Another week!

Another week and this week I feel I have done a bit more and been more productive, Even with some saddening family news this week.  I am glad I have been keeping busy, because I think it does help when life happens - having things to do.  Stops you reveling in your own sadness.
But anyhow,  Let's look at what I have gotten done this week.

This is my first bit of embroidery on my Sue Spargo sampler with craftsy.  It has taken me a while to get started, but hopefully I will get some done on Tuesdays at Quilt group which begins again this week.

This is a Thread painted moth I finished during the week.  Not sure what I am going to do with it yet, perhaps it will become a fabric page.

I finished unpicking this piece of printing on chiffon, which had some free motion I didn't like

Another of the fabric and paper collages I am making for Fabric books.

Getting along with my crochet!

Some thread lace leaves.

A teeny tiny embellishment - again for fabric pages.

A page in my doodle book I am working on.  The red leaves are a deli paper page that has been cut - over the top of the green and purple page.

This is a page from week two of Lisa Congdon's Sketchbook Explorations on creativebug.

If you have known me for a while, you might recognise this pile of fabric pages ready to embellish.  I have used my collage background challenges from last year.

And here is one of the pages, with a free motion sketch which has been painted.  Quite happy with this page, but still needs a little more work.

Another fabric page in process.

And finally another fabric page, a two page spread ready to free motion stitch.  It might seem that I am a bit obsessed with fabric books at present and I probably am.  I have been interested for a few years and never yet completed one!  So this year is the year.
My pinterest page has lots of inspiration if you want to look, but the main artists who are inspiring me are Frances Pickering, Ro Bruhn, Jill Taylor, and Annette Bolton and of course Cas Holmes. As usual quite a few UK artist in that group!

Happy Creating!

Being Productive

The last few days have been quite productive.I have been working on my crazy quilt, which got a little behind in the winter when I was ill.

I have been working on this block (left) this week

And as you can see, it is nearly finished!

I also coloured some pieces of lace for crazy quilting.  White gets a bit boring after a while.

I finished my 12" block for the ravelry  2015crochet-along.  I have also done a 6" one.
On the journaling front, as well as my daily journal, I did these pages.

I drew all over the pages with inktense blocks and the little book, was drawn on every page.

I sprayed the pages with water, saturating them and ran a brush over them.  At present, they are spending a few pages drying.  I saw this recently on design matters TV with Laura Kemshall.  I have not done it the same as Laura did, but the video reminded me of this method I saw on you tube a few years ago using ink.

This is a little thread sketch I did this afternoon.  It is obvious I am a little out of practice as my wren is a little fat!  A bit more practice will get me back into the routine.

This is a small thread painted/mixed media collage I put together with a few scraps of fabric, some papers and a card die cut.  I like this one and as I was stitching, the name 'Into the darkness" came to me.

I had been thinking about a textile project for this year and had been thinking of doing the thread sketches (like the bird), but In April, I will be doing a class with Ro Bruhn at AQC.  She makes beautiful fabric books.  I also saw Leslie Tucker Jennison on Quilting Arts TV 1503 making similar collages and  Liz Kettle also talked about thread sketching practice in qatv 1505.  So this is a cross between all of the above, with a little bit of Cas Holmes thrown in so  I think this will be my project for this year. A mixed media collage with fabric, paper and stitch, including thread sketches.

Often with these yearly projects I have planned to do it every day...and I always failed, simply because life happens, so this year my intent is to do at least 1 each week,with the intention of doing at least three.
One might think that, since I have failed at these yearly projects in the past, that I might give up, but although I have never been perfect (ie each and every day), I have learnt a great deal from these projects.  I have a vast library of journal quilts, atcs and stitched squares

Whilst I was looking for all the links above, I found The Slow Stitching movement  which has podcasts and a blog  This looks like great reading and listening.  Go have a look!


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.

Getting sidetracked

Saturday is almost over and I almost forgot to post.  Nothing from today as I was teaching, but here are yesterday's efforts.

My sketch of the moth, from yesterday, which was a bogong moth, not an emperor gum as I said yesterday.

My five minute warm ups.

My journal page, which used some gelli prints of leaves on newspaper!
And because my fingers have been itching to stitch lately, I did a little 4 inch collage.

The 4 inch size makes it an easy task to finish in no time and it will probably find another life as an embellishment.

Happy creating!

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.

Stitch, Finally

I have finally got some stitch work to show!  Not that I haven't been sewing, but I have been trying to finish these pieces and decided, well  that it wasn't necessary for them to be complete.

Not sure if I have shown this one before, but tomorrow it will get some final hand work and beads.

This one will also get some hand stitch on the flower centres tomorrow - and some beads (of course).  There is a third, which needs a lot of stitch still, so that one I will show you a bit closer to it's completion.

I have still been continuing with my other art work
Today's warm ups

These warm up pages only take five or ten minutes, but I am finding them really useful.
My art Journal page for today

Which came out really well, I think.
And my daily drawing (which I also spent only 15-30 minutes on

Don't forget to have fun creating!

More work in process

Sometimes,  I get asked why I have a sketchbook, when my work is about textiles, but really, my sketchbooks (of which I have many) are great inspirations for my textile work.
Today's piece of work is directly inspired by some pictures in one of my books.

These two oil pastel sketches inspired me to try some simple landscapes in fabric, which, if you know me, is something I do a lot of.  My idea was to paint the sky and the foreground, then use fabrics to create the horizon in a dimensional manner, ie using scrunched and folded fabric.

So far, all I have done is paint the skies.  I am using canvas for these and using the long format to fit a pair of frames I have.  I am still dithering about whether to paint the foregrounds, or whether to use fabric.  Perhaps I should do both?

Also, here is another of the collage a day foundations I have added to.

As you can see, I have made it to fit a particular frame as well.  What inspired this was the tiny piece of metallic sari border fabric.  In fact, this is all I have, a scrap, but I wanted to use it as it is sooo shiny.
On the right are black linen and satin pieces and the Grey square is a painted baby wipe.  I free motioned the moth onto a piece of filmy gold organza, which is only just visible and if you look carefully, you can see I have not trimmed it right back to the stitching yet.  I am quite pleased with this one and am itching to get on with some hand stitching on it!

Happy Creating!

Another collage

Since I enjoyed making the fabric collage (or more correctly embellishing) yesterday, I decided to do another one.
The foundation I chose was one with pieces of three monoprints, which again, I forgot to  photograph first.

I started by ironing some green chiffon onto fusible, then cutting out gum leaf shapes (My favourite).

I peeled the shapes off and fused them to the collage.

Then free motion stitched around them ( click to see the detail)
The contrast was very low, so....

I cut some out from a sheet of fusible backed baby wipes (If you know me, you will know I have a huge stash of these, which have been coloured from cleaning up after painting and often use them in my collages)

I fused and stitched those down, but I wanted more, so......

I stamped a leaf on top with black acrylic. This is a stamp made from fun foam I made quite a while ago.
I stitched around these stamps as well

Now for the hand stitching.

Here I am adding french knots around the appliques, and seeing this picture, I changed from this little hoop to my big standing frame.  It is easier to make nice french knots when you have two hands free, and of course it is quicker.  I will probably add other french knots in other colours further away from the leaves, but at present, I am just adding contrast.

Happy Creating!