Cards swapped

I can show you these cards I made to swap lately. The top one is on a blog swap with Anna Nowicki, of Serendipity blog and the bottom one is for an open swap with Cathie on FAI. They were done using the method from a previous post of stitching a fabric to acrylic (kunin) felt and then blasting the felt with the hot tool. They have really helped inform me about my hanging. I will show you the model soon as I am going to model it first so I can make decisions about scale and proportion.

Journal quilt

At last after a lot of thinking I made a start in my January journal quilt for FAT. I had made the background some weeks ago as a challenge leading from my group, when carol challenged us to use our xmas letovers for something nice, so i tried a background using the leftover paper hats, using a technique from "Celebrate your creative self". It was a thin layer of watered down PVA onto paper and then dropping the tissue on to get good texture. To integrate it all i put a wash of dark red acrylic paint over. I have now added flames over that using the clingfilm technique I have seen on Dianne's (Faerydi) blog. I layered up diamonds of organza onto a layer of cling film in reds and dark pinks, and then added some gold and yellow net at the bottom on the last layer. I must have done 4/5 layers. I have now integrated the pieces with free machining. Now I forgot to say the theme I am doing is "The devil's in the details". NJ came up with the lovely idea of using QA's challenge of "What's in a name" to do for our January JQ's. This means that if we send them off there is a chance they may be published in QA, and that's my aim. I have never done anything that says that I am a ligit textile artist, not just a teacher. I avaoid the term like the plague as I used it once amongst family and friends and they roared laughing! So here we go i am trying hard to prove them wrong.

I choose to look at the 7 deadly sins as my details, which is a bit obvious I suppose. I thought of doing it as a cross, and having the detail in the cross, e.g. sins lurking amongst virtue, but I decided as this was to be published in America and not here, american's have a stronger collective faith, and i wouldn't want to upset anyone, still think it would be a nice idea to follow up for my own personal work. So amongst the flames they now are and as you can see i have added a green eye for Envy, a mouth for Gluttony, which I intend to go back to and work on further as I found a site on the sins this morning, and it equated sins to colour, and gluttony is Orange. I have added 3 pink hearts for Lust, which are hard to see and wil need more work including adding blue ( again colour of the sin). I am going to put on pennies for Greed and then I am out of ideas, i am mulling over the next step and will let you know what i am going to add wheni think of it!!! Watch this space.

Tast - and stitch book

Here is my new TAST sample! I really liked doing this one and tried to push it a bit harder than the last. I had a great time doing circles and beading. Below the sample is the lovely book that Eve gave me that I am making into a stitch sample book with my TAST samples, for use in school. The next image is how I have presented the pages. Hopefully when complete this will be of major benifit to my kids, but also be fun on the way. I love the meeting of people this challenge has caused! Well done Sharon B.

1"x1" art squares

I have joined a new swap, yes I know what you thinking, she said no more! It is a 1"x1" art squares swap and it is well set up by Sara. You have to choose a colour and you are grouped up with 7 others who each choose a colour each. So here's my first effort, oh I forgot to say you make 9 of each colour. I chose gold, and decided to do my own colour first as I had made a background for a postcard for Anna of Serendipity blog. The embellishment was fun, and this is something you can do in a night once you have made a background. Really enjoyable.

On another note I had an epiphany last night and finally worked out my mentl block, I now what I want to do now and i need to model, so watch this space as i am going to get cracking this week.

Felt and tyvek experiments

I have been messing about with felt and tyvek this weekend to try to get more control over the ripples. I also wanted to get round the problems i had been having with couching over the heat setting, as the couching made the heat setting too flat if done after. I started by free machining into taffeta over tyvek ( which is ironically the 3rd picture) but this seemsed to drag everything into a shrunken circle, and it felt crispy! So I tried using cheap acrylic felt and free machining. I then zapped the back with the hot tool. This worked out well so then i treid a small couched sample, and this has turned out delicious. Lots of control. However i have been making a card in the same way to swap with Anna Nowicki and had over stitched as the stitching acts as a resist to the shrinking. AH well you live and learn! Think this will get a look in on my C+G piece. I also used this piece as a staring point for a new swap group I have joined. it is a 1x1 art sqaures swap, where you make 1 inch sqaure mini pieces of art. I am swapping with 7 ladies and i choose the colour gold, so I will get all the gold squares back at the end to mount up as I want. Can't wait. Check out their blog it is fab.

http://artsquaresswap.blogspot.com/index.html

Piece for Textile Challenges

I have been working on heat seting now for weeks now, as you wil know if you read this blog, trying to resolve my hanging for C+G. I started out looking at water over the sand and have been struggling with it of late. I have decided to make a hangning that can be viewed sighted or unsighted, and that is meant to be touched and manipulated by the viewer to capture some of the elusive qualities of water. That it can be changed. So I set out to do some work for college and thought it could double as my altering the surface for my group textile challenges. I gathered up the taffeta by hand and then heat set it and below you will see how I integrated it on to the background of felt. i think it has worked out well. i treied to work in a similar way to the piece for flicsha's card a few posts ago. I brought in the diamond shapes i have been working with but found it hard to bring in the ripples. When I did couch a piece of yarn down it crushed the heat set fold and ripples.

This (above) is an offcut made into an ATC for the one on one swap. I have added glue gun pieces embossed with embossing powder.I just stitched these on and added some bugle beads and seed beads in copper for extra sparkle.
I also tried couching straight onto the taffeta with yarns. I think this has turned out nicley, but I don't think at the mo this will end up in the final piece. I now need to work on how I am going to do the pieces that will be able to be manipulated. I think I am getting somewhere now.

Faux batik on taffeta

Here are the sampes I have done of the faux batik, with the children's glue, as posted previously. I decided to do it on taffets to see if i could gather it and heat set it. I used acrylic paint to do the brown. The technique worked a treat but it made the fabric stiff, the acrylic paint did it, ironically where the glue was, was not at all stiff once washed out. As a result I decided not to gather and heat set but instead I free machined on to acrylic felt and then zapped the felt with the heat gun, causing the taffeta to wrinkle up. I think it turned out well. I got the idea for the felt and zapping from C June Barnes, as she shrinks wool on the backing to get a similar effect. She has a book coming out soon and I can't wait to get it.

Take a stitch tuesday

I have sgned up for a ew chalenge this week, to allow me to do more hand stitching and to produce a teaching aid for school. This is on Sharon B's in a minute ago blog. The first stitch of the challenge is herringbone, and this is my sample. It is really good to be able to use only one stitch, and focus on what it can do. I was given a book by my lovely student teacher, Eve for christmas, and it is the colours I have been doing for my heat set work, so I am going to use it to hose my take a stitch tuesday samples, and this wil be a book of stitches for my classes to use as reference. I really enjoyed this. When I mount it in the book I will photograph it and post it.

Lots done, not sure how!

I have been playing with a few techniques over the past few days and finished up with Ellie painting today and i got a few things finished off. Firstly, above, I used the faux batik that Michelle had been advokating on Textile Challenges. I used the most cheap kids washable glue neat onto cotton, dribbled straight out of the bottle, on to cotton. I then let it dry thoroughly. I then painted it with acrylic paint and copper metallic fabric paint. I think it worked ot well, but I wished i had tea dyed the fabric first so that it was not as stark.

The next thing I did was to play around with the glue gun. I spirinkled embossing powder over the molten glue and then heated it with a heat tool. They have come out shiny and metallic, I love them, and so easy. I layed them on the scanner with two backgrounds I have made this week by laying the left over tissue paper from Ellie's doll packaging, over watered down PVA. I am going to use them on my C+G sketchbook. I added this photo of them below on felt so you could see the metallic effect properly.
The last thing I did was to try melting some acrylic felt. I zapped the white felt withthe tool and then added some embossing powder while still hot. I felt it wasn't sticking very well, so I painted the felt with acrylic. this resisted te melting process some, and then the embossing powder resisted it too. I like the way they have turned out thogh. Lots to think about, lots to fiddle further with. Ellie is off to nursery tommorrow so I can have a play day!

Secrets in the bag and round robin finally finished

Here is my effort for FAI's Secrets in the bag swap. I am paired with Flicsha and i was very lucky as she sent me the most lovely bag of goodies, including choccies and tea to drink while i made her card! How thoughtful is that! I decided to work on my imagery that I have been using for my C+G, water over the sand, as this was a good opportunity to try out different colours. I gathered up the blue metallic shot fabric and heat set it in the ove for 10 minutes at 200. I then decided I would work by hand, for two reasons, one I haven't done much hand work of late and i was desperate to feel the cloth between my hands! and two having the machine out at this time of year is a bit difficult. I seeded the rippled fabric to a bit of cheap felt. This worked really well ad I am so glad I did it as it has given me a far better understanding of how I wil integrate my heat set work for C+G. It only took going back to hand work to do that!
I was given Beryl Taylor's book for christmas and I decided I would work the diamonds in her way, so i used some of the other fabric in the bag to lace over thin card diamons. i stuffed these with some wadding and then sitched on the beads and then back stitched them to the background. On textile challenges val had challenged us to use xmas leftovers creatively, and i have a pice to follow on this, so i used a jewel that had lost it's sticky and fallen off Ellie's new barbie styling head and weaved this onto the backround with silver thread. Now Flicsha always does lovely backgrounds for her cards so I worked one diamond up for the back. It has turned out well. The pink thread i used to couch down was the only addition from my stash apart from the jewel.
This is my card from the 1st round robin, on fiberpostcardroundrobin, which is a yahoo group run by Lorraine Strohkirch. ( Who is an angel by the way) I did the background fabric, which was bubbled polyester, i bubbled it with the heat gun, like you would with tyvek. I like this because it is so much softer than tyvek. Marie and Mary then made it into a tree, I'm not sure who did which bits but, there are waxes picking up the bubbled texture, angelina, free machining and the leaf charms ( one did not make it through the british postal service!) I like it and i like what happens when you work with others on a piece, but I would have liked to see some of the original texture, it got kinda lost. Never mind that's the esence of working with others you can't be too precious about what happens to your work. I finished it with the copper zig zagging.

Snowglobes for FAI

Hello all, here is an example of the snowglobes I made for FAI.I used sweetie wrappers for the icicles, some colured papers I had done at college with salt effects. Some of the beads I made, which I have talked about in earlier posts. I used the snowflake confetti and seed beads for the shaker. I do think they look wintery.

I was also very pleased to find that a new group I had joined Arttechniques has put my FAT journal on their homepage. I was bowled over to think they thought my work was good enough! It is a very interesting group for those who have an interest in mixed media. Heartily recommend it.

By the way Merry Christmas and a great New year to all who read my blog. I recently installed a new counter and I am very pleased with it.

New journals for FAT

I have finished two journal quilts for FAT this week. I did my one based on a word, I chose "LUSH", a proper Welshism. I chose this because when i first started chatting with NJ (Listmom) I used this word to describe the work on her group. A few hours later i recieved a message that basically, give up can't find meaning of the word lush anywhere, is it a complement or an insult? It was a compliment! Lush -to me anyway means that something is gorgeous beyond belief.

In this piece I used acrylic onto coton, a first for me! I then machine quilted it, free machine, making some of my favourite, childish!, shapes. I then did a bit of hand quilting/embroidery, I used blanket stitch overlapped with thinner and thicker threads, and to be honest this is the only bit I am unhappy about. I think it looks shoved on, not integrated as well as the rest. I then beaded areas to pick them out more. I then made some fabric beads by using off cuts from another bit of painted acrylic and cotton, I watered down PVA and wrapped the fabric tightly around a cocktail stick. I really like how this piece turned out, probably because I didn't really think about it, I just did it and it evolved as I worked on it.

The other piece is this months journal quilt, based on "Christmas through the eyes of a child" and this started with a drawing done by Ellie, my 3 year old. She coloured in a Rudolph with transfer crayons, and did a grand job of it. I put it onto cotton and did some hand embroidery. I then added the red strips and free machined. I then added the buttons of mittens and hats i have been hanging onto for something nice. It's not perfect by a long way, but I love it as it is a permanent record of Ellie now, what she likes! Thanks to NJ for her inspirational themes.

Water colour

This is a piece of course work for C+G based on colour theory. The student teacher, Josie, that has been working with my regular teacher Enid did a lesson with us on colour and line. We completed a pencil task of making secondary colours with different lines, e.g. zig zags, cross hatched, wavy etc. We had to use lines of the primary colour to make the secondary. We then had to take this into a colour sample. I used the imagery I have been working with this term and cable stitched the design. I used one primary colour on the top of the machine and another on the bottom in the bobbin. I like how it has turned out, but it doesn't convey the secondary colours that well in parts, probably due to the shade of thread I was using. However it was good to work this desin in coloured thread to see how different it could look.

Feeling christmassy!

I have been feeling chrismassy lately, about time since it is December. I have made these two sets of cards for swaps on FAI. The snowflake cards were made by trapping snowflake confetti between irise film from mraks and spencer, that Jan sent me. I then quilted the film down. The stocking cards are made by pressing a rubber stamp into some soft scult after heating and then brushing it with Stewart Gill paint. I then couched this down with fly and straight stitch onto a background of cutback diamonds. the layers start from the bottom, velvet, opened up inside of crisp packet, green voile, red tafetta and red voile. Worked out very well.

Contemporary Art card for FAI

This image is of the four cards I have made and now finally sent for the Contemporary ast card swap on FAI. I used acrylic on cotton, something that I have been dying to do lately but have never got the time. I also coloured up some scrunched silver foil and coloured it with copper paint and a touch of PVA this turned out well. The last touch wsa to colour up some tyvek and iron it over a ruber stamp, as per workshop on the web, but it didn't work out too fab, think i had my iron on too hot. I then quilted the lot with free machining. I loved making these and they were so quick! Its funny how things you do off the cuff work out best.

Postcards and ATC's

I thought I'd show you the snowflake cards I have just sent off for a swap with FAI. I am rather pleased with how they have turned out. I layered up a background of snippets of organza with organza in a really light blue organza over the top of the lot. I then layed down the grids in line with the work I have been doing for C+G. I then used the soldering iron to slash back through the thicknesses. I didn't think it had been very successful until I layed down the blue and silver square and the snowflake brads, then it all seemed to come together.

The purple ATC was one I made for Pam at College's significant birthday ( see Pam I didn't let you down!) I used a piece of cerise taffeta and cut through to a layer of angelina fiber. I also gathered the one corner. the idea was to give her clues as to who's was who by reflecting our work, but I decided to change the colours to ones she likes. The beads attached are from New Zealand that someone sent me in the FAT journal quilt swap. I nearly didn't want to part with it!

Heat setting recipy?!

Arlee had asked me to post how I did my heat setting, and I keep forgetting, so I'm doing it now before I forget again! I gathered up my fabric with cotton thread, just incase I melted the polyester thread. Wheni was happy with them i put them in a backing parchment parcel, or I have been told that the silicone sheet for the bottom of the oven, or baking on work well too. This is to stop too much direct heat. I then put it in a ceramic dish, because one of my friends at college had told me that if you touch the polyester on the metal of a baking tray you get one hell of a mess! I then pre heated the oven at 200 degrees. i baked them for about 30 minutews, which was longer than I expected, i had been told by Robbie at college to do it high and fast, e.g. high heat and not for long time, so I thought 30 minutes was quite long. I took them out a couple of times to check on, a few on the edges were a bit crisp, but I quite liked this. I have also heard that you can do this in a vegetable steamer, see Michelle Griffiths ( by the way a fantastic WELSH textile artist) on Workshop on the web, she has a tutorial there, I forget which month now. Hope this helps Arlee!

I have had a success this wekk, and I am really pleased with the result. As I have said in previous blogs, i have been wresling withthe cjallenge set by ME! for my textiles challenges yahoo group. I had done one reverse or cut back applique sample to show the group before we started, with wireform in it. I then wanted to do a stitched layer for the bottom layer of my real submition piece, but when I did one last I found I liked it so much that I didn't want to cover it up! This time I wasn't so precious and i just sprinkled supermend down and foiled those areas with gold, silver and copper foil.
Then I free machined some bubbly white water where the foil was.

With this as a guide I then turned it over and worked in cable stitch some wiggly reflection lines in a few colours in cotton perle. I also worked some diamons which seem to keep recurring in my work of late from the drawings of the fresh water outlet at caswell bay, on the Gower (see drawing). The middle layer of the cut back was a pice of fused angelina fiber, two hot fix colours and a non heat fix gold mixed in. The top layer is taffeta. I then used the free machining as a guideline for the sewing through the three layers. I also did this in a fine gold cotton perle.

I am pleased with the result although I think I need to integrate the top layer a bit more, I like the piece with the bubbles at the top and I think it could do with more of this. I have class on Thursday and can't decide whether to do some more or wait and talk to Enid, I have a feeling she would just agree with me, so I may as well get it done before I see her. What do you think, constructive critisism welcome?

Underneath that is what I did at design class last night. Enid found some copper shim, because I had missed the foiling class the week before. I used the design which is drawn out above and I used a well rounded pencil to press through onto some foam, you know the stuff the kids have. I love the way it has turned out. the first scan is the back and the second one is after I have painted it with blue and green glass paints. I want to do more of this, and sew into it, it is so tactile and in keeping with my want for the finished piece to be viewed unsighted.

Finish it up friday on FAT

Hello all and today has been finish it up friday. FAT 's lovely list mom NJ set today as finishing day, so I thought I'd get my finger out! I have had my tri-fold cards for FAI on the go for a while and so I thought I'd get them done today. I have been plaing with layers a lots lately, with the cut back challenge for my yahoo group textiles challenges and all. So I have layered up taffeta, snippets of organza left over from previous tasks, and overlaid with chifon. I then free machined over the top. The really twinkly one has a middle layer of angelina and I have cut back part of the squares and held them back with a buggle bead. I also used he most gorgeous piece of green slubed silk and quilted and maniputaed pleats for the green cards. I hope the prospective owners like them. Inside I stamped a tree stamp onto white cotton and appliqued it on to a red taffeta quilted ack ground.

I then went on to work on my stitched ground layer for my challenge, I had promised my C+G tutor Enid Davies that I would put a stitched into layer into a cut back, so off I set to do it. I layered up my manmade taffeta which I have been using for my heat setting work, (see previous post) with some interlining. I then whip stitched on the machine the central lines, I used a drak brown on the top and a gold underneath. I was hoping the gold would show more but it hasn't, so I will ave to think about this a bit more, maybe invert the colours. I then did my first bit of cable stitch ever on the lighter diamond areas. I love the way the tension has pulled the taffeta into ripples. So hence why I will not be using it as the ground for cut back. It is such a lovly sample in it's own right I can not cover it up! Something always stops me sorting out that layer, and I must get it done ASAP as the deadline for challenge 1 is fast approaching, on the 14/11/06. Next time I am not going to do a pattern but just machine all over so I don't mind cutting back to it! Let's hope that works!!!

FAT Hearts

Last monday FAT had a monday night challenge to make holiday heart decorations. I had a blast making these. I made the ones with the green stitching on the monday night, and have since made three more. For the ones I made on Monday I layered up velevet, angelina and organza. I then free machined the surface, one with hearts and the other randomly. I then cut back through to reveal the angelina, and the velvet. I found I had a few pieces of layers left over and so I cut those into hearts and appliqued them onto velvet. The other hearts were made by layering up taffeta, snipets of organza and a layer of organza over the top. I fused the layers with supermend. I then free machined hearts and circles and used the automatic stitches on my machine to do the third. I then attacked this with the heat gun. It brought the colour of the burgundy taffeta through, which made them look quite dramatic. I had to be very careful with the heat gun as all layers were man made ad so I could have burnt them to a crisp!
I embellished with buttons and beads, which took a while! I am going to make some more to donate to my friend Jayne's daughters junior school xmas fayre. I felt quite festive doing them! Three of them will be swapped with FAT.