Back again

I have not blogged for nearly a year, and  I have found that I was not as productive, partly because I was not blogging, but also because the Tangled Textiles Group finished.  I tried lots of challenges and workshops, but found that it was impossible for me to stick to anything, especially if it was an every day commitment because there are periods where I am not at home. for the next few weeks, I will try and go through some of the things I am doing.

My last posts here were about journal quilts and I have attempted to keep doing these with the help of Kate Bridger, who is hosting a Made on Monday five inch square challenge on her site.  I have been absent for a month or so, but am hoping to join in again.  Participants also post their work on the textile arts facebook  page.

Here are my first seventeen contributions

They are all on my favourite theme of leaves and use a variety of techniques including free motion embroidery, hand embroidery and thread painting and a wide variety of fabrics including hand printed fabric.

Hope you enjoy these and I will be back with more as I do them

Journal Quilts 2015 no 3

The finished journal is above.  As you see, I do not bother about binding my squares.  For me, there are a bout experimenting and playing, and not about whether or not I can make a binding.  They have, in the past and will in the future form an important reference for me.

So, here's what I did

I started with a piece of batting and some furnishing fabric

Some green chiffon

A piece of felt, and a piece of painted baby wipe.  Now, in the beginning, these were circles which I had cut with my die cutter ages ago, but I decided I liked leaves better.  I spent a bit of time thinking about the backing fabric and whether i should now change it.

I took a piece of scrap fabric and used a black marker to turn the circles into leaves.   Hmm, that gave me an idea.

 I used some free motion embroidery scribble to do the same on my journal.

As you can see, as usual, I got quite involved and forgot to take photos!  but above all the free motion is finished and the extra bits are added.

And here it is done, with a lot of hand running stitch added.
I have another one waiting in the wings as well!


Happy creating!

Journal Quilts 2015 no 2

This isn't really no 2 but no 3, because no 2 is still in process, Ah, well.
I had seen an article about needle felting stitching into a background and decided to have
a go.

I started with a piece of batting with some fibres felted into it.

I started doing some stitching into it with wool.

And here it is after a long time needlefelting by machine and three broken needles!

The difference is only very slight.  Perhaps I should have left the french knots until after, so as not to break my needles, and then the petals might have felted in a bit better.
So this Journal quilt was a bit of a failure, but of course I learned a few things and that is what it is all about!



Happy Creating!

A long time between stops

It has, indeed, been a very long time between posts.  For many reasons. I have been busy on Instagram and facebook with a few challenge groups, but also, we have been renovating and for months, my studio has been packed away!  But my textile work has been languishing, although i have been doing a lot of hand work.

So, to infuse a bit of interest for me i have begun making journal quilts again.  Hopefully playing in this way will get me back on track!

I now keep my journal quilts in a book, so they are easy to look up and refer to

The quilts are 5" (five inches) square

 They are just about playing with materials and tecchniques.

And here is my first new one!

This one  made from a base of gold organza needlefelted onto some batting, then I have added some scraps of sheers, organza, chiffon and netting and stitched around them free motion.  I also added a piece of dyed batting which i attached with free motion pebbles.  I felt that the focus needed to be floral, so i added a free motion sketch of some basic flowers.  I finally finished off with some beads and running stitch.

Considering how long it is since i sat at my machine, I am pleased with this one.  Let's hope that it is the first of many, hopefully weeky journal quilts!

On the design wall.

i did no blog yesterday, mainly because I was lazy, but also because I did not have much to show you.  By the time Wednesday comes along, I have been away from home two days in a row.  On Tuesday, our quilting group goes until 2pm and I find it hard to settle in when I get home.  Wednesday I teach until about 5 or 5.30 pm, so when I get home it is time to cook anyway.
I must be honest with you.  I am a routine girl and when I am away from my studio routine I get a little stressed.  Today,  in addition we went into town for an appointment and to do the weekly shopping, so that was another disruption.
One thing I have done in the last few days is to change my design wall.
In 2011, my daily project was to make ATCs (Artists Trading Cards) and last year my project was weekly journal quilts.  this year it is a fabric collage a day.
Most of this work has been sitting in little books and I decided that it would provide more inspiration if i could see them, so  I have been pinning them up on my wall.

These are my ATCs, or what is left after swapping and giving them away.

These are the journal quilts.
Because usually I was trying out an idea or a technique with each of these,  it is now like a little illustrated list for me of things I can do.
I know you can't really see these little things, but if you look in the sidebar there are pages for the journal quilts and ATCs, which, if you click on them will take you to slideshows.

Anyway,  I suppose it is time to try and get some work done.
Oh and I am working on catching up with comments, sorry!

Happy Creating!

To recycle or not to....

Day 13 of AEDM!
Today I was also out, teaching my Adult art class, but when I got home, I felt the need to make something and the first thing that came to hand was a milk bottle cap!

I decided to put together a quick journal quilt.
The milk bottle cap forms the base for the central button, covered in a little bit of silk.  The silver motif in the centre is simply eight chain links stitched on in a circle with a bead on top and some seed beads around the outside edge.  The purple 'stuff' is some wispy fibre ribbon (two squares overlapped and offset).  The silver swirls are some left over hanger clips for christmas cards, stitched down and the background fabric is one of my clean up cloths from painting.
I liked this one, but I think I might add a bit more stitching, perhaps some hand seed stitches
...and maybe a few beads....
Happy creating

gilt quilt

Just a short one today.  I have been out down in the big city all day and I'm exhausted, but I did buy a ton of art stuff  ( not all for me, mostly for the art group)!

This journal quilt is a piece of one of my monoprints.  I have added some tulle and under it are metal leaf flakes.  The free motion stippling holds it all down  and I stitched round the print.

shelly beach

Today I'm sharing a journal quilt I just completed yesterday for day 10 of AEDM.

The background is rusted fabric and the green stripe is painted teabag paper stitched down with gold coloured wire.  The shells are held down with a piece of red netting from some fruit.  As you can see, I do like to recycle, lol.  I am happy with this one, although it did not end up being what I first planned.  Sometimes you just have to use up the junk that's sitting right in front of you.
Happy creating!

A quick one

Just a quick one for day 6 of AEDM.  I have been out teaching art today, not doing my own, so I only had time to frame up one of my journal quilts for the gallery.

My journal quilts are 5" square and are where I try out different techniques.  This one is from a few months ago, but I did mount it today!  It is some painted nappyliner leaves and a bit of free motion on black satin.
Of course I always journal every day now, having finally got the habit, but that is not so exciting to look at.
Happy creating every day

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.

Journal quilt

I have made another journal quilt.  I find these little pieces an easy way to do a little experimenting.  I am slowly putting all of the information from all of them in an interactive database and this shows me which techniques I have not done yet.  Although I have many of these pieces (and I have even been asked if they are for sale!), there are still lots of techniques I have not put into them and of course, I am always expanding and adding ideas to try as well.
Here is my latest one.

I picked the techniques I wanted to use before I started, but of course I always change my mind. I had intended to use batting as the foundation and cotton for the first layer, but I found this piece of very dark brown, almost black satin and used that instead.

I got a couple of pieces of interfacing (don't ask what type as I get these from the recyclers and there are no labels.  They are synthetic, I know that much)  one was more like a lutradur and one was smoother.  I sprayed them with fabric paint and let them dry.

Then I cut a few leaf shapes out with my heat tool.  They cut very cleanly this way.  I could of course have used scissors since the fabrics wouldn't fray, but hey I wanted to be different.

I arranged my leaves on the background.  I decided to put the purple one in the centre at the top instead.  I made it up as I went along, because this was not the design I had originally intended.  What I had originally intended was to cut out a wavy shape with little curly bits.

I started by attaching the two warm coloured leaves with free motion.  I did the top one first and went all the way around the outside, but when I had put the veins in the small one, I decided I liked it being dimensional with the edges unattached.

Then I added the two green leaves over the first one.  I decided I liked the one that went over the edge of the piece.  I did think about chopping it off, but decided it was nice the way it was.

I had a little think about the composition and read through my initial notes.  I had wanted to use shape and motion as my design elements.  I had the shape, but not the motion, so I went back and did a little more thread sketching.

Now, It had motion!  It also was close to my favourite split complementary colour scheme, which I had not really planned, but it just goes to show doesn't it?

And this is how it looks in my database, with links back to the information for each part.

Of course, I still need to do the edges.  i have some black organza ribbon to bind it.  That's a TV watching job!

Create every day.

water soluble stuff

As usual, I have been busy, but not blogging.  Mostly, I have been running classes at the community house and trying to look after my DH who is in a lot of pain and finding it hard to be idle.
I did, however find some time to make a few little motifs using soluble interfacing and free motion.

The butterfly is a bit tatty because I only went over it once, and I wasn't wearing my eye glasses!,  I used a metallic thread in the top and bottom, so that they would look the same on both sides, but overall I am happy with the effect.  The gold thread is from a large cone which I picked up at the recycle depot, but it sews really well and I love it.  A little bit of bling goes a long way!
I have also been working on my journal quilts.  I have been making journal quilts from random drawings and sketches.  Obviously, the drawing is quick - it takes a little longer to interpret them in thread, but it also gives me something to work on when the muse is not cooperating.

Some I like, some I don't, but it's just some playing, really.
I had my old flag book (or here) with some of my old journal quilts at the gallery on the weekend, and decided to make a new book to hold all of them.

It is quite a bit larger than my old book and I have made the accordions quite wide, so I have room to write what each quilt is about.