Bowls and cuffs

Been busy making more bowls - lots with holes in :-

Then I moved on to making bracelets, cuffs :-)

I was looking for one of those Crohns awareness bands (the rubber ones) and could not find one I made my own!! - it is purple

New Work

Sorry it has been a while since I last wrote but I have a) not been well - still, b) its been too hot and sunny to work and c) I have been busy :-)

I have had two wonderful weekends away with my lovely textile art friends - the first weekend was with the MEG group in Salisbury. The second was a long weekend (Friday to Tuesday) with the group Textile21 where we were in Kingcombe.

So what was I doing? Firstly making more of my Waste Not Want Not products - I now have Mug rugs, brooches and bracelet/cuffs -

 

NEXT - I finished off stitching on the Doors piece I have already shown you - then I started work on a Zentangle version of my Doors piece - its A3 in size and as you can see is still a work in progress.

 FINALLY - I started another piece - it is much bigger and although it has started off in the same method  - as I work on it, it may change.  I can only show you the work in progress at this time as it has a very long way to go.

I chose two of my favourite door photos and cut them in two sizes - arranged them in a pleasing design, then doubled, mirrored and off set it.

The textile background is still in the Wendy Dolan technique of white on white fabric then painted, although I have found online that this technique has been used for many many years by loads of other artists so its not just Wendy's technique. Anyway - white on white then painted in a delicate violet and azure blue.

 Here I have just started the stitching of the design outlines.

Klimt jacket complete and some New York pieces

So  as promised - The Klimt Jacket is complete and it does fit me (needs a good pressing now) - These are pictures of the lace I made for the collar and cuffs...

Pics do not do it justice - Front and side

Back view 

 Oh and I must share this photo with you - look at the size of the scones Pete made for us during our stay at Kingcombe.... They were truly yummy.

 Below are pictures of two of my New York stitched pictures - the top one is a fabric collage with free machine stitching,  The bottom one is free stitching only.

Update October 2013 - garden, Cas Holmes (New York) and Klimt Jacket

This is the first year I have not gone to the Knitting and Stitching show - feel lack of inspiration - I know by going it may have ignited my inspiration but I have not been in the right place to encourage it.

Garden update: First celeriac picked and eaten (delicious!)

 Last of the tiny carrots - Yummy!!

25 pounds of tomatoes picked, ripened and these last few turned into Pasta sauce and frozen. Onions drying in the garage,

Cas Holmes course pics - I was really disappointed with the course - not Cas - just the work I did based on her ideas - I was not organised enough and could not 'see' what the outcome should look like.  This is my 'page' but as you can see it is not balanced or exciting - won't do more of these...

However I did have a bit of an ah ha moment when one evening I went of on a tangent using my New York pics - This was a left handed (I am right handed) drawing of NY from under the Brooklyn bridge when I was there a couple of years ago,

 Turned into a paper collage - This is roughly A3 in size and I love it.
It even looked good photocopied - the tonal values are good.

The next one was portrait in layout and was also lovely.  The next was stitched rather than drawn and did not look right so I cut it up and re-arranged it but am not happy with the re-arrangement 

so I have divided it into three and two sections look good on their own,

My next plan is to try to translate these pieces of work into fabric works.

Klimt Jacket update: I have started to join the main pieces together.  Sorry a couple of the photos are a little blurred.

 I have started working on the lace that will be the ruff at neck and cuffs- its made on fine net and has thread only edging made on water soluble - yet to be dissolved.

Close up.

Time for a Queen of Hearts Update

 The main jacket fabrics are ready for cutting out - I hope to get that done next week when I join Textiles 21 at Urchfont for the last time next week - I need the space as I can't use my kitchen floor at the moment due to the dog.  
Anyway in the meantime I have been making the 'lace' pieces which will form the collar and cuffs of the jacket.  I sandwiched a piece of my red net between two layers of water soluble fabric  and machined rows of the heart automatic machine pattern using red and black cotton in the needle and black in the bobbin alternating the direction. 
Then I free machined my usual red hearts in cable stitch - one row on the cuffs and a double mirror row on the collar.


I was so unsure what it would look like washed out... 

here is the collar just as I put it into the water I realised I had not taken a picture.  It has turned out better than I expected...

Getting there, another project idea and waste not

The 16 squares are all stitched now using this thread - I think it's Victory Royal - its purple, blue and turquoise - perfect match to my pieces. The next step is to decide on cream or matching strip fillings and then how to quilt it all together. In the meantime - you now I hate waste - so the off cut strips from tidying up the squares were bonded on to a black strip of fabric, stitched, trimmed and edged - a button was added and Voilà.... another cuff..... The other day when I had been looking for threads I came across yet another old piece of fabric- this was a piece that had been stencilled with markel oil pastels as part of my City and Guilds Course on Fabric decoration with Val Campbell Harding back in 2000!! It was not my fav piece of fabric but today I thought there is enough of this fabric to make 8 simple table mats. It just needs cutting into 8 pieces and then quilting simply following the lines of the print and then binding. What do you think??