday part of the Show and Tell were two examples of the fabric paper made in the workshop with Pam Annesley.


Margaret's piece is ready to be constructed into the book that Pam had as a workshop sample.



Alcira has already made hers into a concertina book with beads. Wonderful stuff.

I have been trying to quilt my Christmas blocks today. An hour's sewing, two hours unpicking. Tomorrow I will try the walking foot.

Auditions

I spent a little time today going through my thread collection. I have two pieces of fabric that need additional stitching. One is a piece of embellished fabric made from wool tops on scrim, cut into squares and embellished on felt. I am going to handstitch this (shock! horror! me doing handstitching!) I found three hanks of yarn in different weights but the same colourway. It is very vibrant and I think it will look good. I seem to remember that the colour combination is called Marrakesh. All I have to do now is decide which one to use.



The other piece is constructed from layers of synthetic fabric on top of a heavy cotton. I stitched a grid and then used a soldering iron to burn back the layers. The squares have a nice crusty look but are a bit rough. I intend to make a bag from it. I tried an overlay of red tulle and I think that will work well. I am going to stitch the grid from the wrong side with either a fancy stitch or free motion meandering. Now I need to decide which of these two threads to use in the bobbin.


12264 steps yesterday - wow! Almost 9000 so far today.