Alice's leftovers

……trying to make sure that all leftovers are transformed in to something useful, I’ve been working on the scraps from the Alice in Wonderland quilt.  Triangles and strips,put together at random, quilted with close lines, and 4 appliqué hearts added.  Just needs blocking and binding.

Quilting progress on a gloomy Sunday afternoon

Backing, bought at the bric-a-brac stall at our exhibition

Border quilting experimenting with inverting programmed, decorative stitches on the machine

Quilting in the body of the quilt

Appliqued corners

and a little postcard, sent for a German birthday.

 

Drawing and stitching

After drawing in the museum last week, and analysing what I found difficult about that task, I decided to draw from photographs to try to understand light and shade and how it contributes to form.

Lily

Converted to black and white

Printed photograph next to resulting drawing

The challenge of course is to attempt to draw the same flower from life.

Stitching has been some machine quilting practise, and testing out colouring with watercolour pencils and Sharpie markers, 

and preparing some seasonal postcards

The recipient of the Narnia postcard was delighted, I am glad to say.

Rust dyeing experiment

I really enjoy beachcombing on an unfamiliar beach.  Some great bits of rusty metal from last weekend's bracing walks in Norfolk ( my family do think I'm mad) have been set up for an experimental rust dyeing session.  Water and vinegar on calico and I'll report on what happens.

Not much sewing this week, and not much speech either as I've lost my voice, but this postcard went in the post as part of an online birthday swap.

From thought to research to sketch to research to stitch

I really enjoy reading about the process textile artists go through to get from the initial idea through to a finished piece. I am becoming more disciplined in recording my source of inspiration, process and how this leads to the final piece.

Reading recently about the new stained glass in Sagrada Familia has coincided with a request for a fabric postcard on the theme of windows.


This led to more reading about the designer, Joan Vila-Grau and the maker, J M Bonet .

From there to a very simplified sketch, also trying out some of the shading techniques from "Drawing and Design for Embroidery, a course for the fearful"


Using some of the screen printed fabric from last term ( Manutex with Procion P painted directly on the screen) led to this



I'm happy with the final card, but the colours of the fabric appeared more vivid before outlining with the black stitch, perhaps this would have been better in a dark grey, or indeed not done at all.

Small projects for hot days

It has been too hot in London to even think, never mind sew. Thank goodness for a small postcard exchange challenge. These are all on their way to new homes where they will hopefully be enjoyed.

Hmmm, no pictures - here they are

Don't know what happened with that last post, but here are the pictures that are supposed to be there.

Bank holiday sewing

We were busy this weekend with our younger son's birthday swim and sleepover. (Why do boys of 11 in a group need to keep getting louder and louder until you have to be louder than them to get any response?)

After that , I needed to get to my sewing machine, but didn't have much time, so I used the scraps from my word block and from the birds quilt to make a quick postcard. I was a bit sceptical about fabric postcards when I first saw them, but I really enjoy making these when there just isn't enough time but when you NEED to do something with fabric.