Monday, April 30, 2012

red stuff and Autumn

Another fabric ATC.  This one is made from a piece of hand dyed synthetic knit.  Not usually my type of material to sew with, but I loved the texture.  I added a piece of red felt and a square of red heavy interfacing.  Then I chose a few red bits from my bead stash.  I had a torn piece of nylon knitting ribbon, so I added that, then I found a tiny scrap of red perle thread and tied it in a bow.


Today my journal was about Autumn and this page may even become a journal quilt. 
I used a stencil, (I think it was craftworks) and sprayed green watercolour on.  I let the paint pool and dry in little dots and they reminded me of leaves.  I did some shadows on the trunk in green marker and white highlights on the other side with a white gel pen.  Then I added some yellow orange and gold scribbles to the leafy bits - and it was Autumn. I think I would like this in fabric and I would do the shadows and highlights with free machine embroidery.  Looks like time to get the sketchbook out.

And of course I need to nominate five bloggers for the liebster award.  Five small bloggers who inspire me.

Linda at billabongs2bling
Jenny at jennypennypoppy
Gina at claynfiber
Judy at judycooper
and last but never least
lisa at upstatelisa


Sunday, April 29, 2012

just a butterfly

Just a very little post today
Butterfly made from satin and chiffon, reverse appliqued, then couched with gold thread.  Haven't quite got to the body yet.
This an idea from a new book I have been reading: The Art and Embroidery of Jane Hall: Reflections of Nature         
Her butterflies and insect are amazing and you can see her work here
I did change her method a little bit, using synthetics and glue to stabilise edges as well as no wire, but I think I have a few machine adaptations as well as some other easier ways to make these gorgeous things.


No ATC, although I have made one today.  Hubby and I have been working on organising and slight renovations all weekend and I am very tired, but looking forward to getting into my studio tomorrow.  YES!

I had also forgotten to post my choices for the  liebster award.  I shall do that tomorrow too, sorry


Have a good week all.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

water and more water

blue satin, blue chiffon, frayed, stitching, beads, sequins.

here are a couple of journal quilts and another fabric page
This one is made of scrunched strips of lots of blue (and white) synthetics, which were sewn down, then zapped with a heat tool.  I added the pebbly beads and shells to extend the watery idea.
This one used a piece of  woven dark magenta woven wool fabric as the backing.  I frayed the edges, then used squares of black japanese brocade and faux suede (which you might have seen in some recent ATCs).  The beaded motifs were ones I bought from someone at AQC.  The contrast is not good with all the shiny bits and the wool and suede.  It looks very yummy in reality.
This is a fabric page I recieved from a friend yesterday,  The leaves are handpainted lutradur and the stitching is beautiful.  Thanks!  My theme for this round robin swap is leaves, if you didn't guess.

And here's a quote I know is very true.


Friday, April 27, 2012

a message from a liebster and some journal pages

I've been awarded a Liebster Blog Award!  Thank you Brigitte of a loose bobbin for the presentation.
My friend tells me "liebster" means "dearest" or "favourite" in German and that the award is usually presented to smaller blogs as a form of recognition and support.  "Smaller blog"  is defined as a blog with fewer than 200 followers.  As a recipient you are to:
  • Thank the person that nominated you and link back to them.
  • Present the award to five other blogs
  • Let them know by commenting on their blog
  • Post the award on your blog
So thank you Brigitte for thinking my blog noteworthy and up and coming.

I shall have a look through my google reader tomorrow and decide on my five as it is nearly bedtime here in OZ, and I have just got home an hour or two ago from my quick trip to the big smoke and haven't even unpacked!

So here are a few journal pages from last week for you to look at and I'll have a few new journal quilts tomorrow that I did whilst I was away.

This one is a mosaic made with a paper napkin picture of an afternoon tea setting, with a watercolour layer over and some oil pastel as a resist.  It is about rejection and I thought the cup of tea picture was apt.
This one is a saying I made up about creativity, which I have also used as a quote at the end of my blog.  Not much journalling on this page and I let the writing on the book page beneath show through.  I love the colours in this one.

And I know from experience this one is true.  If you spend your whole life waiting for a masterpiece to come, it won't, you have to work at creating everyday, and then one day you will be ready for it.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

More pink and a couple of mini quilts

Well, here is another ATC using the japanese brocade and painted tyvek scraps.  painted tyvek, japanese brocade, faux suede, seed beads, sequins.

And here are a couple of recent mini quilts.  The first is a fabric page (8") made for a swap.
The theme for the page was 'Vintage', so I used lots of satin and a wintage print on satin which I embellished with lace, ribbon, embroidery, beads and buttons.  I really enjoyed making this one.
This next one is a journal quilt 5"
This one is free motion sketched on a painted face wipe.  The edge is glued and gold leafed.  I intended to add a little eiffel tower charm which is what started me sketching, but decided to keep it clean and simple.


I am actually away from home for a few days, and will be home tomorrow, with lots of new inspiration.

Happy Creating!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Arty and journalling

This art-tea ATC is made on an ATC sized gold cardboard petit fours server (a piece of card they serve little cakes on, which I bought at a cake decorating store at 100 for a few dollars) Letraset rub on letters and a teacup from a paper napkin laminated with PVA.

I have been doing a lot of journalling, here are a few pieces.
 This one used one of my new hand made stamps.  I didn't cover up my journalling.  I don't suppose anyone is interested enough to try reading it.
This one is about teaching textile art
And this piece of journalling
Turned into this
Most of the time this is just an opportunity to play with lots of art materials, lol, but sometimes, I do get ideas from it, like the collages I have been working on.




Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Purple and black and an atc book

Well, almost purple.  There is some purple.  It's purpl-y.
Black felt, painted tyvek, japanese brocade, papillion gold thread, seed beads.  Why is it that these simple arrangements are so pleasing?

I have been storing my ATCs (The ones I haven't lost or given away) in my large art folio, which is a bit difficult to be getting out all the time, but last week, when I was at the opp shop, I spied a recipe book which gave me an idea for storing lots of ATCs
Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture before I pulled it all apart, but as you can see above, the recipes were in little tab pages that would each old an ATC and also have room for a description.
So I pulled it all apart.
Then I put it back together again.
Created a new spine with iron on interfacing
Stacked the pairs into signatures (groups of pairs of pages)
And when I had enough signatures, I sewed it back together again.
This is the new spine, with my markings for spacing the blocks of signatures.
And this is the new book, with my ATCs in it.  I could only fit 120 in this book, which is nearly full, a few spaces left, but I have plenty of pages left to make into two new books for the rest of the year and this is a much easier to access way to store them!


One problem solved, anyhow.






Monday, April 23, 2012

2 x 3 and some collage leaves

This ATC was made with little scraps of japanese brocade and faux suede attached to pink plastic bag ironed to batting, then added to a card.


I have been working on a pair of collages.
These are both fabric paper on a stretched frame with modelling paste leaves.  I want the next layers to be dimensional and then finally fabric and have been experimenting with leaves to add.
The leaf on the left is fabric paper and the one on the right is faux suede, painted with red and orange, and fused (two layers, because it wasn't stiff enough) then cut with a soldering iron.
The faux suede gumleaf above is made the same way. (it is not quite a dark as it seems in the photo) I haven't quite got to the green fabric paper yet, but I will.
After I have made enough leaves, I also intend to make dimensional fabric gumnuts and acorns to embellish as the final touch on each, but I am still mulling ideas around for those in my head.



of course, I will also use the tyvek leaves I made  a while ago as well.

Have fun in your garden.





Sunday, April 22, 2012

another heart and a journal page

I actually made this heart ATC in february.  Purple rainbow spun/lutradur - free machined on felt, free machined to hand painted cotton fabric.

Another journal page.  The background for this page was made without any idea in mind one evening whilst I was watching you tube.
As I said - no idea in mind, perhaps some idea of sky or a sunset.  I just put colour down on the page.


It was perfect for my dictionary word "Savannah" a few days later.
Although I am more of a visual journaller than a writer, I do put together little ditties every now and then.  But I am finding the drawing with a word in mind a great way to get ideas for things to sew, since my textile works are the same.  You never know what's in your head until you sketch it out.




Saturday, April 21, 2012

Fibres, Shells and stamps

I am still trying to catch up on all the email and stuff I need to do after being away for nearly a week with no internet, but I am slowly getting there.
Today was a very productive day, although I have not done all I planned, because I thought of other things during the day - and did them.
This ATC is made from some yummy fibres from a piece of brocade laid on batting and ironed over with some pink garbage bag.  The little piece of frayed fabric is the same brocade and it is attached with a bead, as is the batting - attached to a piece of card with beads.  The writing says "Flowing" - referring to the fibres, but is very hard to see in the photo. 

This journal quilt came about from being untidy.  I had been given these small charm squares ina gorgeous fabric.  They were lying on my table.  I had unstrung a necklace of shells.  They were lying on the table.  I put both together and voila' a new journal quilt.  This one was all done by hand.  I did not piece the squares, but basted them down and stitched all over them with seed stitch and french knots, then added the shells and beads.

Since I talked about stamps yesterdauy, I thought I would finish that off by showing the stamps I made yesterday.
I think I have said, I use perspex scraps and glue fun foam pieces on with rubber cement.  One thing I am enjoying doing, is making positive and negative images like the two above, where the pieces I cut out of one were made into the mirror image on another piece of perspex.
This is how they stamped out on a page roughly painted with gesso (my journal).  They stamp out nicely on smooth paper.  I seem to be making lots of all over stamps lately, as backgrounds, and I like the geometric ones.