Gothic Pattern

The theme for March at Unlimited Textiles is Gothic Pattern.
I love arches and ceiling bosses in cathedrals and I remembered a visit we made to Fountains Abbey a few years ago. In particular the vaulted ceiling of the Cellarium.
The Cellarium is only inhabited by bats now. Another Gothic feature maybe but no bats here on this quiltie.


I used purple satin for the background and cut arch shapes from dark green velour.
I wanted to continue the arch theme on the background hence the shadow quilting between the arches.
A close zig zag stitch in gold outlines the arches and golden beads represent ceiling bosses.
OK, I know there aren't any ceiling bosses in the Cellarium but let's just call it artistic license.

Close zig zag stitching finishes the edges. The quiltie measures 5ins square and will be on its way to Sandy in USA very soon.

In need of renovation.

This month at Textile Challenges I am sending my house front to Pam.
Her theme is "In Need of Renovation".

Of course I just had to do a thatched cottage seeing as Devon has lots of them
Most of them are in much better condition that this one I have to add.

I started with painted Lutradur over stone coloured cotton. The window and doors are made using scrapbook papers and roughly stitched to the house front.

The thatch is made from fancy fibres placed a stitched on in a haphazard way. I used a fabric marker to make the black "holes".
Machine stitching was next and the whole piece was rubbed with various brown ink pads.

Great fun, I hope Pam will like it.

Peaceful Daydream Blues

I made this quiltie for a trade with my good Internet friend Val.
We both love vintage ladies and both love flowers so the perfect theme to choose was "Vintage Flower Ladies"

I knew straight away the image I wanted to use. I wanted to give the impression that she was daydreaming near a shady stream on a lovely summer afternoon.

The background is my favourite.
Layers of felt, organza and painted nappy liners all stitched together and zapped with the heat gun. This was then covered with a chiffon scarf and flowers, leaves and swirls were free machined over it all.
This is my favourite technique as the outcome is different every time. I never seem to get the colours I think I will get and the texture changes every time. I just love the surprise of it all.

The flowers have heavily beaded centres.
There is a little tassel like embellishment with a "peace" disc hanging from it.
I found one little acrylic flower in the right colour way to add as a falling blossom.
The lovely lady is printed on to iron on cotton (from Crafty Computer Paper) and fused to the background.
A Sari Ribbon edging finished it off nicely I thought.
I'm happy to report that Val liked it ;0)

Before I go I wanted to tell you that I have been working very hard on my website.
It has a fresh new look, new items in the Art Gallery (with a closer look at my Mesoamerican items) and a brand new For Sale page.
I mention this as it is the only place will be selling on line at the moment.

I hope you will take a look at my website and I hope you like it.

Abstract and Pink and Orange

The "lottery" challenge this month at Textile Challenges is for a Colour Combinations ATC. I drew Pink and Orange.
The quiltie theme at Unlimited Textiles is Abstract.
Hmm, I thought these would work so well together.

The result: Abstract in Pink and Orange ATC and Abstract in Pink and Orange Quiltie.
The background is a piece of cerise cotton with a pattern in the same colour but deeper shade. I stitched other fabrics to the base with zig zag stitch in orange thread. All the pieced fabrics are hand painted pieces from some of my favourite projects. One or two of my favourite commercial fabrics sneaked in too!

Wot no beads!!!
That is right. For once I think beads would have been overkill. Well I think so, hmm maybe just..... NO not this time ;0)

Wall Flowers Panel

As well as working on the big Mesoamerican project with Jan for Textiles for Two, I am working on my own project on Nature from the inspiration around me in the North Devon countryside and coast.

This is my latest piece based on flowers growing against and old wall.
The base fabric is a piece of handmade felt I did last year. I trapped all sorts of bits and pieces with wool tops between soluble film and machined a close grid pattern over it all. I gave it a vigorous wash in hot water to felt the wools and dissolve the film. And that is how it stayed for a long while!

I recently found some gorgeous organzas in a fabric shop in Barnstaple. This one was a very pale lavender with embroidered flowers and leaves.
I used it as an overlay for my felt and machined a rambling stitch between the flowers. That looked OK but was missing texture. I love texture.
So out came my heat gun an the surface got a good blasting ;0)

I expected to get a lovely crusty surface that would feel like a stone wall but I didn't expect the flowers and leaves to pop out quite as well as they did.
I burnt all the organza away from the edge to leave it quite rough. I added beads to the centre of the flowers and some little beads and sequins around the background.

I'm not sure how I will finish it yet, maybe I will apply it to some velvet, I think the contrast in textures would be good but whether it will be a wall hanging or a framed piece, I just don't know.

Unfinished Symphony

The first swap of the year at Unlimited Textiles was an "Unfinished Symphony" swap.

The idea was to send an unfinished piece of work to your partner for them to do with what they wanted to make a finished piece of art.

I received a piece of experimental knitting and crochet from June.

Of course I pounced on the lovely flower motif at the top and with some hand painted cotton, some extra fancy wools and some needle felting I made this postcard. There are little beads at the centre of the flower and scattered on the "hillside" with a little silver ladybird peeping out from behind that flower.

Another shape jumped out at me - literally - and this little fishy art doll was born.
I did quite a bit of needle felting to make the lacy knitting a little firmer and make that lovely little tail.
The fishy is embellished with another little flower and beads and charms. There is a hidden fishy too for June to find.
I think this little doll is lots of fun and I hope June will agree.

Just in time for Valentines Day

The swap at Textile Challenges this month is for a padded heart to be made in time for Valentines Day.

Well, unusually for me, I am on time and here is my heart.

The heart panel is made from layers of singed organzas and lots of free machine embroidery. I don't think they show but there are little hearts embroidered with the gold thread.

I have stitched little pink roses to the panel and added some little beads round them. I didn't think this needed a lot of beads or the gold hearts would disappear altogether.

The heart itself is made of patterned velvet and the whole thing is lightly stuffed.

It measures 6ins long.

It will be on it's way to Pam very soon.

Dezdamona

Meet Dezdamona.
Let me tell you about her.

My hairdresser, Dez, loves Girls Aloud and in particular their song "The Promise"
He entertained the salon over Christmas with his own rendition of this song complete with all the right dance moves. I think he really should have been on the stage.

So the idea of Dezdamona was born.
I thought, at first, I would make a doll but changed my mind and decided to just make the front of a small doll and appliqué it to fabric.

The background is hand painted cotton. The base of the doll is calico, tinted with fabric pastels. Her dress is made from layers of silk and organza with free machine embroidery.

Dezdamona herself is padded and quilted to give her her lovely curves.
Her hair is made from fancy threads and yarns. She is in need of a hairdresser I think although, she has some little beads in there to give it sparkle.
Her jewellery is made from seed beads.

I have added the words "The Promise", "Starting to fade", and "Dezdamona" using transfer paper printed on the computer. A sprinkling of crystal stones adds to the glitz.

I mounted the piece onto board so it can be framed or hidden in a drawer ;0)
It measures approx 9 x 6 inches.

Oh by the way. Dez loved Dezdamona and she made lots of friends being passed around the salon.

Moon Goddess

My very last arch of the year long swap at Textile Challenges is for Carol Rowland.
Carol likes fantasy figures so a Moon Goddess came to my mind.

The background is calico painted and stamped with acrylic paints. The detail on the side is drawn with pen and ink.
The goddess herself is one of my drawings that I scanned into the computer and printed out on to cotton.

I get the printable cotton from Crafty Computer Paper. You print the image, cut it out, peel off the backing and iron in place.

I wanted it to look like she is gathering energy from the moon so I used metallic thread to sew the energy lines and added seed beads for sparkles.
The edge is satin stitched with metallic thread.

Mayan Sun

The theme for November on Unlimited Textiles was "The Latin American Way"
I really fancied doing something bright, colourful and based round carnival.

So what happened?
Well the thing is I have a fascination for Mesoamerican cultures and elements of this just slip into my work from time to time.
In fact I am working on a body of work on this subject with my good friend Jan.
So you see the Mayan vibes just took over ;0)

The background is made up from layers of cottons and organzas. I wanted the simple quilting to represent the stone blocks used in Mayan buildings.
The sun was an important symbol to these people and mine is made from some of my handmade silk paper attached to the background with seed beads.

This quilt is now on the way to Marga in Florida. Marga lives the "Latin American Way" so I hopes she enjoys my interpretation.

Stone Wall Inspiration

This arch is for Hannah.
One of the themes she chose is Nature and she likes blues, green, golds, and purples.

Well this isn't strictly nature but is inspired by the walls in Devon.

We have lots of lovely dry stone walls and cob and stone walls.
Cob is a mixture of earth and clay.
I love the texture of these walls and the way moss clings to them. I have enjoyed seeing the rain sparkling on them this year too.

I think of these walls as part man made and part nature and a what a wonderful combination they make.


I started out making this arch by painting bondaweb and bonding it to organza. I blasted the fabric with the heat gun and allowed it to bubble and go quite hard in places.
I cut up this fabric into pieces I thought could represent stone slabs and stitched it down onto cotton velvet. I also put some strips of gold organza on and stitched them down and zapped with the heat gun again.
I added little beads to represent the raindrops, we have had a lot of them this year.

What you don't get here is the texture. It has a rough feel and I think feels a little like the stone wall it is made to represent. I hope Hannah thinks so too.

Here Kitty Kitty!

Well the wedding of the year (at least in our family) is in 10 days time.
I am dashing round getting things together for the Orders of Service and the Guest Book. Things have dropped so far behind.

On a brighter note as you can see my little kitty bag is finished.
I love him, he is so bright and such fun to use.
My favourite part is his head, I just love his big beady eyes and brightly coloured cheeks.
I gave him a hooked over tail as all the cats we have had have walked with their up like this. We call it trolley bussing! LOL

I haven't got my bag for the wedding yet. It would give everyone a big smile if I used this don't you think!!

Nature

The theme for April at Unlimited Textiles was Nature inspired. We were swapping a 5" square quiltie and a bag.
I love nature and most of my work is inspired by it one way or another.

When I went to the Quilt Exhibition in March I took a mini class on needle felting so decided to use what I learnt on my little quilt.

I used clematis as my inspiration.
I roughly drew the flowers and leaves to the navy felt then used my Clover needles to felt the whispy wool to the design.
After some machine embroidery to give the flowers and leaves shape and definition I added little beads for the flower centres.


My bag was inspired by the sea and clouds. I layered strips of velvet, silk and organza then machined wavy lines all over the fabric. I added little beads to give a bit more movement and made a machine wrapped cord with some fancy wools.
The bag is just big enough to carry a moble phone on a walk.

A few Journals

Just recently I have been on an on-line course with the most excellent Sue Bleiweiss.
This class was Journal Making for the Fibre Artist.
As usual I found Sue's class informative, clear to follow, fun and absorbing.

These are the first 3 journals I made on the class.
The first measures 9ins high and 8ins wide when closed.

There are three signatures each with a pocket on the front of each to hold tags or found goodies. Inside are decorated pages. Some stamped and some with stickers or printed images.

I have started to use this one for my patchwork class and the pocket at the front holds the templates for my current project.





The second journal is actually a sketchbook.
It measures 9ins high and 12ins wide when closed.
There are pockets inside the front and back covers to hold pens, pencils and paintbrushes.
I used watercolour paper for the pages.
It is bound with binding rings so pages can be replaced easily.






The third is made like a scrapbook album and would make a wonderful gift with photos mounted inside.

I used asian type fabric and used a chop stick and beads as embellishments to the binding.
Inside used handmade papers, vellum and hand painted papers.


There are 5 journals on the course. I am starting my last one today.
I will show you number 4 and 5 later this week ;0)

Art Nouveau

The theme for January's swap at Unlimited Textiles was Art Nouveau.
Well new year, new art.

I love this style. It flows and grows with spirals and curves and is just beautiful.
With my love of flowers it was certain what I would choose as my focus.

I had some lovely pieces of green silk that were too small to do much with but made great backgrounds for my flowers.
The flowers are organza. I cut out the shapes with a small point on my soldering iron.
I like to do this as the edges don't fray but I have to remember to wear a mask as the fumes are unpleasant.

I did a little detail with gold thread which quilted the items too.

The ATC's are zig zagged onto pelmet vilene and the quiltie (5" x 5") is backed with hand painted cotton.

The Flower

The main inspiration for this piece was the gorgeous clematis in my garden.
Its lush purple flowers are fading now and are paper thin. It is not hard to imagine that you can see my lovely Cob wall showing through the petals.

The fabrics are all painted, dyed and stamped by me - such fun ;0) - and pieced together in a crazy manner on batting, with the flower machined over it all.
Little buttons symbolize the falling blossoms.
I mounted the crazy quilt to some gorgeous navy velvet and made a machine wrapped cord from sari silk to hang it by.
The crazy quilt measures 7.5ins x 9ins the whole quilt measures 10.5ins x 11.5ins and its hanging length is
22.5ins

Do you remember the exercise Sue Bleiweiss set and I created the crazy backgrounds?
Well I tried to do a similar thing here. Not quite the same I know, I gathered the right colours together this time but I did just put the pieces on to let them have a life of their own and I left the edges raw with no or very little tidying.

I think the quilt does have a life and the edges seen to echo the feel of Autumn in its "aged" look.
Roger thought it had a Cubist look to it hence it became the "Picasso Garden"








You can find this piece for sale at my Etsy shop.