Inner excavate along 1

I have not posted for a while, so here's a post from another blog I started for journals, but I decided two blogs is a bit too much, so I am reposting it here.

for week 1 of  inner excavate along, I used my hands as my photographic focus and wrote about them.  Then I made it into a slide show.

I am only a week behind ;-).  My photos and those of others can be found here

How to procrastinate

Well, that is what I have been doing.  Because my project wasn't finished, I haven't posted, and it's still not finished. 
Time to just do it!

It all started with one of my many scrapbaskets, lol

Some batting and interfacing

put some colour down

Some sheer scraps

scatter the sheers

cover it all with tulle

 do some free motion meandering in the sky

Some uppy downy bits in the grassy area

Horizontal zig zags in the mountains

 couch yarn for the tree trunk

Fill in the trunk with more yarn

some heatgunned synthetics for foliage

sew down most of the foliage

Don't forget to stop and add some branches over the foliage to give depth

Add the last bits of foliage over the ends of those branches.... and


you're nearly finished.  Just have to decide how to embellish the foreground -a few flowers and grasses, but how will I do it, free motion, hand embroidery, something else? 


More cogitation neccesary.


Happy sewing

ooh, or maybe beads? or pebbles, ......ribbons.......

One UFO bites the dust

Today's ATC is a by product of the journalling I've been doing lately.  I have been putting ATC sized cards on my table around what I've een working on and seeing what the overspray and splats give me.  This bird came from a suggestion of a tail and some white space.  He could have been a pidgeon, but somehow, I thought he might be a snowy kestrel so I gave him a little hooked beak.

Now to my UFO.  I have been working on a double wedding ring on and off for about four years.  And today I finally finshed piecing the top.  (don't look too closely, it has not been pressed and has spent long periods of time screwed up and shoved down the bottom of the cupboard)

This is about two thirds of it.  The bottom of it is off the bottom of the bed. 

And here's a closer look at the fabrics.  It was the main fabric that I started with, then I chose the crimson and blue (there is some blue in the floral) to make the rings.
I must say, I'm glad it's done and I love it, but four years is a long time to spend on a quilt.  And now I will be spending the winter quilting it  (I am going to hand quilt it. :-o)

Have a great weekend

Butterflies again

Remember the butterflies I made the other week?

 Well, I decided to make a journal wrap with them.  I saw Laura Kemshall making a felt wrap on Design matters, that she glued onto the book, but I wanted a cover I could remove.

Basically, I just made a piece of felt that wrapped around the book plus a bit more.
I used black felt and embroidered some of the butterflies directly onto it, then burned away the excess organza.  I also just embroidered a few outlines and added some dimensional ones (the ones I made the other day) on top.  I wanted it to look like the butterflies were flying in from the back of the book (to the left).

This is the underside of the cover.  The butterfly on the left is on the closure tab, and you can't see all the embroidery, because I sewed on two rectangles for the cover flaps.

You can see a bit better here, where it is in place on a journal.  The closure has a metal washer sewed in and the front cover has a magnet.  I think I will be making more of these!

No ATC and No inspiration today, as my hubby has used all our downloads and so now it is incredibly slow.  If my posts are a bit short for the next week, we can just blame him.  lol. 

Have a great time creating

OK, Here is my piece for the latest Tangled Textiles challenge
I had lots of ideas for my piece, This is the back.

Well, I had an idea, one that I have had in my mind for over a year now, and so basically, I just made a collage on top of my little quilt.

It's very dimensional (seen here from the side)

And there are lots of different green fabrics ( stiffened with medium or PVA), then beads and buttons and yarn and thread, and a bit of paint and...nail polish

I don't have much green stuff left!

It's a green man.  Which I thought was a Celtic legend, but apparently it is found in most cultures' history.  You can read about it here.

And here he is looking at you!
Don't forget to look at the other work over at the Tangled Textiles Blog

See yoiu Wednesday

More butterflies

No ATC today, although I could have made one as you will see later.
I have been working on my first task for christy tomlinson's Living canvas course.
This is a mixed media journalling course with a difference.  It's about exploring ourselves as well.
As usual, I put out way too much paint, so did a few backgrounds

As you can see, I am partial to green and purple.  I also like this texture, it reminds me of wisteria.
I also did a few tags.

Colour is not good, it was pouring all day and quite dark.  There is no black, it is all purple.

This is the bit of shelf liner I used to make the texture.
I also collected a few butterflies to play with.

First one is a modelling paste butterfly a la christie.  Second are some printouts of vintage butterflies from the Graphics fairy and third are a few different sized of die cut butterflies from papers and some from angelina.

And this is what I came up with.  Parts are out of focus because it is too deep for the scanner with the spine.

So here's a slightly better one of the front cover.  I made a stencil from the cut out  moth and used it to make a moulding paste one, which I put under to give the cut out some depth.  Some of the text is handwritten, and some is stamped and some are stickers.  'Changing' is black embossing.
There are lots of layers and I created a lot of texture with scrunched tissue but  it's hard to see.

So here's a bit of a close up.  You can see the cutout, some doodling, the raised embossing, and at the bottom the handwritten 'you' and stamped 'are'.

Here's the back.  I have written a lot of related words and done a lot of doodling.  The butterfly here is just stencilled modelling paste on the book, which I colured and doodled on.

Here's a close up of that.
I used a lot of gold paint and rub on on the book and it looks very old and distressed.
I am really pleased with it, although it is quiite dark, compared to those of many of my classmates.  It is lovely to look at and to touch.  I am looking forward to working in it.

Not much textile work to show today as this has been my main focus for a few days.
Monday, however is another story.
Sunday US time is the reveal for Tangled Textiles, So it will be Monday for me here.
My piece is nearly finished.

Your digi inspiration for today.

butterflies on my mind

Yes, Butterflies and what they represent are on my mind.  Mostly because I am doing Your living canvas, with Christy Tomlinson, which is about exploring change in your life with your art.
And since I was making free motion butterflies for my journal, I thought I might as well make an ATC as well.  I hummed and hahed about painting or adding to it, but you know, when you are working on change, you need to keep it simple, lol.

Here are a few of the butterflies I made.

Last one first, lol. I like this one best so far.

And a couple more.  Basically I put organza very tightly in a little hoop, then drew them freehand with free motion.  I cut them out with the soldering iron so that the edges are sealed.  The pictures do not do them justice, They are absolutely gorgeous, if I do say so myself.
I experimented with other colours of organza, but I haven't cut them out yet.  As you can see, I forgot the antennae on some, but hey they are still cute.
I have finished my swap page and will post it when it is recieved by the person it's sent to and I am just embellishing my tangled textiles 'green' piece prior to reveal day in four days, I think.

And here is my digi inspiration, in keeping with my theme today.