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Thursday 23 August 2012

Kindle and Festival of Quilts

I've been wanting to make a kindle cover for some time and now I have finally managed to do it. I've used a whole range of appliqué techniques and what seems to be one of  my "trademark"  fabrics, organza. There are four layers of appliqué in the finished piece - layered and cut into organza, Lutrador which I coloured with inktense pencils, stitched on to black cotton and cut away using a fabric soldering iron and then some of the pieces which were cut away were stitched back on, polyester dupion, lame and sparkly tulle which was over-stitched and then distressed using a heat gun, and finally icicles which were made from organza laid over lame.

Lots of layers, lots of stitching, and lots of texture! To line it I used a piece of self dyed shibori fabric which I dyed using woad which gives a lovely pastel blue.




I had a great time at the Festival of Quilts last week and especially enjoyed the three day masterclass taught by Jo Lovelock in which she taught a whole range of ways of dyeing fabric. It was quite hard work at times with lots of fabric which needed to be rinsed by hand and also some methods which involved having to agitate buckets of fabric for up to 10 minutes at a time. Amongst the most useful techniques taught were ones which enabled us to produce pieces of fabrics which shared gradations of colour within a family or with gradations of shades and colours. We were encouraged to mix colours and over dye fabrics and shown how to get texture into our fabric and to think about how to place colours to get different effects. Now all i have to do is sew it! Watch this space - I don't think I'll be buying any fabric for quite a while.

Monday 20 August 2012

Fuschias

In some of my previous posts I have included pictures of pots/candle holders I have made using organza, dissolvable film and stitch. For some time I had thought about using this technique to make some hanging flowers - specifically fuschias as I love their colours. I had a suitable stand but not the correct shape glass to use as a mould. However when shopping in Sainsbury's a few weeks ago I came across some tumblers which were the shape and size I had been looking for and so I was able to start work - though still unsure about exactly how I was going to make the flowers - especially the outer petals.

I used the normal technique for the inner petals but cut the film to a circular shape to get a more regular edge.  Once these were completed I cut a paper template for the outer petals and then again used  the same mould - but allowed for an overlap so I could fit them over the inner petals. This worked and I carefully moulded the petals so they had the curve I wanted. After beading them I secured the two layers together with beads and stitching and then made beaded loops to hang each flower.


I'm really pleased with how these have come out - think I will have to try some snowdrops next.

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Catching up

Well one of the joys of being on holiday is that I can catch up both with friends and also with sewing!
In terms of catching up with friends I had a lovely day last week with my friend Shirley and finally delivered her birthday present - "Shirley's birthday bouquet"
Here are a couple of pictures - the background is made from part of a jelly roll - cream patterns with gold highlights which I quilted with a feather filler design and then appliquéd lilies made from raw silk.

I'm taking part in the E17 Art trail this year so as well as asking Shirley if I can borrow this piece back I thought I ought to make a couple of new pieces. I had a very bright jelly roll which I bought last year which I had been wanting to use for some time and was inspired by the hot week we had at the start of the summer holidays to make this piece "Feeling hot, hot, hot"

I think it is clear what I meant by it being bright! To make the centre section stand out more I used two layers of wadding for this section and quilted it with a "flame" design and then quilted the remainder with a closer stitched filler pattern.


My final piece of catching up has been with my City and Guilds - I made myself get on with making up samples (my least favourite part it has to be said) and completed module 8 so that's been sent off and I'm waiting for feedback on my accessory design - it has to be said that the opportunity to go shopping for materials at the FOQ next week was an incentive to get on with the design of that.