In memoriam

first. I have a little brooch to show you which I put together this week.
It was inspired by a recent video on Just hands on TV.  i did not use the method shown in the video although my beading is very similar.

I used a milk bottle lid for the top and a cardboard circle for the bottom and covered them both with velvet, by cutting  circles and gathering them to the back.  The back circle has a fabric circle on both the front and back and a brooch finding sewn on.  then I basically beaded around each.  I also put a sequin and bead on the top.

I quite like the result and think it will make a lovely gift.  Now, just as I am writing I am thinking that perhaps I should make some leaf shaped ones!

On a more subdued note,  a few days ago was the fifth anniversary of the worst fires in Australia's history, which ravaged my home town, and I have started a piece of work informed by it.
I was inspired, by a couple of blogs, to do some free motion thread painting, which I have not done much of lately.
Firstly, I happened to glance at Monika Kinner-Whalen's  blog and it reminded me of thread painting.  then I was looking at Olga Norris' blog  and saw some amazing work by an inspiring artist called  Audrey Walker.
All this made my fingers itch to do some thread work and when I looked through my reference photos, I found this rather blurry photo I took a month or so after the fires.

I wasn't concerned about the blurry nature of it because I intended to simplify it anyway.
And here is where I am at with this.

If I was painting with a brush, I would call this the blocking in or underpainting stage.  All I have done is stitch in the basic areas, very lightly, allowing for more stitch in detail to go over the top.
I am enjoying doing this and I will definitely be posting more as I go further on.

Happy Creating!

odds and sods

With the hot weather, I have been holed up in the main house with some hand sewing, so today I will show you a little project I completed this week

You might remember I was making these little folded units here.  I was thinking of making them into hydrangea like flowers, but I changed my mind and made a box out of them.

Here is the box and lid.  I have not as yet covered the inside, but the part of the bottom that is covered by the lid is covered with a satin ribbon.
Basically,  I made my box from some recycled card and as it is a cube, each face was the size of nine units.  I made the top face of the lid slightly bigger - less than an eighth of an inch - so it would slide on properly.
I am really liking this little box and like the way the little units are textural like tiny little flowers.

Happy Creating!

Sunflowers, not daisies

since it is so hot outside and I am not feeling like boiling out in the studio, I thought I might give you a recap on where I am at with the daisies oops, sunflower piece I have been working on.  I think my mind was not in gear when I called them daisies!

I started with this photo I took outside the florist.

then I drew it on my graphics tablet.  I also drew it in my journal a few times.

I free motion stitched it on chiffon, three times.

I made a stamp of the design using sticky backed foam.  Obviously I have done some printing as the stamp is not quite pristine any more, lol.

Since I had my silicone plate out (read gelatin-like), the first thing I tried was to take paint off it with the stamp.  I worked well, however yellow and white are not a huge contrast, so it is hard to see here.  This will make great background fabric!

I printed all these on white chiffon.  In the last picture you can see i added an oops by accidentally dragging the chiffon over my palette.  Oh well more texture.
Of course now I had paint on the sponge and so not too waste it, I printed it off onto baby wipes.

The photo above was done using a moist wipe out of the box.  Big mistake as it was too wet and bled, however, I got two pieces of napkin printed when I blotted it.

These two were using only slightly damp ones.  And I got all these just off the dirty stamp.  I am sure I will use them.

I also got sundry other cloths and papers coloured in coordinating colours from cleaning up my work area.

I intend this to be a mixed media piece, so the papers and cloths will get used.
Now, of course it is time to put them together in a cohesive way.  I have been thinking about this for several days and probably will begin to play and think a bit more before I decide how it will go together.

Now as I was pondering, particularly about sunflowers, I thought of Vincent Van Gogh, who of course was one of my favourites and I also thought about our current Tangled Textiles Challenge, which I had been researching and thought that this might form the bones of my "Artistic Licence" piece.
On the TT page, today, is a mosaic of the work we did for the last challenge, which is pretty exciting.
In the past, we have not shown our work before the reveal date, but we have discussed perhaps showing our process.  Well, I have done it now, haven't I?  Very naughty of me.  I hope you don't mind, guys.
So  as this needs to be finished by March 16 (or 17 for me in Australia),  I intend to show you what I do as I go along, perhaps adding and taking away several times.

Happy Creating!

Free motion filling in

you might remember this quilt that I started recently

I have been working on the free motion on the black organza

I am doing a spiral sort of design on this one.

As you can see, my free motion is not perfect, and I still have not trimmed the edges of the leaves.  that will be the next step before I quilt the background.  I am still umming and ahing about what to do there.  I am thinking about gold thread but whether or not to do some shadowy  leaf shapes or more abstract designs eludes me at present.  We will see.....

Happy Creating!

fifty collages

I now have over fifty collages from my collage a day challenge and now, my intention is to slow down and make a few a week, but to also begin working on the foundations I have so far created.  I want to add lots f embellishment!

Above, you can see I have started on one of the collages.  I added some free motion stitching on painted cheesecloth and have started some hand embroidery.

Here is the original, simple collage

And here is where I am with this.  you can see the free machined cheesecloth (or scrim) is transparent.  I will probably be adding a lot of stitch to this one.  I have started some french knots in the flower centres and some lazy daisies and also some seed stitch.  I have more of the embossed metal and thought I might like to do some rubbings with them and I have to find my orange hand dyed perle thread.  the thread I have used here is variegated and has too much white.  It is, in fact a vintage ball that I got from the opp shop.

Happy Creating!

T for teapot

Today's contribution to T for Tuesday, is an old teapot I picked up at a market a while ago.

It is quite old, probably from the turn of the 20th century, going by the silver mark on the base and was made in England.   It has lost it's lid and is misshapen and very tarnished, but I love it and will probably not clean it up at all.

I love these beautiful lily of the valley flowers that are carved(?) on the side.

And these gorgeous flourishes on the handle!

I have not yet sketched it, but I will, soon.

Happy creating!

Free motion daisies

You might remember I drew a daisy from on my digital tablet from a photograph I took at the florist.  i did say at the time that I would be using it in textile work.  And I have.

Here I have free motion embroidered the flowers on some yellow chiffon.
I have also made a large foam stamp from the picture as well and I think that might be used on the background fabric that I will put behind them.  I also think that a third flower, perhaps smaller is in order to balance the composition, but I am looking forward to the stage of hand embroidering as I want to do lot of french knots in the centres!
Sorry I've been absent for a few days - weather and computer worries!  The weather got hot and the computer didn't like it.
We have a few cool days in store now, so I will be in the studio working hard, although the quilting and Art groups recommence this week, so I will have to drag myself away for those.

Happy Creating!