Daily Drawing

Wow. I has been nearly two months since I last posted!  some of you will be aware that I have been quite ill.  I am not yet quite out of the woods as they say, but am up and about.  The tangled textiles group  had a reveal last week, but I was unable to complete my piece, which shows how sick I was.  You can see everyone else's work here.  It is pretty amazing!
Laura Kemshall, has started a daily drawing post and since I always need to be reminded to draw, I thought this might be a great way to start posting again!
So here is my first Daily drawing post

Let's see if I can keep it up!

Happy Creating!

A bit of nature and some stars

Today's ATC is a bit different, but I just thought, "what if..." and made it.  The background is some eucalyptus bark, which is always lying around outside.  The pebbles are ones I found in the garden (not the ones I bought, which are much more regular) and the twine was just out of the drawer.  It was quite easy to sew through the bark to attach the pebbles and I punched the holes for the twine with a simple hole punch!
I like this one, and it is telling me that the simple things are often the best.

Today is tangled textiles challenge reaveal day, so one of my deadlines is finally gone.
Here is my piece in response to the theme of "look up"

It is my view of the Southern cross and the milky way, which I see from the back steps most nights, only of course infinitely more lovely than this.

I started with a closely scribble quilted piece of fabric

Then painted it with acrylic paint.
Next, I stencilled in the milky way with a silver shiva stick and I disliked it so much, I didn't even take a photo.
I tried using some organza to cover it up

but that didn't work!  In the end, I thread painted all over the shiva cloud with a variegated white to blue thread.

I Added iron on sparklies for the stars, but I still didn't like it but I bound it anyway because the 15th was hours away, then as I sat, thinking, I started adding some hand stitching with perle thread, and I started to like it a bit.  Obviously, time was an issue, or I think I would have added more hand stitch.  Next time I will start hand stitching much earlier, as I think I am starting to want that texture in my work.

Anyhow, have fun creating every day.

Not fabric, but still fibre

Yesterday, I finally photographed a little book I finshed a while ago. 

From the outside, I suppose it just looks like any old book.  I used a coptic binding  (or here)(with beads!) and recycled the cardstock from my paper and cardboard collection (otherwise known as my recycling baskets)

However, it's the inside that I really like (Beyond the fact that it sits so flat when open!)
It is made from bill envelopes, the kind with the cellophane window.  I got this idea from Laura Kemshall in a design matters episode (It costs money to subscribe, but is certainly worth it)
My book is actually a little different to Laura's, but if you know me, you know I can never follow instructions without altering them.  Same with rules - lol.

I cut my envelopes so that each one opens at the top and the window is a vertical strip in the front of each pocket.  I wanted the pockets to be secure and only open at the top.  I glued the spine part (what was originally the open top of each envelope) into a pair of paper slips or tip-ins which were then bound (I got this method  from the new Cloth Paper Scissors Pages magazine.  This is so full of great stuff!

Finally, I couldn't finish without showing my wonky beading on the spine.  I do like making books like this - they are soo cute!