Recent swaps

I'v had some fabulous post lately, and this little beauty (5" x 5") was my swap from Alis that she made for me in the Kandinski style, the theme for the April Unlimited Textiles swap. The scan really doesn't do it justice, as it is very tactile. Alis has felted all sorts of shapes and colours, in the Kandinski manner, then cut them up, stitched them back in block fashion and added metallic stitching to finish. Thankyou Alis - I love it.




This Book Cover was made for me by Jan for the May Unlimited Textiles gift swap under the theme 'Surprise Me'. Well, what a surprise this is. It is so pretty, the colours are so mellow, and the hand stitching and embellishments are just perfect. Jan also sent me the sketchbook to fit inside - a really wonderful gift that I will treasure, and only draw my best stuff inside it!! Do visit Jan's Blog - she describes what she did and how, much better than I can.

Jan also sent me this package of goodies hoping I may be able to make use of them! Well, I thought, I don't know, but I'll try ........! Gorgeous yes, silk and organza and co-ordinating beads, and check out that little angel in the top right of the pic.

She also included this lovely Postcard - soft green organzas and metallic free stitching, with hand seeding.

Well, I don't know about 'Surprise Me' Jan - I was blown away - and thankyou again.

Free machine stitching lace

Last Saturay was South West Quilters AGM and the afternoon Speaker was a delightful lady Claire Muir who, putting it very mildly, makes hats. She had a fantastic collection with her, all made using free machine stitched lace, combining various silks and feathers etc. each one a gem. She also makes Fascinators, and did say she did an article for Stitch Magazine last year sometime, with the complete instructions how to make them. Maybe someone out there has Stitch, and can find the Article. If so - do let me know which Magazine it is in, please?
Anyway, I attended Clair's Workshop the following day to learn the technique.

This is the beginning. Five petals worked free stitching into water soluble film, then wires placed down the middle of each leaf and stitched down, then decoration if required. I did three extra different leaves to use up the space (!) and the 'T' bar is for the construction of the flower.

All the petals are now rinsed out and dried. Clair showed us how to wire and bead the stamens, and make the feathery bits - amazing!

These are the rogue leaves I made - each one different - the middle one has some silk stitched into it.

Voila! All the components put together. You can see the 'T' piece was to cover all the wires, and finish it off nicely.

All I need now is an Alice Band to attach it to and I'm ready for Ascot next year! Seriously though, it would make a lovely brooch, as it is only about 2" or so across.

My first wire doll

As I mentioned in a previous post, I bought Ray Slater's Book on doll making, and drew up a pattern for a wire doll about 11" tall. The ones in the book appear to be about 23" tall, which were a bit big for me.

Here we have it all wrapped in polyester wadding ready for the next stage...

and this is a scan of it wrapped in strips of silk, strips of netting, and bits of chenille wool.

Now she is beaded on her body, and bits of trims added, and those boots certainly give her attitude!

So much so, I caught her doing a jig this morning! The boots enable her to stand all on her own. They were black, but painted up gold quite well.

I bought another pair of boots this week, longer, with laces up the front ............

April swaps

Unlimied Textiles theme for this month's 5" quiltie swap was Kandinsky the Artist. I looked him up on the internet and came up with this inspiration... I decided on hand dyed fabrics, little paint and some organza....

This is what I did - no intention of stealing copyright of course - and it is now with Ati in Norway.

Calendar Girls inspiration this month comes from Susan, and funny enough my card is for Susan.

Again I used hand dyed fabric for the background, and attached a small piece of 'bark' I had made, which uses crinkled paper, brown paper, chiffon and rust dyed fabric. I then free stitched, and added some dyed kozo and silk leaves.

Click on the logo at the side of my blog to see the other postcards the Calendar Girls have made so far this month. There are also links there to all their blogs.

Body Art!

Ever since I watched in awe as Carol gave her 'body' a makeover about 18 months ago, I have been hankering after one of my own.
My friend Pat found one for me a couple of months ago, and recently I decided I would add some colour to it. As ever, I forgot to take 'before' pictures, and even once I had started, but this is my body with the first coat of paint and ink. Lovely lumpy bits and texture .....

This is the back view, even more texture ........

Now we have more colour added and there I decided to stop (colouring it that is).

Here she is all dolled up with added gold paint to highlight some of the bumpy bits. Have you guessed yet - she is only 5" from top to bottom of the stand, and the 'body' is all of 3" - dollhouse size in fact. She is completely made of wood, and originally was all the same colour as the knob on top and the foot stand. I covered the body part in crinkled tissue paper using pva glue, and added a tiny piece of 'sun' shaped lace on her chest, then when dry painted her with gesso. The rest you see. The skirt is made from various ribbons and knotted hand dyed threads. As well as inspiration from Carol, she is also inspired, of course, by Beryl Taylor.

Paint, paper and net curtaining ...

A couple of months back, my friend Vinnie showed me some experiments she was doing with painted paper and lace net curtaining. Vinnie very generously gave me some of her paper and curtaining, and I went home to have a play. The paper has been scrunched up, smoothed out and then painted with various transfer paints.
The first one is using some 'smooth' painted paper cut into flower shapes, which I then transferred onto cream satin fabric. I layered up some irridescent organza and dyed scrim over the satin, backed it with wadding, and free stitched around the flower shapes. I even added some hand stitching for contrast!

The second one is a rectangle piece of crinkled paper transferred onto a piece of lacy net curtain (the frame is the net curtain without any paint, just overlaid with scrim) I then laid the scrim over and free zigzagged it down all over the surface, trapping bits of organza along the bottom. I added some torn strips each side of the paper I had used to suggest a frame.

The last one is torn strips of paper transferred onto a piece of polyester cream fabric with a wonky circular pattern printed on it. I added the darker colour at the bottom on top of the yellow I had done, first cutting snippets to keep little bits of the yellow. I free machined stitched, then added torn painted paper to create a frame. All the pieces are A5 size (approx. 6" x 8")

Recent Swaps

The Calendar Girls 2009 swap for this month. The inspiration was provided by Carol Taylor for this month (see below)

This is my interpretation of Carol's picture, that I made for Doreen in Australia. The background is green velvet, and there are various pieces of net, chiffon, cotton and slivers of velvet, which I manipulated with difficulty into various shapes, using free stitching. Doreen was delighted.

This is Jenny's interpretation of the same picture, using her embellisher. She has felted chiffon, silk and wool into felt to create a beautiful postcard for me. Thanks again Jenny - I love it.

You can see all the other cards the ladies have made and swapped this month, using the same inspiration, by clicking on the Calendar Girls 2009 Logo on the right of my Blog. There are also links there to all their Blogs.