Stitch doodle 2

This is what I messed with over the weekend. I started with some cotton batting with a piece of blue silk on top. Needle felted some scrim and colored roving on that.

Then I did some stitching. No beads on this one, just a couple of sequins. What a weird nose, not sure who I was channeling when I found that face in there. I didn't intend to make hearts but after I finished the needle felting I discovered two of them. I like to let things come out of their own intention.  I did help the one along after I noticed it, but the other was a surprise. 

The weather was fairly nice over the weekend. Not sunny but not rainy either. I spent some time with a Les Miserables DVD. That kind of singing can bring tears to my eyes. "Bring Him Home" certainly does. I let the show play 3 times, the third time with the lyrics displayed so I could catch the few words I hadn't already figured out.

Today I am listening to Radiohead. Does that give you a little idea of my eclectic musical taste?

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

another beaded thing

I never quite think of good titles for these little doodle bits I make. This one was inspired by a colorful piece I saw on Judi Hurwitts blog, Approachable Art, specifically here: http://approachable-art.blogspot.com/2010/02/artraw-09.html They are nothing alike other than the horizontal lay out, but still I may as well give credit where credit is due. I like working with these bits of dyed scrim that I have. Also I stitched in lots of beads and a few bits of shell I picked up. This piece measures about 12.5" x 12.5".

Be well.

Cherish

I took the plunge and gave some lettering a try. First I wrote on the top and bottom pieces before I attached them to the main piece. That went so well that I went ahead and wrote on the pieces that were already attached and am satisfied with the results. I think I will try outlining the letters with black to make them stand out more. I didn't use ink, instead I used dye-na-flow paint. Not quite as saturated or vivid as I would have liked but I didn't have any liquid colored ink to use with my calligraphy pen. I used a metallic gold pen on the edges of the top and bottom pieces before I attached them too, wish I had used that on the side pieces before attaching them. Now I'd have to try to mark between my stitching lines. Live and learn. I like this.

Be well.

New piece with fabric paper

Yesterday I was wanting to work on something other than the Red River colorwash piece so I pulled out some fabric paper I recently made. If I'm going to be blogging I suppose I will have to start taking more pictures of my process. I neglected to do so this time so I don't have any pictures of the fabric paper before I began adding to it. I learned about fabric paper first from Beryl Taylor's book Mixed Media Explorations. I love that book, it is one of my favorites. More recently I bought Kelli Perkins book Stitch Alchemy and she really takes the fabric paper ball and runs with it. It is another book I love, she has filled it with so many wonderful ideas and great tutorials and fabulously colorful photos. Making fabric paper can be rather addicting and Stitch Alchemy gives lots of ideas as to how to use it. I took a piece that I cut down to 18" x 14". I hand stitched colorful scrim (cheesecloth), more fabric paper, and some fleece bits.

It isn't finished yet, not sure what I will do to it next. I wish I had done some kind of writing on the long rectangular pieces of fabric paper that I stitched on. I still can but if I make a mistake, they are on there already. Fabric paper is very stiff and thick, not easy to hand stitch through. One can machine stitch on it but I didn't want to. Probably I will write on something else and somehow attach the words if I decide to go in that direction. This is coming along really well for a quick bit of color play. I love the red on the dark pink scrim. Scrim takes dye so well and I usually will throw some pieces into the dye pot whenever I am dyeing fabric so I have lots of it. Found a whole bolt of it at a garage sale once, it was free. Free! A bolt of scrim! What a deal!

Be well.