Free motion filling in

you might remember this quilt that I started recently

I have been working on the free motion on the black organza

I am doing a spiral sort of design on this one.

As you can see, my free motion is not perfect, and I still have not trimmed the edges of the leaves.  that will be the next step before I quilt the background.  I am still umming and ahing about what to do there.  I am thinking about gold thread but whether or not to do some shadowy  leaf shapes or more abstract designs eludes me at present.  We will see.....

Happy Creating!

What's growing?

A new art quilt is growing.
It is at the  stage where i have a lot of free motion to do, so I thought I'd show you what I have done so far.
This quilt is based on a page in my leaf sketchbook.

These are three gelatin monoprints that I have collaged together.  One is a negative and two are positive.  I used a bit of artistic licence and moved them around a bit.

My background was the textured satin I sprayed the other day.

I layered it up with felt and added some black satin in the centre and black organza on the sides to create three sections.   I traced around the paper stencil I made for it and stitched around it three times.

Then I rough cut out around the organza stitching and inside the satin stitching.

the next step was to run along the stitching lines with some fabric glue.

With a small piece, I have found that this is not really necessary, but with a large piece like this (40inx30in), I have found hat sometimes the slippery satin and organza can come out of the stitching when I trim right back.  I have been thinking about testing out fusible thread to see if it works any better.  It would certainly be quicker!
And here is the whole piece ready for a lot of free motion work!

Happy creating!

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.

Stitched house and a butterfly

"Once upon a time there was a Little House way out in the country.
She was a pretty Little House and she was strong and well built."
So begins Virginia Lee Burton's classic The Little House, winner of the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 1943.

 This ATC was stitched with wool on water soluble stabiliser and then needlefelted, this was from an article by Jan beaney and Jean Littlejohn, the stitching queens in " fabric from cloth" Quilting arts 48 and also here.
I used my prompt cards for this one and they were
Use heavy stitching
Add a charm
I had recently read the article in QA and decided this was a great way to use heavy stitching.  I selected a little charm of a house, which inspired the design ( but forgot to add it in the photo.

Here it is with the charm added with a brad.

Remember this digital projection of a piece I started using prompts?
Well I have done a little bit of work on it after a lot of thinking.  My work often takes a lot of that before I find what I want to do with it.

Here is where I am at the moment.  I was inspired by Melanie Testa  "Inspired to quilt" and using sheers, to add a sheer layer and as I was about to stitch it, I thought of using some black sheer and reverse applique to outline the butterfly.   I like the effect, however I couldn't solder the edges of the black because I already had a sheer beneath it, so I have a few problems with the black sheer fraying as a result.  I have stabilised it, but it looks terrible close up, so I am bow going to do double sided blanket stitch around it to make it look better, I will do some free motion embroidery over the sheer, then I will create sheer flower silhouettes with the soldering iron and sew them down.

Let life inspire you.