Padfolio for Jan

Here are some photo's Jan kindly took for me as i forgot! Jan is my good friend and we were in a swap on FAI for a covered Journal, so I made a padfolio, ala Sue Bleiweiss' pattern that she has kindly shared. I used a painted nappy liner onto cotton and then a layer of black organza over the top. I free machined and then added some copper shim embossed with my ripple design from C+G.I also beaded a little. I plated a cord and attatched it and a button, and to the yarn ribbons I left long I added three strings of black beads from a necklace that Ellie broke.
I am nearly there with my hanging now and will be photographing it this week all finished. I am not having the same kind of luck with my sins behind the doors. I have failed to meet the deadline for my group Textile challenges and am mighty fed up about this. But I am determined to get it done over the holiday as Ellie is off and we can paint all day while Daddy is in work!!! Should have more to show you later this week.
I went to the Embroiderer's guild day today. I didn't think much of the first speaker, she was a fine artist not an embroiderer and while amusing I know I and others were waiting to see her embroidery, and there wasn't any! A lady caled Jean from Swansea Quilters gave the afternoon talk on her quilting journey and she was interesting and had a great selection of quilts o show, including stunning landscapes. The day was enjoyable, and the afternoon gave a lot of food for thought.

ATC's and lovely post!

Here is an ATC I have made this week for Robbie at my evening class' birthday. It is a significant one! We al make a card in our style and then Robbie will have to guess which is who's in the class. I guess she will pick mine out quickly as I decided to do something in the style of my hanging.













This ATC I have made for Val, a friend of mine as I got her card in the Fiber ATC trade and she did not get one of mine. So I had some of the fabric left over and made her one. Below your will see the card she sent me. It is a velvet background with lovely foil and bondaweb etc on it. She made it as part of the Altering the surface challenge on Textile challenges.






















This card also arrived in the post this week. It is from Jo Wholohan in Australia. I had told her about my like for al things "altered" but my lack of vision for actually making it myself. So kindly she has agreed to trade with me. I recieved this most beautiful card. I have not made one i return yet, as I really want to have a good go at doing something as delicious as this card, not my usual fall back techniques. I really want to do her justice as she was so kind to share such a lovely card for me.




















And finally as for the hanging, it is FINISHED!!!!! Hooray, well all bar the shouting. I have to finish the beads and attach them and then it would be done! So that's why I haven't added a photo as I would like to get it all finally done. It has got so large though! but I am very pleased with it. It's a big bugger though!

Padfolio for Jane's birthday

Here is a picture of the padfolio I have made for my friend Jane's Birthday. She had been eyeing mine up and since she is a Sister specialising in Diabetes she takes notes all day. I made the background by laying strips of black and turquoise under misty fuse. I then used the automatic stitches to hold things a little more firmly. I then also attached 3 squares of embossed copper shim. I made a tag for the end of the cord from shim too. I love the colour in this piece.

Hanging being put together at last!

I have finally finished all the pieces for my hanging. I took them to work today and Nick helped me to wire it to a diamond shape frame he made for me. He then soldered the joints to me so it is nice and firm. He alos drilled the holes in the perspex rod for me and I have the wires through it now. There is still much to do, and it is blinking huge! It is going to be fairly hard to free machine down to the backing as I planned so I may have to consider something else, I hope not though as it would look much better. Lord alone knows where I am going to store the monster!!!

Daffs and samples

I have finished my Daffs postcards today, and early in the week they will be off to the lovely ladies who entered my Welsh challenge for St. David's day on textile challenges, the yahoo group I run. I used the Richard Box method for the leaves, using free zig zag stitch. I then couched down a pipe cleaner for the petals, to which I herringbone wove the infill. I then couched a ring of pipe cleaner down using an eyelet stitch. I really enjoyed making these. I hope the ladies like them and their other treats as much.

The next piccy is my samples for the sin of lust for my doors project. Textile challenges girls all voted to work the same theme with the same 3 starting ingredients. The theme chosen was doors/windows and I decided to make an accordian book of doors with the sins behind the doors. This will be my second C+G project. My target is to complete one, Lust, by the end of the month to put into the challenge. So I decided to have a tortures heart behind the door and so have been playing with the felt melt thing. I decided that the red thread on red felt was not showing up enough, so you will see I switched to black, I don't know about this, I might look for a darker red to do it in instead. The plan is to have the heart held by threads, tortured in the doorway. I have also layed up some scrim and emulsion for the doors, but haven't had time for that yet.

Mother's day gift for my Mum

I have made a little gift for my Mum, for her years of putting up with me and Craig, and since she received it today I thought I would show it to you. It is a book cover for an A5 hard back book. I added 3 free machined flowers and used pearl buttons as the centres I made the cord on the machine . I love this chintz fabric, we have had it in the box at school for a while and I have been thinking what I cold do with it for a while. There are 2 pictures as the flash deadened the pattern, so one is flash on one it flash off! I hope she likes it.

Water hanging on the way

I thought I would show you that I am not hiding, but am in the process of putting together my water hanging of C+G. This was based on texture, and I chose water over the sand as my theme. Way back in the posts I showed the model, and now this is the real thing. It will be about 2.5m long when complete. I also made the slips to fix on to it. The aim of my piece was to be altered by the viewer, so the gathers can be manipulated by the viewer and some slips will be able to be moved to button hole bars, with a hook, to alter the composition of the central panel too. The centre panel is beaded but you can't see it in this picture.3 more gathered strips to do, then I can wire it to a frame the boys in work have made me, that i will couch to a piece of interlining to form the centre panel. What do you think?

Received lovelies

I have had a smashing post day today! Firstly Anna Nowicki of Serendipity blog is coming to my school to do a workshop with my kids, and has sent me a card made from a coke can. Isn't it fab, she does the most amazing work! I know that I will be her most demanding pupil!!!


Below this is the ATC's i have received from FIBERATC yahoo group. I made the leaves on the line ATC's for this swap based on travel, and this is what i got in return. One has alluded me, i have lost it somewhere, in the space of 4 hours! Typical of me, when i find it I will post this too.
Not for you to think i am not working, but lots has been getting in the way of late, and i am still working on the hanging too. i don't seem to be getting anywhere really, lots of hamster-like running, but not getting any further. Hope i wil get something done by the end of the week.

Tast - Barred chain and alternating barred chain

Hia everyone, i am sorry posts have been thin on the ground of late, work has been very high pressure at the mo, and life has been putting me in a bad mood.
Anyway here is a peek at my C+G resolved piece for texture, which is a hanging, and if you check back through the posts I have blogged on it's development lots! It is coming together now, but beading takes ages!
Also here is my TAST barred chain, I really liked this stitch, it was new to me and I think it has given a really organic feel to the sample, hence the addition of flowers. I have been stripping copper electrical wire for my hanging and have kept some of the plastic covering for "something". One is brown one is blue, I used some of the brown to couch down on this piece. I had to do the alternating barred chain in a zig zag to do this. I also used it to couch down circles of sequin waste.This was a lovely stitch to do, really textural and crunchy!

I got in! Had to do it at work though!

Hello all, just to start I would like to say something has gone scrambly on my home PC and I am having to do this post at school. But I have been a busy bee while away and have made few things. I am currently beading like crazy the cenral panel for the water hanging, but until finished it looks pooy! So have not photographed that!

Above you will find a padfolio I have made for my sister Vicky's birthday on friday, I won't say how old she is as she is coming up to the scary one with an 0 on the end! I used the lovely hand dyed fabric that Gillian sent me again and I have to say she has encouraged me to get dying too, it's so much nicer to work with the way the colours have turned out in the fabric, like on the back of the padfolio. You will also find my TAST for last week which is CROSS stitch. I thought I would love the simplicity of this stitch and in many ways I do, but I don't like my smaple very much, it is a bit blocky and no flow I think.

Lastly you will see my daffodil that was suposed to have been posted last Thursday for St.David's day, but blogger wouldn't let me in! A belated happy St.David's day to all, especially Mag's of Digital Gran as her gransone Charlie David was born on this day! Also to the girls at Textile challenges, my online group, thanks for indulging me with your welsh challenge submissions, some lovely work was produced. The daffs postcard will be one of the prizes winging it's way to some of the girls. Thanks for bearing with me , and no I haven't dropped off the edge of the world. Also just quickly to all, I think the last month has been a pooy one in my life and seemingly in a good fewof my freinds lives, online and off, and so I wanted to say, spring is coming, everything will seem easier when the sun is out and the daffs are blooming! Love Carol T

I am having big problems with blogging at the mo, am still around check my flickr if you like!

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