A bit rusty

Tried out a new technique today - rust dyeing. This could become seriously addictive I fear ....

This is what I achieved in just half an hour and I ran out of table drying space. I tried out heavy weight tyvek, 300gsm watercolour paper and fabric (no pics of the fabric yet as it looks a fairly uninteresting dark brown until it dries and can be rinsed).


These are the tyvek pieces - some A4 and some A3 size pieces.








Close ups of some of my favourite areas





And I think this piece of watercolour paper is just stunning


And because it's so quick to do, I even did some more of my coursework piece!

Back from 'lurgy' land

I've been laid up in bed most of this week with a vicious viral thing so haven't felt much like doing anything let alone blogging!

Anyway, I'm back with a vengeance and thought I'd share my first attempts at using transfer papers to make A4 size mini quilts with a view to submitting them to
http://littlegemquilts.wordpress.com.

The first two I'm not very pleased with:-

"Sunrays"


and "Shiny Spirals"


Both of them are a bit 'obvious' - don't really say much about anything.

These three I like much more. The first one, "Scarlet Rain" was transferred to light weight Lutradur which was layered over some commercially printed fabric, free motion machine quilted and then areas of the Lutradur were cut back to reveal the fabric beneath. I've since mounted this on a blue painted box canvas and plan to give it as a birthday gift to a friend this weekend so this is one that won't end up in the Little Gems tombola.


This one I've called "Optical Illusion" as it made me cross eyed when stitching it! I painted two transfer sheets - one graduated yellow and one blue - then cut and wove the two sheets together before printing onto an 80% polyester/20% cotton blend and quilted.


This one, inspired by the sun shining on the big stand of bamboo in the garden, is my favourite.


Enough blogging for now. Got to get back to beading before class tomorrow!

Productive weekend

Well, Artmixter has certainly started something now! I've made 19 ATC/ACEO this weekend - some I'm pleased with, others not so pleased. If you click on any of the images you'll get an enlarged view.

This is the first batch:


And these . . .



And I think I like these ones the best.



After all that cutting, painting and sticking, I decided to just sew today. I seem to have acquired quite a lot of copper coloured fabrics so I chopped some bits up and stitched them to a piece of craft vilene. I then added some free motion embroidery, bound the edges and this was the result:-



What a shame it's back to work tomorrow.

Couldn't resist it

I know I should be stitching beads but Artmixter asked me to be her guinea pig for a new pamphlet she's produced on making ATCs. Having never made one before, I just couldn't resist making a start on my first four. Will post some photos when they're finished.

I did spend nearly three hours this morning with the beading although progress is painfully slow. My own fault for trying to be too ambitious I suppose.