textures

the first of my textures using the technique by Margaret Talbot in Cloth Paper Scissors summer 2005

here the before and after with the puff paint, the one on the left has been hit with the hot gun ~ you can see the scorch where I held the gun in one place too long, the one on the right has not yet had the heat treatment, it is amazing how much the paint expands,

and these are the first 3 pieces I showed the middle one with the lace stitched a couple of weeks ago, now puffed and painted,

I have added some more paint since this photo was taken and I am doing some more this time with textured medium instead of puff paint, I knew that the acrylic paint makes the fabric much firmer, the puff paint has a rubbery texture which isn’t noticeable once painted, it will not be easy stitching through them,

mist and frost

well I got a surprise when I drew back my curtains this morning, we have frost, when I lived in the south of England frost was very common in winter but since moving to the islands it has become a rare occurrence, the sky was clear ~ well almost, the mist was rising from the river, the moor was white, it all looked so beautiful, as the sun came up a small cloud appeared in front of it,  I love the effect it gives of the cloud being outlined in silver or pale gold,

the heather looked beautiful in white,

the ajuga leaves were patterned with frost

and as I waited for the bus into town the big gate sparkled with drops of melted frost,

this didn’t come out so well as I feared due to photographing into the sun, I took the camera with me to town but there was nothing special to photograph when I got there, several on the way but the bus sped past, one of the times I wish I was in a car of my own,

the afternoon post brought the 3D potion so now I can finish my project for the technique a month on fibre arts and  mixed media,

before the storm

another tease from the sky, this beautiful pink/orange sky in the east lasted about 10 minuets then the clouds came in, ferries in the southern hebrides are cancelled there is a storm from the south west heading rapidly towards us, when I took these photos all was calm not even a gentle breezes now 2.5 hours later the breeze is up,

the photo is not as I saw it, the camera changed itI could not see any yellow with my eye but the camera did, the only change I made apart from resizing for the web, was to lighten the foreground, I could see the moor but the camera saw black, I recently found that in PE you can change this with shadows/highlights,

a lick and a promise

and that seems to be all we will see of the sun again today, wet and windy yuk!

the sun reflects off clouds before it rises or just peeks through as it rises then spends the rest of the day hiding behind the clouds, shy sun?

butterflies bugs and a snake

I’ve been enjoying myself playing with the bug quilt, I have some lovely pieces of fabric that were sent to me when I had sent some harris tweed, I have often wondered how to use them, the first is a batik and works well for the sashing and border on the bug quilt,

the second is a lovely feather fabric which I thought would make a nice colourful backing, this piece is a yard of 44 inch wide fabric so I made that the size of the quilt as I thought it would be a shame to cut a bit of the width,

I added a snake for the extra width,

this morning the pre sunrise was beautiful,

never saw the sunrise and haven’t seen the sun all day as the clouds kept it hidden :o(

altered fabric

Susan on Fibre arts mixed media sent out a challenge to alter a piece of commercial fabric from your stash that you do not like, as I have several I thought this would be a good project for me.

I chose a piece of 50’s fabric that I have had ~ well it seems forever, it is one of many fabrics that my mother and my aunt gave me way back in the 70’s when I started doing patchwork, I am not mad about orange.

I also thought it would be a good opportunity to use some of the fabric paints that I have had for many years and try out the paint sticks I bought and have hardly touched, this is what I ended up with (the silver paint has made it very difficult to photograph so I’m afraid it is not a good photo). 

I like it and am inspired to do more.

bugs

well as I couldn’t carry on with my lace stuff so I sorted out the fabric and cut some bugs…

I enjoyed doing them, the fabric I had used for the butterflies was some batik I had done using Rayna Gillman’s found objects technique, at the time I had navy, turquoise and yellow cold water dyes which I used, I thought the potato masher print was great for a bug back/shell/wing cover/whatever they are???

I added another dragonfly, I didn’t have any more of the background fabric so found this deeper blue (well it’s actually Laura Ashley smoke from the 60’s, I keep things…)

The sky was red this morning and so was the burn with the reflection, I tried to take a photo but it doesn’t show the burn very much, it looked weirdly wonderful,

 

techniques from C P S

I finally cleared my worktable and started the technique for using up unwanted lace,

When sorting out fabric I thought if I am going to cover it in paint then why use decent fabric so I got out some prints I do not like,

I was surprised at how much the lace has covered the print,

but have come to a stop as I do not have any xpandaprint or puff paint so I have sent for some, I was doing well and enjoying myself so felt a bit let down when I couldn’t continue, I phoned both the shops on the island that might have had some but neither did, I have so much stuff trust me to chose to do something I do not have all the ingredients for,

my daughter-in-law sent me some photos of my son and grandsons playing in the snow, this is the snowman they made and my youngest grandchild,

ufo butterflies

sleepless night, I could not sleep so got up in the end, as I was laying there expecting sleep, mind wandering I thought about a project started about 3 or 4 years ago, it was a workshop for a butterfly cot quilt, not that I wanted a cot quilt, I had thought I would use it as a throw but as it was someone else’s design I was never happy about it and so lost interest,

 

laying in bed tonight the light bulb moment came, I will add bugs and make a butterfly (one of my butterflies is a dragon fly anyway) and bug quilt, increase the size and it will make a play quilt for my grandsons,

now to keep going

I signed up to Susan Sorrell’s challenge and sorted out my magazine as there was one in particular I was looking for, it was Margaret Talbot’s technique for using up old lace and braid that you did not want to use in their original form, I found the magazine it is the first ever copy of Cloth, Paper, Scissors, I bought, summer 2005, at the time I bought it for the Lesley Riley article on transfer printing something I wanted to learn at the time and I did try most of her methods,

So now I will sort out some suitable bases, then the braids and laces, paints and clear the worktable……

we got some snow as the wind stopped so the snow could land! We don’t seem to get as much as the rest of the island, the moor further south was white when I went into town,