And we’re getting back into the swing of this nicely!!! So good to be ‘talking’ to each other again via our books 
Here’s what Jill did in her book:
Jill's spread
And my reply:
My reply.
And Jill’s response to the pages in my book:
Jill's additions to my spread...
...and continued over the page.
… of a cloth…. my first such project. Stitching by hand.
The brainstorming and notes leading up to the cloth.
the base... roughly 23" by 16"
Piecing and pinning...
mostly tacked, some stitched, 'stone' pinned...
Stone removed and painted...
As promised, some scans from my two new sketchbooks… first, from my textiles notebook:
Brainstorming my windows theme plus some embroidery and a design...
Photos and notes, again exploring windows.
Yet more photos plus an exploratory piece of fabric - threads and scraps and paper between tissue and organza.
And now for my other new sketchbook – no title as yet, just sketchbook, lol!!!
Benches in Weston Park, Sheffield plus zentangle
Blue zentangle plus photo of bandstand
Close up photo of bandstand window and a green zentangle.
Quick 5 minute sketch of mirror in pub whilst waiting for my friend.
Ryan - the latest teddy in my collection, lol.
And finally, yet another zentangle - I do love playing around with these
Front cover of my new Textiles Sketchbook
Having had several new textile-related books for xmas, I’ve decided to start a textile-only sketchbook. Just over 8″ square the one I’ve chosen is made from Khadi paper. So it should be strong enough to withstand stitching and rough handling. Before I started working in it I decided to make it feel and look like a book for textiles, and have thus covered it using various fabric scraps, some lace and patterned tissue stuck down with a PVA/ water mix. Stitched around the edges, with fancy buttons for the ribbon tie and a couple of embellishments.
The back cover.
As you’ve probably gathered, I’m hoping to explore textile arts in 2012, including embroidery and general stitching, lace-making, collage, quilts, patchwork, wall-hangings and cloths. I’m also determined to finish my ArtHouse Co-op Sketchbook – with only 3 more pages to do, I’m pretty confident that it will be ready to post in plenty of time (deadline is the end of January).
See you in the New Year
A little crazy...
Most of my creative time over the past week or so has been taken up by writing. For details and information on how that has been going, see my Rohinval blog.
I have, however, managed some time for stitching, mainly in the evenings, as well as the occasional daytime slot when I needed a breather from the computer. The result is this mini crazy patchwork quilt, the first I’ve made using pure fabric scraps and stitching directly onto the batting. There’s a lot of hand stitching in this, including some embroidery. I embellished it with lace and two bought iron-on motifs having decided against buttons or beads in case the person it’s for wishes to use it as a mug rug. She says that she likes strong colours and contrasts, including ‘clashes’ like red and purple. So hopefully this fits the bill Personally I loved mixing all the different patterns and will no doubt make more crazy quilts in the future.
For those of you wondering where the latest Heart Journal spread is, there isn’t one. I was so engrossed in the writing that I forgot to do the spread for last week. But, to be honest, I wasn’t inspired by the prompt, or the one for this week either. So I suspect that will be the end of the heart journal project as far as I’m concerned. Although I may well finish it in my own sweet time with my own prompts taken from other sources.
Red and blue feather
Yesterday I decided to stitch one more Magic Feather for Jude Hill’s project as I was in the mood for some sewing. Using some tea-dyed muslin backed with a cotton square. I also stamped on the cloth with fabric paints as I felt it needed a little ‘something’ to finish it off.
I’ve also done 2 sketches in my Art House Co-op Sketchbook 2012. There is still plenty of time before I need to mail it back but there is over half the book to fill yet, and I’d like to get it done and sent by Xmas, if not before. I think setting myself a deadline will help urge me on, lol.
Along with the writing (I’ve made a few more notes) and the Heart Journal (ooh, I got a mention in their latest post!!!) I have plenty to keep me busy
Pages 14 & 15: wooden box and dragon with Buddha.
"Magic" feathers
Here are my embroidered feathers for Jude Hill’s ‘Magic Feathers’ project. The material is from an old ethnic skirt that became too worn to wear any longer. I rather like the shabby effect it has, though – hopefully Jude will appreciate that too.
I also finished the latest HeArt journal spread : Bloom and Grow being the prompt for this week, with growth being the key word. The quotes read:
Growth itself has the germ of happiness: Pearl S. Buck
The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice: George Eliot
From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow: Aeschylus.
Week 11 - Growth. Acrylic inks, pen, graphitint pencils, embellishments.
Autumn Colours fabric ATCs
Over the weekend, days 24 and 25 of the get-your-art-on challenge, I worked on these fabric ATCs for a swap on the Mixed Media ATC group. I had some wonderful fabric arrive with a mug rug via swapbot, and as soon as it tumbled out of the envelope I knew exactly how some of it would be used. So the little appliqués are from that and sewn on by hand. The rest of the stitching was done by machine, apart from sewing on the buttons, of course.
I also made two more spreads in my Arty Journal. I’ve been enjoying these – not only the making of them, but the writing on them later. These have yet to be used, but it’s good to have them ready for when I need to journal. And feels good, too, that so far I’ve been able to rise to the challenge. Only 5 more days to go!!!
More pages in my Arty Journal.
Coffee Mug mug rug
It was too late to post by the time I finished this last night, plus the light wasn’t good enough to take a decent photo.
Having trimmed and squared the mug rug, I decided to add a mug to the quilt yesterday morning. After selecting the fabric I drew on the mug with tailor’s chalk, cut around the shape and used Bondaweb to fix to the quilt.
Close up of the mug
I then outlined the mug using backstitch before filling in the coffee with satin stitch (or my version of the stitch, lol!).
Having stared at it for a while I decided it needed something else so used fabric paint to add some steam and a ‘base’ for the mug to stand on. It didn’t look right, however. In the end I stitched over the paint around the mug – looks much better. In a way I wish I had stitched on the ‘steam’ as well, but trial stitches over the paint didn’t work, so I left it as is. I won’t make the same mistake again. Finished off by binding.
Reverse
Mug Rug in progress
My creative activities today started with my morning pages then moved onto the mug rug quilt.
Having cut out and tacked some pieces yesterday, I rearranged them and cut out more for an extra strip this morning. Eventually pleased with the design, I machine stitched them together. I then attached the batting and the backing before free machine quilting. I definitely need more practice with the latter, lol. Still, I’m not dissatisfied with the resulting swirly, squiggly lines as I think it adds more interest than the straight quilting that I did on my first mug rug.
The next stage will be to trim and straighten the edges before choosing and sewing on the binding. But that can wait until at least tomorrow whilst I decide whether or not to add any appliqués or other stitching.
Close up
I’ve also been reading through Zentara’s journey from the beginning whilst watching snooker. Amazing how much I’ve written since the start of the journey almost a year ago. My characters need to make their way back to the Guild soon; I’m hoping that by reading everything through it will spur me on to continue the writing, sadly neglected since June.
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