Tuesday, November 16, 2010

TAST 2 Weeks 37 and 38

I am late with one stitch and early with the other.
The first stitch for week 37 in the TAST 2 challenge at Sharon B's is Kiko's Flower stitch.
This is a pretty stitch and easy to work out also-it consists of a Detatched Chain stitch- 2 Buttonhole stitches and a Bullion stitch to make each petal.





Week 38 is Picot Chain stitch--which is a chain stitch with a little Picot edge on the right.
If you click on the link above you will see the instructions for this.


I am going off on a cruise for 2 weeks leaving on Sunday so this will be my last post before I leave.
I have started getting everything ready to pack into my suitcase including the sea sickness tablets and some stitching to do if I get bored :))
I will certainly have to do some more catching up on TAST when I get back.
There are only 6 weeks of the TAST 2 challenge left--gosh the year has flown by fast.
See you all when we get back.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Fashion Designer or Model?

Fashion Designer or Model-------



On Saturday night Ebony decided to entertain herself and us by making "fashion" clothes out of garbage bags.
She made bras-nickers- a hat-top-skirt-pants and a vest and also shoes.
All was held together with sticky tape and she had us in stitches with laughter with the modelling antics that she went through.
I took a few photos to share with you.
This one was the full outfit--the layered look------------






Minus the skirt and the vest-------







Here is a halter neck backless mini skirt version (back view)------------






And the front view--------









Don't you just love the poses?

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Card swap with Suz

Recently I saw on Susans blog called Suztats that she had been playing with paints and watercolours and then she chopped up pieces of the work and made them into cards.
I commented on how I loved the one with the leaves on it and she kindly e-mailed me to ask for my postal address because she wanted to send me the card.
I then contacted her and said that I would send her one of my cards in return.
The card arrived today and it is breathtaking.






This is the card that I sent to her in return.




If you follow the link it will take you to the page where she has described how she did the painting technique.
Thank you Suz I love your card very much.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Creative Group at the Guild

Today was our Creative Group day at the Embroiderers Guild and I showed them how to do marbling using the shaving cream method and to colour it we used food colouring.
You can use other better inks but we chose to use food colouring to experiment.
Now don't all panic- the colours do stay true---I have some that I did about 6-7 years ago and it has not faded a bit.
If you are unsure how this is done-you need a can of shaving cream -the cheap unscented one is good enough.
First shake the can of shaving cream to get it all mixed up and then spray it into a small styrene foam meat tray that the meat at the supermarket comes in.
Don't make it too thick as this is wasteful.
Next you use a spatula to level it out and then put a few drops of different colours on top of the foam.
Then using a skewer swirl it around to get a design.
****** add on*****
Next place the fabric and paper onto the design and gently rub the back so that the colour transfers to the paper etc.
When you have done that gently lift it off and don't be scared because it will look terrible.
Next lay it on the table and with a scraper remove the shaving cream by scraping it off and the design is left behind on the paper.
You may have to wipe any residue off with a paper towel.
I have 4 food colours-blue-green-yellow and rose and one of the other ladies had black.
All these prints were taken off the original spray of foam and if you are not careful you can end up with mud.
The first picture is the first print that I did and it is on handmade paper and has turned out very strong.





The next one is on cotton fabric and is the second print--I just stirred it around a bit more with the skewer-----



This is the 4th print and what I did here was completely mix the foam up and I ended up with a pale green base so I added a few more drops of rose and green and also some black and made a design with the skewer.
I was unsure how this would turn out but what the heck.
Wow how good is this---------------



So I added some more yellow and blue and swirled the skewer again-the paper that I used was a cream hand made paper---------------


This one was on white card stock-----------------




Now starting to get muddied colours again this is cream hand made paper--------------



On this one I added a few squirts of white shaving foam on top and blended it in with the skewer----------




A little bit more white shaving cream was added and it gave me some lovely effects---------


This was the final print on a white card stock and it is very delicate-



Finally I used my Martha Stewart flower punch and cut out a few flowers to show the girls what they can do with their samples.
You can see the positive and the negative flowers. All in all I think I showed them a great demonstration

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

TAST 2 Week 36 Turkman Stitch

I am early again for the TAST 2 challenge but I have to keep up as we are going on holidays in a couple of weeks time and if I get behind now I will never catch up.
This weeks stitch is Turkman Stitch --I have heard of it but I had not seen it before.
This is a very easy stitch to work -it just swings from side to side.
The thread I have used is perle cotton number 8 and the top colour is more of an orange than a pink.
Not sure of the maker but it came in a small ball and the little *doover* in the top that explains all that stuff is missing..



*doover* my word for something I can't remember the name of.