Adding some bling

I have been teaching from my home studio for a year now.  I thought I would enjoy it, but have been surprised at just how much I love it.  Part of this is due to experimenting and constantly challenging myself to learn new things to share with the students, but it is mainly due to the students themselves.  They are lovely - so inspiring, experimental, enthusiastic and (mostly) with a great sense of humour.

One of my lovely students, Pat Grant, has just been on a Colouricious trip to India, which she greatly enjoyed.  At the last meeting of her Certificate Group, as well as showing us the amazing photos from her holiday, she gave us all a little goodie bag of textile things as a little gift.  I told you I had fabulous students.

My bag of goodies

Inspired by the bag, which to be honest contained things I would never normally chose to work with, and also by others in her group who just seem to produce work at a fantastically quick rate, I decided I need to make something using all the bits in the bag.

The contents of the bag

I thought blues and purples would go well with the contents, so I made the backgrounds on firm sew-in Vilene, using transfer paints.  Having cut them to size, I then did the 'easy' bit first - printed on top of it using the little print block.  It was a lovely block and the repeats worked well.  I initially tried silver acrylic, but my silver (from The Works) was too watery and didn't show on the blue.  So I used black.  That showed up!

The first piece

I then stitched on the gold braid-ribbon.  This is the part that challenged me most.  On both pieces I ended up stitching into it with other colours as I struggle with 'bling'!  As I was trying hard to use sparkles, I added some sequins on the first piece and some small beads from my own collection, before finishing it with the giant silver tassel.

The second piece

I decided to add more detail on the second piece, and added some hand dyed knit along the bottom.  More ribbon was added to tie it in and make a more cohesive piece.  I attached the mirror to some chiffon using a shisha embroidery stitch and then stitched that in place.  

I'm not sure that these pieces are very successful, but it was really good to try something so outwith my comfort zone!  I have a collection of beads and bling, but I never really use them as they don't feel obvious to me, so it is a positive learning experience to use them, although I may not be using them again for a while!

In my studio: at a snail's pace to completion

This week in the studio I’ve been trying to finish things, with varying success...! 

Unsung Muses pieces
Let’s start with my ‘real’ work.  I haven’t managed to finish any work for ages – I’ve been stuck at the starting ‘scatter-gun’ position for a few months now.  So I decided I really needed to finish some that had been on the go for a while, just to get them out of the way.  Here’s some close-ups of the two I’ve been working on this week.  The orange/bronze coloured one is basically finished, except I don’t like where I’ve put one of the lines of stitching.  I don’t think anyone else will notice, but I do so I need to fix that before I reveal the whole hanging.  So only 15mins work left.

The other piece has been at the almost finished stage for ages and now it only needs the final trimming and the hand stitching of the hanging sleeves, so hopefully I’ll be able to reveal the whole piece next week... (but don’t hold me to it!)

Coffee Cup Patchwork

I’ve progressed to 33 of the 38 pieces joined together into a big long row.  I’m getting excited and slightly worried about whether they will spiral together properly – they should as I’ve measured it, but until I actually start stitching...

 

Transfer Printing

At the weekend, one of the topics I was teaching at the C&G class was transfer printing.  I’ve resisted the temptation to start making work based on maps, the topic for the next few sessions, although it is fascinating and full of potential; but I couldn’t resist having a go at some transfer printing.  This has had mixed results, however, I don’t think you can do transfer printing properly without at least annihilating several pieces of fabric.  I managed it so well, I melted three bits of fabric into the paper and couldn’t remove it – the transferred colour was very strong though! 

The disaster!

 

The colour on the pieces that have worked is weaker, but they are at least intact!  I am thinking they could be really interesting layered into a piece, as I am playing with the ideas of memory and its disintegration, so having some obscured by other layers would work well.

Three layers of transfer printed chiffon

Simple Quilts

After longarm quilting at Beechwood last week, I’ve finished one – hurrah!  The second only needs the binding stitched down on the back and the third the binding added.  I keep thinking I can do the hand stitching in front of the TV in the evening as it doesn’t need too much concentration, but I don’t really watch much television, so I need to find other times to do it.

 

The backing on the one I’ve shown in the photo is some Amy Butler fabric and I’m really liking the way it is making me smile when I see it – it is definitely cheerful fabric.