Sunny days and sketching

Today, another screenprint

This piece of screen print was just asking for a sun.  I used some red organza backed with fusible and applique'd/cut it with the soldering iron (I showed this technique here)  I added some dimensional gold paint for the rays and put some brads in the corners.  OOps, no stitching at all in this one.

OK - now a quick glimpse into my sketchbook for this last week.

A stylised japanese tree, based on a dover illustration

a design from a lolly (candy) wrapper.

Some leaf shapes ( the white bits you can see on the page are a result of using a black marker in my book - it creates spots on the back of the page - which I have to paint over)

A design for a quilt, which might use applique or printing.

A leafy doodle which might be interesting as a free machine embroidered wholecloth - however it will have to wait as I already have one in progress)

A sprig of rosemary from the garden, sketched in outline ( Now write - "I must not use markers" one hundred times, lol)

And finally, another quilt design that I am sure I will get to... one day.

Remember to create something today!
oops! and don't forget to check out Lisa's ATCs

Making a card for Mum

This is a quick card I put together yesterday for my Mum to use as an acceptance.

I ised my old ZAZ embosser to emboss a flower on silver paper.  (I seem to have lost or broken most of the bits and pices over the years, but I have just made new bits out of stuff that worked, like this thin foam here from a dishcloth, lol

Here are two embossed flowers.  The one on the left is the one I used and is made from paper backed silver foil with a floral pattern.  This is the type used to cover boards for decorated cakes.  The one on the right is thinner and is made from a roll of cigarette foil I got from my sister when she worked at a factory.

I wanted to use these tiny brads, but being gold coloured, they were not right - so

I painted them with nail polish, and then they were very nice.

I arranged my bits; a piece of watercolour paper for the card, a bit of gorgeous black fibre paper with leafy bits in it and the embossed foil.

All trimmed and arranged.

And all finished, ready to post to her.  Oh, I forgot, I added a bit of pearly gold nail polish and a tiny dot of blue to the embossed flower and it looks yummy.

Just goes to show, you really don't know what's in your stash until you have to make something in particular for someone.

Still in the red

Today, I worked on the second  red hanging.  I told you that the mini quilts in this one would be different to those in the first  piece (here), but I chose a pretty simple one to begin showing you.

Here are all my bits and pieces for all the left over mini quilts.

This is the first one I will put together.  There's a lot in this photo to talk about.  First of all, in the bottom left, are the fabrics.  This one as you can see is going to be a long thin mini quilt.  I have a piece of gold satin/chiffon stripe, a piece of red satin and a piece of red felt.  None of the pieces are cut to size.  There is an important reason for this - putting all the mini quilts together into a cohesive whole will require alterations and adjustments to get a nice fit at the end, so edges and bindings are left until the end, when all the pieces are finished.
OK, at the bottom next to the fabrics are three pairs of buttons (actually one is a pair of brads) which will make up the main motifs.
Above all this and on the right of the buttons are lots of other bits and bobs, beads, sequins, threads, etc.

The first thing I do is to glue the foundation (red satin) to the felt underlay.  This is only a temporary hold, as remember, I may have a bit of adjusting to do later.  I also allow a lot of fold over fabric for later - if  I require it.  Binding or turning under is a decision I make much later.

Here is my basic idea for the mini quilt.  I have cut squares (approximately) out of the satin part of the shot chiffon and layered the buttons and brads.  The first button is a very old pink button, which was still on it's card (check back to the first photo).  The second one was a mother of pearl button and the third is a red heart shaped brad, which fits perfectly into the two opposite holes in the buttons.

First I frayed the edges of my pieces of satin and stuck them down in a diagonal orientation.

Next, I sewed the pink button on.

Then mother of pearl.

And then the brads.

I decided to put a border of bugle beads just inside the frayed edge.  I intended to finish this step tonight, however we went visiting!  So this is where I am at.
Sometimes, I find that leaving work for a day or a few days, helps me to decide on further work.  At the moment, I am thinking about some french knots in gold around the motif, but you never know.  When I work on this next time, I may have decided on a completely different thing.

Once upon a time I would have worked into the night, finished this and then blogged well into tomorrow, but one of the things I am learning is that fibre art, and all art, I suppose, does not need to be finished all at once and needs these little naps in order to metamorphose. I think that in my little breaks from a piece, my subconscious does a little bit of shuffling around of ideas and sometimes comes up with an improved version.
Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Let's see what I get up to tomorrow!