Saturday, December 09, 2006

Needlefelt Rectangles Challenge

No artistic merit in this composition,but an attempt to meet the challenge of
"Shapes: Rectangles" before attempting the next challenge:

Firstly,using brown (craft) felt as the foundation I needle felted some Sari yarns,then cut them to shape.
The three tone green rectangle was felted directly to the green foundation,
and the rectangle superimposed on it was cut to shape then embellished to the base felt.
The sari yarn rectangles were then cut to shape and added.
(Some metallic threads were added for extra 'life'

My personal reaction to sari yarns?
Make sure you choose the type designated as suitable for embroidery......it's softer,easy to handle and fairly easy to 'destruct' or unwind to fibres for needle-felting.
On the other hand,the orange-red toned yarn above was purchased for knitting......NOT a good move,as I found it rough and scratchy and not at all pliable or satisfactory for the scarves I intended knitting...........it seems to have a high component of fabric strips rather than the respun fibres of the embroiderers yarn Posted by Picasa

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Quilters' F-Words

The following excerpt arrived as an Email,and I just HAD to share with you.Enjoy!

"A little background--I wrote my Artist Statement (The Surprise Factor)with a little bit of humor. IMVHO, some of the artist statements Ihave read at various quilt shows sound a little pompous and lofty (tome). It seems like serious business, and I think a more relaxedapproach appeals to and encourages others to think that they, too, canshow their work.
I included this little essay, along with all the blurbs and paperworkfor the exhibit and I really liked to see the smiles on the faces ofthe readers as they read and then scrutinized my quilts, and have themrealise that we are all in the same boat, and we all have talent, andit is supposed to be fun!
Quilter's F-Words
I have been asked why I usually name my quilts with words startingwith the letter F. Fabricated Flurries, Fabricated Feathers,Fabricated Forest, Facets and Reflections, and Fabricating a Fond Farewell are just a few of the quilts I completed for a show at HomerWatson Gallery.
My response was that I am fascinated with F-words as I cut, stitchand complete a quilt. Aren't F- words a part of every quilter'svocabulary?
Now, before you get flustered, I should elaborate, and try to explainexactly what I mean. I have a fondness for every facet of fabricating..
It goes without saying that Fabric is always on my mind-I am a fabricfanatic-but fat quarters made with florals or fruit aren't really myfavourite. I have a fond fixation for fussy cutting and funky fabricand fragments of these are never frittered away.
The fraternity of quilters is frequently female, but a few malesfabricate, too. We never have enough file folders to keep our freebiepatterns found online organized and at our fingertips.
We all have fancy machines to facilitate our fabrications, but a few of us find Featherweights are fine, too.
We are all familiar with frog-stitching (rip-it, rip-it) and fussy-cutting and freezer paper for foundation piecing. We all fantasize about fancy flourishes and are full of ideas to bring to fruition.
We all have to be flexible financially to finagle funds from our finances for affordable fabric. And we must always purchase enough-we try to be frugal, but it is fairly frustrating trying to figure out where you found the fabric in the first place! And we find that this frame of mind fatigue forms frown lines on our faces.
We all know that frazzled feeling when we foolishly promise to finish a fabrication and time flies so fast, we have to stay focused to finish. Most of us are afraid fellow quilters will find the flaw that we tried to fix when we made a faux-pas figuring out that fraction. By now, we are fraught with frustration and we have to force that fabric to fit. This is often referred to as the Fudge Factor.
It concerns me that I was forced to forgo fitness so I could finish fabricating for this show, and now I am fretful that I have a flabby fanny-I ate a lot of finger food. I made frequent forays to the freezer to forage for food for my family that could be defrosted fast.

I think my favourite F-words are in the familiar refrain: Fabric,Flat, Friends, Fortunate and finally......Finished!

So, you see, I (and now I'll bet you do, too!) often think of F-words when fabricating.
What did you think I meant??

Anne Beaudoin Ontario."


...and FYI,the lady featured in an Exhibition "The Art of Quilting" last April.
http://www.museumsontario.com/museums/events/details_view.aspx?event_id=2781

Fortunately for you my friends I felt like finding some facts about a lady who could fabricate with words as well as fabric.

Morning smoko

If you look closer,you'll see three different species of birds sharing the Feathered Freeloaders Restuarant!
The blue and yellow birds are pale headed Rosellas;
Sitting on the bowl on the right is an immature Magpie----hatched out about 3 months ago!
And the brilliant scarlet is of course the male King Parrot.
Waaaaay up in the branches above the King Parrot can be glimpsed the female Pale -headed Rosella who is more shy than her mate. Posted by Picasa

Monday, December 04, 2006

Janome Xpression




To keep Emmy of the Embellisher group on Flickr happy,I've posted four different views of my Janome Xpression.....a needle punching/embellishing machine.

The first view is of how 'she' looks..a lightweight compact machine.
Lightweight because it doesn't have the bobbin and shuttle and thread carrying components of standard sewing machines.
No thread is used for stitching at all-----the barbed needles meld(?) punch fibres into a base fabric, meshing all layers together.

This machine comes with a five needle configuration and a single needle (and spares)
I like the fact that there is a movable needle guard to protect your fingers.........although I'm sure if you didnt watch out you could still punch a finger.

The second view shows the guard raised for a better view of the needle.

Picture three is the guard in position for embellishing.

Picture four:I've removed the free-arm and opened the front of the machine: that little "compartment is where any fluff or lint from the action up top hides out until you clean the machine..........guess who didnt clean the machine after her last effort.

Oh I forgot to mention:the toolkit and spare needles slot into that free-arm

Now as regular readers of this blog know,I've only had the Xpression for a very short time;
I'm an absolute novice at this and am learning as I go,with help from online friends.
What made me buy a Janome?
Well it's the fourth Janome I've bought.........does that say anything?
The price...........a lot less than other make(s) on the market.............I could not justify to myself the purchase of a Babylock......after all,I'm not a person who sells her work, so I couldn't defray the cost that way----

I'm happy with what I have at this point in time. Posted by Picasa

Sunday, December 03, 2006

A satisfactory day

Oh it feels good to see what's been accomplished today!

Two rich fruit cakes finally baked....for Christmas/New Year;

A beautiful loaf of bread;

Four jars of Tomato Relish

EIGHT postcards completed and ready for sending on their way as part of the Art2Mail Group 18 swap....(only another 15 to complete my committment there)
A birthday card printed for my only grandson's eighteenth birthday next week.

And I'm still trying summon courage to switch to BetaBlogger as 'everyone' seems to think I should.