Of the colour Red… plus bitumen!

I promised photos of my new red living room…. Wow! It is a different room and I adore it. I love being immersed in colour as opposed to just splashes of colour or feature walls….. Even the horrid brown panelling painted beautifully (with Antique White USA (Dulux)) It was perfect for all the trim and a built in bookcase near the front door too… I’m so happy with the colour… Red Stop (also Dulux) Love it, Love it!

New living room colour + Mojo!

After!

Before!

I just need a few new cushions and a rug and a throw rug. There isn't much wall space left for artwork...but maybe just a few small pieces...?!

While I'm on the colour Red, this is where I'm up to with my Tree Of Life #2! I still have some little details to stitch on... some tree roots, an edging, some details on the sun and moon I think, and some more hair on bird self (I've gone red again!)

my Tree of Life #2

I tried out the bitumen technique that Gary Reef shared on his site Loving Mixed Media again. I think I’m officially hooked! Here is the first one finished…

Bitumen experiment #1

This one is I used a simple paper doiley and a wall décor sticker thingy as a stencil…

Bitumen experiment #2

This circular one is another old unfinished collage (there’s more of them hanging around the studio that might get a face lift yet!) Not finished rubbing back yet....

Bitumen experiment #3

Eager to try some more!

Meeting a friend to discuss our entries into an upcoming upcycled fashion parade...

28 Days has February...

Yay, another day off of work – hopefully this will continue to be a weekly occurrence! I am so enjoying being able to do stuff apart from work and household chores!

Last Monday I bought some bits and pieces of patchwork fabric and also some op shop finds- vintage doileys and linen mostly! I started 2 new pieces over the weekend using some of my new treasures – another Tree of Life - similar to the one I completed during Jude Hill’s workshop and another featuring a Sacred Heart or Flaming Heart which is a symbol that I have had in my head for a few weeks now....

February Tree of Life

WIP

Hand Pieced background (commercial cotton and vintage linen)

and appliqued tree (hand dyed vintage cotton)

I'm just loving the red of my tacking stitches against these colours so once the tree is appliqued down I think I'll be adding red leaves or other detailing to this piece..........

Flaming Heart

WIP

Vintage Embroidery on Linen and Silk Heart Applique

Don't these embroidered tiger lillies (from a vintage doiley I’ve cut up) make the most perfect flames? I'll be adding a lot more embellishment yet (maybe even beads!); and will keep posting updates!

I'll be making 2 round trips into town tonight to drop and pick up kids for their high school 'disco'!! The theme is HORROR - so some fun face painting coming up!!!!!

Fire Breathing Dragon

The Green Eyed Dragon is officially breathing fire...

 WIP - Green Eyed Dragon

Vintage Tie, Denim, Hand-dyed silk, Czech linen/cotton cloth,

Couched threads and fibres- silk and cotton,

Variegated embroidery thread, Perle thread

My Inner Animal!

OMG! I’m so excited! My little art quilt has been chosen as 1 of 20 finalists in the Quilting Arts ‘Inner Animal’ Reader Challenge!!

Pin from a pack of school book labels I bought for the kids... seems appropriate!

Wow! This is a first for me (I’ve entered two other challenges previously; the first being ‘The Rhythm of Life’ Quilt Challenge for Down Under Quilts Magazine and more recently the Cloth, Paper, Scissors ‘Mother Earth Art Doll’ Challenge) I’m ecstatic to say the least. I don’t know the protocol so here I am blogging about it! I’ll post my little animal quilt off to the US tomorrow…. And even if it doesn’t end up being published it feels wonderful to know that it will be included in the exhibition!

Part of a UFO I picked up again recently!

Dancing to the beat of my own drum with a huge grin on my face!

Continental Divide WIP

This latest piece I'm working on utilizes a couple of my recent lino cut prints onto fabric. I'm having so much fun adding new elements and stitching, stitching, stitching!

Continental Divide Detail

The sunburst is lino cut printed and stitched on. I have since added running stitch to each of the vertical lines on the printed cotton.

Continental Divide Detail

These rocks are lino cut printed onto silk. I have stitched running stitch around each rock.

I love the detail starting to build up.

Ties, ties and more ties! Red!

I can't stop buying ties! I've been picking them up here and there and bought 30 for $6 from a charity store last week! Some of them are so ghastly that they're beautiful! Some of them just sing when put together and I'm officially addicted!



The first picture I'm posting is similar to my last post. I haven't bound this yet because I'm thinking about making it into a shoulder bag.... I love the colours - colours I wouldn't normally put together. I haven't done much quilting so my early attempt at stippling over the tie fabrics is very exciting for me. I love how a thread colour can help tie the colours together.


I've been pulling the ties apart so far but met a woman in the op-shop who leaves them in tack and sews strips together to make up bags.

This second photo is an experiment called "Suit and Tie". I used suit fabric as the border - in this case a gorgeous charcoal wool (also from the charity store!)

I love the layout, the red themed tie fabrics but I do think I am going to have to stabalize the fabric somehow because the puckers on this are driving me mad! I'm certainly not a perfectionist (ANY MORE I can finally say!) and love those really loose art quilts that are more about the art than the perfect seam or binding. (This is the first time I haven't used a mitred corner binding and it has been a challenge for me!)


I am using tie strips left intack to bind this, (The perfect width!) which I am hand sewing on. I have machine pieced and quilted just the borders on this as I loved the way the silky fabrics puffed up like little pillows. Overall size is 18" x 18" (46cm x 46cm)

I am going to handsew some tie labels or suit buttons in the centre 4 intersections which may cover some of the puckering. Overall I am pleased with how this one has turned out. To me it has a slight oriental or ethnic feel. Probably not one to sell but I will hang it at home and it is now my officail prototype!

In truth I work on lots of different projects at once and seem to have quite a short attention span. I have a big burst and then hey! start on something new as a different inspiration hits me! I love the zing of a new idea and where it leads me. I love the idea of doing series of works (with my painting too) but in truth they develop so fast that the first and second may not even seem related!