'If you make happiness your goal, then you're not going to get to it… The goal should be an interesting life."

Dorothy Rowe

Tuesday 3 June 2008

I've been playing

with my embellisher. As I have finished the outer part of the box, I have taken time off to catch up on an on-line course I signed up for – this one:

http://www.creative-textile-and-quilting-arts.com/elearning/online-quilting-classes/felt-punch-embellish

It has been very enjoyable just to work through a series of samples with no time pressure and no need to design anything!

I decided to use colours I don’t much like for my samples [orange and yellow] – but ended up with some pieces I really like – including this one. [Sorry about the reflection.]




That got me going on landscapes. This one is Colinette ‘Point Five’ needled together [an idea from Myfanwy Hart’s book on the embellisher]. It is interesting from the other side as well. It needs some stitch but I am not sure which side I like best, so I am waiting while I think about it.

Coincidentally there is an article by Carol Benson in the current ‘Workshop on the Web’ about monochrome abstract landscapes, so I had a go at one of those too, but using the embellisher rather than silk paper. There was a stage when I hated this but adding more wool tops improved it. I didn’t have any black tops, only a very dark green, but I think that works. The splodgy bits are silk noil from a Texere back. They shrivel up under the embellisher and contrast well with the tops. That blob in the centre is not meant to be there and will be corrected!

When I first started I didn’t like the way the embellisher distorts the base fabric, but on these pieces I like the wavy edges – after all hand made wool felt has wavy edges. [These are all done on cheapo synthetic felt from Hobbycraft.]

There is another one but that is going to be a postcard for a swap so I will not reveal it until its recipient has seen it!

I also did some monoprints. These are an idea from a very old copy of ‘Classic Stitches’ magazine. [Does anyone else like to browse through old magazines in bed?] The magazine suggested using stitches like French knots, seeding or detached chain on these but I think I may play around with FME, or quilt them. I suspect they may become notebooks covers …





No Tuesday trip this week - except to Hobbycraft - as we have had typical June weather- i.e. a cold monsoon!


2 comments:

emhowl said...

It can be hard to reach my bed without treading on old Somerset Studio and Cloth Paper Scissors magazines, then you reach the craft books!

Lesley said...

Hi Celia, I have a great pile of old magazines from Embroidery, Stitch, Classic Stitches, CPS and Quilting Arts, and probably a few others. I always grab one or two for train journeys, and I often feel I am reading them for the first time as I get so much out of them. Lesley