more sewing - work in progress

After hemming the calico backing, I drew my idea on it roughly with Inktense blocks. Derwent make them and they are fantastic; you can use them wet or dry, and when painted into fabric with water, the stain is permanent. Using Inktense on fabric is quite a long but informative video from Derwent - worth a look for water soluble crayon and pencil addicts.

The next stage was to sew landscapey stripes and slivvers of velvet onto the painted calico. This took almost a whole week because I had no idea that cotton velvet could fray and crumble so much! Every time I tried to neaten the turned down edges, more matter fell away. Shaking or vacuuming the cotton crumbs accelerated the deterioration. I used lightly applied hand-wrapped-in-sellotape in the end and tried not to worry too much!

Next, my favourite: organza. Doing this piece, I discovered that there are several different kinds of velvet and organza respectively. I've only used polyester organza so far.

Once the sheers were being stitched and scissored, I forgot all about the messy velvet.

Very pleased with this grassy limey green.

After several layers it can be confusing where to cut and what to expose.

Here is the sewing so far. 18"x14". Bit more to do yet.

pencil case

I made the fabric for this pencil case using a brilliant idea that I found with the Colouricious Club videos on You Tube New Fabric from Old. Also, a lady called Jo Mcintosh has a pair of videos on 

You Tube about Recycling Fabric Scraps.

Basically, you start with a backing fabric (canvas in this case, for strength). Then you randomly place scraps of fabric, leftovers swept or kept after projects are finished, onto the backing. Lay a piece of sheer fabric on top of this and machine sew everything down through the sheer. Bondaweb is useful for sticking the scraps down but it's possible to carefully move all to the sewing machine for the securing.

I added more scraps, glitter, some Angelina fibres (unfixed) and then another layer of organza. And then went spiral-mad with the embroidery foot.

I did not look for the right sized zip before I began and was too excited to wait until the shops opened the next day, so used this 20" one that I found in the button box. It was extremely awkward making it fit but now I am pleased that the pen I need at the very bottom cannot hide forever - because there isn't a bottom, just one long top with corners.

It's nice and big, 9"x6". Could encourage more pencil shopping, though.

stitched Valentine - Febuary 2015

I used recycled sari-silk waste for the first time. Still unhappy about the plight of moths, but as these strips and bits would have been swept into dustbins, it seems almost as guiltless as buying leather goods second hand. There's some cotton velvet and foiling and plenty of F1 Singer-driving here.

renewed attempt at machine embroidery - January and February 2015

cushion for Peter's Mum - August 2014

For this picture cushion, I decided to try to replicate in yarn the home the recipients live in. I'd been to Peter's parents house a few times in 1988 and could remember the house quite well - I was surprised how well when I checked on Google Streetview.

They still have a beautiful garden. This is Mr Marshall having a lie-down.

It was Bobbie's first trip to London. She loved the great glass elevator at St Pancras.

And the overlnd train to Hatfield.

Mrs Marshall escaped being photographed but hugged the cushion before returning to her kitchen.

red and yellow painting - May 2014

I made this painting last April and May - it was my first using solely acrylic paint. There's some charcoal and oil pastel too.

always atleast one tricky moment

Did me a lot of good. It's called 'Hello Menopause' 30"x24"

K1 P1 K1: Dog!

I knitted a few dogs over the Summer for  charity - wish I could have made more. My dog Bobbie and I attend the local German Shepherd Dog Obedience and Agility classes which is what inspired this bout of knitting. Two of our Trainers received woollen approximations of their own dogs. I used the patterns from Best in Show by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne. I have to say that these are not easy patterns to follow but even after unpicking and starting again (the Jack Russell had his head knitted backwards the first time and looked like a Nazi experiment!) the final stuffed, eyed, eared and tailed Dog makes it all worthwhile.

a Jack Russell (based on the sweetest little Russell called Zippy, owned by Dave and Trainer Trisha)

a Poodle (made to order for Trainer Kathryn and based on her very bouncy, young Poodle, Olly)

a Dalmatian, a British Bulldog, a Dachshund and a Labrador Retriever (vaguely!) made to raise money for a wonderful local re-homing kennels called Just For Dogs.

 Clearly, these dogs are not remotely to scale with eachother. That'll teach me to deviate from the needle size and wool weights in the patterns!

Darling Terry playing Gulliver to the pack of knitted Lilliputian dogs

a Whippet (also made for Trainer Kathryn, based on her beautiful Whippet, Stanley)

Christmas Machine 2013

Happy Christmas everyone!
Arts and crafts confidence entirely deserted me this year but at the last minute, I have managed to cut and print a new Anderson Shelter Christmas card. Can't tell you how happy I am about this and how much I enjoyed the process all over again.
Putting this blog post together, I realize with amazement that the whole project took less than a week. Perhaps I should instigate some kind of deadline for the 25th of every month? Mustn't try to run when I've only just stood up again, though, p'raps.

 Here's to the dear subjects in the drawing, ink and paper, and having friends to send cards to.

Tuesday 10th, early hours

Wednesday 11th, afternoon

Thursday 12th, evening

peg and line prep

Friday 13th, the first print! I confess that I stood and wept.

caught the last 2nd class Christmas post with the first batch on Wednesday 18th

second batch: Thursday 19th

Young Terry kept me company throughout the process. He is one of the kittens born underneath the telly last October (2012) - not sure I even mentioned them here! In the lino-cut, he is the cat at the top of the Christmas Tree.
  If Terry could speak English, I'm sure he'd say 'God bless us, every one.'

Michaelmas Term

Very long time no blog! 

It's been a strange and at times difficult Summer with the Mental Elf playing up and the Black Dog making a reappearance - all due to a muddle with medicine dosages. 

The slugs eating all of my Dahlias and most of the Sunflowers didn't help. And the rain! There was hardly any macrophotography to be had as all the poor winged creatures hid from the deluge (and me). After i decided to actually kill the slugs (upsetting),who seemed to be the only living things left in the garden, i didn't feel justified in photographing them. 

    I've been feeling much better since mid-August so i can only excuse myself for half of this long blog-gap. Anyway, self-recrimination is no way forward.I hope anyone who reads this has had a perfect Summer - with fewer slugs!

 Here's what i've been up to:

Knitting

[reverse side of cushion]

I made this cushion for a great friend of my great friend John. Ulla is a Danish forensic psychologist (among other things). She came to visit at the end of August with news that after many years in England she had decided to return to Denmark. I couldn't make it to her farewell party so i made her this cushion. Ulla is a truly beautiful person. I can't not mention that!

This is an example of 'My Intarsia Hell' ! It's always worth it in the end, though.

Bears

At long last, i got hold of some proper German mohair! I spent a whole week designing, re-designing, amending and revising a pattern for a bear small enough for  one whole bear from 1/16th of a metre of fabric. It's incredibly expensive.

I don't have an entirely finished bear yet but will do soon.

I tried out the pattern in felt, first. I think it's an excellent fabric and has something sweet about it so i shall be making more bears and other animals with felt. It's also cheap and doesn't fray!

Limbs and bodies were fairly easy to anatomize proportionately but there are several disembodied heads lying around.

Painting

The canvases have gone white.

 I thought this might happen one day. It's about an interest in texture. There are a couple of canvases like this, begun years ago. I thought they were waiting for colour - i took my reluctance to be some kind of block-nonsense; now i think colour can sometimes be inappropriate.

 As i'm piling so much matter onto the canvases, i think it might be time to try working on wooden supports.

I've been making a lot of my photographs black and white. Perhaps this has crystalized my view.

'...a poor describer of light.'

Crochet

 First crocheted blankey finished. I couldn't work out a way to square it in the end, although i did try. I think it was already too big.

It measures about 48 inches across. Kind of neither here nor there, purpose-wise. I'll try a squared one next and keep going.

Last but not least...

The livestock. Everyone is fine and they deserve a whole post to themselves, really. I''ll just mention this little treasure. She came into the house  at the very end of August. We had seen her in the gardens during the Summer and were sure she lived at Number 5. However they had moved away. She is logged with the RSPCA as a lost cat but other than that i have no way of finding her owners.

    

 Of course, we have fallen in love with her. We are calling her Dolly.

It became almost immediately apparent that Dolly had a secret (approximately 4 secrets).
Kittens due any time now :-0   !!!

(Cats 5 - Dogs 1) 

not including the kittens.