Some unsuccessful experiments?

I’m not sure.

This is the Trapunto’d and quilted on to felt piece after it emerged from the washing machine. It is difficult to see in the photo – but it is now very puffy. The fleur-de-lises are about 1” deep – and I only used low loft batting to Trapunto them. So if the experiment was to find out of the process worked – yes it did. i haven’t measured how much the felt shrank, and I'm too lazy to get up and do it, but I'll try to remember to do it tomorrow.

The ‘background’ where there is just the layer of felt under the fabric, and which I seed stitched, has a lovely texture too – the whole thing is very tactile.

But it still looks like a multi-coloured lump …

I also had these in the washing machine – 3 little bits of knitting [I haven’t completely abandoned  brown.]

This was an experiment in felting some  wool i hand dyed ages ago – and didn't like the colour. It felts beautifully though – very soft and with a faint fuzz to it. I’m thinking this could be used in the embellisher – definitely successful – apart from the colour …

I spent the afternoon working on a background with the embellisher, inspired by Sheila Smith’s ‘Embellish, Stitch, Felt.’ [I had to get up to check the title so I measured the multi-coloured lump – out with the calculator – about 25 % shrinkage. No wonder it went so puffy!]

Back to the embellisher. The piece looked best at Step 1 but I forgot to take a photo. it was one of those pieces where everything I did to it made it look worse …

This is step 2.

This is dyed scrim embellished on to felt, stitched and then pieces cut out and rearranged.

 

 

Step 3, In an attempt to cover up the holes left by my inexpert cutting I embellished some scraps of silk and metallic organza on, definitely not an improvement.

 

So – step 4 - I added some glitzy fibres  - which I think cover up some of the sins.

It was so nice before I started mucking about with it …

And here is the final brown image – and probably the final colour image as I've run out of colours.

An image from the Watts Chapel near Guildford. No floor tiles [that i remember, I may be wrong] but lots and lots and lots of inspiration.

One thing leads to anther …

As I mentioned, I spent some time yesterday playing with PSP – but couldn’t get any images onto the blog because I'd saved then as PSP thingies not JPEG thingies …

So after a bit of head scratching – here’s one I made earlier.

Bet you’re glad its not brown – I know I am.

 

 

 

And that inspired me to get the embellisher out and do this.

See the connection?

It’s a fleur de lis because it was easier to cut freehand.

The background is an old dyeing experiment – a piece of wadding. It was narrow so I had to piece it. The black felt is beginning to break up a bit which I like.

And I finished this. Mmm – I’m more excited by the one above … But doing this in cream got me away from feeling it all had to be brown – so that’s a good thing.

 

 

 

Today’s brown image is another beach scene -  taken on a sunny day. Do you remember when we used to have those?

Fame at last

- not for me. Go here and scroll down to the bottom – Skye, a.k.a. Ronaldo the Wonder Dog.

The final is at the Hurlingham Club. Mrs Cheddar has to get a very posh frock. I think Skye will probably be equally stylish in her Man U. collar.

On a much more mundane level – some of my creative efforts. As mentioned I made black prints of some of the tile stamps.

 

 

 

 

And then in an effort to try to come to terms with Paint Shop Pro, I played with the scans. Which involved rather a lot of bad tempered muttering, rising at times to loud swearing.   At the moment I can’t work out how to put the results of my efforts here – I suspect it has to do with how I saved the images – but that can be tomorrow’s little effort.

Instead I'll show you  what the stamps look like after a bit of use …

 

 

 

 

And the inverted scan.

Some interesting patterns there – I always like stuff that comes good by accident. Why I like dyeing, I think. And you can always overdye what doesn't work …

 

Today’s brown image is another photo from the Hillier Gardens. Now this one could almost make me like brown.

It might also be interesting to play with it in PSP …

The day started well …

when I lost a filling while cleaning my teeth. I haven’t got toothache but what’s left of the tooth is sharp and I keep biting my tongue. And of course it’s a Bank holiday so I can’t get hold of my dentist till tomorrow.

Plus it has been a grey cold day – so what with the weather and my tooth – I have not been in the most positive of moods.

And somehow all my inspiration seems to have gone on holiday. This looks boring and bland …

 

 

 

 

and this is doing its best to look bland despite the colour.

 

 

 

 

 

I think the cream piece needs more gold outlining. No, I can’t see it in the picture either – that’s one reason I think it needs more! There is gold stem stitch round the fleur-de-lises.

The problem with the second piece is that it has been very difficult to find suitable thread. I ended up using some rd/orange hand dye but I have very little of it and it probably needs a lot. [The white is tacking.]

 

So I allowed myself to get side-tracked into tassels.

Pallavi posted a tutorial on tassel making. [I have a thing about tassels. One day I might show you some of the ones I made for C&G. Nothing succeeds like excess.]

As Pallavi’s wasn’t a method I knew, I thought I’d have a go. It only needs little bits of fabric so I fished some scraps out of the bin [literally] and made these. Top right follows her instructions – and then I experimented a bit.  In my hands these are not elegant tassels – but I like them. [I don’t do ‘elegant’. Ever.] I think you could have fun making little dolls with these tassels.

Although that could be today's brown image – here’s another one. This is Babybel’s ‘Ish’  – although I believe that officially his colour is gold. 

 

 

Not much stuff going on around here …

after yesterday’s frenzy of finishing. Well – I finished one sock. The first Trapunto piece is drying after having the marker pen and soluble thread washed out, but I think it will need more rows of hand embroidery so I can’t count it as finished yet.

The weather looked as if it was going to be nice enough to sit outside with some hand embroidery – the second Trapunto piece – but every time I went outside the sun went in and it got cold. If I came in to work in the conservatory the sun came out and it got too warm …  Then Quality Control decided she wanted to be a lap cat which is unusual. She even let me groom her, so the bin is now full of spare cat. Those of you who have had long-haired cats [what my SIL calls a ‘fluffy pussy’] will know what my lap looked like after I’d finished.

So in the absence of anything more exciting – a brown image.

Another bit of photo manipulation using – you guessed it – befunky. Despite the similarity of the pose to some ads for the English Tourist Board, it is my own photo. It is Anthony Gormley’s ‘Sound II’ in the crypt of Winchester Cathedral. The last time we visited  it was very quiet and I was able to take the photograph  without having to push my way through lots of people in a confined space.

And the crypt was flooded so there was a reflection which you can just about see.

It is certainly my favourite sculpture, and probably my favourite piece of art. Sorry, Crosby or Angel of the North fans – they can’t compare with the perfect match of this piece and its setting.

I can resist anything except temptation.

I already have –er – six things on the go – so many that I made a collage rather than posting individual photos.

On the top row we have the printed canvas I started on holiday. I shall probably finish that tonight while listening to the TV, and then it will become a cushion cover.

Next to it is the salt pans – definitely not forgotten, just waiting patiently to rise through the pecking order.

On the middle row is an experimental piece I haven’t shown you before – inspired by pebbles. It has reverse appliqué, quilting and stitch. It’s stalled a bit because it needs more stitch but I'm not sure what.

Next to that is some locker hooking I started in an attempt to reduce the stash of knitting yarn – but I haven’t done enough to get into a rhythm with it and it may get abandoned.

Bottom left are 1.9  socks for Wensleydale – computer knitting, and very close to finishing if I just stopped typing and started knitting. And last of all the discharged, Kantha’d, shrunk piece.

Of course that doesn’t include all the bits of fabric and thread lying about the sewing room because I had an idea about what to do with them, but never got started. I do have some self-control.

And we won't talk about the large box on the top shelf of the cupboard with the things I will finish one day, honest.

Please tell me I am not alone in this habit of having too many things on the go at once? It happened much less when I was doing C&G  - oh, the discipline of deadlines!

So – this afternoon I was tempted and I fell. I started a seventh piece.

The BQL challenge for May is Trapunto. The original design by Kandy Newton is the word ‘May’ in Trapunto but of course I’ve been thinking about tiles.

So here is a freezer paper cut out adhered to some silk. Since then I have Trapunto'd it, and quilted it – and now it is saying it wants the fleur-de-lis outlined in gold, and probably some gold beads as well. So it isn’t going to be a quickie.

 

I have only Trapunto'd once before, as a sample for C&G.

It was in my leaf period – and my transfer dyes on poly satin period. You may spot a few small beads on there – very useful for covering places where my scissors slipped in removing the extra wadding.

 

 

Now for something a little more restrained. 

This is a design I made using Jane Dunnewold’s technique. This was my Klimt period, in case you hadn’t guessed.

Mmm – the Stitched Textile Design group challenge is to do something inspired by Klimt …

I will not start another piece, I will not start another piece – I will not start … – just yet.

When I said I’d rebind my book tomorrow …

I didn’t mean at 3 a.m. But that’s when I did it. I had meant to take ‘before and after’ photos, but I forgot until I had deconstructed the book.

So you will have to imagine a rather lumpy loop of beads down the left hand side.

 

 

 

I  used a long stitch binding from Alisa Golden’s ‘Creating Handmade Books’, although I modified it in the rebind, to make it a bit firmer.

 

The pages are made of various papers, mostly the wax batik technique from ‘Contemporary Textiles’. Unfortunately I cut the pages a bit small.

 

When I'd finished the book, inspired by the image I’d chosen for today’s achromatic picture, I mucked about with various free photo-editing programmes on the web.

This  was the image I started with –  a building at the Weald and Downland Museum.

 

 

 

 

Some time ago I changed it to black and white and used ‘Amazing Circles’ at Dumpr to do this.

 

 

 

 

I've posted before about the Hockneyizer. So I Hockneyized it. Looks a bit unstable now!

 

 

 

 

 

And then for good measure I Warholized it.

 

 

 

 

 

And I’ve just discovered picnik, which lets you do other interesting things with your pictures.  Like this.

 

 

 

 

This afternoon I set fire to things.These things to be precise. Some of the wax batik papers and some extras. I think Wensleydale thought I’d turned to arson in my old age.

Not, perhaps, what you ought to do when you’ve only had a few hours sleep.

This was another suggestion from Contemporary Textiles – Sue gave us a lot to do this time. [I haven't got round to the hammering yet.]

The burned papers became pages in this. [Lest you think I have been remarkably productive, the covers were already made.] The papers made me think of the sea so I used a stick binding [but it’s really a bit of beach-combed twine]  and some shells.

 

I had hoped …

to show you a finished book – but I’ve decided I don’t like the way I’ve bound it – so it will be rebound tomorrow.

Here's an achromatic picture instead. This is another of the texture studies I did for C&G when we were looking at manipulated fabric.

Every time I look at it I wish we had an open fire!

More books

well, covers, anyway.

This is the poly satin I showed you yesterday – now with a bit of free motion quilting, and shortly to have some beads and – possibly – French knots.

 

This is tissue paper, unsuccessfully printed by the technique I described yesterday. The colour is either blue Quink or turquoise drawing ink from Colourcrafts. [Warning – do not go to this site if you are easily tempted by paints, dyes, pencils, papers etc, at very reasonable prices. You have been warned. On your own head be it. And leave some for me.]

And they have a factory shop. Good job it’s in Sheffield.

But I digress. I crumpled the tissue paper, stuck it onto Vilene with Fuse FX and couched turquoise and white threads on to it. [Yes, I know I’m trying to give up Vilene. but it felt right today!] Then I added some beads and French knots. Is anyone else as addicted to beads and French knots or is it one of my little eccentricities?

Today's achromatic picture is those pebbles again. I like the way this version brings out the bands of shading across the image.

She had fun, fun, fun …

O.K. – hands up – who started singing ‘till her Daddy took the T-bird away’? If you didn’t – commiserations on missing the best era for popular song ever.

Fun one

This website looks like fun to contribute to. Unfortunately we don’t have any photos of our wedding – chiefly because my uncle took them and never gave them to us – but we do have photos of our parents’ weddings. Maybe some of you fancy making a contribution? then you can join me in saying that you have something in the V&A!

Fun too

In the last Contemporary Textiles session we

1] splashed wax on paper - and then those who were organised

2] painted the waxed paper with black Quink and

3] ironed it off onto more paper – and then

4] painted the second piece with ink and

5] ironed it off onto more paper and

6] painted that with ink  – you get the picture.

I didn’t get round to this bit in class and I’ve been procrastinating about it ever since. But today I decided it had to be done – and it was fun. After I took the photo above  I experimented with other inks and paints – blue Quink worked, as you might expect, drawing ink was OK but resisted the resist, if you see what I mean – especially the silver ink. And fabric paint didn’t work, even heavily diluted.

The method did work with Quink on fabric but unexpectedly it worked better on thicker fabric – muslin and a very fine poly weren’t very successful.

Another thing i discovered is that you only need a little wax. Otherwise it goes everywhere and you end up with completely waxed paper.

This is black ink on poly satin. I used graph paper for step 3, and found that the grid on the graph paper resisted Quink  – but in lines not in squares.  Looks good, though.

 

However the most successful pieces were on handmade paper [as opposed to homemade paper – I didn't try that]

This is step 6 on a silky hand made paper.

And it’s going to count as today’s colour photo – this week’s colour, I’ve just decided, being black. Or white. Or both.

Fun three

Now I had lots of interesting bits of paper. So what did I do?

Made books of course.  ‘Only’ two so far. And they are very tiny ones …

Don’t ask me why Live Writer has decided to put that in portrait instead of landscape.

The top book is called ‘Waxing and Waning’ and the bottom one is ‘Which Way is Up?’ [The left hand side, as it happens.]

 

 

The graph paper didn’t resist the drawing ink like it did the Quink.

In Contemporary Textiles we made marks [holes!] with a nail or a screw punch - but I used some craft punches. Unfortunately my waning moon is only small.

I like punches because you can use both the hole and the paper you punch out. Here are two holes and a punched out bit.

 

 

 

Fun four – or maybe not.

This is what the discharged, Kantha’d on felt  and shrunk piece looked like when it came out of the washer.

It came out  darker than before – I suspect the colour in the black felt ran. With hindsight I should have used colour catchers. [How often do I say that? I wish my foresight  was as good as my hindsight.]

Also, it had shrunk quite a lot. I neglected to measure it before I washed it so i don’t know how much but it has lots of texture.

I was a bit disappointed initially but as I've played around with it, it has grown on me. i think it needs a few French knots and beads hidden in the folds, and maybe some linear stitches, and then it will be mounted as a panel. Possibly.

Don’t think I can make a book out of it, though.

Some paper, some stitch, – and a purple picture. Oh – and a rabbit.

Despite an insomniac night I've been quite productive today. At about 2 a.m. I decided it was about time I did something with this, which has been tacked to some felt for a few weeks now.

So it has been Kantha'd extensively and is currently in the washing machine being shrunk. Heaven knows what it will look like when it emerges from the washer.

 

 

I also played around with some more tile ideas in paper. [Can’t get them out of my brain.] These are postcard size.

 

 

 

   I decided it was time to get away from the stamps – so here are some in cut paper with doodles…

 

 

 

 

 

and cut paper without doodles. I used all the cut out bits as well – love those bird shapes in the corners. These tiles are getting more and more elaborate.

 

 

 

 

This is a technique I got from a Jane Dunnewold article in QA or CPS. There are three separate images, collaged in Picasa.

 

 

The purple picture is another from Furzey Gardens – I think it’s a magnolia, but I’m sure you’ll correct me if I’m wrong. I find those strange flowers on bare stems quite weird.

 

 

 

And the rabbit? The lady on the left decided she wanted to invite her new friend in to play and was quite miffed when we wouldn’t let her.

After a while it was only half a new friend but we still wouldn't invite it in.

She decided to think about the problem. In the sunshine. With her eyes closed. And while she was sleeping it off – er - thinking about the problem – the rabbit mysteriously disappeared. Odd, that.