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Here are another four of my stitched squared for AEDM.

I am beginning to get quite a collection of these and they are looking great together.

As usual, I am working hard at my Tangled Textiles piece at the last moment!  This piece, is turning out to have a lot of beading, which is what I have been busy with in the last few days.  The link above is to my last update, but I will be posting my final finish on Tuesday morning Australian time.

Happy Creating!

Keeping on

It was a very warm day today,  Summer is nearly here!
Here are my bits and pieces for today

My daily drawing. A swallow.  I have been watching the swallows on my walks each day.  It is as if they just like flying for the joy of it and they are great to watch.

My warm ups also had a bird theme today

And my journal page, again with the swallows.
I have also been trying to stitch every day and today, I was working on the beading on this piece:

I am trying to keep my routine going, although things are not looking good.  Our family dog is looking quite sad.  He is 16 or 17 and I am concerned about how my hubby will take it if and when he passes as I think it might be close.
My Diabetes has played up again for no apparent reason, and  I have a busy week ahead, since I am going down to the seaside to visit my Mum.
Why do all these things happen when they are totally unreasonable?  That's life I suppose.

Sleepy Saturday

So, the weather was warm and sleepy today, more Springlike, finally.  It was my monthly Quilt and craft meeting.  As I said yesterday, my intent was to do some work on the two fibre pieces I showed yesterday.
We spent a fair bit of time drinking cups of tea, eating and talking, but I did get a little done

I did finish this one, and I am quite happy with it.
I didn't like the stitching I did on the other one, so I am not going to show it to you!
I have finally finished all the beading and embroidery on another one that was inspired by a design matters TV video by Linda Kemshall.
I still have a ton of quilting to do, so as that will take me ages, I thought I would show you it now.

This one I am really happy with, but of course it has vast  space to quilt!  And I am doing it by hand!
I did get in a little bit of sketching today for the daily drawing pool with Laura Kemshall

Now, before you say it is not my usual detail and style,  you are right - It is not.  It is a copy of a Vincent van Gogh sketch and I was practicing with his style, for the Studying under the masters course, which I am really enjoying.

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!

Some sea life

I finished another UFO today.  This one I started quite a while ago, in fact a year ago!

It is a seahorse free motioned onto a blue and white collage.  I have added beads, more free motion, hand stitch and couching.

 Here are some close ups of the stitching

I also finished the edges, beading of course.   Here is the finished piece hanging.

So, that is my art for today.  Hope you like it.

Happy creating!

Felt and a few beads

I did say that I had a new piece finished/almost finished.

This piece was needlefelted a little while ago with black felt, organza and silks.  The black lines are needlefelted from the back and the beads are handmade fabric and paper beads.  I have also beaded the entire border (But it was a few millimetres too short for the scanner)  I love all the frayed edges, but not sure whether it still needs a bit of stitch.  hmmmm.  I'll just have to think on it a bit more.

Happy creating!

bead creative

Today is day 9 of AEDM.
And today I have been surrounded by beads!

This is my beading tray.  At the top right is a cuff I am beading on a loom.  At the bottom right are two more projects, the monoprint I am beading and a piece of gold and brown brocade I am beading for a journal quilt.
It is very hard to see but on the bottom left is a perspex beading tray which my hubby made for me.  He routed some slots on it so I could sort out beads easily.  Comes in handy when you spill them!
I do love beading on my work, but it is very time consuming, so I wouldn't hold my breath for the finishes of these pieces.
I did recently heavily bead a piece for a commission, here.

.This one took an enormous number of hours, but at least my friend was not in a hurry.  I was very pleased with it, but it will be a while before I repeat the effort!

Have fun creating!

a fabric monoprint

Today, I did some work on a fabric monoprint I made a few weeks ago when I went a bit overboard with gelatin printing.

I have layered it with a piece of felt and quilted all around the flowers and am in the process of beading it.
The dotted stems, I am beading with those bugle beads  and You can see I was trying out how I wanted to bead the buds/flowers.

Here's a close up of these two ideas, one where I just space beads around the bud and the second where I covered the whole edge with beads.  the monoprint is two layers and the flowers were overprinted in a dark blue.  these beads are a sort of iridescent dark blue and I thought they would be perfect.
I often take pictures of my work at different stages so I can work out how things are working.  Having it in a small picture helps to  work out how things are showing up.
This picture obviously helped, because I actually changed my mind totally and did something altogether different.

I decided to embroider a lattice and put the beads on it like this.
And here's where I am at with that.

I am liking how this is turning out and hopefully will finish it by the end of the month.

a butterfly

Just a short one, today, and a change from the printing for a bit (even though I am still going - and running out of papers!)

I made a little journal quilt today.  I was inspired by a baby wipe that had cleaned up when I was painting.  The way I had held it when I wiped made purple finger prints and they were arranged like a butterfly's wings, so I outlined the wings and added some beads, shell bits and stitches to it.
The interesting thing about this is that if I hadn't tidied up yesterday, I would never have seen this wipe.  I often find when I am tidying up that I find inspirational bits, especially after a really busy time in the studio, and of course being the hoarder I am, if I didn't keep all these bits and pieces that normal people throw out, well, where would my inspiration come from? lol.
I have missed my journal quilts, perhaps this will spur me to get back to them.

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!

a quick one

Just a short one to establish that I am still here, lol.
Things have been very hectic here, though not on the stitching scene.
I have been running around, teaching and have also started a course with Linda and Laura Kemshall, which I have been wanting for so long.
So, I have done almost no stitching this week, which is a bit strange for me.
Just to give you some eye candy, here are some bit and pieces I had in the Gallery last week.

A few bracelets I made a few months ago.

Needlefelted cuffs.  One with stitching, one with no stitching at all!

Some brooches.  The three found ones are neddlefelted, the two butterflies are organza with free motion.

Two small needlefelted landscapes with free motion and beaded dragonflies.
I obviously had a lot more than this, but these are the new pieces that I have not shown before.
Enjoy

Be creative 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.

Languishing

So I am back.  I have had a bit of a break from my textile work, doing things that I never have time for, which is lucky, because it is very hot here and when it is hot I am not at my best.
I made some little bags for the ladies in my family for christmas

I made six of these in different colours, from recycled fabric and braids, The inspiration was a felt bag in quilting arts episode 1010, by Rebecca Kemp Brent, which used the sole plate of an iron for a pattern!  However, I made lined bags and did not embellish the panels.

I spent a lot of time with my puppy, Ruby, who is growing up fast, but has not stopped chewing everything as you can see from the arm of the chair she is sitting on, lol

I made a few pieces of jewellery.

I made some free motion butterfly wings on organza

and some more

and some dragonfly wings.

I have been working on a quilt as part of a Craftsy Course - Beyond Basic Machine Quilting.
I have altered my piece slightly, I did reverse applique with painted organza for the feather flowers and I used satin as my foundation. It made it slightly more difficult but I like it.  As you can see at the moment, I am slowly filling in the background.
I have also been doing stupendous stitching and stitch and slash with Carol Ann Waugh at craftsy, but nothing to show there yet.

I have been working on my Blue Piece for Tangled Textiles, which is due in a week.  Above are some of my blue bits and pieces - just a peek.  I am not happy with how it is going, and wish I had stuck to my first idea, but of course there is no time to change now.

I have also been reading a lot - something I hardly ever do (stories, that is, I read text books a lot).  I started reading Robert Jordan's "wheel of time" series twenty years ago and the final book was released earlier this year and I got it on my birthday, but I decided that I needed to reread all of the books from the beginning so that it is all fresh in my mind when I start the last one.  There are 14 books altogether and none of them is short, hardly any less than 500 pages and most are more, so that is going to take me a while - lol.

I have been finding it hard to get back to work, but hopefully getting back to blogging will help put a bit of discipline into my days!

Be creative every day