Manipulating & stamping

Something fun today - I started playing with a fabric manipulation technique which was discussed on Fibre Art Traders - with this technique you put together squares of different sizes into a grid, which creates textures in the larger squares. Once I had the basic grid, I bordered it and then started adding to it - first thing I did was quilt it heavily (surprise, surprise) with some feathery fronds in a sage green, then gold and finally a blue metallic thread. Touch wood, neither of my metallic threads broke once during this process. I then added lots of buttons (see below for first stage), then other various sorts of embellishments. Technically, I suppose, I added the buttons before I added the blue metallic, but who's getting picky...




I think this piece will be for a swap I am doing on Creative Swaps - a 12"x12" (which is the size of this piece) Technique quilt swap - though you never know, I might change my mind. It does suit some of the suggestions of the swap - the size, of course, which is a requirement rather than a suggestion - to try a new technique, use mixed media and either recycle, use "found" objects or work from stash (which I did). Everything used is from my stash - few are true "found objects", but I didn't buy anything new. The pink and silver butterfly is a true found object - it came from some or other item of children's clothing that one of the girls was discarding - I of course grabbed it up. The square metal tag with the leaf on it came from a tag on a piece of clothing - they make really elaborate tags these days - this item, whatever it was, had several paper tags with this sort of charm attached at the top.


The other thing I did today was to work on the first lesson from an online (private) class I am doing on fabric stamping & painting. The lesson covered some stamping methods and transfer embossing, which is something I'd never done before. The class project was a pillow cover, but I didn't want to do that, so I just used some fabric and made a nice background. The piece on the left is a couple of trials where I wasn't partiuclarly happy with the results , but which I'm sure will be good for something. The piece on the right I like better, though I'm not crazy about it. Still, I can see it will make a nice background for ATCs, etc.

Goodies galore

Lots of lovely goodies in the post today - and it's not even my birthday! These stars are from the star swap on Lenna's Creative Swaps website - they are all wonderful in their own, unique way and will make great additions to the tree this year.

All the other pieces are from a complex cloth swap on my surface embellishment group - I particularly like the dark red one, but frankly, they are all superb. Now to think of something to do with them (other than just admire them, that is)...

Dyeing day

So, today, I devoted more or less the whole day to catching up on dyeing and related stuff - actually, only related stuff, as no actual dye was involved - it was all paint and stuff like that. The first order of business was 8 fat eights of complex cloth for a swap - I decided to see if there was something in my stash that was suitable to use as a starting point - and found this lovely shibori piece. It's big enough to cut into 8 pieces for the swap, but I decided to work on it as a whole peice rather than individually. The first step I added to it was to screenprint some designs onto it in various colours. I then hung it up to dry and worked on the pieces for the screen printing swap (below) but for the sake of brevity, I'll go through the entire complex cloth at once. After the screen printing, I added some stamps in various MetaMica colours (my mom helped with this) and then added some texture using Markal paint sticks and a stencil. Finally, I sprayed a bit with whatchamacallit - Mountain Mist? Something like that - too lazy to go upstairs and check it! Now I just have to wait until the paint sticks dry and then heat set it - could be a few days - those things take FOREVER to dry!

I caught up with a couple of complex cloth round robins (I've only had them a short time, but they were delayed before they got to me) - I added stencilled paint sticks to both pieces - the one on the right is actually more subtle than it appears.

And below are the pieces I screen printed -I used a variety of stencils added onto the screen with tape and printer labels - there are actually four pieces with stars on them, but they are much the same, so I haven't showed them all - lots of pictures in this post already with those to bulk it up!

And finally, here's some post - yesterday, I received this little mini quilt (which is flatter than in the photo - it was folded in its envelope) from the September 6-12" swap with my flickr swap group; today I received this Batik Beauties postcard from Di. Wow. Tomorrow, there won't be much to show, though, as my mother and I are going up to town - we might do a guided walk - haven't decided for sure yet. Should be fun, regardless, despite not getting any work done.

Photo heavy

Lots of stuff to show today - first thing is something I actually worked on - a little quilt for a mini swap on a flickr group - this is a batik Jacob's Ladder block which I happened to have already, which I have sandwiched up and quilted heavily. I hope it's suitable - the theme was open, so I haven't made a themed quilt in this instance. I think this block is very pretty, so I hope my partner likes it as well. Need to bind it, too, but maybe tomorrow. Or Sunday.

I did also work on the quilt for my blogversary giveaway - but I didn't do much on it, so I didn't bother to photograph it. Especially as I have so many other photos to show.



I got a nice package in the post including a lot of pieces from some old swaps which finally got wrapped up - these lovely dyed pieces are from a swap themed Stormy Seas.

And these below are CCRR (complex cloth Round Robin) pieces which it's my turn to work on - will do that after the kids go back to school (which is Monday, hoorah!) as it's easier to do dyeing and painting stuff when they aren't around.



The CCRR piece below is mine, which came home to me - not sure what I'll do with it now, but it'll be a nice base for something. And the ATC is from Wil - we swapped.



I also got two other ATCs from my recent swapping exercise - from Genie (left) and Doreen (right) - a nice day for post, wasn't it?

Bank holiday sewing day

Well, for once the weather forecast was wrong about the bank holiday weather and it was actually warm and sunny rather than the warm and rainy which had been predicted. However, I still stayed in for most of the morning and sewed - why let an opportunity go to waste? And then, I spent several hours in the afternoon in the sun doing some hand-sewing, which was lovely as well.


I started out with my current round of the Spring Fling Round Robin, which I knew wanted some vines or flowers appliqued to it. Even though that's not my favourite method, I was being a good girl and listening to what the quilt wanted, so here it is, with lots of pins still in, but with some vines and leaves attached all about, in a pink background. (Placement of the leaves is approximate and subject to change as I go on.) The person who worked on it second passed on the brown stripe from the narrow inner border to me, and although I included a small bit of it, I thought it really wanted to be the binding, so I have left most of it for the next person to use as binding. Consequetly, I have raided my scrap basket for a variety of scraps in the right sorts of colours, and I think it works. As I type this, all the green vine is actually sewed down (all that stitching in the sun), as are all the green leaves - the other colours I shall make a start on this evening in front of whatever telly is being watched.


Also this morning, I made 5 ATCs with a garden theme - two are to swap with Susan, who offered to swap on a garden theme, the others are for the general ATC swap I am offering (see previous post).



And finally, I wrapped up the day with some work on my two complex cloth pieces - I decided to use paintsticks on both of them - the first one, I didn't want anything too dominating, so I have used a pearl white paintstick all over with a flower texture plate underneath - the flowers are heavier in some places than others and I have let the edges of the plate show in places as well. I think it works ok - another day or so drying and it will be ready to heat set and send on.


And the other piece, which was a sort of parfait to start out with, only a bit washed out, I thought I'd carry on the parfait style by emphasising the colours that were already there - what I've done here is use the paintsticks with my fingers - rubbing the paint onto a finger, then rubbing onto the fabric in an area of similar colour, again with a texture plate underneath. I've left some parts virtually untouched and filled other parts in more heavily than on the original cloth, but I'm really pleased with this effect (in fact, I think I may do some other pieces like this, just for fun - someday). Again, it needs to dry thoroughly and be ironed, but it will be ready to move on before too long.

May reveal

Today we have a few more ATCs - again, 6 of this will go for the swap I am in and the other two will be up for trade later in May. These are sort of similar to the others in manner of construction, etc - I think I must be developing a kind of personal style for mixed media pieces - but I have changed the orientation, colours and the main images, which actually come from two different Altered by Design sheets - I needed a certain size, and some of them were either too large or too small. I have used German paper scrap wings with them - I will have to buy more wings, as I don't have many more decent sized ones - the only ones I have left are small. I do love them, they are so versatile. I have also used images of old tickets from a collage sheet from Artchix, a piece of pink lace, a flower transfer (the rub-on) kind, and butterfly and pink floral sequins. The background is a piece of ruched fabric from a dyeing swap, which actually, doesn't show very much, but adds texture where it does. And the backing is a piece of dark terracotta coloured heavy paper. Now all I need to do is print some little labels for the back of the two sets of ATCs and they will be ready to go in the post. They aren't due with Lenna until the 23rd, but I like to allow extra time, just in case.


On the right is some fabric I was sent as hostess gifts for the birthday block swap I've been running on about.com (it's almost done - a new year will be starting soon - signups opening some time in May - first block probably due in June). The butterfly batik is from Lisa Jo and the three coordinating prints are from Becca along with blocks from the ladies, which are below - Lisa Jo's on the left and Becca's on the right. So far, I think Becca is the only person to send me non 12" blocks, even though I said any size or shape (it's possible I have at least one 9" block, I can't remember for sure without checking). Aren't they all really striking? Soon I will have to get out all the ones I have so far and take a photo of them together. Maybe next time I have nothing much to show...



But that's not today - today I have lots to show, as it's now officially May and I can show both my May bag for the BQL Bag Challenge and my block lotto blocks for May. The bag is insulated, so will serve as a picnic bag, and I decided that I would definitely keep this for myself, so I have used "good" fabric - ok, stop laughing, you ALL know what I mean - fabric which you really like and keep saving to use for something special. These are Lonni Rossi fabrics - even the lining - and personally, I think the bag looks fabulous, if I do say so myself. The blue squares are 3D and sit on top of the other blocks, sort of - hard to describe, but funky. And yes, there's a zip in the top. Plus, it's crinkly, which my kids love (it has a layer of mylar in it for insulation).


The block lotto blocks also look great this month - great choice of pattern by Sophie - purple and green Buckeye Beauty pairs. Often, I make blocks for the lotto but donate my chances of winning back into the pot but not this month - I really like these and am coveting them!





Finally, something else I got in the post today - the fabric for two rounds of the latest complex cloth round robin I am in. The fabric on the left is Kelly's starting fabric and the one on the right is Vicky's fabric after Kelly has worked on it (she added the printed ovals - you can't really see them except in the closeup). I don't technically have to work on Vicky's piece until June, but I will probably try to do them both next week so I can send them on to Wil to work on. Who knows, I might even manage to get to them tomorrow. Probably not.






[Just had to say, I think it takes nearly as long to go back and link all the appropriate links in my blog entry as it does to type the entry in the first place!]