Health Update

Latest in the saga of my health. Just been 'released' from hospital after a week of suffering the inconvenience of an acute inflammed gall bladder. Not nice. Lots of morphine, anti sickness tablets and liquid low fat food. Lost more weight, shouldn't complain! but now I have to now wait for the call for key hole surgery. Now that it has been diagnosed with hindsight I can see that I have been 'under the weather' for months now. Nagging back pain on the rightside especially at night, general uncomfortable torso pain, feeling seedy, and drinking lots of peppermint tea! So hopefully when the offending organ is removed I will feel like a new women, here's hoping!!! Hubby is expecting his wife back!

Must get back to my workroom soon as I can get rid of this fatique. I did manage to do some stitching whilst in Hospital, Silk-n-Threads are having a Christmas stocking competition this Friday, although I won't be able to attend I intend sending my entry, this is how it is looking at the mo. Embellished base fabric using silk velvet and silk which is them hand embellished, first side finished, may have to use a plain second side to save time.

embellished base

hand embellished first sidedetail of surface embellishment

Back Again!!

Been somewhat indisposed recently. Firstly I was very busy creating for two exhibitions that Silk-n-Threads were holding, both going very nicely up to date, see link on right. Then I managed to get a rather bad bladder infection due to some grit that scrapped the inside of my bladder. Both very painful and resulted in a trip in an ambulance to A&E and a visit from the emergency doctor. Two doses of strong antibiotics later I now feel better but if you have ever had to pass bladder or kidney stones you know what I went through.

However back to my workroom and finishing off all those pieces that have been sat around for far too long.

Firstly the finished book cover made from the fabric paper that I made back in early September. Pleased with the result as it is just the right size to fit in my larger handbags!


Back of the book cover.

I finally got around to having the Patchwork of Life embroidery mounted and framed ready for the exhibition at the Bollington Arts Centre.

Closeup of the stitching on Patchwork of life. I completed this as part of Sharon Boggon Sumptuous Surfaces course in the summer.

Lutradur experiments

I've been experimenting with Lutradur recently using the details given in the new ezin Fibre & Stitch. Carol McFee takes you through the process and some stunning results have been created by subscribers to this months edition.

This was the first stage, above, when scrim and lace was painted on to Lutradur, left to dry and then played with!!!

Here I painted the surface with a selection of metallic paints, the purple (blue in photo) was added to bring life to the browns and metallics. I squeezed Luminere paint straight from the bottle.


Then I FME over the top with metallic threads to highlight the shapes in particular the areas of scrim. I then painted over some of these areas again to give more relief.





This is the final result, unfortunately the luminere lines reflect the light too much giving a false impression, in fact the lace relief areas are more pronounced than the photo would lead you to believe. Now the exciting bit, what to make from this sample!

Unlimited Textiles Swops

This is the finished postcard that I have just sent off to Susan for the September swop of Unlimited Textiles. I embellished some green and purple organza on my Janome Xpression on to a base of black felt. I then FME on top in mainly circular patterns, finally embellishing with beads and french knots. The colour combination is obviously complementary and a particular favourite of mine at present.

These closeups show corners of the PC where the bead embellishment is prominent. Found the cube beads at the Festival of Quilts exhibition!This quiltie has gone to Gunnel and is 5 inches square. The base is painted bondaweb on calico and then layered with two shades of organza before FME around the shapes left by the paint. I embellished on top with hand embroidery and beads



These closeups show the colour variegations achieved by the paint on the bondaweb, ideal for FME. I was pleased with the way the different organza changed the effect below them. The colour combination is again complementary but a much more subtle one than the PC.

Hope you like them ladies!

Fabric Paper

This is a piece of fabric paper that follows Beryl Taylor's instructions on the Workshop on the Web june 2007.
I used white cotton poplin, painted it with a 60/40 water/PVA mix and then played with papers and fibres to create the collage, finally covering with lilac tissue paper. Over the top of this I used some paint. Then the fun bit I FME over the surface to create contrast and tonal change. The close up below shows some interesting sections.
At the moment I think it will be a book cover.

Patchwork of Life - almost there

My second and final piece for the Sharon Boggon Sumptuous Surfaces class is almost complete. Most of the squares are complete, I just need to fill in some gaps here and there but generally pleased with the result.

Concept of patchwork of life is reflected in the half empty/half full sections, the emptiness & gaps in ones life, the isolated squares, the purity of new life and the richness and closeness of family and friends.

The green squares represent the green grass that tempts us but is no where as rich and full filling as life.Tonal change reflects the wealth of knowledge and wisdom gained throughout life.

Now that summer has at last reached the UK I am off out to the garden so I don't know when I will finish it completely!!!!!!!!1

Inspired

Returned last night from the NEC and the Festival of Quilts 2007. The display of quilts was phenomenonal, the range was huge and the skill stunning. It was nice to see works by people who I knew via workshops or the web. Helen Cowan, Greta Fitchett, Kaffe Fassett and Jennie Lewis to name a few. Also stalls, Ruth Brown of Stone Creek Silks, Mary Day from the Guild of Silk painters and Maggie Grey from the WOW, Workshop on the Web. I am not a quilter but thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition which I had to do in two attempts and would have loved to have had another day to go around again. It was interesting to see the contemporay quilts, many from abroad, utilising various techniques.

Whilst browsing the stalls for goodies, many of which I bought, I watched Maggie Grey dem the Janome embnellisher and it inspired me to get mine out of its box and have a go this morning. Nothing too big as I wanted to finish something so used my colours of the moment in silk tops that I dyed a while ago.

I embellished a piece of felt with a selection of silk tops and synthetic fabric from a cast off skirt of my daughter and ended up with this. Much brighter than the photo shows.

I then zig zaged strips so that I could weave them to produce this. Quite pleased with the result.