What's growing?

A new art quilt is growing.
It is at the  stage where i have a lot of free motion to do, so I thought I'd show you what I have done so far.
This quilt is based on a page in my leaf sketchbook.

These are three gelatin monoprints that I have collaged together.  One is a negative and two are positive.  I used a bit of artistic licence and moved them around a bit.

My background was the textured satin I sprayed the other day.

I layered it up with felt and added some black satin in the centre and black organza on the sides to create three sections.   I traced around the paper stencil I made for it and stitched around it three times.

Then I rough cut out around the organza stitching and inside the satin stitching.

the next step was to run along the stitching lines with some fabric glue.

With a small piece, I have found that this is not really necessary, but with a large piece like this (40inx30in), I have found hat sometimes the slippery satin and organza can come out of the stitching when I trim right back.  I have been thinking about testing out fusible thread to see if it works any better.  It would certainly be quicker!
And here is the whole piece ready for a lot of free motion work!

Happy creating!

I did it!

A few days ago, I was trying to do some digital collage and since it had been so long since I did it and I was using a new program, I had difficulties doing what I wanted.  But I persisted and I did it!

This has three layers.  The background is one of my fabric collages.  The leaves are from one of the monoprints I made the other day and of course the text is the third layer and is a quote from Nelson Mandela that I thought appropriate here!

I also finished a piece I had been working on quite a while ago.  The background is a collage of lots of greens, in chiffon, satin, silk and even painted batting under tulle and is quilted with a very multi coloured thread.  The crocus are made with green and lilac satin and are raw edge applique with free motion bobbin work.  the stamens are hand embroidered and have beading at the top.  I think I have made something lovely and all it needs now is a frame.

I hope you enjoyed my adventures today.

Happy creating!

Philosophising on textile art

I have been absent without leave for a little while.  As I have said, I am completing a course with Design Matters, and I can't post that here, but beyond that and all the family problems at present, I had been thinking why I often fall of the cart with my Textile work.  and really, I have come to realise, work - that terrible word is to blame.  Once something becomes WORK, it becomes a chore.  Since I started the local gallery, I have been more focused on making THINGS rather than just making, and I think this is what has stifled my creativity.
When I work in my journals and sketchbooks, I have no particular end in mind and am not even intent on finishing - often, I just make backgrounds, which I come back to when the muse suggests.  Perhaps I need to be a bit more intent on the process with textiles,like I used to be, rather than what it looks like or whether it's finished or not.  I might end up with lots of ufos, but I might end up with more finished and more creative work, too.
So, to this end, today I just threw some stuff together and made it up as I went along.

A piece of interfacing and some bits of green stuff - stain, chiffon, organza, batting - all the stuff I love to play with.

I just arranged the green bits all over the interfacing and when I was happy, I pinned a bit of black tulle over it to hold it.

On the back I pinned an inkjet print from a dover book.

I turned it over and pinned some lilac satin where the flowers were to be (sorry about the upside down pic)

Then I turned it back upside down and sewed around the flowers on the lines of the paper (basically bobbin drawing)

I glues around my stitching with a syringe (very fine line of glue) so it wouldn't fray when I trimmed it.

I did a rough trim, then a closer one.

Then I did the same with some very pale green satin for the foliage.

Then it was time for some embroidery!

I turned it over again and went over the lines in the flower with a variegated purple thread.

And that's where I got up to before I had to go out and stack wood for the fire.  It gets cold early now that it's winter here.

And this is one I need to remember more often.  Play is the heart of creativity!

A weekend's work

Oh, and a bit more, since I didn't blog on Friday as I meant.
I have been working on a few little things for our quilt group's christmas stall at the market.

This is where I am at with the pansy table runner I cut out in my last blog.

These are two little purses I made from 'omiyage' by Kumiko Sudo.  The pink and blue one is not finished yet.

This is a little painting I did whilst playing around at art on thursday.  I painted a bronze and gold background and then started spraying a dark purple around the edges.  I sprayed a little too much and it started to run.  Serendipity!  I made it run and dribble a bit more and turned it upside down.  I thought it looked like some trees, so I added a few little branches with a skewer by dragging the purple paint.  All up 5 minutes and it looks really good.

Also on thursday, I was playing with making ink blots in my journal and this butterfly popped out, so I went round it in black and added some lines.

This was some butterflies I did a week or so ago using layered stencils.  I went in and added black ink on the purple one and white out on the green one to define them both a little bit.  Now for a background.
This morning, I played with embossing textiles.

This was a piece of wide silk habotai ribbon, which embossed nicely

This piece of satin turned out spectacularly.

A piece of acrylic felt

A piece of batting

crushed velvet worked extremely well!

This was another piece of batting, and after embossing, I ran some pastel gently over the top to bring out the dimension.

This was the piece of lace I used to emboss all the fabrics.  It is just an 8 inch or so swatch that I picked up from some fabric samples.  I like it a lot, and it is quite stiff as I have also used it as a stencil.
My method was to dampen the fabric with a spray of diluted white glue, then layering the lace over the top, covering all with some baking paper and ironing heavily and as hot as possible.  I had been wanting to have a go at this for some time and am glad I finally did it!  I'm sure I will use this in my collages.

So, all in all it was a pretty productive weekend - now off to do some quilting and collage!