Rethymnon Door

Yesterday I spent some time on my little Cretan Doorway piece that I started in the Alison King workshop with EG Airdrie branch.

I had neglected it a little and needed to get back on track with it, I have been giving it some thought over the past few days as to how I wanted to construct the decaying door. 

So while Charlotte was at nursery I got out paints and things and got started.

I started with a piece of pale green cotton shirt fabric building up layers of water colour dyes using my photograph as reference. I will stitch into this to try and create a weathered wood effect.

next I worked on the step 

with a little paint, then Softywax fabric crayons

after hot iron fixing this will be padded out and stitched into a little too I think.

Charlotte was delighted to get out to play in the snow for a little

 so I was able to work on it a little bit more while she played

I place out the components so far,

 decided a whole wall of stone was perhaps too much 

so I thought some stonework might be a nice detail to add

 represented here with bits of card.

then I worked on a little bit of lilac silk

I may work into this more with my Markal paint-sticks 

detail of the wire-work on the doorway.

I'm off to EG Airdrie branch tonight so there will be more progress to show soon.

Flower Quilt ...progress

In my last post I mentioned my Flower Quilt which I was working on about this time last year.

it was more of a remake / refashion. 

I wanted to make it a bit smaller and a bit more interesting on the reverse, I got as far as making a new reverse side complete with four new painted panels.

 pieced together with the squares I removed from the other side.

The new side.

 I took out the thick heavy blanket that was in there and replaced it with a thinner fleece throw from IKEA. Im thinking this will be just as warm but easier to wash size and weight wise.

A few hours spent over the weekend 

re-hand quilting the six painted panels on original side 

 the colours have faded a little

 but still as pretty

 I enjoyed the process of quilting it by hand again 

 onto the new cream throw

I worked with a large hoop to quilt and found it much easier and quicker, 

I bought the hoop a while ago and have never used it before now.

Today more progress......

Some of the original green backing fabric cut into strips for binding.

I'm not too in love with the colour,

  thought I'd use some blue or green fabric paint to brighten it up

I settled on the blue, covered the table with cling film and

 brushed the paint & water solution onto the strips. 

Strips all dried and colour fixed with a hot iron ...a nice match for the quilt 

they have a little bit of a sparkle to them which you cant see in the picture.

good match for the paler original side too.

The strips are 2.5 inches wide, for a double binding these are now folded in half 

ironed and ready for stitching on tomorrow.

Fabric painting with seed pods

This weeks theme at Tag Tuesday was Seed Heads.
Today I had some fun with fabric and paint.

 I used a Star Anise seed head to print red and gold onto cream cotton

To add a little colour to the background

I sketched an outline drawing of a star anise seed pod and placed it over the fabric and then sponged over it with pink watercolour fabric paint. I let it dry and then ironed over it to set the colours.

 I used this fabric to make my tag, I cut a strip of the fabric when dry and frayed the edges, I then machine stitched it with gold thread to a wider, thicker cream fabric and again frayed away the edges.

Star anise and whole cardamoms were then hand stitched in place.
I also did a mono print with a darker wine coloured fabric paint on a large white ceramic tile.
With a small paintbrush I did a quick outline using the Star Anise as my inspiration and took a print with some cream cotton.

I went over the outline that was left on the tile with some gold fabric paint in places and placed the same printed fabric over the tile to pick up the gold.
I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.
Not sure what I will do with it next.
 It was nice to do something creative today :)
Yx

In The Pink!

Two Pink themed fabric ATCs for a Swap-bot swap.

ATC on the right

Hand dyed jersey cotton with organza overlay, machine couched yarn & hand embroidered centre embellished with seed beads & pink bugle beads to finish. Edge is hand stitched in space dyed 'Oliver twist' machine cotton.

ATC on the left

Pink space dyed cotton, machine stitched & embellished with hand painted fabric daisies and seed beads. Edge is hand stitched in space dyed 'Oliver Twist' machine cotton.

Both ATCs are now on their way to my swap partners in USA I hope they like them :o)

Colour Button necklace

Colour Button necklace

This was the result of an experiment with machine embroidery on soluble fabric, buttons, beads and lots of fiddly sewing........very time consuming I have to say but I like the result.....

and 'Flowerdance' cuff this originated from a transfer crayon rubbing ironed to fabric with an organza overlay.....lots of machine embroidery..... then hand embroidery...there was never a plan just a wandering of 'whatever I felt like doing next' .... I like it.... it works....

Both available in my shop

Flower Pins & Pendants

New items in my Etsy shop..... Three new fabric flower brooch pins

................ and three new stitched paper pendants

available @ Boxoftrix

Textile Beaded Cuffs

I really enjoy taking a stroll along Aberdour beach and I can't resist coming home with my pockets filled every time with beach treasure. I wanted to use these unique little pieces on some new jewellery. These little cuffs have been a long time in the making and I'm really pleased how each one has turned out very different.

Now available in my Etsy Store Boxoftrix

From the top left: Ocean Garden, Shoreline Stroll, She Sells Sea Shells & Cotton Candy.

Stitched Paper Pendants

I have been working on these little stitched paper pendants. First painting some paper with fabric paints then stitching over the surface, this created interesting texture, sometimes tearing the paper, I then embellished them with punched flowers, dragonflies & beads. I stitched them around tiny mirror tiles. The one on the bottom right is the only one made using stitched fabric.

These little pendants measure only 22mm square

I listed the three paper ones in my Etsy shop Boxoftrix ......One already sold....

More coming soon.......................

Cyber Fyber Swap

Im delighted! my ATC & Postcard swap pieces have arrived from Susan Lenz, they are just beautiful. I chose both of these because they were made from the same larger work which Susan compleated for an exhibition in 2004 the original was called 'Last Light Before Vespers' which you can see & read about here be sure to click on the image for an enlarged view...it's a beautiful piece and now I have two little bits of it!

Click the picture for a larger view.

The ATC & Postcard I made as swaps for these are shown in post 15th Feb & if you want to see a little of how they came about see post for 14th Feb. If you havent been to visit 'Cyber Fyber' yet to trade why not have a look you might see something still up for swaps.