Mail

Recently I received this ATC from Gunnel and I should have posted it on my blog before this but I forgot, sorry Gunnel.
I love the way she used a postage stamp on it and she has also used her own marbled fabric. Today I received a small parcel from Sandy Jandik from La Center in the US
Sandy and I have been friends now for about 12 months -we met through an ATC swap.
Recently she won a piece of fabric left from a project that Sue B had made and I asked Sandi if I could have any scraps that she didn't use.
You can see on Sue's blog a photo of what Sandy made with her piece of fabric.
And I bet Sue didn't realise that her fabric would have ended up in so many different places.
Anyway she did send me some and here they are- they aren't big pieces but when I put them together I know I will use them and I will show you later what I have done with them.
I do have something in mind.
Thank you Sandy for sharing.


She also sent me some scrappy bits of fabric which is like sending coal to Newcastle as the old English saying goes but hey a girl can never have too many bits of fabric can she.

I intend to do something with them and then share it with Sandy--so keep looking in the mail box Sandy but give me a couple of weeks.

More Nuno Felting

Here are the final samples from last weekends Nuno Felting workshop.
The first one is the front and the second one is the back depending on which way you want it.
I placed the silk georgette fabric with the predominantly purple colour on the bottom and then lay the wool tops out in a fine layer to form a grid on top this.
I then placed a piece of aqua silk organza over the grid and began the felting process as before.

What happens is that the wool fibres shrink and the two fabrics bubble up between the holes in the grid forming this amazing pattern.

In the next samples I used 4 different coloured wool tops to make the design--the first photo is the front and the next one is the back.

I will make this into a small art quilt .

The back is a piece of cheap indian cotton that was very thin but it already had the tye die pattern on it.

The last piece was placed on a piece of black cotton voille and the wool tops were layered and a fancy wool fibre was laid on top to form a grid and then snippets of hand dyed cotton scrim were scattered on top of this.

The back shows the black fabric with the coloured wools migrating through.

This will also be a small art quilt.

All of these pieces measure 10" by 8" (25cm by 20cm)

TAST Week 21 Crossed Buttonhole stitch

Week 21 is Crossed Buttonhole stitch.
I like this stitch also and I like the way it can be made into flower stems and leaves in the one process.
I used Aida cloth and Perle cotton to do this sample--and I decided not to use the variegated thread this time because I was becoming too predictable in the choice of threads-but-I will be returning to them next week because the plain ones are very boring. I wonder what we will be doing next week.

TAST Week 20 Butterfly Chain stitch

Week 20 saw us doing Butterfly Chain stitch and again I had not heard of this stitch before-but again I found it a most enjoyable stitch to do.
I have used 28 count Gobelin and Perle 5 thread.
I got a bit wonky at the end of the blue row but I left it in and I will call it a creative treatment.I hate playing catch up like I have been the last few weeks but I will try to hard to keep up in future,

The Artists Muse

Recently I joined an online group called The Artists Muse and each month we have a challenge-the first was to make a mandala and this month was the Spring of Creativity.
The theme was to have a flower/spring feeling.
I have just attended a Nuno felting workshop(see previous Post) and I decided to do my challenge in this medium-I was unsure as to how it would work but I am happy to say I think I achieved what I set out to do.
The base fabric is cotton that I had rusted a few years ago and on this I lay out at right angles the wool fibres .
I used 3 different greens and then put the whisps of red down to resemble a flower and several buds (primitive as the are) and I added a small amount of mauve as a hi-lite.
The gold centre is a piece of wool challis.
The felting process was done in a bamboo blind and finished off on bubble wrap-less stressful on the hands than the old circular motion technique.
When I had finished and it was dry I then hand stitched with running stitch firstly the flowers- stems and leaves then I echoed the design to give it texture. I have varied the distance of the rows as an added feature.
I didn't crop the photo completly because I wanted to show the finished edge where the reverse side had rolled over to form a border.
This is the reverse side showing the rusted fabric and the detail in the stitching.

Here is a close up showing the detail around the flower.

And the reverse side where the flower is.

My hands are sore from all this stitching and I still have to do my TAST challenges (2 now).

I wonder what next month holds for us

A great weekend

I have been away for a few days on another coach trip which was very enjoyable.
But I have just had the best weekend that I have spent in a long time.
I have been at a 2 day workshop doing Nuno felting with Fiona Wright an Australian felter who does the most amazing work. If you ever get the opportunity to do a workshop with this lady then go for it.I am showing a few of the samples that I made but they will have stitching on them later.
I first laid out a piece of black cotton Voile fabric and then placed the white wool fibre in a fine layer at right angles on top -then I placed pieces of silk fabric -either Paj-Chiffon or Organza on top .
I had placed a fine layer of georgette on top but I removed it before I started the felting process.
When I finished this I didn't like it because it was a bit disjointed.

This is the back and you can see how the white wool fibres have migrated through.

This is the piece after I had done running stitch on it-now I am happy with it. It is so soft and drapes beautifully.

This is my second sample using the same technique but I have used a different backing fabric.

I will stitch on this later in the week.

Here is the backing fabric which is a piece of cotton Sari fabric.

This is the back of my 3rd sample and I used blue cotton voile fabric this time.

The front of this sample is a piece of black silk organza that I had discharged in a workshop about 8 years ago and the discharged colour is a cream/soft green.The backing fabric was covered with raspberry coloured wool fibres plus lime green and then I added a small amount of teal wool scattered in a few places.
When this had felted up the fibres had migrated both to the back and front which is what it is suppose to do.

I am going to stitch this with perle 8 cotton and I will post it on the blog later-but first I have to do last weeks TAST sample.

As I said before I thoroughly enjoyed this class-I had done a class before in Nuno felting but I have learned so much from these 2 days and can't wait to do some more.

A point to note also is if you are doing Nuno felting you need a natural fabric for the backing and you need to test it because sometimes the tag says 100% cotton but in fact it could have polyester in it and also the cheapest crappy cotton fabric which has a loose weave is usually the best and should felt up perfectly.

TAST Week 19 Basque Stitch

Well finally I have caught up with my Tast stitch challenge-and here is week 19 which is Basque stitch.
I had never heard of this stitch before and I really liked working it.
I have used another variegated thread and the colours are a bit darker than they look in the photo.
The fabric is an even weave woollen fabric that I had in my stash.
I have also used Stem stitch in the centre section


Now I'm all ready for week 20 --my how the time has flown.

TAST week 18 Woven and Whipped Wheels

I'm playing catch up this week--I don't know how I got behind but I did so here's the first one.
Week 18 for TAST is Woven and Whipped Wheels.
I love this stitch or should I say technique-there's something about it that makes me feel good when I am doing it.
I used a variegated silk thread again and I love the look that it gives.
I did some fill in with my favourite stitch French Knots in silk and DMC Perle 5 thread.I have also included some Dorset Buttons that I had made previously as the same technique is used when making them.

Now on to Week 19 to catch up.

Girly Tin

Yesterday I did a workshop at my favourite Paper Art shop and we made this great tin.
We stuck the papers to the tin using double sided tape and then we added the embellishments.
The trims are either ribbons or braids and they were stuck on with double sided tape also-in fact everything was stuck down with double sided tape.
The shapes were cut out with paper punches from either paper or card stock.
We then tied on some ribbons to the handle and added tags to the ribbons.
The front of the tin is above.
And here is the back-------

The top-------

One end-----

and the other end----

The tin is about 17cm W x 13cm H x 10 cm D and was painted white in the beginning.

I think I will use it for something special like saving money for an embellisher.

ATC from Peggy

I received this ATC from Peggy over a week ago and meant to put it on my blog but I don't know what happened because I couldn't find it to take a photo.
Somehow it had fallen down the side of my sewing table and I only found it when I was looking for something else that had fallen down there also.
I'm sorry Peggy because it is so beautiful and this photo does not do it justice.
It is made from tyvek and fabric but it looks like it is made from leather.
Thank you so much Peggy.

Paper Arts

Just a short post to show you something.
We had out Paper Arts group meeting today and I was showing the girls different techniques on how to do backgrounds for cards.
We used Webbing spray- stamps and different types of stamp pads also embossing pads etc.
I took a photo of the work table while the girls were having their lunch.
Have you ever seen such a mess---mine is amongst this also.
You would have to wonder how we achieved anything but we did. Is this what they call a mess or is it the start of something wonderful--I'll leave you to form your own opinion.

I've been Tagged

I've been tagged by Dianne and I have to name 7 random things about myself and then I have to tag 7 other people.
Let me see--
1- I love my Husband --he is the most important person in my life and my children and grand children follow closely behind him.
2- I love my Bernina 1260 and wouldn't trade it in for anything.
3- I enjoy the company of good friends especially the ones in the many groups that I belong to.
4- I cook but only because I have to and not because I enjoy it(but I love eating).
5-I don't like ironing (who does) My new years resolution this year was to keep the ironing up
to date -and it lasted 5 days.
6- I love spending money on creative "stuff"--fabric -threads -paper-books(bring on the craft shows).
7- I don't like gardening it interferes with my creative time.We have Native shrubs etc in our
garden and they look after themselves.
There you are that's me done and now I have to tag 7 others so here goes and I offer my apologies in advance if you have already been tagged for this one --
Linda Julie Penny Ati Susan d Janet and Elaine

My Altered Book

Recently I made a comment on Micki's blog about her altered book and said that I had made an altered book.
Micki asked to see it-so I have decided to put it on my blog.
Now I suggest that you make a cuppa and get yourself comfortable because it is a long story.
I decided to make this book partly as a memory to my Mother and partly because I had been collecting old sewing things and needed to do something with them.
The book that I used was one that I had won at school for Home Arts (sewing-cooking and all that stuff)
Chopping it up was not a problem because I had never read it anyway
The title "Picking up Pins" comes from early memories as a child sitting on the floor while my Mother did her sewing because she was a dressmaker and I had to be in the room while she did her work.
I haven't put all the pages here because it would take forever to explain -so here is a glimpse of what it is all about.
Through the window you can see the notice that states why I won the book. The next page is the contents page- and I have listed all the chapters in the book here.


Chapter 1 is Trims--and I have added on the next few pages things like lace- ric rak braid etc.

Chapter 2 -is Threads and these included hand and Machine threads -mainly pictures.

Chapter 3- is Fasteners-press studs -hooks and eyes etc.

And I also added a zipper which does open and close on the page.

Chapter 4- is patterns I photo copied an old paper pattern and instructions etc.

Chapter 5 -is notions-scissors pins tape measures etc .

Chapter 6 -is fabrics -I have a selection of fabric pieces in this chapter that mean something to me -the one on this page is a piece of fabric lace that I made on Solvy.

These pieces of fabric are from an old dress that a friend gave me.

Chapter 7-is Sewing Machines--

This page has stitches that I sewed on my machine-I removed several pages-painted them and stitched on them and then glued them back in the book.

The last 2 pictures are on the second last and the last page.

The photo is of me-taken over 20 years ago in one of my own creations that I had sewn.

I have written the story of how and why I made the book and if you click on the pages you should be able to read it.

I hope you enjoy the read.

ATC's received

I have recently received two beautiful ATC's and I must apologise for not showing them before this.
The first one is from Emmy and I love the colours.She also enclosed some samples of hand dyed fabric-needle felting and some fibers.

When the envelope arrived it had a big sticker on it stating that it had been opened by Australian quarantine officers --because they thought they saw something suspicious in it when it went through the xray machine.Now I ask you does this look very suspicious to you----

Maybe the wanted to look at Emmy's beautiful card. Then I received this lovely card from Ati which has beautiful hand embroidery on it.

Also enclosed was a beautiful piece of fabric and a matching piece of fiber.

Thanks to both Emmy and Ati for their beautiful art.