I put together this little practice collage today, so I could work out what patterns to use on the main quilt:
I stitched it up with coffee bean and grid patterns, and some shadow quilting on the carved patterns:
Following on from the paper piecing in the previous post, I started a series of 8″ by 10″ mini quilts, and I’m using them to practice my free motion stitching.
First, this one:
Strippy background, combining my hand printed fabrics, a green hand dyed fabric and a commercial black and white stripe:
With focal point lemons:
Echo quilted:
Then added colour with gelatos, and hand stitch:
And this one, all pinned out:
I then added a ‘McTavishing’ machine stitch, following the video on Leah Day’s website:
I’ve also stitched into the collage I started yesterday; it just needs gelatos and hand stitch now:
I’m running low on this variegated thread!
I have also finished the paper piecing on this piece, I just need to work out how to stitch it – it is all paper, and I don’t want it to tear:
So, rather a lot of stitching recently. The concerted practice is paying off.
I went to the Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch and Hobbycrafts show at the NEC, and discovered an intriguing tool, the Fabri-cut by Crafty Products. After watching a demo and having a go, I decided to purchase one. I’ve had a chance to try it out, and I am impressed.
It is a ceramic knife blade, in a swivel mounting, with a pencil like handle:
I backed some fabric with bondaweb, both a piece of pink scrap cotton, and a piece of my own hand printed fabric.
The swivelling blade makes it easy to cut wiggly lines.
I was also able to cut out these circular printed limes with ease, without lifting the blade off the fabric:
All of the sections of this piece were cut out with the Fabri-cut:
This gave me plenty of collage fodder, already backed with bondaweb, so I laid out the below piece, on a backing of hand-dyed fabric from Images of Egypt that I’d also purchased at the show.
The Fabri-cut made it easy to make this collage with plenty of smooth, intricate cuts. I think it will be a useful tool to use in the future, and I think I may also buy the paper cutting tool too.
Some tips:
I finished dyeing all the papers. I love how the dye mixes and transforms quite simple prints into something beautiful:
It has also transformed the fabric:
I started by cutting felt and marking three more 8×10 inch rectangles, which I ironed bondaweb onto.
I sketched out a rough plan for alternating squares of stripes (rail fence quilt inspired) and lemon focal points.
I divided my papers into backgrounds, middle grounds, and focal points:
I then cut strips off my background pieces to use as rail fence strips – such yummy colours!
And tonight I paper pieces the background strips, just not in a traditional way:
I’m pleased with the background. Next step is to pick the focal points, get them bonded on, then stitching!
Taking lots of strips of torn paper…
To produce another sketchbook spread. I have written the word ‘us’ on the right hand side, but the permanent pen I had to hand wouldn’t ink over the gelatos, so I need to paint over it tomorrow.
The quote says ‘Life does have a random feature… Us!’
It’s a lot more random than I would normally do, but that is fitting. It was enjoyable to tear all the strips and fit them into the spiral.
I really enjoy working in a very long and thin landscape format, hence all my favourite sketchbooks being this shape. I decided to try to push myself a bit, and start work in a square book.
I have another lovely khadi sketchbook, this time a soft back book about 20cm square.
Last night, I made this collage, the orange page was the first page in the book.
The orange page is a bit narrower than it started out, as I tried to punch a hole in it, but it gummed up my circle punch. Luckily, my husband was on hand to de-gum it, with the suggestion that I avoid punching through khadi paper in future!
This is under the tag on the left:
And under the tip in on the right:
And tonight, after quite a tiring day at work, I turned three printed lemons into this collage page, with quite a bit of use of gelato silhouettes, some other papers, a bit of colouring with the Pablo pencils and some Neocolour 1s:
Rather enjoyable, and a good way to relax on a weekday evening.
In order to start stitching into the pieces I made on the stitch retreat, I need to first patch up some of the gaps in the background.
When I bonded the background down, I didn’t realise, but I had lots of little gaps, which you can see in the image below, particularly at the bottom left:
The edge of the ruler in this image shows where the edge of the piecing should be; I’m a long way off in some cases.
I bonded the back of two sheets paper with bondaweb. The colours are a bit brighter than my original pieces, but I can work into them with crayons if needed.
Here’s the piece finished, with all patches in place – I just tore them to size and ironed them down. I checked it by holding it up to the light – as the backing felt is white, it is easy to see where the ‘holes’ are.
Next, machine embroidery.