Perhaps not an utter failure

Thanks Gina, Renate and Caroline. 

Just to show you that I

1. do eventually get around to things
2. have projects that are failures

I have a little project to show you.
Way back in June, I designed this piece.

It has been sitting around, patiently waiting for me to play with it.

So got out my pattern and decided to make a little version, since the big one was not happening.  I traced the pattern onto acetate, so I could arrange things on my lutradur backing.

I added some water (A cotton fabric)

Rocks and more water in the foreground (more cotton).

Some more rocks and some more water (more cotton).

I tacked all these cotton fabrics down with a little free motion.

So far so good........

I added some cellofoil and sewed that down too.
I decided the rocks needed a few highlights and darks

 So I added some organza and satin.

Then a little more for the sea, with some ripped up nappy liners

And then more nappy liners

 I overdid the nappy liners because I know how they shrink to almost nothing...........

When you blast them with a heat gun!  So now you see why I used cotton on the underneath layers.
OOps! - too much nappy liner just turns into blobs.
I can see that getting the effect I got here

Requires a bit more experimentation. 
When I added little bits of nappy liner (and lots of cellofoil) I got a bubbly fluffy texture (above), but this time I used lots of nappy liner and not as much cellofoil.
In addition, this time I did not distress the cellofoil and nappy liner layers separately.
I could probably do some hand stitching to perhaps make something of this little piece,  however at this point, I will just set it aside and think on it again.

Sometimes the grass really is greener on the other side of the hill.
But remember, all you have to do is get up and walk there!  It might take some time, but you'll get there.

WIP - Iris

Last week, I posted about an iris applique quilt I had started working on.  All I had done was dye the fabric and choose the picture.  I am a bit further along with this now.

This is the unfinished pastel painting I am going to use.  It is about  30 inches square.

As you can see in this photo, It is covered in acetate, which is what I use for pastel WIPs so they can be stacked and not get smudged.  I traced the main lines of the picture onto the acetate with a marker.

Then used the acetate as a master to trace a pattern on wide format paper.

This is my background fabric, which I have darkened a little at the top with pastel and textile medium.

I traced off each part of the iris separately and cut out the centre so I could audition and fussy cut the fabric.

Using these reverse templates, it was easy to find just the right area on the fabric.

It's very hard to see in this picture, but I traced along the inside of the templates with an iron off pen.

And then rough cut out the pieces.

I free cut some leaves and stems.

I cut my pieces out more carefully and glued them down with a glue stick (I find when I am thread painting, that a glue stick allows me to add more thread than I could if I used fusible web).
And that is where I am at!  Next stop thread painting.

Snow Gums

For my WIP Wednesday, I am showing you the first steps of a new large landscape I have been mulling over for a while.
In this case, I did not have a sketch or photo to work from, the idea had just been in my head for a while.  I started by placing a large 1400 by 900mm   (about 50  by 36 in) sheet of lutradur up on my design wall.

The lutradur is lightweight and a pale green colour.  I get it by the roll from the hardware where it is sold as weed mat.  I have recently started using this under my free machined work because it gives it body without bulk, so I don't need to use a hoop or add batting to do free motion work.  It is very similar to light lutradur and becomes softer with use, especially when you are doing hand work.
You can see above I have drawn a sketch of the tree straight onto the stabiliser.  I know this is a difficult picture to read, because of the transparency of the lutradur.  Here is a digital sketch of what is drawn on the stabiliser.

Better?  At least now you will know what I am talking about.  I traced this onto wide format printer paper with coloured markers as my pattern.

Above, I have the pattern folded and some tracing paper ready.
Of course we all know that when the moment comes to begin a new project, the perfect fabric is nowhere to be found.
I could not find any sky fabric which I really wanted to use in this piece, so I took some mid blue fabric and painted it with decolourant!

Here it is before the decolourant dried.

After ironing, looking good!

after washing out the decolourant.

And after the final iron.  This is pretty close to what I wanted, except perhaps a little blue still (this fabric did not go all the way to white - even with steam)  This gives me an opportunity to add more white with thread later.
So now I was ready to start putting up the sky.  I do try to start from the distance if I can, but since I am pinning my pieces not fusing or glueing this time (to allow more ease in the thread painting), I can easily add extras in at any stage.

Here I am tracing the sky areas of my pattern.  you can see that I don't worry too much about accuracy here as the layers will all overlap.  The arrows I have drawn outside the piece are to remind me of this overlap.

Next, I take my tracing and pin it to my sky fabric.  Then rough cut out the pieces with at least an inch extra.

Here are two of the rough cut pieces.  Remember, the arrows mean overlap.  No arrows means an edge of the whole.  In this case, the top.

Next, I trim the tracings back to the line.  ONLY the tracings, not the fabric.

 This is the reason why.  I trace around the shape onto the fabric with an iron-off pen.  This is to help me place the overlapping layer correctly later.

Then I simply place these pieces onto my foundation in the correct place ready for the next fabric, which will be all the hills in the distance.
That was a lot of writing, for something that really took a short time.  Needless to say it might be a few weeks before you see the next step in this sequence.

Just to finish off on a high note, here are a few photos of a very friendly King Parrot I had a chat with this afternoon.

Hello there, you don't mind if I just have a nibble?

If I promise only to eat weeds, would that be OK?

Of course, with all these weeds, I might have to stay a while...

No, No, I was not casting nasturtiums on your gardening skills!

Oh well, it was a lovely chat and I must visit again soon.  bye.

As you can see we had a lovely talk and it wasn't until I had gotten about a foot from him/her that  he/she felt the need to depart.

I'll be seeing you
Vicki

Foiled Games sacks

In this tutorial we are going to use foiling to embellish some simple drawstring bags.

Here is the pattern for the dragonfly and the butterfly.
These bags are pretty useful.  I use them for my crochet and tatting projects, and these two are for my mum, who uses them for the game pieces for Rummikin, which is sort of like rummy (cards) and uses tile like mah jong.

So, let's get down to business.
BAG

• You will need some fabric and some string for the drawstring.  I use cotton rope..

I have used some furniture fabric samples that I was given.  This fabric is excellent for this type of project because it is thick and durable.  If you know someone who owns an upholstery store, they may give you a sample book when it is out of range, if you ask nicely.

• some fusible webbing.  I have used two different types.  In the photo I have traced my patterns on the paper side of the webbing.

 

• some transfer foil.  This is not just wrapping paper foil, but is made specially for transfer to surfaces

• An iron and ironing surface

The first thing to do is make the bag.
I have cut two pices of fabric 16 x 8.5 inches

I have overlapped them so you can see that they are right sides together.
Next, starting 2 inches from the top, sew down to the bottom, across to the other side and up to the 2 inch mark as in the picture below

Next, hem the 2 inches of the sides you have left unsewn.

Do this by folding the seam allowance back and topstitching.
Next,  fold the tops down 1 inch  and seam to make a channel on the fron and the back of the bag as shown below

The finshed channels and the bag turned right side out

Next insert the drawstrings.  You will need two lengths of rope or string which are at least three times the width of the bag.

 Attach the first string to a bodkin or large safety pin

next, push the string through to the other side, making sure the end is still at the start

then take the string through the other side of the bag going the other way.

Tie off the two ends at the start

then, with the other string, attach to pin and start taking it through in the same way from the opposite side

once you get to the knot side,

take it back through the other channel

now, tie off in the same way as the other knot.  You should have a knot on either side of the Bag

I like this method, because the strings draw tight and are more secure than one string.

EMBELLISHMENT

First, cut out the webbing shapes, leaving the paper on

next, place them on the fabric and iron down (using parchment to protect your iron)

then rermove the paper backing (when cool) and place the transfer foil coloured side up, cover with parchment and iron

As you can see below, different webbings will produce different effects.  In the top sample, the foil transferred cleanly and did not stick to the fabric at all.  In the bottom sample, the transfer was partial, and there was some transfer in places where there was no webbing.

I actually liked the partial transfer and decided that a bit more experimentation was required.  I cut out a piece of the fusible plastic I made here and fused my butterfly to the webbing side (upside down), then cut it out and fused it above the foil, slightly out of register.

Now this, I really liked with the foil showing through and the bright colour - Wow.

And now we have two games sacks!