And now for something a little bit different ...

Still ecclesiastical, but a different cathedral and not a tile.

This is part of the west front of Salisbury. Well, I think it's the west front, I'm vague about such things ...


This is the stamp it inspired.

And some reflections. One new ecclesiastical stamp tomorrow and then something completely different for March.

This is my little orange book [it's about 3.5" by 5"], retrieved from the book press, although it still doesn't want to lie completely flat. It is just a simple 3 hole pamphlet stitch, but I did get a bit carried away with the ends of the thread.

And below is a successful experiment with transfer dyes. For some reason I have a lot of short lengths of satin ribbon - undoubtedly polyester - so I put them on a piece of baking parchment and ironed dye onto them.

I laid the first lot straight - you can see the effect on the parchment paper underneath. Stripy paper.

So I did the next lot on a piece of fabric, and just let the ribbons fall where they wanted to.

This is the fabric afterwards.

I did try some lace [probably nylon] and some tubular yarn from Texere [probably rayon] - but they didn't work as well. I have to recognise that when it comes to transfer dyeing - I like a nicy shiny fabric to work on ...

Never say 'Never' ...

On February 12th I wrote 'There are these sort of heraldic ones, which I don't think I will be trying to reproduce'.


OK - I was wrong. I have been re-reading Campbell-Harding and Grey's 'Celtic Inspiration for Machine Embroiderers', which seems oddly relevant to my non-Celtic tiles. They use animal motifs - and I like this insouciant griffin [?] - so I had a go.

This is the stamp, carved in some of that stuff for carving stamps, whose name escapes me. [It is 10 cm square and I don't think you can get erasers that big.]

And here is the result. Nominally this is gold ink, but I think I need a new gold ink pad.

I have also been working on my Stitched Textile Design group challenge, 'Hearts'. You may remember the quilted poly satin. Well, now it has transfer dyed hearts on it.

I cut the hearts out of the painted paper and stuck them on a blank sheet of paper, before ironing them onto the satin. If you try this, be very careful where you get the Pritt stick. Fortunately it came out with a little water on a cotton bud...

The ironing also flattens the quilting. Funny I didn't think of that before I tried this. Luckily I didn't melt the wadding.

I used polyester thread to quilt the piece and as I expected the dye transferred to the thread as well.

I think I am going to outline the hearts in stem stitch or couching - but I'm still pondering on the thread. Yes, that is an orange metallic. I'm feeling experimental.

While I had the iron out I used up the dye left on the paper on a poly sheer. I put a piece of Vilene under it becks I knew the colour would go through and I didn't want it on the ironing board.

Moving the sheer slightly gave this ghosting. I tried the sheer over the poly satin [right way up and upside down] but decided not to add it this time.

I realise that my 200th post has come and gone without me noticing it. I definitely talk too much ...