Summer fun

The Summer (such as is) has really flown which means I must have been having fun :) It's been a busy time as I have been to stitch camp (aka  Textile Study Group Summer School ) looking at colour with the awesome Ruth Issett. Had a lovely time with a wonderful bunch of people, all far more accomplished than me, but they didn't mind having a 'pesky little sister' type tagging along, and I learned so much from them as well as Ruth. I'll share more about this at a later date.

I also went to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC at the weekend - very inspiring, and if you haven't been I'd definitely recommend you go at some point. The next 'biggy' is of course the Knitting & Stitching Show at Ally Pally in London on the 10-14th October. Robi's creative fabric journal workshops starts on the 13th October, so may be a busy weekend.............

I've also been frantically trying to get my coursework finished for the Linda & Laura Kemshall on-line creative sketchbooks course I started last year (always think I have more time/can do more than is actually possible!!!!). This has been really helpful and am starting to make some half decent pages!

This page involved a crack at lino cutting & printing - something I'm looking forward to doing more of with Mary's Printmaking course at Gorseinon in Sept, which is just around the corner! And so it's only a few weeks til our first Stitches Coven meet - Yay! Really looking forward to catching up with everyone :)

Festival of Quilts 2012

Festival of Quilts 2012 is well worth a visit - may need a second mortgage tho!!!

End of Year Exhibition

 Here's some pics from the end of year student's exhibition. I've mostly focused on the textiles section (there's a surprise!!), but have to say there were lots of lovely pieces from the other art & craft students including glass, photography, jewellery making, life drawing and painting. Here's a few snaps of the back wall of the textiles display:

Brenda's delightful pieces have followed a definite theme and colour story this year. The first piece you may recognise from a previous post where Brenda was at the stage on deciding which background to go for - and here's the finished item - apologies for it being on it's side - for some reason some of my pictures are being rotated as they are downloaded onto this page, and I can't seem to figure out how to fix it!!

Another rotated shot - the yellow fish is at the top of this hanging - sorry for having to crane your neck to view in all it's glory!

More underwater action from Brenda, this time in the form of these lovely cushions

Angie's scarf

Venetian Skylines

And here are Angie's lovely creations - the much coveted scarf (above) and the stunning Venetian Skylines head board. The picture really doesn't do it justice

Catherine's hand embroidery

  Catherine's fine efforts demonstrate a delicate use of colour and the patience of Job with all that fine, detailed hand stitching! Love the colours in her cushion below

Applique cushion by Catherine

And here's my completed pelmet/hanging that only took about a year to make!!! Still, can't call me Donna Doolittle now though as managed to get 3 pieces finished this year.








This one's determined to be viewed on it's side too. My felted Mog with some rather stunning work by a student from the day time class - couldn't find their name in their sketchbook to be able to identify the work - lovely dragon flies aren't they?

My Peacock fabric

I was somewhat envious of these little beauties produced by the Creative Sketchbooks students.

Colouriscious on Youtube

Stumbled on this mine of fab textile technique videos here - Ceri will be interested to see a number of Kim Thittichai demos included :-)

Felt til you drop continued...

The next stage was to make a base layer for the moggy pic . I felted silk gauze over merino tops so that I could use a sort of reverse applique technique for the text I wanted to add, by cutting away selected areas of the silk to reveal the colour of the felt below. A problem with this is it leaves fairly unattractive edges - I like raw edges on the whole, but this wasn't really working for this piece.

 So after a bit of head scratching I decided to simply cut and hem, and needle felt along the edge. The text, if you can't make it out, reads F.catus spectabilis (the plant's latin name is dicentra spectabilis, and F.catus is domestic cat). The title is 'Full Sun or Partial Shade' which refers to the preferred positioning of both the plant and our moggy.

And here is the finished piece - or nearly finished anyway. It's just hanging on a dowel at the mo, but I may stitch it to a canvas mount so it hangs flat. I had originally intended to add further definition & embellishment with some machine and hand embroidery, but had second thoughts as I basically ran out of time, but also was nervous of spoiling it after all my hard work! Also at the mo I think it bears quite a good resemblance to our much loved moggy, Pushkin, which would be undermined if I add more detail and don't quite get it right. I may yet go back to this later when I am feeling brave.............

Simple but effective press prints using waste polystyrene!

This is a really simple and effective way of producing print blocks using waste polystyrene. So start saving your takeaway cartons and recycle them to create simple press prints.

This one was a 'quick fix' to add detail to my plain sketchbook pages, linked to my theme of 'tulips'.

I cut a square piece of polystyrene and using the end of a fine artist paintbrush drew a simple leaf shape into the polystyrene, creating a print block.  I then glued it to a piece of waste card left over from framing photos, to strengthen the polystyrene and prevent it from breaking. I used a diluted gold acrylic paint to add detail to the pages of my sketchbook.

The test piece below used in my scrapbook, gives an idea of how it could look on fabric, or on card or paper to create your own greetings cards.

Did you know that if you use Ormoline Fabric Medium mixed with acrylic, you get a permanent washable printed fabric?

This would be a great way to add effective prints onto plain clothing or fabric.  I'm going to try it. 

I'll might even be a little more creative and add some free machine stitching  or a little hand embroidery to the fabric to create a piece of textile art.  Watch this space!

Felt til you drop!

Well, have finally started the final piece which I've named 'Full sun or partial shade'. It's intended to be a wall hanging as a dedication/celebration of my much loved 18 year old cat Pushkin who, as some of you will be aware, we had to have put to sleep a few months ago. He loved sleeping in the flower beds or bushes, and liked to toast himself for a while in the sun before retreating for a bit of shade to cool off.

This is one layer of my felt hanging. It's going to be mounted onto another piece of felt and then I'll be needle felting on some leaves to embellish it.

 Here's a before shot - got the fibres laid out ready to felt - then fingers crossed it survives the felting process!!

And here is is after the wet felt - not looking too bad I think. Once it's dry I will tidy it up and add some detail with needle felting, and then embellish further with some embroidery.

So......... it's a start anyway :)