Postcards, books and printing on felt

Completed Apache top

It has been an interesting week. For once I have quite a number of completed, or nearly completed items to share. 

Firstly, a photo of the completed knitted top which I talked about last time. As you can see it has a really interesting closure in that there is a knitted tab which is pushed through a buttonhole in the right front of the waistcoat. This should be handed back tomorrow.

Printing on felt

On Friday I went along to a workshop at Friday Felters. This was with Val Hughes, a very talented textile artist. This was a really interesting session, although I must admit to not liking the block printing medium which I used for my sample. The felt is still sticky today. I shall have another go and print using my usual fabric paints. The blocks shown above were made at the workshop using foam board as a backing with thin foam. As you can see, I cut the foam so that I could use a positive and negative of the same design. I haven't used the second block yet, I found the idea of printing on felt had a lot of possibilities and will definitely be doing it again.

Completed book cover

 You may recall this post, where I showed an earlier stage of working to put this book together. Since March, I have been steadily adding bits and pieces to my book, deciding yesterday that it really now needed to have a cover. So, here it is. I still haven't filled all the pages, but will continue to add bits and pieces during the rest of the year. Tomorrow, it will be travelling along with me to the NWCQ meeting where other members will be showing their altered books. I didn't join in with that topic, preferring to make my own book rather than use a printed book. I really don't know what they will make of my version.
The cover is part of the old sheeting on my small printboard which I replaced earlier. Shocking to think it has languished in my fabric stash for so long before being used. However, it was perfect for this book cover. Just the right size too. It won't be too long before I need to replace the current printboard cover on that same small board......
The cover is stretched over a piece of foamboard which was left over from making some exhibition notices last year. Useful stuff. It is quite sturdy and stops the book becoming too heavy.

A few of the pages

 The next two photos show some printed bits and pieces which may well end up inside the book once they are completely dry.

Some material to be added to the book

 The lettering was printed using a set of children's wooden letters which I have had since my teaching days. Rather nice to be able to use them. The block pattern at the top of the above photo is another of my home made blocks made using foam board, double sided tape and thin foam. Like the earlier blocks, this also has a negative block which I haven't yet used for printing.

A sample to try out the lettering

This scrap of fabric is all that remains of the printboard cover which I used for the book cover. So useful to have a piece like this to use to try out different things.

My postcard - "Wish you were here"

Last week, I went along to a Pinfold meeting where the challenge was to complete a fabric postcard on the topic, "Wish you were here." I decided to revisit the design I used for my Horizons quilt, "Caribbean Memories". The original design was 0.5m wide and 1.5m long (19.75" x 39.5"). You can see it here. This piece still needs to be trimmed. It uses scraps of sheer and satin fabrics with some woven silk over a backing of calico. The detail of the leaves has been free machined with a small amount of paint used for the coconuts. The size of this piece will be 87mm x 139mm (3.5" x 5.5"). I will be taking this to the beading group in the morning since they are considering this as a challenge.

Meet Frankie the felted fish

Frankie

I finally got round to finishing Frankie my felt fish. You can read all about the making of the fish here.

Showing how much the felting process has shrunk Frankie

I looked out the original paper shape which was used as a pattern for the resist inside Frankie - you can see it underneath the fish. The resist was made from a plastic tablecloth. The pattern here doesn't include the fins or tail since they were added later in the process. Frankie is hollow with aluminium disks for eyes.

Free machine stitching on my August journal quilt

I finally started work on stitching my next four journal quilts this week. The flower patterns were drawn onto water soluble fabric which was then stitched over. I'd started work on these some weeks back. You can see the work starting here.

Seven journal quilts showing the sequence

You get an idea of how the journal quilts will look when they are all completed in the photograph. I now have to start work on the last four of the sequence. The ones seen above still have to be cut to size, labels added and an edging stitched in place. I'm really enjoying working on these.

Felt making and dyeing.

The past two weekends have seen me taking part in very different workshops.

The first of these was a workshop with Edwina MacKinnon. Here we dyed with indigo and also Potassium Permanganate. This gives a delightful brown shade which goes well with indigo.

Dyeing samples drying on the grass.

We had to leave the samples to dry for a week before rinsing out. As you can see, my samples were wrapped around sticks, clamped with bulldog clips and rubber bands. I tried some Shibori too (the 

fabric is stitched and the fabric gathered firmly before dyeing.) All this was great fun.

Dyeing samples after being unwrapped and rinsed.

The fabric was eventually washed out yesterday and hung out to dry on my washing line. I have still to iron it and put it all away. I think my favourite has to be the blue and white piece to the left of this photo. This was the cotton piece which  I have bound up with bulldog clips. You may see some brown marks on the cloth. These occurred because a couple of the bulldog clips decided to start rusting. Really interesting results.

Turkish felt.

I had some fun during the week playing around trying to make another piece of Turkish felt. This was the result. The fibres used for the back are all orangey brown and yellow. The fabric was first rust dyed before being used for the felt. It really wasn't a very good piece of rust dyeing, so I was quite happy to use it here. It hasn't felted quite as well as my first attempt, but I am quite pleased with it.

broken crockery and tiles

Taking Ella for a walk, I found some really lovely pieces of broken crockery. I couldn't resist picking these up since I could see some possibilities for their use.

the reverse of the same tiles and crockery pieces.

I found the reverse sides just as interesting as the coloured tops, especially those printed marks. These may well reappear at some time in the future. I haven't quite decided how to use them yet.

Felt made using bits and pieces of discarded samples.

Last Friday, I went along to Friday Felters where we made felt to make into twiddlemuffs for alzheimers patients. I am not sure that my piece is going to be good enough since it would need rather more elements to fiddle with. I will need to play with this piece rather more.

Following Friday's felt making session, I returned to Frodsham, once again for another feltmaking workshop. This time it was with the International Feltmakers Association. We were making felt using prefelts, pieces of partially felted fabric. The pattern was based on a skyscraper scene which we were given to use. Pieces of prefelt were cut to shape before the whole piece was felted onto a background of wool tops. 

My skyscraper scene

As you can see, I had a lot of fun playing around with colours. It still needs a little bit of finishing off, but I am really quite pleased with this.

Happy New Year!

Silly hat - front

The last few weeks have been a mad rush to get a waistcoat finished for my daughter as well as getting some bags done as gifts. In all the rush I forgot to take photos! Maddening.

One of the felt flowers

This silly hat was put together quite quickly to go to a New Years Eve party which was also held to celebrate the 50th birthday of one of our neighbours.

Silly hat - back

The invitation read "entry wearing a silly hat", so I attacked my collection of bits of felt. The hat was a bought one, I must admit. A bright purple top hat.

Some more of the flowers.

The buttons were in my button collection. I didn't need to buy anything. The buttons held the pieces of each flower together with a few stitches fastening them in place. The completed flowers were then attached to the hat with double sided sticky tape. It was great fun to make, just messing around with a sharp pair of fabric scissors. I ended up with second prize too!

I do hope that you had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year and that 2014 will be a healthy, creative and enjoyable time for you all.

Warm and sunny crafting days.

Its been quite a busy weekend so far. My younger daughter arrived on Thursday and we went into Manchester to the Private View of the 62@50 exhibition by the 62 Group in the Holden Gallery.
The exhibition was wonderful and I would recommend anyone in the area to go and see it. I shall be going again before it closes on the 17th of August. I'm pleased to say Rosie enjoyed it as much as I did. Favourite pieces? Sue Stone's delightful pictures of 1930's figures with modern day graffiti in the background. Really interesting. Then there was Alice Kettle's interpretation of "Guernica" - this is one of her huge pieces and is one we were drawn back to time and again. A disturbing theme. There was also the really amusing story of the 100 metre dash by Marilyn Rathbone.
Now why the letters? I treated myself to these when I was in Fred Aldous, one of my favourite shops. The letters are each barely half an inch tall. I intend these for use in my printing experiments.

The jacket is one I've just completed. It has taken me ages to finish this. All my own fault. I lent my little portable bright lamp to a friend to complete a project. Then, of course I needed it for all the hand sewing on this jacket, especially finishing off the lining. I've had to get on with this project in the last couple of days while the light has been good in the daytime. It is a black twill jacket which will see a lot of wear travelling to and from Choir and Recorder group concerts. I have to wear black for the performances with a brightly coloured top, so a smart black lined jacket will do very nicely. This is lined with a cotton-like fabric rather than the more usual rayon. It really feels nice to wear. Hopefully it will be fairly warm for autumn concerts.

The last three items have been ones I have been working on for a while, especially the hand embroidered felt bits. These are all intended for my last four Journal Quilts.

Each of my Journal Quilts this year have had handpainted fabric which I have written all over using the names   of the colours I have used for that quilt. These are all destined for my blue quilts (September to December). So you can see elements for blue-green, blue, light blue and blue-purple. It is rather unusual for me to be so far ahead of myself. I keep wondering what might go wrong with my plans for these.

Printing, painting and catching up.

With my two geriatric cats in attendance, I got the tables out and set up for a fabric painting, block and lino printing session. I also got some feltmaking done too.

The tables were groaning with equipment.

The sky was pretty full too. Well, the clouds were full of rain and rather threatening.

I work outside when doing anything messy, so I had taken advantage of an unusually dry afternoon last month. It has taken me far too long to post about it here.

You will see pegs attached to the various pieces of fabric. They are there to stop the fabric moving too much and getting surplus dye and paint in areas I hadn't intended it to go.

These are two large pieces of fabric ready to be used for the "Boundaries" / "Beyond Boundaries" theme of the "Textiles Without Limits" group. I haven't fully worked out how I shall assemble this quilt, but I have started..................

The bamboo blind at the other side of this washing line is the one  I use when making felt.

This is one of my favourite blocks at the moment - a grape leaf design which I bought from Colouricious. The fabric beneath is a piece I painted during a previous session. I'd tried painting indoors that time and discovered that it really was too much of a fuss since it was difficult to get as much done as I'd really wanted to do. This is why I prefer working outside - I have as much space to use as I like and it really doesn't matter  too much if I make a mess. I can easily wash the paving slabs before any fabric paint has a chance to dry, and the grass doesn't seem to mind too much. The cats just enjoy watching humans doing anything.

The really pleasing thing was that the rain only started after I had packed everything away. There has been so much rain since that I feel doubly lucky to have managed to get so much done in one session.

Keeping busy.

Why is it that when I start one project, another comes along before I have finished the first one? At present I have quite a queue of projects in the process of being completed, started but not much completed yet and waiting to be started.

The first of these is Rosie's quilt.

I have got to the stage of having finished the first part of quilting seventeen of the twenty blocks. The first stage being the "flower".

This is what it looks like on the back.

The next bit will be quilting the blue "sashing". After that I shall be able to start sewing everything together.

Project number two is getting on with my page for the Traveling Pages project. The
ay theme for me is "Coastline". You do not need to remind me that I am fast running out of time to complete this during May.

As a tease, these pieces of felt I made some months ago will form the basis of the page.

Another project which has been started will have to remain secret for a while since it is something being made as a gift.

I still haven't got started on my mum's quilt........... I have quite a collection of ideas which will form part of the quilt when I start. I really do not have the time to begin just yet.

"Get on with it!" shouts Felix.

He is right, I must get on with the sewing.

Just getting on with it.

Well, I have started work on mum's quilt. Just got the lettering sorted out. Well, thats a start. The fabric I shall be using is all ready to be sorted out. Its all in a jumbled pile at the moment - correction, two piles. It was all in one pile and toppled over! Thats why it is still rather jumbled. Never mind, I shall get the board out for some theraputic ironing ready to start work on the calligraphy elements.


My page for March is also well on the way to being completed. This will be posted on the Traveling Pages site as soon as it arrives with Juliette. I did have a panicky moment when Felix decided to jump onto my newly painted fabric..... Poor dear, he ended up with his back paws in the bathroom sink being washed. I have never known him so quiet! I was forgiven at tea-time. He knows who feeds him................


The knitting is not going so well. I think the tunic pattern just isn't working for me in this yarn. It is time to rip it all back again. Don't misunderstand, I love the pattern and I love the Jaeger yarn. The cotton/silk mix just seems to be better suited to a more plain design, it is quite highly textured. I shall not be buying any more yarn for a while, so will have to start a different project instead.




For now, I am knitting a pair of Firestarter socks, so will get on with these for the time being.


The reading I mentioned in my last post is also going well, I am getting on with my magazines and am now up to date with them. "Quilting Arts" arrived last week and I am already half way through. It is a magazine I subscribe to and I really like to take my time reading, since there is usually rather a lot of ideas I want to have a go with. This edition is no exception. There is a really good article on screen printing. It is something I have really wanted to have a go at for some time. I already have a couple of screens and some fabric printing dyes. I just need to get my table top sorted. My dear husband has given me a lovely piece of board and I have the felt and old sheeting to cover it. So what is stopping me? I need something stable to rest my printing board on.............. I am reluctant to get any large-scale printing done in my workroom. I would much rather keep it nice and clean in here. So I must organise a space where I can be messy. The felt-making usually gets done in the garden, so that's probably where I shall do my printing. It does make sense, but it is rather frustrating the thought of not being able to do any printing except in the summer months. However, I could really get a lot of fabric ready for use in the colder months............... Perhaps it will work out after all.

Sorry there is only one photo this time. Blogger is not cooperating today................

Felting, finishing off and fun!

The past few days have been really busy. One highlight of this week was a long walk I had with my husband. It had been really wet earlier in the day, but we set out fully equipped in our waterproofs and walking boots.

It was such a lovely walk though. Everything smelt so damp and fresh.

Clearly this snail decided it was better off above the ground.

I've been busily completing projects this week. This skirt was finished a couple of weeks ago, but needed the waistband tightening up a little since I had made it rather too loose.The pattern is one I have used a few times, but never in crepe de chine. It is Simplicity 5459 and long out of print. I added pockets at the hip line.

The next project was a little experiment. My first use of jersey fabric.
The pattern comes from "Sew" magazine and came free with their second issue.

Now I just have to complete another skirt - this one is waiting for me to do the waistband and add buttonholes, then I can get the hemming done. It is all pinned and ready to go. However, I really must get my white cardigan finished first. This is nearly all sewn, the buttons are in place, the sleeves sewn in, just the side seams to finish.

Just completed this morning is my green cardigan. Now sewn up after a marathon session last night listening to podcasts, it waits for buttons and a ribbon for the waist.

Last Friday I had a glorious afternoon making felt with my friend Hilary. We took ourselves out into my garden so we could get really messy without any worries at all.

This piece of felt now hangs on my wall waiting for inspiration to strike. The colours are brighter than they appear here.

Then earlier this week I finally got some fabric printing done. I used the lino prints I cut several months ago. Instead of using fabric paint (it dries too quickly to use) I mixed some acrylic paint with some block printing medium and printed with that. It took a couple of days, leaving the prints to dry overnight in between sessions. (Sorry, but Blogger will not let me include this photo the right way up!)

To cap it all, I was really naughty the day before yesterday. I couldn't resist these wonderful fabrics in the sale at Cheshire Needlecraft.

They have been washed, ironed and stroked and are sitting on my windowsill. I shall put these away when they have been admired long enough.

The last piece is one for a challenge. Its the August callenge of the Fibre Arts Mixed Media group (see the link to the right hand side of my Blog). I call it "3s and more". It has been made from all sorts of metallic shiny things. The base is a lovely cream cardigan which I managed to felt by accident.



The orange is a piece of very lightly felted wool. On top of this I have added Angelina fibres, some metallic fabric, metal braiding, wire things I found in a shop in the section where the wrapping paper is usually found. The strange hand like shape is a piece of machine embroidery I did some years ago. The number three used to be partof one of those tubes that hold tomato paste. The small leaves used to belong to a pair of ear-rings I found in a lucky bag the last time I went into one of the local charity shops. (That bag cost only £1 and was full of wonderful oddments which I shall be using in future projects.)

The next photo gives a close-up of those odd wire things. I pulled the gold ones out since they were tightly curled. The silver metal balls came like that.

Last weekend, I went to the Festival of Quilts. What a wonderful show that was. I bought a screen and some screenprinting materials. Guess what I shall be trying next............?