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.

Inspiration photo

This is the photo that I took inspiration from to begin the Red Road/River colorwash piece. Not sure where I found the photo, I didn't take it myself, so I can't give credit where credit is due. I'm not planning on selling this piece, so I guess no one is going to come after me.

Today is raining again. I'm in the studio listening to Guy Clark right now.

Be well

ATC Workshop

I went to my friend April's house yesterday where she was hosting an ATC (Artist Trading Card) making workshop. Some of us had made these before and some of us had not. The photo shows April's table covered with all the bits and bobs that can be used in making these cards. Everyone had a great time, there was much laughter and good natured teasing going on.

This photo shows the results of a few hours of play by some very creative women. ATC's are so addictive, I'll bet you can't make just one!

Progress

This is what the Red River looks like today. I have the dark and light sides stitched to the center red chenille piece with lots of fibers couched down on it. I will be continuing to couch and will also add beads to it eventually. I like to let these things develop on their own so will wait to see what else happens to it. Still liking this one!
Be well.

Red Chenille

Did you see the previous post? When I finished fusing the right, light half of this colorwash piece, I pinned it up on my design wall. I already had this unfinished piece up there

so I just pinned the fused piece on top of it. I so much liked the way the red faux chenille piece looked next to the line of red color wash, that I decided I must put red faux chenille in the middle of the colorwash piece. So I did. I had some left over pieces from the red chenille thing (I still haven't finished it nor have I named it) that filled in nicely.

Above you can see the two fused pieces with some faux red chenille between them. Yes! I love these serendipitous happenings! Further progress will be shown tomorrow. So please come back!

Be well.

Red River beginnings

Happy New Year! It has been raining solid for the past two days although I did get a reasonably dry walk in this morning with Rocky. He tried to get me to take him out again this afternoon but I said no.

Lately I have been working on this rather large project. It is approximately 45" X 35". Creating these color wash pieces is enjoyable but haven't made one in a couple of years. I like to leave all the one inch pieces with raw edges so I build it on a piece of fusible interfacing on top of a piece of cotton batting. After I have all the pieces in place I iron it and then can pick the whole thing up and take it to the sewing machine with no pins. Almost no pins, I do stick a few in there because the interfacing is only fusible on one side, so the batting isn't fused. Oh, and take my advice, don't iron this with your cutting mat underneath.

The camera is a good tool to use in viewing the quality of the wash of color. You can see the difference in the above photo, which I deemed was not blended well enough, and the one below, which is what I changed it to.

After I was satisfied with the placement of the colors to the right of the red strip, I cut the piece in half, following the line of the red strip. I ironed it and was able to move it to my design wall, out of the way. Before it was fused I was afraid that Charlie cat would jump up on the table and scatter fabric bits everywhere. He's a good cat, and never did jump up there. It is a high library table, I guess that helped deter him.

In my next post, I will show further development of this piece.
Be well.