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.

Wow... Look how Yellow!!

There is a little story behind the title of this post; so bear with me.

A few years ago, not long after marrying hubby we moved to a small acreage and I could finally have chooks; which we free ranged. Consequently, their egg yolks were always vivid yellow (I believe it's when they eat a lot of green grass.) One day I made quiche and as I took it out of the oven I exclaimed 'Wow... !!! Look how Yellow..!!' Now, Hubby and the kids tease me about it!


Last Friday, Rose was home from school and I was in the studio - playing. I decided to try some tumeric dyeing! Rose was watching with fascination as I tossed all sorts of bits and pieces into the dye pot. I couldn't believe the colour these pieces were turning before my eyes. Before I knew it, those same words fell out of my mouth again! Rosie was rolling around laughing......... but I kept my composure and just kept throwing things in the pot!

Seriously, I had no idea the colour would be so strong! I mean, I know it turns rice quite yellow but I wasn't prepared for this! I used approximately 4 heaped tablespoons of tumeric to about 2 cups of water. I boiled it all up until the tumeric had mostly 'dissolved' then turned the heat down and added my fabric.

Tumeric Dyeing

Clockwise from top left:

Silk, which took the colour beautifully 

Cotton which I concertina folded and bundled with string; it's showing a lovely grid pattern.

A piece of wool batting.

A cotton crocheted needle case with wool? felt pages. I was given this years ago by my now ex MIL and never really liked it. It was a neutral colour but look at it now!! I'm in love with it!

A small scrap of synthetic (just wanted to see how it would take the dye) It's turned out pale lemon.

A larger piece of cotton muslin which took the colour beautifully.

Double cotton muslin which has a grid weave pattern

and lastly a piece of vintage cotton from an old serviette.

 

(There was also a piece of thick wool felt which is a real sunny yellow like the needle case which didn't make it's way into the photo as it had blown into the garden!)

Wow..................LHY!

Rust Dyeing Fabric

This has been my latest fascination and I’ve been having so much fun! Plus, it's so easy!

It’s amazing what you find in a farm shed! I wet the fabric in a solution of ½ vinegar and ½ water; squeeze out the excess and then wrap the fabric around the rusted items; put the whole lot in a plastic bag (or wrap the whole lot in plastic sheeting) for larger items. I’ve been sitting the whole lot on the sink in my studio which gets a lot of morning sun. Most of these pieces were dyed overnight.

Rust Dye Sample Pieces

This photo shows a selection of pieces; at the top a piece of coloured thai silk which only took on minimal colour; From left to right 1) a piece of silk (?) which took on the shapes of an old cog beautifully! 2)another piece of silk which took on a grey colour with rust marks too 3) a commercially dyed cotton which also took on the cog shape and 4) a plain coloured cotton which took on minimal colour. I have just read somewhere about preparing the fabric first so it takes on even more colour! I'll try that next.

Rust Dye on Silk Detail

L) Silk cog-back

R) Cotton cog - back

Cotton Muslin with Grate Rust

I love the process and absolutely am in love with the results! I love that the fronts are almost outlines of the shapes and the backs are more solid. This is especially noticeable on the cog pieces. I want to do more..............

Of Orchids and Orchards

Orchids

I've been busy in the studio and have several things on the boil! (Nothing unusual there!) I think I'll add them to my blog seperately though as I'm having trouble uploading more than 2-3 photos at once!

This lino cut from last week wasn’t particularly successful. I realised too late that I had the main petals of the flower parallel to the main axis of the design! It just doesn’t look right but I had already printed a few onto paper and fabric before the mistake dawned on me.

Orchid Lino Print on Paper

The paper ones may again be relegated to the collage pile and I have started some surface embroidery on the fabric prints. Oh well, at least I can still use my mistakes in some way!

Orchid Lino Print on Fabric

Here are the gorgeous orchid’s that inspired the work. A dear member of our Gardening club gave them to me after our last meeting. We have an ongoing ‘Bloom Competition’ whereby each meeting we bring along 1 x Native Bloom and 1 x Exotic Bloom which are judged and a small prize given at the AGM! It’s very low key and just for fun! (I must say I usually forget about it until I see all the lovely flowers in vases on arrival!)

Exotic Orchids

Orchard

Speaking of gardening we have finally started our orchard! When we purchased this property about 18 months ago there wasn’t a single fruit tree here! That’s very unusual for a rural location where there is usually at least a gnarly old lemon tree that has survived the extremes of sub zero frosts and 40 deg C! So, we have started with a plum, a Red Delicious Apple (the only type hubby will eat – apart from apples in baking and desserts which I love to use) hence the Granny Smith tree! These will apparently be ok for cross pollination and I need to get another plum tree. I want to add citrus and some nuts as well as apricots, peaches and nectarines.

Of Magic Moments and Journeys....

Magic Moment

I am hoping to enter a quilt into the Bunbury Patchwork and Quilting 2010 International Quilt Challenge. I‘ve had the challenge fabric for about 4 months now; it was actually a pleasant surprise when I opened the envelope because the piece contains my very favourite colour combination -orange and hot pink! There was always a quilt lurking in those colours anyway; so this will push me into action! I know it sounds gaudy but I was married in a very simple halter neck orange Thai silk wedding dress! (With hot pink Thai silk covered heels!) I have some of the leftover orange silk here somewhere......

I am playing around with a design concept at the moment, and have completed my very first piece of needle turn appliqué as a sample! I’m so very proud of myself as I really didn’t think I’d have the finesse to make it look ok. I’m sure with some practice I can become quite good at this. Perhaps I should look up some instructions for inner corners etc. What is happening to me? What’s this talk of samples? Don’t I just usually jump on in and see where it takes me? Practice? What’s going on?

The theme is: ‘MAGIC MOMENT’. My inspiration is the moment I met my hubby- when our eyes locked! OMG!!! The idea I have in mind is very time consuming; so we’ll see how much patience I have and whether or not I end up getting it completed in time! If not it will be a wonderful addition to our walls when I do get it done! Entries are due in by 22nd Feb 2010!

Needle Turn Applique Sample

Where Will the Journey End?
That’s the title of this piece I have been working on incorporating one of the fabric print lino cuts (printed onto a piece of the onion-skin dyed cotton) The background is onion-skin dyed silk, and there is also a small piece of the wool felt from that dye batch too. Isn’t that ginger colour gorgeous?

I used vintage buttons (some wooden) and vintage wooden beads. The quote ‘migrate’ is inkjet printed onto paper, with interfacing ironed on the back, tea stained and crumpled. I quite like the technique and it is the first time I have incorporated paper.

Detail showing feather lino cut and vintage buttons

I have added a hanging sleeve at the back and it now hangs from a piece of gum tree branch.

Detail showing vintage wooden buttons, tea-stained inkjet printed quote

and onion-skin dyed wool felt.

I’m finding dabbling in mixed media and collage so freeing and sooooo much fun! I really enjoyed making this piece!

I can use portions of unsuccessful paintings, drawings and prints; my dyed fabric, vintage finds etc. I’m also excited about fabric collages! It feels wonderful to not be limited by materials and to have a full range of both materials and techniques to choose from.

I have been inspired by a few books I have bought recently:

Mixed-Media Collage - An Exploration of Contemporary Artists, Methods, and Materials by Holly Harrison

Collage Sourcebook-Exploring the Art and Techniques of Collage (Quarry Books)

Fabric Art Collage - 40+ Mixed Media Techniquies by Rebekah Meier

I can recommend each of them (all available from Amazon)

Back to Puddleducking..............!!

'Where Will the Journey End?'

Yellow Polka Dot ............!

Café Curtains!

Yellow Polka Dot Curtains

I’ve just made the cutest café curtains for the smallest of my studio windows; the one that overlooks the enclosed studio veranda. I am so in love with these I want to make more! I made them double sided so I can enjoy them when I sit in the veranda as well! All the fabric is 100% cotton and I used vintage buttons! I need to make a valance for the top as well and am thinking about making it triangular (like bunting) but I'm not sure which of the fabrics to make it from! Maybe both?

Lino Cut

Feather Lino Cut

Last week I puddled with a lino cut. About 10 years ago I made Christmas cards with a lino printed Christmas tree. I still have the remnant lino (Not bad considering about 10 changes of address and a change of country in between! Who said hoarding was a bad thing?!) I cut a feather design (Had to make my brain work in reverse – whatever was cut away would stay white)

After a few failed attempts because my ink wasn’t thick enough I eventually used acrylic paint with some gel medium – perfect consistency! I didn’t know what paper to use so ended up using the smoother side of some lovely watercolour paper I have here. There are a couple of not too bad prints (the others will be relegated to the collage pile!)

Afterwards, I attempted to print on fabric. I added textile medium to acrylic paint and was very pleased with the results.

I’m not 100% taken with the design but for a trial I was happy!

Playing with Dye!

Discharge Dyeing

My most recent studio play over the last week or so has involved bleach discharge dyeing of plain black homespun. I have played with this before but I tried a few different methods this time.

Discharge shibori!

The tiger stripe piece was concertina folded and bent back on itself before being wrapped with string and discharged with bleach. It reminds me of an x-ray! Mmmm…I would love to try shibori!

This piece was created by printing on the bleach with styrofoam pieces! (Previously I have used small wooden blocks, jar lids and cotton reels) I was really impressed with the results and have started a quilt utilising my most current pieces and some of the older ones buried in my stash! I love how they glow!

WIP

Flour Paste Resist

Flour Paste Resist/ Discharge Dyeing

This square bordered piece was created with a flour paste resist and then discharge dyed. I pressed some small and large circles into the paste as it was drying and when it was completely dry I scrunched up the fabric to create cracks in the paste which formed this gorgeous all over crazing effect. The patterning is not as defined as I imagined but it’s growing on me. After reading some blogs about others’ experiences with this I resisted the temptation to do the dying the same day as I added the paste! (Messy to say the least!!) I waited until the next morning and until the paste was completely dry! Would like to try this as a dyeing process- not discharge.

Onion Skins

Today I have onion skins in the dye pot! ; something I have not tried before. I have a couple of small pieces of white silk; one is trussed up with rubber bands, a small piece of cream silk, a piece of cotton organdy and a few tiny pieces of felted wool.

The wool has taken the dye beautifully and is such a gorgeous ginger colour! The silk less so (and I disliked the trussed silk so I have rescrunched and trussed again to add more colour. I think it was the contrast with the white I didn’t like!) So, it’s back in the pot with a larger silk piece that I am over dyeing – being one of the gum leaf dyed pieces from last week! How blessed am I to have a stove in my studio?

I’ve reboiled the kettle about 3 times now and still haven’t made myself a cup of tea! So, that’s what I’m off to do now. Promise! I won’t get sidetracked again!!!

Knit and Knatter!

I spent a recent Saturday morning at out local gallery - knitting! The event was a 'Knit and Knatter'. Here is a link to a most worthy cause if you'd like to help out: Wrap with Love Inc www.artsandcraftsnsw.com.au/Wrap.htm


I enjoyed the morning and am nearly finished my second 10” x 10” square! The squares are joined to make throws which are then distributed worldwide to those in need. Instructions are at the website if you are a knitter (even beginner knitters can help out as the pattern calls for garter stitch – knit each row – no purl!) It is an ongoing project and many people knit or crochet whole blankets to donate.

Nanna’s Tree of Life.


This piece uses a repurposed doily and fabric squares cut from a vintage café curtain; ribbon and lace from my stash, a tulle fruit and vege bag, lots of surface embroidery, beads and a silk covered button from my very first formal dress! It is quite unlike anything I have done before and I’m not really sure about the finished item but it was certainly a lot of fun to make!


Textile Artist
I was so inspired by an article on the work of Glenys Mann in the latest Down Under Quilts magazine (Issue 134) that I emailed her. Glenys is a textile artist, curator and judge as well as a coordinator of fibre conferences. She lives quite close to me and I was lucky enough to be invited for coffee! She is a bubbly, generous lady who happily shared her knowledge and a few of her books!

Here are links to her websites: http://www.mannmaid.com.au/ and http://www.glenysmann.viviti.com/


Did I mention how lovely she is?


I dabbled with gum leaf dyeing of silk and wool after meeting with her and am quite happy with the pieces (Don't know where I'll use them yet though!) I do so love trying new techniques!

JULY PROGRESS

A little while ago I found a fabulous tutorial for drawstring bags at: http://sewbunnybum.blogspot.com/2008/05/drawstring-bag-tutorial.html - I absolutely fell in love with them and made 5 in one afternoon! 2 were birthday pressies for my son’s friends (twins). They were great for wrapping the other parts of their pressies. I made a couple for Mack too and he gave one away to a good school friend! The 5th I made from vintage fabrics.

I cut a couple for my daughter early one Saturday morning and got 1 sewn up before the kids and I headed off into town! That's the one with the purple owl fabric in the photo.

Did I mention how very easy they were? And that I just love them? I’ve since made one for my Mum out of printed cotton with an Egyptian pattern with gold and blues. I used a beautiful turquoise as the lining and a gold cord drawstring! It looked gorgeous but I forgot to take photos before posting it off! Oops! And I made 3 small floral ones for our Garden Club Birthday Luncheon where we place gifts at the table places for all attending! So, thanks Jessica for the tute!

Rose's Owl Bag

Mack's Skull Bag

I love the American Quilting Arts magazine to which I now subscribe. I found it about 6 months ago and am officially hooked! There are always new techniques to try and lovely articles on quilt artists and their work. They also have a website with a forum for mad quilters! http://quiltingarts.com/forums/

This little quiltie is a result of one of the challenges. It was so much fun to make; sometimes it is nice to go off in a different direction! (I usually work square or rectangular although I feel a circular quilt coming on! I wouldn't have ever thought to make the whole quilt a different shape!) The background is vintage tie fabric which I have hand embroidered and beaded. I hand stitched on some gold ribbon. It has fabric backing, craft wadding, and a velvet sulfolk puff with vintage button as embellishement. I machine stitched all around to combine the layers. Approx 5" x 6" (13cm x 15cm)

Medieval Shield Mini Art Quiltie

I entered a 1m square quilt for Down Under Quilts (http://www.downunderquilts.com.au/) magazine calendar competition a few months ago and have just received it back in the post (which obviously means I didn’t win anything! lol) This is the largest quilt I have completed to date (I can’t wait to see some of the other entries and of course the 13 chosen as winners for the calendar! The theme was ‘The Rhythm of Life’ The title of mine is “NO TIME TO DANCE’ and I had such fun designing and making it!

No Time to Dance

Here is the latest progress on The Light Within:

The Light Within WIP

MORE JUNE PROJECTS!

I’ve been playing around with manipulating photos on the computer. [I sadly lost a lot of my photos when our old computer crashed a few months ago! I didn’t have all of them backed up and have lost photos of finished artwork as well as family occasions and landscape, flower and building photos I use for my art] : ( I was happy to find this one of an old church window buried away in an obscure file and played around with it before printing it onto fabric. I don't know why but I love the shape of gothic windows and doorways!

The Light Within

I have painted vines and flowers on both sides of the window with acrylic paint and fabric medium. The inkjet printed cotton is a nice surface to paint on! I have just started to embroider some leaves and am excited when I think of adding wadding, backing and starting to quilt it! I've already added sashing and a border and can't wait to see what it looks like complete!

A lady in a local quilt store told me if I ironed freezer paper onto fabric (A4 size) that I could run that through the printer too! I was so excited I tried it out as soon as I got home. Unfortunately, it jammed. I may need to do a little more research! I was excited as it meant I could print onto coloured and commercially printed fabric instead of the standard white of the packs that I am currently buying.

I've done a little more stitching on my Mosaic Rose. I'm uncertain about the orange and may change it to yellow. I want to get the rest of it finished before I make the final decision but overall I'm pretty happy with it!

Mosaic Rose

Here is a little postcard sized mini art quilt in my Landscape Series. I knew it was buried under piles of fabric on my main work table and it turned up the other day! It's just waiting for it's binding and a little hanging ring before I take it off to the gallery!

Postcard Landscape Series

OMG! I’ve just made my first ever granny square! Crocheted! When I was 11 an aunti taught me to crochet those groovy diagonal square pot holders that were popular then (you know; the 70’s!) I couldn’t read a pattern and certainly didn’t know the names of the stitches; so here I am – some considerable time later with a yearning to learn to crochet! Why? I’m not sure. I think maybe I’m thinking of crocheted edges on little art quilts or those little crocheted flowers (which I saw on a gorgeous scarf the other day) or is it the memory of a gorgeous fillet crochet pattern I have floating around here somewhere? Whatever it is, it has propelled me to dig out the simplest instructions I could find and just begin. The hook feels like an old friend and there is none of that uncomfortable kakihandedness that sometimes accompanies learning a new skill. It is like we’ve never been apart!

I admit I had to unravel it a few times and even this final product isn’t perfect (a word no longer in my vocabulary anyway!) but I’m very pleased with myself! It is probably going to be one of those fleeting love affairs but it will be passionate whilst it lasts and I will enjoy the memories evoked of time with my aunti! I thought I'd taken a photo of this but can't find it in my files; so I won't embarass myself after all!

Creative June!

Wow! I'm actually getting some projects completed and feeling very good about it.......!

TREE OF LIFE

This little Tree of Life is from one of my sketchbooks. I photographed a selection of little doodles with the idea of printing them onto fabric and embellishing them. This little tree I did as an Inkjet Transfer onto black cotton fabric. It's been sitting around the studio for quite some time (as things tend to do here before I get back to them!) [I do find that sometimes the time factor allows things to stew or a new inspiration may be applied to something that has seemingly lost it's zest of creativity.]It is a mini art quilt (comprising 3 layers) but no actual quilting as all the embroidery was done before I backed it with a vintage napkin. I didn't use wool batting or craft wadding this time but just added a piece of vintage felt which added a bit of body and strength without being too soft and spongy. I'm really happy with it and have been playing around with some little tabs for hanging it but am inclined to mount it on matt board ready for framing. Size is 7" x 7" (18cm x 18cm)

My most current project is another of the Inkjet Transfers. It was a mosaic design I designed about 6-7 years ago (the actual mosaic tabletop is in here somewhere and is at about the same stage of finished-ness that this wee piece is now! ) What? You don't have any UFO's in your studio?
I'm using DMC Rayon thread in satin stitch and it is picking up the light beautifully just like a real mosaic! I will turn this into a little mini art quilt also!

Mosaic Rose

Gingham Lace Heart

 

I made this cute little Gingham Lace heart from a pattern I found and printed off of the net about 12 months ago. It is also known as Chicken Scratch embroidery and by several other names. It is very effective and very pleasing to work!

Gingham Lace Heart - Back

RETRO OWL

RETRO OWL - Back

I made up this little retro owl as I went along and have been meaning to graph the stitches into a chart but haven't got around to that yet! He only took me a couple of nights to stitch and I think he's quite cute! I love his Mother-of-Pearl button eyes. The background fabric is a vintage find in the form of a napkin (as above) and the backing was from my stash.

Let's hope the rest of the month of June is as productive as the first half! (I sold one of my little landscape art quilts at the gallery last week too!)

A Stash of Sorts

I’ve finally finished my liquorice allsorts art quilt wall hanging!

I’ve been working on it for a couple of months now (interspersed with about 100 other projects of course!) It has been so much fun. I originally designed it as a rectangle but loved the square within a square so stopped there... Another row of blocks would make a gorgeous cot quilt! (I'd have to use all cottons and prewash!)

All the fabric is from my stash; but not all cottons. The yellow is a flannel and the green which is the perfect shade is a synthetic stretch fabric of some sort. The black border and backing originally came from my MIL and is a vintage retro fabric with quite a coarse weave.

I decided to hand quilt it as the machine quilting just wasn’t adding anything to the piece. Each allsort layer is 1" wide and each allsort block is 5" square. The overall size including border and binding is about 25 1/2".

I’m really pleased with it. Just need to add a hanging sleeve and take it into the gallery!