First post 2012

Can't believe I haven't posted at all this year but hate the winter and don't feel inspired to do anything much. However today is a glorious day and it even makes me feel like cleaning...or maybe I'm just sickening for something.

The winter wasn't entirely wasted as I've been making a few brooches and had a day with the WI on Saturday showing them how to make the large flower ones. It was a very enjoyable day and they nearly all finished one. I had to prepare all the fabric backgrounds as it takes ages to do and consists of a layer of velvet, batik and merino wool all embellished together on my embellisher.

The brooches below have some of my glitzy fabrics and hand stitching on.

At my Monday textile group we have been making muslin paper which consists of a layer of muslin and crumpled tissue with lots of PVA. There are other versions which use transfoil and I have used this to make some boxes which I'll show in the next blog as I am finishing them off. I have however covered an address book with the original method and added a metal leaf for effect.

Christmas Challenge Results

Further to the pictures of my box which was to be entered for the Christmas Challenge here are the entries for it. We are a small group with not everyone entering.

I'm really delighted to say that my box won first prize and I received some lovely threads and beads as the result. 

Hardly a test of my skill amongst such a small number of entries but still not bad for someone who hated sewing all their life, gave it up in the second year of high school back in the dark ages to take up cookery  and who in April 2009 was looking on Youtube to find out how to thread a sewing machine.

Latest ramblings

Finally finished my craft fairs for this year, bit of a relief really as the house is a bit of a tip after spending so much time sewing but there are more exciting things to do than housework. Need to think of some new lines for next year but my first craft fair isn't until Easter so there is plenty of time but feel free to send me any ideas you have as its great to get feedback.

Getting on with my last project for the City and Guilds on walls. Had a bit of a writers block on the subject at first but the ideas are starting to flow in and think I've decided what to make for it. Need to do some background work and experiments first though and probably won't get round to making it until after Christmas but the last day of the course is 11th January so need to get on with it.

The Christmas Challenge is going to be judged by the chairman of the Embroiderers Guild on Monday so fingers crossed.

Just made a box as part of my daughter in law to be's present. I was lucky enough to find a beautiful triple dyed Batik with butterflies on and used it as my inspiration.

That's it for now, happy crafting.

Christmas Challenge 'The Essence of Winter Part 2'

In a previous post I showed my challenge for the textile group I go to but decided it didn't really meet the criteria of 'a substantial amount of couching' so decided to make something else and as I haven't made many boxes went for that.

It is made from felt and pelmet vilene with couched threads, organza leaves and has been lined with a wintery type fabric. The work is being judged by the chairman of the Embroiderers Guild in Norwich so I am a bit nervous as she is going to leave constructive criticism.

"All That Glistens"

I'm a bit of a closet Bollywood fan, not the singing but the fabrics and saris they wear. I love sparkly things and think over the winter I'll start experimenting with new designs to incorporate some of the fabrics I got this week from Ivy House Studio. Now I'm going to bore you with them and will show you what I create at a later date.

Sue Leonard Magic Metals Workshop

Thought I had better write a post as my blog is getting sadly neglected at the moment.

On Saturday I went to a workshop with the Embroiderers Guild in Norwich on metals with Sue Leonard who does lovely work and at the end of the day I realised my experiments were rubbish. We worked on copper and brass shim and copper and brass mesh.

The first thing we did was colour them by holding over a candle and this gave a great effect. This was to help any chemical agents we used to take better.

I only used lemon juice and balsamic vinegar but you can also use other agents such as wine vinegar and bleach. Then leave them for at least 24 hours.

This is lemon juice.

and Balsamic Vinegar

I think that the solid metal takes the effects better than the mesh which looks great just coloured with the candle.

We also coloured some lace paper which Sue layers with the metals and they look great placed over the shim.

I embossed some metal which looked quite effective

Some crimped examples which are useful for bits you make a mess of.

You can use a stamp to cut out shapes and use both the bits with holes in and the cut out bits in your work.

No idea what I'll do with the samples yet and will have to order some more shim to practice and do some stitching onto. I've also put in a request for a book The Art of Stitching on Metal by Ann Parr for Christmas which will hopefully give me some more ideas as metal can be very effective when combined with fabrics and stitch.

I've also just had a delivery of some shiny fabrics which I'll put in my next post so I can see me going sparkly next year.

Four more craft fairs before Christmas then a few months off to design and rethink new ideas.

City and Guilds Leaf Project

I've been busy finishing off my second project for the City and Guilds with this one being on leaves. The leaves I made for the finished project were shown in a previous blog post.

Had to do some background work such as leaf printing.

Also made leaves in various ways such as organza, stitching and cutting out with a soldering iron and using plastic which was inspired by Kathleen Laurel Sage which I am particularly pleased with. The plastic was purchased from her at the Knitting and Stitching show where her lovely work was on display.

Also did some printing and then stitched onto it.

The final leaf piece which is for assessment and will also be for the Hardingham Textile Group's Christmas Challenge is called The Essence of Winter and shows ( I hope) frosted leaves on the snow.

The mount is made from padded silk dupion as I wanted something soft I could sew over. The background is first a layer of foiled organza topped with metallic organza which is a lovely fabric as once wetted it goes into lovely folds. Threads were then couched on followed by the leaves and finally some beads before being mounted in a box frame.