Another collage

Since I enjoyed making the fabric collage (or more correctly embellishing) yesterday, I decided to do another one.
The foundation I chose was one with pieces of three monoprints, which again, I forgot to  photograph first.

I started by ironing some green chiffon onto fusible, then cutting out gum leaf shapes (My favourite).

I peeled the shapes off and fused them to the collage.

Then free motion stitched around them ( click to see the detail)
The contrast was very low, so....

I cut some out from a sheet of fusible backed baby wipes (If you know me, you will know I have a huge stash of these, which have been coloured from cleaning up after painting and often use them in my collages)

I fused and stitched those down, but I wanted more, so......

I stamped a leaf on top with black acrylic. This is a stamp made from fun foam I made quite a while ago.
I stitched around these stamps as well

Now for the hand stitching.

Here I am adding french knots around the appliques, and seeing this picture, I changed from this little hoop to my big standing frame.  It is easier to make nice french knots when you have two hands free, and of course it is quicker.  I will probably add other french knots in other colours further away from the leaves, but at present, I am just adding contrast.

Happy Creating!

Using up the baby wipes.

I tend to use a lot of baby wipes in my painting.  They end up being covered with beautiful colours and I find it impossible to throw them out. When i was folding fabric the other day, i thought perhaps I could fold them.

Here is a selection of wipes I used to fold blocks.  I soaked them in some strong starch, then squeezed them out and laid them between paper towels to dry, then ironed them.

Here is a selection of folded blocks.

And a close up of one of the folded units.  I have shown how to fold these here.
Of course after I had folded lots, probably about thirtyish, I needed to decide what I wanted to do with them.

In the beginning, i just put them together in a traditional manner.

My net idea was to space them in rows and to intersperse the rows with plain, unfolded pieces, which would give me more scope for free motion embroidery.  These are sitting on a piece of blue felt marked with chalk, but I think I need a background fabric which contrasts with the matt surface of the blocks, so I am thinking of a black satin, as I intend to do the stitching in gold.  I had also thought of having a japanese print with them to accent the origami theme. I do have a gorgeous Mount fuji type print that might work (if I can find it)
Anyway, that's where I am at!

Happy creating!

Collages 2 to 4

So here are my collages from the last few days.  As you will see, they are all very different.  I am afraid I probably have enough and varied 'stuff' for a million of these. I have down sized as well, so that they don't take such a long time.

This one has a motif added, just because it was there.  I have used satin (it looks black, but is a deep purple), baby wipes, chiffon, organza and embossed foil

This one is very simple and was inspired by a piece of baby wipe that I only ended up using as the strip across the centre.  I found the piece of mesh from an orange bag and it became the focus. I have used satin, quilting cotton, another baby wipe, plastic net and two little brads to hold the centre on

This one was again inspired by the green baby wipe which I made into a border.  I found this lovely piece of pleated black satin (a fabric sample that was already edged and the perfect shape), then went to find something for the centre.  I spent five minutes looking for a square template to cut the monoprinted fabric, then decided to actually cut a circle. After it was put together, my hubby suggested that he could see a landscape in the little circle, so when I need something for inspiration, I will know exactly what to do with this one!

Hope you are enjoying this as much as I am!

Happy creating!

Using up the leftovers

I was mixing up some spray inks, which is a very messy job, which my hands can attest to.  For clean up, I use baby wipes and generally I keep these stained baby wipes to use in my fabric collages.

As you can see the colour is amazing.  How could I possibly throw  these out?  But wait there's more!
When I was ironing them dry, my ironing cloth got stained - oh dear!

but what gorgeous fabric it made!  I can't wait to stitch it.
I am very late posting this, day 8 of AEDM, because I had tons of trouble with the internet last night.  It is actually day 9 here already.  sometimes posting on the weekend here is a bit problematic, so even if I can't post over the rest of the weekend, i am still creating every day.
Make sure you do as well.

a butterfly

Just a short one, today, and a change from the printing for a bit (even though I am still going - and running out of papers!)

I made a little journal quilt today.  I was inspired by a baby wipe that had cleaned up when I was painting.  The way I had held it when I wiped made purple finger prints and they were arranged like a butterfly's wings, so I outlined the wings and added some beads, shell bits and stitches to it.
The interesting thing about this is that if I hadn't tidied up yesterday, I would never have seen this wipe.  I often find when I am tidying up that I find inspirational bits, especially after a really busy time in the studio, and of course being the hoarder I am, if I didn't keep all these bits and pieces that normal people throw out, well, where would my inspiration come from? lol.
I have missed my journal quilts, perhaps this will spur me to get back to them.