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.

Craft Fair Day 3

This is the display of entries in the Connections competition which the Thread Studio ran at the beginning of the year. Every entry had to use the embellisher, though additional stitching, beading etc was allowed. There were some wonderful pieces.

I spent the day in the Textile Artist's section with Alcira. She had some of her fabulous paper creations on display, and was folding papers in preparation for another piece.

I played with the embellisher and found that many people were very interested. One of the FAQ was how often needles broke. I have had my embellisher for 5 years and used it lots and have only broken 3 needles in that time. I was feeling quite smug about it until I realised that that meant I probably needed to replace all of them. A machine needle needs replacement after a major project - the same must surely apply to felting needles. I had the feeling that the pieces I was working on were taking a long time to come together so I suspect that the barbs may now be worn. I will replace all of them this week and see if it makes a difference.

I was sure that I had taken photos of the Embroidery Guild's 40th Anniversary display, but I obviously didn't. Nor did I take any photos of the magnificent TACTile quilt exhibition: Collections. I did buy some postcards though.

First Day

The exhibition will not be officially opened until Friday evening, but the doors opened this morning.

We had to attach all the labels, and that was when various errors became apparent. I had to print some more labels - I had completely omitted one artist - and we discovered that two items had not been included in the catalogue. Too late to reprint that - we just added the items by hand.

The gallery runs a monthly lunch with a slide show or demonstration. Designing Women were the featured speakers this month, so Juliet and I did a duet, speaking first about the history of DW and then taking the group, divided in two, around the gallery to talk about the exhibits and the techniques used. It was very well received, and we had a number of sales.

Here are some of the pieces I have on display.


My wrap is on the left. It is called Spice Market and is merino roving nuno felted on printed silk chiffon.


This bag is called Scarlet Feathers and has a trim of dyed feathers. The bag itself is velveteen with a red brocade lining.


I made this piece some time ago. The background has organza and wool fibres punched into felt with the embellishing machine. The butterflies were digitised and stitched onto organza sandwiched with Angelina fibres and cut out with a soldering iron.

There was some discussion on Monday about the need for more hanging items. I came back from the gallery, fossicked in my stash of UFOs, found this and also found a frame that it fitted.
So, another item. I have called this Into the Blue.

ATCs for Cancer

I have finally done it. The two series I committed myself to were posted this afternoon.

In this swap you had to make a series of 6 ATCs. You kept the first one and sent the other five, along with a $2 donation, to be swapped. I found working in such a large series quite difficult. I have made series before, but usually only of 3 or 4.

I admit to fudging the first series. They are all made by embellishing bits and pieces onto felt, but I used different bits and pieces on two pieces of felt. However the method is the same, so I can justify calling it a series.




With the second series I hope I have finally worked out my craving to combine red and gold. When I looked at the base fabric I saw water ripples, so I added little squares made from scraps to represent leaves falling on to the waters of the Emperor's pond. Which Emperor? I don't know. Japanese? Chinese?





We went to the movies this afternoon and saw "Wild Hogs". Very formulaic, but quite funny. If you go, wait till all the credits have rolled at the end - it's probably the funniest bit of the lot.

Adding Stitching

Today I added a little FME to 3 embellished pieces I have shown on the blog before. I am much happier with this piece now, and I zapped it a little as well.
This was one of the devore pieces. I placed it on some yellow felt and meshed from the back.
I have since free motion stitched around the colour blocks. An ATC in progress.
I added a bit more to the organza and metallic fibre on velvet, put a chiffon scarf on top and stitched roughly around the bits. Then I zapped it with the heat gun to get the piece below.

Lazy Play Day

Today I have not set foot outside the house since 8 am. Who would - with airconditioning inside and steadily rising temperatures outside? I will go and hand water a few plants in an hour or so. I can see them steadily wilting from the window, but watering in the heat doesn't do a lot of good.

The Designer One list came up trumps with suggestions about my problem with 3D Sketch. Apparently it happens from time to time and the solution is too easy. Go to Configure and Reset All Modules. You don't even have to restart the computer.

So I spent a couple of hours with a copyright free black and white sketch I had downloaded from an online colouring-in book and turned it into a redwork design. Of course I haven't stitched it out yet, but it looks good on the screen. I did make a few errors but I was able to solve all of them quite easily. Such fun, but my hand hurt afterwards. I must learn to have a more relaxed hold on the stylus.

Then I played for a bit with the embellisher and with FME on some of the pieces I have made. I have cut 4 ATCs from one piece and made single ATCs from a couple of other bits. No photos yet - I want to back them and finish the edges first. I will send some to Dale for her swap in February and there is another swap on the Aus-NZ Art Quilters list. You need to make sets of six for that one, all as a series. I need to make some bigger embellisher pieces to use as backgrounds.

More Embellisher Play

Rainbow polyester organza and daMaasi yarn meshed onto reddish felt. I had started this one some time ago and decided to finish it when I was playing today. I do like the texture of the organza. There's a section of wool tops in there too.
At Dale's embellisher workshop I meshed some wool fibres onto a gold coloured scrim. Today I cut bits of it into squares and meshed them onto black felt. This isn't finished - I think it needs stitching of some kind.

Responding to a Challenge

Dale made a suggestion on her Embellisher Machine blog about trying to mesh paper to paper - so I did. I used several different bases: thick handmade paper, a sturdy red envelope and computer paper. I had no success with any of them - whatever I tried to mesh on top did not, and either top or bottom rapidly shredded.
Then I tried paper on felt and the photo above is the record of the experiment. From the left: twisted yellow tissue paper (worked quite well), chocolate paper under organza (OK), newspaper (did not mesh until it was almost shredded), tissue paper under organza (good, so I made another sample. See below). The next section is paper towel, marbled with the shaving cream technique (worked VERY well), a strip of the red envelope which only began to mesh when very distressed and a different chocolate paper under organza. I had tried the chocolate paper on its own, but it didn't work at all. The last section is a heavy black paper that did not mesh, but when I turned over the felt I saw bits of the black coming through, so I embellished from the wrong side. The black paper is next to the sample. The final bit is a section of foil from a bottle of bubbly - not strictly paper. It meshed remarkably well. I have decided I MUST compile a sample book and record my own experiments. From this exercise it seems that the more fibrous the paper, the more easily it meshes. No explanation for the foil though.

I liked the look of the tissue paper under organza so I made a sandwich of the foil organza that I used in my last set of experiments. This time I used the wrong side which was silver, but as I worked the needles a little of the colour came to the top. I think this may well become the base for an ATC.

The next set of experiments is based on a polyester (I think; it's certainly not silk) devore fabric. The sheer background is stiff like organza, not soft like the silk in 'real' devore. In the first photo below I have meshed 2 layers together. The piece on the right is the original fabric.

In this photo scraps of the fabric are trapped in a glittery mesh, and on the right meshed with a plain synthetic organza. I do like the effect of 2 layers of organza meshed together. Another couple of ATCs here too I think.