New toy! (Or never say "Never"

I'm now the owner of a Janome MC350e embroidery machine.
Pam gave me nearly two hours of her time familiarising  me with  a few of the machine's points, but I will be back for more in depth lessons, once I have digested the manual and accompanying DVD.
All in all, I'm more than happy with the deal: Extra patterns,
Three hoops, including a Giga hoop, and patterns to use with the hoop
Water soluble stabiliser
Tear away stabiliser
Cut away stabiliser, and some reels of thread.

One happy little black duck!  That's me

Returning to Crazy

As I promised yesterday

                                                                                                           
a shot of the small amount of seam embellishment done.
On the pink fabric is Cretan stitch
The next seam between the patterned fabric and the bottle green features a multi dyed silk thread, which unfortunately doesn't  create an interesting contrast, so I guess that I will need add some bling to enliven the chain stitch.
The two entwining branches, worked in Fly stitch are two Edmar Rayon , lola weight threads.

Never say "Never"

Some eight to ten years back, an online friend was attempting to entice me into the joys of Machine Embroidery!
She would send me delightful motifs and lacy pieces to use in my Crazy Quilting.
I always gratefully accepted her offerings, and used them in CQ and fabric and fibre postcards.
I was so adamant that I would NEVER even look at Embroidery machines, that most of the rayon threads I  had used in machine applique, and other odd bits,  I sent to her.

Move on a couple of years, and I had drifted away from CQ to small Art quilts and Fabric and fibre postcards.

I made contact again, with someone who persuaded me to do a small workshop with her, in an effort to get my creative juices flowing again.

Yesterday, I worked on the first piece of rusting fabric. Pen has an old bookpress that is used only for rusting fabrics.
I had seen her pieces before, and was curious: so the piece of homespun was thoroughly dunked in a vinegar bath; fold to fit within the press and pressed and left.
P willoversee the process, and next Tuesday we'll rinse the piece,dry and iron it, and choose pieces to use in the small quilt.

The next step , was the "NO! not ever!" embroidery machine:

Three pieces were to be  constructed:
 One,a spray referred to as "Sunflowers" fitted in a five by seven piece of fabric.
The second, fitted in a square of fabric, and resembles a piece of square crochet (I forget the correct terminology, but will check it out and repair the omission, later)
As you can see, I (or rather the machine) managed to complete TWO pieces for me.

In the quilt, I am adding a photographic print: adapted from Michelangelo's "Creation"

I am also deciding whether to "do" a plain photographic face, or a machine embroidered face.
I have chosen what I will use for the basic model, but time ran out before I could make a start  on her.  I have chosen a pre-Raphaelite model.

The other piece(s) I to complete next week, are two "free standing" pieces of lace to attach at each end of the Sunflower Spray.

As you may have guessed from the fabric  and thread colours I've used, plus the addition of the hands and the face, I am hoping to achieve a look that resembles an "old" piece of fabric art---rusted fabric, muted paintings ( or sections of)

I am looking forward to getting on with it....next week!

Returning to Crazy.....

 A newsletter from Quilt Inspirations last week featured  the wall hanging  on the left of the page  : "Jewelled Stitches".


      Apart from a (small) Fabric and fibre Postcard that I mailed to a friend a while back, it has been a very long time  since I tried any Crazy Patch and embellishing.
 So......here is my current UFO!
I didn't want to slavishly follow the layout of Jewelled stitches, so I decided to use elongated triangles.
In my opinion the basic piece had no ZING...and a girl has to have ZING before she can add Bling!!

Searching through more UFOs..in this case hearts I auditioned some, and settled for three.
But it still seemed a little blah, so I broke the cardinal rule of "uneven numbers" and added a fourth heart.

The lower two hearts have been  (machine) satin stitched in position.The two upper ones will be hand applique'd in position---because I left sufficient  seam allowances to be able to  do that.

And that's where I'm at! Two hearts to applique down, and then I can start the fun part of embellishing.

My toys

 After showing the colour swatches from my various Derwent colours, I thought that I should share photos of my ZIG brand Brush (es) H2O.
I have three water brushes with different sized tips:
                    Fine
                    Large
Broad             Broad
As they work on the principle of a fountain pen, they make a wonderful travelling companion along with the Intense pencils.

Derwent water solubles colour charts

Today's mail delivered my tin of 12 Derwent Watersoluble  Metallic  Pencils,
and I thought that if I made a colour page, showing the pencil in both a dry condition as well as a water washed chip, I would have a better idea of how to use them.
I must admit I am unhappy with the effects: I did expect a more metallic effect from washing the swatches.
Maybe, if they are done on fabric , the result would be different.
 The page showing 24 colours is the colour swatch of the
Derwent Inktense Pencils: I am more than happy with the results.

The first photo was done back in  February, when I first had a play with
Inktense Blocks, when all I had in mind was playing with the actual blocks, dragging them along their sides to see how they would react.
I really should do a "proper" colour chart!

Since first getting the blocks, I have now a grater in my possession, which should help in preparing fabrics or paper with an even wash

Cityscape by seven

The photo that should have been published first
 

Cityscapes for PCMA

Today I have completed the last section of Round 14 swap for Postmark'dArt group.........and 21 days ahead of schedule!
I tried a couple of concepts and wasn't happy with them, so it was back to  simple applique' shapes and using TSUKINEKO "Fabrico markers" as well as ridged card-stock to add some definition.

Recently, Picasa upgraded its photo editing system, and I still need get used to it.

Funky Friday

After playing with
Move over Picasso" last Friday,  I had a couple more

attempts at making some "scrappy faces" for  PostCardMailArt  group.

Somewhere, sometime  in the past, I had noticed an advertisement for some rubber stamps for Scrap booking, and have done some rough sketches of them to use as "inspiration" at a later date>

Thank goodness for paying heed to SharonB back in 2004 when she was stressing the necessity of keeping a Journal not only of methods used , but of"inspiration" whether as photos, sayings, sketches, description of "how to" perform various techniques....

Anyway, from a rough sketch in black and white,
to one fitted to a six by four inch rectangle,
to tracing the sketch and cutting it into relevent pieces and appliqueing to the card base.
Adding a few embellishments

And, finally three cards are completed.......although I may still add Colour to the back ground of the lady in the black mask!

The fun one for me, was thelast one: Her hair is  made of an old Tide Table !
I would like to make her again, so that her head is NOT tilted on an angle.

Funky Friday

Having had an AHA Moment  last night with regards how to tackle the theme STRESS,
I spent the morning preparing for my "stress cards".As they were proceeding at a reasonably acceptable standard (compared with my first attempts)
I decided to have some fun and play with Crazy Faces for
PostCardMail Art group.

"Move over Picasso" is the result! Totally stress free, and slightly wacky!

A touch of craziness

I finally decided that my attempts at creating cards themed for
STRESS weren't working out.
The idea was fine, but the execution was far from satisfactory.

 So to reduce my self induced stress I retreated to an old love.....
CRAZY   Patchwork.

With Heart and Hands: Full Moon, Solar Flares and Sun Spots

With Heart and Hands: Full Moon, Solar Flares and Sun Spots

A lazy woman's flowers

 Dare I admit that I'm nearly post carded out?

All I seem to do these  days, is make fabric and fibre postcards,
And after about six years I feel the need to move to "something" without time limits.

OK.. I've had my whinge.
But I feel guilty for not putting in as much effort as I do normally.
These cards were made using some glitzy flowers from a deconstructed lei.
Some spare silk leaves from another flower;
Some skeleton leaves from my hoard, and the cards are ready to go travelling.

No theme?

 Having used my Gelli plate to print some fabric (see earlier blog) I thought I should use some of the fabric.

Of course, I'm sure some purist will ask "How can you title it  no theme, when the fabric in all six cards is from the same batch?"

My choice, my dear!  (said with a cheeky grin)

Anyway, I thought that some hand stitching and the addition of a few embellishments would act as the no theme
for this part of Round 14 for Postmark'dArt.

One card has a  paper clay molded  face painted with a Lumiere paint, and nestled into an orange gold silk flower.
 The second has soft metallic mesh appliqued with a multi toned thread.

Card three is a mixture of flower sequins, metallic ribbon floss and a bead cabochon.
Card four has a band of mesh held in position with a strip of sequinned ribbon
Five has a larger black mesh, liberated from a now defunct scrap-booking supply and bigle beads and another cabochon added/
 Finally, card six sports some ribbon floss; a paper flower anchored by a matching brad and some oval shaped beads.

Now......to tackle those STRESS themed cards! They are really giving me grief. I may have to start again with another idea.

Gelatine mono printing

 
 
 
 
A couple of days back, I received my 8 by 10 inch sized Gelli Arts printing plate, and of course, everything was neglected until I had a "play".

Initially, I used a Neopaque Gold acrylic paint on the first piece of fabric and was most unhappy with the result.
Whether it was due to being the first time I had used the plate and the brayer, the paint did not transfer evenly to the fabric.
Of course, maybe the paint was too old? Who knows!
I did try reconstituting it with the addition of water and a good stirring when I saw how it was "clotting " on the fabric.

Anyway, using the rounded tip of a paintbrush, I traced wiggles and loops in the paint before placing the fabric on the plate.

I then switched to a larger piece of fabric which had already been through a test run of my Inktense Blocks. (LOVE my Inktense pencils!!)
For this attempt, I pulled out an "el cheapo" tube of Acrylic paint in FLUORO PINK.
(Nothing like making a colourful statement!!)
Using a half inch wide flat brush, I dragged vertical lines down the plate, then the wavy lines side to side.

I repeated similar over some of the yellow pieces that hadn't printed too well.
On a couple of the pieces of fabric I sprinkled some glitter which seems to have adhered to the paint.

Being rather warm weather here (32 deg C) the prints were dry in no time at all.
Today I'm hoping to cut some postcard sized pieces and doing some hand embellishing whilst I'm at the Sunshine coast this weekend

The way we were

 
 

Two hand stitched Kate Greenaway girls to send to two friends who are members of the PCMA group.
The theme was "The way were were"

I had thought of more modern young ladies, but felt it was time to do some hand work for a change.
I trialled my new Derwent Inktense pencils to add a bit of colour