My October Swaps

This is the inspiration for Calendar Girls this month - artwork by Alphonse Mucha. Gorgeous lady, but just look at the beastie ........

This is the card Doreen made for me. She used a hand dyed fabric for the background, then added a circle of rusted fabric. The leaves are made on her embellisher using felt and scrim. She then added a paper flower with a button middle. Thanks again Doreen - I think you captured the essence of the inspiration beautifully.

This is my interpretation, which I made for Jenny. I had this gorgeous (fabric) lady, and fussy cut some other suitable fabric to complete the ensemble, then free machine stitched them onto a piece of felt.

You can see what the other Calendar Girls got up to by clicking on the Logo on the right.

UNLIMITED TEXTILES

Our theme for the 5" Quiltie this month was AFRICA

I had great fun sorting out my 'Africa' fabrics for this one, which I made for June (who unfortunately doesn't have a Blog!)

This Quiltie was made for me by Jill, who says 'I painted a face of sorts meaning it to be either human or animal, using wax resist and layers of paint'. Look at all that hand stitching .... I just love it! Thanks again Jill.

My swaps for September ...

This is Pat's choice for inspiration for September Calendar Girls swap of postcards - it is by the artist Hundertwasser.

Susan made this postcard for me, and apparently she used a pleating machine to create the background. Do visit her blog here where she tells how she made it. I must admit I haven't seen it yet as it won't be in the post until tomorrow, but I wanted to blog it so I 'pinched' her picture - I do hope she doesn't mind. Can't wait to get touchy feely with it! I love the Shisha mirrors representing the trees.

I am a proud new owner of a Pfaff Embellisher, and I used it to work my interpretation of Hundertwasser for Neki
It is hard to believe, but there are two layers of felt meshed together - one pea green and the other lime green - to form the background. The 'lines' are silk strips and the blue colour in the middle is also silk, both of which are worked from the back. The back is covered with a black chiffon and the trees are also worked from the back. I have worked some free machine stitching on the trees and I added a thick blue and pink thread in the bobbin. Neki was delighted so that was fine.

If you would like to see the other interpretations of Hundertwasser for this month, just click on the Calendar Girls Logo at the side of my Blog.

The September Swap for Unlimited Textiles was a 5" square Quiltie using a favourite photograph belonging to your partner as inspiration.

I was partnered with Linda and this was her photograph.

Again, using my embellisher I meshed a piece of hand dyed silk to a piece of white felt, then added some hand dyed muslin to create the sandy look! I then embellished the scaffolding poles from the back(a lot), pushing the white felt to the front, added a bit of green and brown each side for the moss and rust, and a touch of black marker pen for the shadows, and it was done. Linda was delighted.

This was my photograph as inspiration for my partner, and is a sunrise taken in my garden last November.

I was partnered with Pam Jones of Port Talbot, who doesn't seem to have a blog unfortunately. Pam made me this beautiful interpretation of my photo, which I think again she has worked on the embellisher, using hand dyed silk, although she hasn't said! I can see she has then added free machine stitching to represent the trees. The colours of the sunrise are just gorgeous - thankyou again Pam.

Now to get busy on the swaps for October ......

Another wrapped wire doll

I adapted one of the patterns from Ray Slater's Cloth Dolls Book ......

to make a doll about 11" high - Ray's pattern is for a doll around 23" high.

I wrapped the wire with wadding, but this time I gave her a much more rounded body, so that hopefully there was enough to 'hang' a dress on. I then wrapped it all with strips of white silk.
Then came the dress - this I made by layering very thin ulled out pieces of wool and various threads between two layers of cold water soluble stuff, and stitching like made all over to form a new piece of 'fabric'. When I'd washed away the soluble stuff and dried the piece, I then added the lace 'bodice'. I found some feathers in the garden and just laid them around the bottom, for the scan. I haven't made up my mind whether to stitch them around the bottom of the dress, or not. I rather like the ragged edge.........

She isn't finished yet, as I want to make some exotic head dress, and some form of covering for her arms, but other more urgent things are calling, so I just tied some goat's hair around her head, to take the pic. It looks better than leaving her bald!

Dig those boots though ..............!

Kindred Spirits at the Festival of Quilts

As some of you may remember, Kindred Spirits launched our first Exhibition - Myths & Legends - here in Devon last May at RHS Rosemoor in Great Torrington. Much to our delight we were invited to the Festival of Quilts, at the NEC in Birmingham, which really was 'the icing on the cake'! Well the four of us have just about come back down to earth, after a wonderful four days, meeting old friends and of course new blogging friends. The pictures below are of our Gallery F25, and for those of you who dropped by, many thanks, it was brilliant to see you!

Front Entrance .... you can just see our Banner on the far right.

Back Entrance - our pieces for our 2010 Calendar are on the outside. The small section of a black and white quilt you can see on the right belongs to Pauline Burbidge! Yes - our Gallery was next to Pauline .........

Some of Vinnie's and Sarah's pieces......

Some of Carol's (left) and my pieces (right). Quite a few of our visitors found the chairs extremely welcome.....! Sarah is in the background and Vinnie in the foreground.
Now for the bestest ever news.... Vinnie entered a Quilt (inspired by Ricki Tims)
into the Contemporary Quilts section and guess what .............

she won a Bronze. As you can see, it is a beautiful quilt and extremely well executed, and the prize is really well deserved. She hasn't stopped bouncing since Thursday morning, and we are all extremely proud of her!!

Kindred Spirits are now five - Vinnie Cable, Sarah O'Hora, Carol Rowland and me, and Dot Carter has now joined us. Vinnie and Sarah do not blog, but you will find a link to Carol and to Dot if you check on the list of links on the right hand side.

The five of us are now busy working on our next Exhibition with a theme 'Skimming the Surface' - so I will keep you posted!

July Swaps

These two lovely books are actually a June swap that Alis of Unlimited Textiles made for me. Alis has not been well, and was a bit late with her swap, and wanted to make up for it! Well, as you can see, she certainly did that handsomely! The larger Notebook at the back I will use for special Quotations I want to keep, and the little book at the front is a mini star book - it opens out into a star shape when you 'turn it inside out' when putting both covers together. You can then hang it from the loops at the top of the spine.

It is so pretty, completely made of painted watercolour paper and other fancy papers, with lovely little treasures adhered inside. It is approximately 3" x 4" and even has a 'V' paper clip on the front! I love it and thankyou again Alis.

July theme for the Quiltie (5" x 5") was Seasons - and this little beauty was made for me by Sandy, which as you see is Fall. Sandy used ultrasuede for the leaf and added loads of beads - what patience! Just gorgeous Sandy, thankyou again.

This is my interpretation of Seasons, which is A British Summer - Sunshine and Showers! That seems to be the constant forecast this Summer - every day we hear it - more of the sunshine and less of the showers please - that's what I say! I made this for June and she was delighted.


And finally..... Calendar Girls swap for July

This was our inspiration, provided by Pippa.

This is my interpretation which I made for Debbi. It started off as a piece of crumpled kitchen foil adhered to some fabric, then I added gesso, some paint, bit more paint, some gauze, more paint, a bit more gesso, and more paint, till I was happy. Debbi has received it and is absolutely delighted.

Sandy made this interpretation for me. It looks absolutely gorgeous, and I can't wait to get touchy feely with it (I've pinched the pic. from Sandy's Blog - hope she doesn't mind!) but I do know it is on its way.....

There have been some super cards this month, and if you would like to see the others, just click on the Calendar Girls Logo on the right hand side.

June Swaps with Unlimited Textiles

The theme for the June Quiltie swap was Birds Bees and Butterflies, and this little beauty was made for me by Jill. As you can see, it is all hand quilted, and the four blue birds with their wings joined, leaves a negative space which, if I had put the quiltie the right way up (!) looks rather like a flying goose. This is my interpretation of the theme, and I made this quiltie for June. The background is a piece of hand dyed fabric and the butterflies are hand dyed paper.

This I also made for June. It is a different swap, using the suggestion of an ATC sized mini book. The cover is snippets of fabric held down with chiffon and stitched in straight rows (lots of them!) then embellished with a grid. The 'heart' shape is dyed Tyvek. The edging is torn organza doubled over and tacked in place. The pages are gilt edged and each one has a gold tag protruding, with a bead attached. The beaded string is a bookmark, and the tassel is shop bought!

I've done some more .....!

I've been away for a few days, and before I went I decided to try my hand at some more rust dyeing - I have only done it once before, and my stash is all finished up.
I rolled the calico, and a bit of muslin, around a rusty old chain and some bicycle bits and some very old iron nails, poured half a cup of malt vinegar and half a cup of salt over it, put the tin in a clear plastic bag, and popped it in the greenhouse.

Five days later it all looked like this - what magic nature does weave!! Maybe the very hot weather helped it along......
You can see the imprint of the bicycle bits, but on this particular piece I have green and blue colours as well as the rust - I am amazed and delighted! It might be something to do with the base fabric being old white cotton sheeting?

Another pattern - different base fabric.

Sorry this pic. is a bit blurred, I was shaking with excitement! I rolled a very rusty long chain into this piece, and the patterns are amazing. All the pieces look even better now they are ironed.

Talking of being amazed - look what's growing on the bark of a tree in my garden - it is very hard and firm, and the gorgeous surface of each one looks like velvet! Just beautiful.