Why I love to dye silk

It seems to be a long time since the last post and much of my time has been spent dyeing and working. I did several loads of acid dyed silks and viscose wool felt, mainly because I just love dyeing silk for the effects that it creates but also I needed something suitable for an embellisher-made bag swap.

Medium weight habotai

Various silk sheers

Silk tops

And because I was going to be using the embellisher, I threw in some viscose wool felt.

I liked the piece that I made for the bag so much that I came very close to keeping it and turning it into a piece for the wall but I stuck to my original aim and made a bag for Cath. I am glad that I did now as she loves it and so it has gone to a good home

The original fabric

and the bag ...

Just because I had the fabrics out I also made another wrapfolio and a postcard.

This month's Technique of the Month was overpainting fabric with metallic paint. As I had a pretty unprepossessing piece of fabric that had not dyed well, I decided to use that and it certainly improved it although I can't say that I love it.

The  same group that is doing the bag swap have also been doing a bookmark and quiltie swap. These are the bookmarks that I received from Jytte, Angela and Marian. Now I can enjoy reading lots of books at once.

This is the quiltie that I made for Joan, again using silk and felt and with the flowers and leaves made from thermogauze

If you have managed to get down this far, can I recommend a beautiful book to you by Virginia Spiegel, 'Wild at the Edges'. This has the most beautiful images and thought provoking and inspiring narrative. For those of you who have been considering that they might have a book in them, this one is self-published by Blurb and I was surprised at the excellent quality. If you want to have a peek inside the book go to Virginia's blog.

Last but not least I managed to win myself some fabric last week from Just Hands On TV, just for being a subscriber. Do check out the site. You can get there by clicking on the logo on my side bar.

I'll try not to take so long before the next posting, so until then, enjoy whatever you are doing.

Maggi

Back home from its travels.

Almost a year ago I sent an embellished piece off to Australia for the Connections Challenge that Dale Rollerson of the Thread Studio had organised. It didn't win anything but is well-travelled and has been seen by many people along the way. The other day the piece arrived home with a lovely selection of rayon threads as a thank you for entering. I had forgotten to take a photo of the finished piece before I sent it off so I am now able to show it fully finished.

The Stitching Tree

These are the threads that came with the piece

"I will help you to arrange them"         

"Why do you want threads anyway, you got me?" 

The threads ...                   

Things seem to have been quite felty lately. I made some pieces of Nuno felt the other day (a good way to keep warm), dyed them and was also able to throw in some left over pieces of silk which now coordinate nicely.  I love the way the different silks produce varying textures. 

The felts

The silks 

I have some ideas for a project, albeit a small one for the felt but I can't reveal it at the moment as it may well become a swap.

I know that journaling is something that many of you out there do on a regular basis but I am a real procrastinator when it comes to using sketchbooks etc. I tend to launch straight into the stitching and see where it takes me.  Myfanwy Hart has set up a blog about journals and so I decided that while my trusty Bernina is having a service (I can't believe that it gave me an actual message telling me to contact my dealer!) I would do something that didn't require too much in the way of stitching. A quick dabble last night produced several pages and some lovely pieces of paper that will come in handy sometime.

In the post from Jan this week was my ATC. It is a beautiful rainbow of pleated sheers. 

My order from the Thread Studio, along with some used Shiva sticks also arrived. I didn't take a photo of the latter but they are going to be really useful as none of them are colour that I have already.

And last, but by no means least, just before  started this blog post I was browsing through the ones that I follow and discovered hat I had won Jan's giveaway which is a beautiful bag, so thanks again to Jan.

Thank you too to all of your good wishes over my cold. It has now gone thank you.

Nothing more for now so enjoy being creative until next time.

Maggi

More embellishing

Managed to get the first challenge piece finished. Its inspiration was an aerial photo of desolation Canyon in America. Distorted it in Photoshop using polar co-ordinates and then changed the colours. Created a felt base then added some painted tissue, tyvek and lutrador. A bit of heat and also soldering, and stitching and then finished. I'm not entirely happy with it and might go and do some painting on it once the Grand Prix has finished.

Lesson 2 has started

Have been beavering away at my Open University but have still managed to fit in time to do the first sample in Lesson 2 of Dale's course. Embellishing was really quick but the hand embroidery has taken quite a long time - at least it is a relaxing exercise.

Lesson One finished also

Having completed the anniversary present I just had to get on with Dale's first lesson as the second one is due any day now. Did most of the samples and then the 'challenge' which I was quite pleased with. Only trouble is that I now have to make a big push with my Open University course as my last assignment is due on Sept. 9th  and my exam on Oct. 7th and I still have the last block to finish - where does the time go?


Strip pieced sample

Embellished felt shapes from the front and the back

Wool, silk and bamboo fibres on scrim



Wool, silk and bamboo fibres on muslin



The finished challenge - background is embellished silk carrier rods (a cheap bag of seconds from Stef Francis) with flowers from a previous sample, beaded centres and I then found some Tyvek bits from a past project which made ideal leaves.

Embellish, Stitch and Enrich

The on line course for the embellisher with Dale Rollerson started on Tuesday. Excellent lesson one. Well worth having a go at her next one if you have bought an embellisher and have not yet realised its potential. Have not got much done on the lesson yet but it has been fun playing with some interesting results.