Messing around with felt and stencils on paper

Quilting the bag sides

This week I finished the bag I showed last week. You will recognise the photo above from my last post. I handed the bag over on Wednesday. It was part of a Christmas present from the Recorder Consort to Kathryn who leads us admirably.

The pattern is an adaptation of the Stowe bag by Grainline Studio. I first made the pattern here. I have fully lined the bag and added a single zipped pocket instead of the collection of small pockets of the original.

Finished bag

 Now you can understand why the music fabric was important. Kathryn was delighted with her bag and her other presents too. These included some fruit cordials which she supplies us with during the break during rehearsals and a gorgeous music decorated set of notelets.

Zipped pocket inside the bag

 I've also been playing with nuno felt using the techniques taught by Vivienne Morpeth. It remains to be seen just how successful I have been.

Starting to add the fleece round the silk pieces

 As you can see I have used the same colours I used for the felted top I made during the workshop with Vivienne. I have added some scraps of sari felt from my stash.

The back of the nuno felt before work starts

The finished nuno piece - front

 The nuno felt is still wet at this stage and the colour may well lighten by the time it is fully dry.

Nuno piece showing the back

 The squares are caused by the pieces of felt added beneath the sari silk. I decided to see whether using squares would work.

Messing around with stencils into my sketchbook

 After a lengthy session making two pieces of felt - the second piece I can't yet show you since it will become part of my pages for the Pinfold Challenge. The theme this time is "Trees", hence the following experiments.

Stencil onto paper using fabric paints

Trial run using an acrylic spray

Kitchen paper used to clean the stencils

I had a lot of fun messing around with a couple of my stencils. I really like the patterns left on the kitchen papers used in clearing up. I can see these being added to my sketchbook when they are dry.

A workshop with Gillian Travis

My first piece.

This weekend has been a really special one for me. On Sunday, I was lucky enough to attend a workshop with Gillian Travis. I really admire Gillian's work, since she is a prolific quilter and an excellent teacher.The previous day, she had been giving a talk to the Quilters' Guild Region 13 Regional Day held in Frodsham. She gave a really interesting talk and showed us a very wide range of her work, whilst talking about her travels. The afternoon speaker was Val Jackson who showed her amazing work.

On the Sunday, Gillian showed us several techniques to build up a background fabric. She showed us how to make a wash using acrylic paints, and then using stencils and blocks to build up a texture. Then adding a thermofax print. Some people reading this will feel that this all sounds rather familiar. I must say that, although I have often used these techniques before, I learnt a huge amount from Gillian. I had never used acrylic paints before, preferring to use fabric paints. However, I have now changed my mind and will be using acrylics in future.

The second piece

I used some of my own stencils, learning the best way to apply the paint. I was so pleased with the results and will be investing in a couple of stencil brushes and also some little sponge dabbers that we were able to try.

My second and third pieces still need a lot of work, but I had such a lot of fun putting them together. The original fabric was an off-white stiff calico (muslin). 

My last, just started piece

Today has been spent trying to catch up with my emails, so there has not been any time to spare for playing around with textiles in my workroom and I still haven't managed to put all the workshop stuff away. Never mind, there is always tomorrow. I did manage to get a fair bit of planning done taking Ella for a long walk. I always seem to be able to get thing settled down in my head when I am off on a long walk...........

Hendred Hat by Elly Doyle

I did manage to get a cosy hat finished on Sunday evening, just in time for a rather chilly walk with Ella this morning. It really kept my ears cosy, just what I'd wanted. This hat can be found here and is also in the Scrumptious Collection Volume One from Fyberspates.

I still had some of the cosy yarn left over, but didn't want to make the mittens that match the hat since I never wear mittens. So, I decided to make a cowl or a scarf. In the end, I decided to try to design my own very simple scarf. So here it is:

The basic idea from my notebook.

I was going to use a cable design from one of my stitch library books. This one is excellent with lovely colour photos and clear diagrams.

The original photo of the cable design.

It is lovely working with books like this one. I know I haven't got very far yet, as you can see from the photo below this. However, I feel fairly confident that my scarf will turn out all right. Any problems with it will all be of my own making rather than the cable instructions from the book.

 Tomorrow is the day when I get to show my latest textile book to the Embroiderer's Guild meeting in Alsager. I shall have to let you know about how that goes another time.

iPhone pockets and knitting, preparing for sewing too.

Stormy skies

The skies aren't quite so dark as this outside at the moment, but this was the scene from the back garden a few days back, just before a thunderstorm. The colours were amazing. At the moment the skies are dark and it is raining again. The garden does need the water, and it gives me the time to get on with things inside rather than feeling I should be out doing some gardening.

Weights for my next session with a dress pattern.

Yes, it might seem odd having these heavy washers in my sewing room. I was reading the Coletterie blog, and noticed how washers were used to weight down dressmaking patterns rather than using pins. I decided that the next time I was in a builders merchants I would get some for myself. So yesterday I picked up two packs of these. They were the heaviest on the rack and cost just £2.14. It will be interesting to see how I get on with these.

iPhone pockets.

Yesterday my elder daughter took collection of five iPhone pockets which I had been making for her. These have been around my workroom for the past few weeks and I had forgotten to post about them. Liz had seen two previous little bags I had made for myself, and noticed that they would be perfect for carrying her iPhone around at work. I let her have the one already completed and let her persuade me to make some more. Three of these have closures while the remainder are just left open at the top.

More iPhone pockets.

You might recognise the fabric used in two of the pockets shown above. I was printing these not so long ago.

Reverse of the brown and silver pocket,

My long sleeved cardigan under way.

The back of my longsleeved cardigan is now complete and I have started the left front.

No sewing yet, but a play day instead.

Sirdar book 398, "Roman Holiday"

In town yesterday, I found myself looking for a pattern for a cardigan. I have needed a cream cardigan for quite some time and haven't done any knitting for months. So I walked into Crafty Stitches and picked up this lovely book. It has a number of patterns in it which I know I shall be wanting to knit over the next few months.

Sirdar 9428, top version

This pattern was the one which took my eye. There is also a shortsleeved version which could so easily become longsleeved. Some lovely cream yarn came home with me too. Sadly, I really can't knit with cotton, so I opted for a polyacryl/wool mix  which feels beautifully soft and should wash really easily.

New print blocks

Home again I decided I owed myself a play day so got out the print blocks, fabric paints and stencils. The large print board was set up in the conservatory and I was off. My new print blocks from Colouricious were the first ones to be used.

Flower - first prints

Flower - overprinted

After quite an enjoyable time with the blocks, it was time to break out the stencils. I do so love playing around with the fabrics and trying out the different paints, mixing them too.

Using a stencil - work in progress

More stencilling.

I think my favourite is to use fabric which has already been painted or dyed and then print over the top with something completely different. You can see this clearly with the photograph above. The base fabric had been painted for a landscape theme and I really cannot throw away anything which might prove useful. I have used the offcuts above.

Blocks, foam pieces and bowls drying

My printing table at the end of the session.

I really need to get on with some stitching now before finishing off the printing now that the fabrics and the blocks have dried out. If you are wondering about the toothbrush - well, it is brilliant for getting the paint off the blocks and cleaning right into all the little nooks and crannies of any design. Yes, those are children's foam printing blocks in the centre. I do use those too. I printed using my new heart block too, but will share those photos another time. I am going to overprint that fabric, or perhaps add more colour in a different way. I just haven't decided yet.

Printing and painting fabric.

Printed and painted fabrics.

It has been rather too long since I added a post to this blog. Things have been crazily busy here. I still keep stitching and have been knitting too whenever I have had a spare moment. I shall post about those another time. Visiting my friend Hilary the other day, I was only able to take a couple of things along with me. Items she had not seen. It was a few days later when I got around to getting some ironing done that I rediscovered some printed and painted fabric which I had completely forgotten about. As you can tell, I really don't do any ironing very often - unless it is ironing new fabric after washing it for the stash.

These pieces were made during a rather enjoyable day spent with the NWCQ group. We spent some time printing fabric - I took along my thermofax screens and some stencils, a collection of previously printed and painted fabric and my print board.

Thermofax printed onto painted gauze.

Stencil onto previously painted gauze.

 Well, my print board got a little damp after printing the cog wheels stencil above, so I used one of my pieces of salvaged poly-cotton (an old valance) as an additional dropcloth. I folded it twice to print this:

Stencil onto previously painted gauze.

Dropcloth after printing the gauze above.

Second layer of the dropcloth showing dampened original dropcloth leaking through.

 As you can see the results were really interesting. I shall be keeping this impromptu dropcloth on one side for further printing and painting.

Old dropcloth overprinted using thermofax screen.

This last piece of the day still needs some work, but is developing in a rather interesting way.

Completed book pages for the Machine Embroidery Group. Brenda's theme is "Flora and fauna".

"Breakthrough" completed journal quilt for the Sky's the Limit group.

There have been other pieces completed, but I won't bore you with them here. At present I have started work on a quilt which I hope to complete in time to be entered for the "Horizons" challenge for the Contemporary Quilt group. It is full of pins at the moment so I haven't taken a photo - maybe next time.

Thanks for reading. I shall be back.