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Sunday 29 March 2015

Stitching the Seahorse....

29th March 2015

Had a very lazy day today.....

.....started a new book and became hooked!

Went to my loft space and free machined.....

...the backing fabric, hand dyed thick cotton free machined.....


.....organza seahorse cut using a soldering iron....



.....free machined in gold metallic thread and a bead eye....


....rather like the result!

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Yesterday I painted and printed using Brusho and acrylic paints and printing with silver....


.....cut up and stuck in my beach book....


.....wrote words that came to mind when I thought of the beach in silver pen....


....think I might add to these pages.

Also prepared a secret project.....



Saturday 28 March 2015

Stitching, Printing and Bead Making...

28th March 2015

The rain was bouncing down this morning while I was in my loft space, reminded me of holidays in a caravan......
....I saw Maggie making beads on the Cornwall course and thought I would try....

....cut long thin triangles from my Brusho paper...


.....applied PVA to the back and rolled around a small paintbrush, then applied acrylic wax....



...awful photo, sorry....


....I wanted the beads to decorate my Japanese Stab book, also added beads from my stash.

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When I was on the course I liked to wander round the studio to see what everybody was doing.....

.....this idea came from Lucy, PVA on calico, scrunched tissue added for texture, then painted....


.....decided to stitch my dyed silk on the three areas using a variety of threads....


.....the result.


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Cut squares from my Brusho paper and coated with acrylic wax...

....as I applied the wax it blended the colours so now looks very different!



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I have really enjoyed free machining the last couple of days and wanted to make a backing for this seahorse, cut from gold organza and attached to a blue organza using a soldering iron.....


.....I decided on this thick cotton hand dyed fabric and stitched using variegated thread.....


.....printed with my own rubber stamp...


......stitched....


.....watch this space to see the result of stitching on the seahorse.....









Friday 27 March 2015

Stitching a Seascape...

27h March 2015

Spent a very enjoyable afternoon free machining a seascape with the help of this book....


....I bought this a few years ago before I started my course and when I looked through he pages today found this.....

....silk paper and organza on a paper backing....


......followed the excellent instructions in the book and produced...


....a real learning curve!
(don't know why there is a shadow!)

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Had a little play with my Brusho....


....sprinkled, sprayed...


....will try on fabric next time....


.....the colours are very vibrant....


....will probably try to do something with the seascape at a later date.

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When I was on my RSN course I used a free standing embroidery frame for the first time and it was so good to have both hands free to embroider, found this on e-bay for just £10...


....am looking forward to using it.





Wednesday 25 March 2015

Weaving and Free Machining....

25th March 2015

Spent the morning cleaning, washing, ironing and changing beds.....

.....then went to my loft space to play.....

....ironed large bubble wrap between sheets of baking parchment....



......placed it on some brown paper decorated with gold printed bubble wrap and paper then stitched.....

......I used variegated threads in two different shades, spirals and circles, then cut some wrap away using my soldering iron....

.....great fun and I really enjoyed the stitching....


...this is for my beach book but I would definitely do something similar again, would make a great book cover!

Medium bubble wrap, ironed and 'sandwiched' between my dyed cotton and tie dyed silk....


....free machined, such fun, I had orange thread in the bobbin and this shows through in parts...

....used silver metallic for circles but difficult to see in this photo!


Very small holed bubble wrap, ironed and painted with silver, placed on a stencilled sheet of paper...

....some holes made in the wrap using soldering iron.


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The main part, beach, sea, cliffs were made as a collage on my course....

...I mounted on hand dyed cotton and tie dyed silk and stitched with variegated thread...

...quite pleased with the result!


I bought this child's weaving loom last year and used some yarn I bought at Yarndale last year....



.....messed about and inserted a small razor shell...


...loved doing this!

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The postman brought me this today...



.....will probably play with the Brusho tomorrow.

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One of the prompts from my Be Creative online group organised by Myfanwy Hart was to use 6 different embroidery stitches in a circle.....

I love red on white and this is the result, most of the stitching was done on my train journeys.....

....thoroughly enjoyed this task, stitches from left to right...
chain, buttonhole, stem, back stitch, herringbone and Kantha (running stitch)



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Pilates tomorrow, that will be a shock for my muscles!!!!


Tuesday 24 March 2015

Pages in my Beach Book....

24th March 2015

Today after washing, ironing and food shopping I sorted my goodies from the course in Cornwall...

...a friend gave me this brown paper which I scrunched up...


.....painted and printed with a feather....


....another piece decorated with bubble wrap....


....another piece stencilled...


....bubble wrap painted in silver...


....I am going to iron this between baking parchment when dry!

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Made some pages in my book, this was from last years course...



.....seaweed and flat pebbles from the beach at Bodrugan... 


...weaving from last year.




Sunday 22 March 2015

A Better Day!!

22nd March 2015

We went to Hampton Court early this morning and had a stroll along the river....

....rowing boats all ready to set off...


....seagulls resting happily on the sign and railings....


.....a punter....


....close up of the tree and mistletoe...


.....this will give an idea of the size of the tree.


I managed to complete a lot more than yesterday!!
The yellow 'lumps' visible around the grid are the knots on the starting threads and will be cut away, I still have to complete the grid and finish 6 squares but I was seeing patterns more easily today!


This beautiful work was done by a 16 year old who is hoping to study for a degree in textiles.


I am really glad I did the course and loved learning about counted thread work, think I will be experimenting when I get home....