FEATHERS AND A FINISH

Well, I have been making my feathers, it's an easy quick way to get myself going.
Here are the last two days.

and a couple of closer pictures.

I have also finished a small piece for a friend.

It is a sunprint I did a fair while ago, here.  I have beaded all the area between the bird and leaves.  It took a fair amount of time.  There are about 30 beads per square inch!  I have not bound it, but just fastened the edges as she wishes to frame it.  But at least now it is finished!

So that's where I am up to at the moment.

Let's create every day!

At least summer is handy for sunprinting

I have been very unproductive of late.  I find as I get older, that I tolerate the heat less and less and this year is still a hot one.  A lot of my large quilting projects have been put on hold until I can work in my smaller sewing room without raising a sweat.  I have a smaller machine for quilting and thread painting out in my studio, where I can regulate the temperature somewhat, so back to small projects.
Last week, I did some sun printing (like I said at least the sun is good for something!).

This one was done using setacolour soleil sunpaint.  I dampened the fabric, then pressed it flat onto a laminex board that I just happened to have.  The water allows the fabric to stick.
Then I painted the whole piece with the paint and a large brush.  I placed a stencil from my huge collection over the top and left it to dry.  The piece above is the result.
It's a bit of a miracle, really. My hubby says it is not possible and doesn't make sense,  but I have seen lots of paint effects related to this, like making fabric for water ripples by gently pleating as it dries.

With this one I used an ordinary setacolour metallic.  In some places, where the stencil did not sit flat, there is not a very defined line, but I liked this one and immediately had to play with it.

I sandwiched the fabric with batting and stabiliser, then quilted around the edges of the design with white thread.

Here is the back.  The quilting is more obvious here.

I am now in the process of beading over all the painted areas, which will take me a while!

Here's where I am up to at present.  I have already had an expression of interest in purchasing this one!  How great is that!

Anyhow, that's how things are going at present.  I will try and keep my blog more up to date from now on.