Wednesday 6 April 2011

Embellished Flowers


In the afternoon I got to play with the papers
I had made in the morning.
I cut two lots of the postcard sized ones into 1cm
strips and then stuck them onto a piece of lace.
Then, it was lots of free motion machining.
I gathered it all up and then beaded!
I had a wonderful time!
I think it was also because it was a lovely
sunny afternoon and I was able to sit and stitch!
It also reminded me of being a child and
making paper flowers, sticking and stitching
anything together
for presents for my Mum.
I have made varying paper flowers over the years
using similar techniques.
More inspiration can be found with
work by a textile artist, Jill Flower,
You can visit her website at
You may also like these flowers with buttons as centres.
You can also do this technique with any colour paper and
ink stamp the edges, make a hole in the middle and put a
brad through it to hold the petals in place.
Scrunch and arrange as before.

Stamping Background Papers



On Wednesday I went along to the Gallery as a student
for the Cardmaking class with Kim.
This week, we were learning how to make background papers
for our cards and other projects.
Above, you can see just a small selection of the inks, chalks and stamps
we had to choose from.
Kim is such a good tutor, she showed us postcard sized
backgrounds of her own and told us how they were made.
We then were let loose with our blank postcards
and you can see the backgrounds I came up with.
I knew I would be using the papers in the afternoon
so chose a similar colour palette
except for two!
See more cardmaking and collage on my website

Stained Glass Patchwork

Just look at the colours in Carol's
Stained Glass Window Patchwork Wall Hanging!
WOW!
Carol has had real patience with this piece.
We've all given her encouragement at different times.
The binding between is less than a quarter of an inch wide
and is sewn either side of it to keep the pieces in place,
almost like applied applique.
Here, we were seeing what colour border to put on and
how many black strip borders to add.
Well done Carol!

Alpaca Inspiration


Nikki's family owns an Alpaca Farm and has many quilts
her Mum made from the woven alpaca wool.
She is making a waistcoat out of the wonderful fabric.
To visit the farm and find out about Alpaca's and their
history visit
or visit the Barn Shop

Crazy Patchwork Cushion

Brenda enjoys Tuesday afternoon creating work that
she doesn't normally have time to do.
She's making herself some crazywork patchwork cushions.
Here is the top being stitched with embroidery and beading.
See more cushions and crazywork patchwork on
my website

Mixed Media Trees

Pat is adding the texture to the background fabric, so her trees
become 'grounded',
(see earlier posts by clicking label below, textile trees).
She is sewing on threads and snippets in a circular motion
so there is movement in the piece.
The trees have just been pinned on at this point.
To see where to go next and how much depth
Pat needed to add, I got her to masking tape
the wall hanging to the wall and
then stand at the other end of the room.
Pat, could see, it needed deeper colour stitching, more
circles and where they needed to go.
As you walk nearer the piece you can pick up the details
and richness already there.
Pat worked on it all morning, many more hours to add
but this piece is becoming an outstanding one!
Well done Pat!
I will grab it for it's finish photo soon!!!
See more of what happens @ The Gallery