Myfanwy H's card for theEmbellisher_Art_Postcard group has arrived !
The working is so delicate......she has needle punched wisps of fibre onto a blue foundation.......puts me in mind of the Summer skies I hope she should be enjoying in the northern hemisphere at the moment.
The three flowers are hand stitched.
.............and aren't the plants enjoying it!
Our rainwater tank is full and our yard can not soak up any more moisture.
Even the front yard which was pretty badly abused with heaps of soil,gravel,timber and an industrial waste bin is recovering.
The dead looking bare brown patches are greening into grass.
Mother Nature can be so forgiving.
The top photo is of a Cordyline fruticosa----one of my favourites with its blend of pinks,green and cream.Behind it is a dark burgandy cultivar and the narrow leaf is a "walking Iris" I liberated from my son's garden.
The middle photo is a combination of an Impatiens in the foreground
,and (yet another plant liberated from my son's garden a few year's back)I'm not sure of the correct botanical name,but commonly called variegated goose foot ,I think.
And the last photo.....Clivea,Draecena and unknown fern.
The draecena and fern languished in pots on a back patio at our original KenMaursCorner in the Caboolture Shire.
They really have relished the relocation.
After a few days of rain,glorious rain,the showers held off today........
On the far (southern) fence I've mounted this cane mirror ,
and I love the effect!
"One day" I'll mount a larger mirror that reflects the width of our narrow yard.
In the meantime........ I dream.
Another Clivea has bloomed! (See the tiny splash of orange at the base of the mirror?)
The Draecena,the Cordyline and the Crotons...the orange/yellow splash of colour 2/3s up the reflection are thriving.
Yesterday's mail delivered this sparkling beauty from Suzan W of the Embellisher_Art_Postcard group,where we've been having a swap.
For those of my CQing friends,"embellisher" is a term that resulted from savvy marketting by Babylock when they named their needle punching machine an "Embellisher"!
Being the first cab off the rank,so-to-speak,the name stuck,and whether you own a Janome Xpression like me or in the cases of others Viking and I think Husqvarna also have a machine in the market now,generally everyone says "embellisher"
This swap required that we needle felted a background,then went "wild"!
Suz has used gorgeous ribbons,threads,Angelina fibre(I think) and the lace motif.
Not being a skilled photographer I found this sparkling piece difficult to photograph.but trust me,it's a truly gorgeous card!
Thanks Suz!
The upper photo shows the partly finished PSI (plus sized inchies)
The lower photo shows them mounted on corrugated card.
What is an "Inchie" you ask:
Think of a fabric and fibre Postcard;
an ATC--Artist Trading Card----------and as night follows day,we get the Inchie and the Plus Sized Inchie!
Most people by now know of the Postcard with it's 6by 4 inch format;
The ATC
has a 2.5 by 3.5 inch size
and the Inchie, my friend ,is the miniature version of both the postcard and the ATC:
A one inch fabric and fibre art square.
And then Normajean Brevik over at Fiber Art Traders (aka "FAT" to its members)
took pity on those of us with fat fingers and introduced us to PSI..Plus Sized Inchies---
which are 1.5 inch squares.
Trust me,you'd be surprised at how much easier these art sqaures become with that extra half an inch in their dimensions!
The lavender,red,turquoise and purple squares on the left are all one inch squares,and the first I attempted.
The midnight blue and silver ones are 1.5 inch squares or PSI.
The four sets of Inchies were the first I made and were swapped on Carol Taylor's "Textile_ Challenges" group ....and I learned the hard way.!!
I was required to make nine one inch squares for each colour way.
Okay,easy.....a three inch square divided.
My first mistake was fusing the fabric to a stabiliser (in this case,Timtex)
Because I prefer hand work,this made things difficult when I started embellishing;
so I'd advise using a lightweight stabiliser (iron-on Pellon)
You'll also note that apart from most of the Lavender squares,and some of the Turquoise ones I did not "finish" the edges!
(Finished edges were not a requirement,but it does give a better effect)
Before I say anything further,let me tell you where I first heard of the Inchies......and it was Carol who told me:
An Australian woman,Dotee featured One inch fabric collages on her blog"Dotslifeandart"
http://dotslifeandart.blogspot.com/ in mid January this year when she blogged her Fabric Collage Tutorial;
Sara Letchner on http://artsquaresswap.blogspot.com/
also featured them i during May,where you can see how some members used their Inchies to create something else.
Carol on Textile_Challenges ran a Swap, and kindly helped with background information I'd forgotten about (Thanks Carol)
Normajean on FATS went to the slightly larger format.........
So really,how you fabricate your inchie is limited only by your imagination;
Think of them as miniature quilts.......having three layers like most quilts.
But do remember...if you you embellish heavily all over the square it will be difficult to do a machine edge finish after you have added the fabric backing.
My next sets I want to incorporate an eyelet in each one so that they can be more easily used as Charms.
Using light weight water soluble solvy
(At the time I knew of no other type)
some examples of needle-lace/trash-bag quilting:
Discarded threads and thin slivers of off cuts of fabric were laid over a layer of cold water soluble Solvy.
The fibres were stitched together to form a "fabric"/lace;It was then placed in cold water to dissolve the Solvy,leaving a new fabric/lace (call it what you will) which I used as CQ embellishment,and for fabric and fibre postcards.
Yesterday's mail delivered cards
from two swap members the Art2MailGroup29;
The upper one featuring frogs (and reminding me of the Green Tree Frogs that lurk in our garden) came from Anneliese in North Carolina.
Unfortunately the bloke sitting down lost an eye in transit,but some surgery with a heat wand and a clear crystal will repair that.
Doesn't this card (from Eva in Colorado) make you think
SUMMER and water melons?
I'm feeling a wee bit guilty.........so far I've received four cards and sent none.
However,now that my Inchies,Plus sized inchies and embellished post cards are done,I can meet my committments with this group and feel less guilty.
Remember the film a few years back...."Super size me" ?
Well, PSI (or Plus sized inchies") are slightly super- sized Inchies
;
These are 24 1.5 inch squares that left me today on their way to the USA.
With my recent run in the last six months of four or five packages apparently never reaching their destination I can only hope the postal pixies behave this time.
My colour scheme for this series was basically midnight blue and silver.........
So,how did that rusty pink square slip in?
I wanted to try enclosing an Australian stamp in Angelina film and I only hadsome "desert sunset sparkle" left.
By the way,Fiber Art Traders aka FAT celebrates it's second birthday today.
Happy birthday to Nj (the List momma) and all the others who have made this such a caring,sharing MAD place.
Three postcards ready for travel!
Three are needle felted and hand embellished;the fourth was an experiment.
The second card showing the pheasant ? peacock ?
(I'm not really sure what it is)
.........was constructed using a paper cutout I purchased in Beijing back in 1999.
At the time I found these cutouts,I had no idea how or what to use them for!
A week or so back I purchased some Misty fuse------
so,using a dark mottled green for background I placed a small piece of black Misty Fuse centrally.
Over that went the bird;and covering all I used some black bridal tulle.
Baking parchment over it all protected the various bits as I fused all together with the iron.
Some machine quilting to anchor the Angelina and outline stitch around the bird.
Next time,I'll take more time and care and do a better job of outline stitching the bird.
For now.......at least I have an idea how to finally use my Beijing purchase!
"Let's go fly a kite....................
Up where the air is bright
Let's all go Fly a Kite"
This weekend was the annual Festival of Kites at Clontarf on the Redcliffe Peninsula.
This festival brings together both amateur and "professiona' kite flyers and is so popular that this year,flying was by invitation only.
It was held on the foreshore of Clontarf in Pelican Beach.........the weather was perfect (from a specator's viewpoint anyway:
Temperature about 27 moderate south to nor easterly breezes,blue blue skies with a frosting of high cloud---------
and were those kites Spectacular!
(I really do need to improve my photographic skills before next year)
Two more sets of tiny treasures aka "Inchies"
arrived in my post box this week.
The upper set ,from Carol C in Scotland arrived today:
Carol has used varied means to embellish the one inch squares and I'm hoping to hear from her how the middle one in the middle row,and the left hand one in the third row were done.
The one in the second row has a (shaded) blue texture........Xpandaprint or something else?
The lower one reminds me of spilt silver solder,with a filigree silver bead superimposed.
These nine travelled from Patsy M in Colorado:
Unfortunately my flash is a bit heavy handed..will have to try again!
Patsy has chosen mainly denim for her inchies;and on some has also used foils to great effect.
Silver braid
stars
fringing
a silver palm tree and a beaded spray,and three foiled squares each featuring either a clear deep blue shell,butterfly or gemstone complete the set.
When I first signed up for this swap,I had no idea how I would assemble my treasures.......
Thankfully I'm starting to get ideas.
After one or two near disasters..........when my spirit of "what if" took action before my brain,here it is: needlefelted and ready for some quilting and extra embellishment.
You may remember that I used a painted nappy/diaper liner for the foundation cloth?
In a rush of enthusiasm I decided to see what effect I'd get if I sprayed the piece with a mist of water and steam pressed it........
Trust me,
don't do it!
(Having used the fibre a few weeks ago for heat treated fibre beads,you'd think I'd have remembered what happened!)
Melted holes in the foundation didnt I!
Anyway the piece was saved by needle felting the lot to a piece of batting and then adding more wool roving.
I think this would make a good cover for my garden journal.
