Off on holidays

We are off in the morning for two weeks down at the coast - can't wait! I always agonise over what to take down when we go - one time I took my sewing machine and completely pieced a quilt top; last time I took my embellisher and played. This time I am going to do some handwork - I recently made a little crazy patchwork piece for a colleague who is getting married tomorrow - silly me forgot to photograph it before giving it away. But I realised how much I enjoy working with fancy fabrics and doing the embroidery and beading and general tizzying up that goes on with CQ. So I have pieced up a few foundations to take with me to embellish.

This is what it will end up being turned into.

I transfer the writing using a photocopy/laser copy and solvent, then machine piece the foundation. I have packed a selection of threads, silk ribbons, beads and braids, so will see how much I get done.

Doreen has tagged me - apparently I have to tell you seven honest things about myself - hmm.

1. I need deadlines to get things done - give me all day/week/month, and that is how long it will take!

2. I am terrible at that whole spatial thing where you can visualise which way around things are supposed to go, etc. I am guaranteed to get it wrong every time!

3. My fabric stash is embarassingly large - I lived in the US for three years and couldn't resist stocking up on quilting fabric - thank goodness the government paid to ship it all back!

4. I like to try new things, but have decided I really have to focus and do something really well, instead of flitting around doing this and that - it really is time to decide what I want to be when I grow up!

5. I LOVE my Bernina 1230

6. I HATE doing bindings on quilts

7. Refer to number 6 - now I will only tell you this last one if you promise not to tell anyone else - if the quilt police find out I am a gonner - okay - I have several quilts stashed in my linen cupboard which have been there for a long time, and all they need doing is the binding. I have one quilt that has been quilted for - gulp - 13 years, still waiting for its binding.

Okay, now I am off down the coast so when the quilt police turn up they will find the house locked and empty.

Day 3 - Mission accomplished!

Well - I got everything done I set out to do. I was up early and washed out all the fabric I dyed. By nine o'clock it was twirling in the breeze. The second photo shows a rust dyed piece on the right, and on the left is one of yesterday's rust pieces that I overdyed. This is the frying pan one

I like the effect that the overdying has - it sort of puts the rust bits into context, rather than just having them floating about on a white background. It has also brought out some details I hadn't noticed before. On the one below, there are a couple of shapes that look like fish -- the washers created 'eyes'- at least that's what I think!

This next piece I didn't show yesterday, before over dyeing -but I really like the criss cross lines in the rust bit. I got that by rolling the fabric around a piece of PVC pipe and then wrapping tightly with thin wire.

Here is a close up of it. BTW, I notice that on my blog, if you click on the photos you don't get a close up - even though that is what happens on everyone else's I visit. Does anyone know what I have to do to make it happen? Are there some special settings/options I am supposed to choose??





This piece I decided not to overdye. I really like how it turned out. I think it has potential to be a whole cloth piece, with some further surface design added.

Here is another piece using the bars from the barrel that my husband cut up. He drilled some holes in one piece (in the centre) and cut one piece with a zig zag edge, like a saw, to add interest (clever fellow!).

Here is a close up of those two pieces.

The only thing that didn't work was the screen I prepared yesterday. I am not sure what was wrong - I think the alginate wasn't thick enough, but anyway, no matter how many times I squeegeed the image wouldn't break down and start transferring - and it took me ages and ages at the sink to scrub the damn thing clean. Maybe I let it get too dry?? Anyway, I can have a go at that another day.

And finally - did I actually MAKE something with all of this? Yes, I did! A little quilt - about 10 x 14 inches. I fiddled around for a while not sure where to begin, then picked up a pencil and sketched a very simple design - the three rectangles and the circle, with a sort of wavy line going through. Then I gathered up the fabrics I had produced this weekend and tried to figure out what to use.

I kept wanting to use the bubble wrap discharge from the earlier post, but as soon as I picked up a piece I had discharged with some rug grip, I saw skyscrapers, and then I knew the circle would be the moon. Once it went from being an abstract to a little city scape, I decided I didn't need the wavy bit. I fused the pieces onto a dyed background with black Misty Fuse and did some simple machine stitching - free form around the circle and with the walking foot round the rectangles. Finished off with some fused binding and ta daa!!

I had a very productive weekend - I have lots of lovely rusted pieces underway and am quickly developing ideas for what to do with them. I do like the discharged pieces though, and still want to do something with the bubble wrap fabrics - maybe some postcards? Stay tuned!