Fiberactions

Here is the Discharge fabric piece I did for the Fiberactions challenge-link at right. It's a piece I discharge outside with bleach when two friends and I got together to see what we could do with discharge. Can you imagine the sight when the UPS man came and saw three old ladies bouncing around the yard with fabric on the ground and wearing aprons, gloves, and masks and carrying bleach? We do have fun.

Here's the detail showing the quilting by couching metallic cord down. The beading is on the vertical rows.

Book

This is the third felt book. The button is an antique metal one. The felting has machine quilting over it and is blocked with lots of steam.

The lining is hand painted cotton. The signature cover is layers of paint on card stock.

Thanks to everyone who comments. Right now a big part of my time involves the puppy who is not yet allowed in the office with all it's wires.

Book

Here's the next book. The button is a leather one that has been sitting around here for ages. It feels good to be putting some of these things to use. I used a thick and thin yarn and the embellisher to make the cover.

The batik on the left is the lining. The purple paper with the butterflies is a signature cover. The paint was lifted through a stencil to get the butterfly design. First you paint the paper, then when it's dry, you paint a coat over it, put the stencil down, and use a damp sponge to lift areas of paint off.

Books

Quite a while ago I decided to do felt books to have on hand for gifts. I love working with the fibers, so it's a good excuse to use all the things I've collected--and continue to collect in spite of trying to use things up!

 

To a base of craft felt, I used the embellisher to felt down a thick and thin yarn-love the way it creates random rows. Then I used metallic and machine quilted it. I always steam the felt several times along the way to block it. The ribbon was given to me by a friend. The button is from my stash.

It's lined with a hand painted cotton. It has 3 signatures that are covered with heavier hand painted papers. This one was painted, then plastic wrap was laid on the wet paint to create the crystal pattern. I always use another button on the inside when sewing one on the outside, so use doesn't rip the cover.

Quilt

I'm back to the motif I like to use for a patchwork square. The fabrics are hand dyed and batiks. The quilting is done by couching a metallic cord in a square spiral. I kept trying to design it to follow the patchwork pattern but it wouldn't work. Then I realized I could just overlay a large design that had the feel of the patchwork.

Here's a detail.

My Garden

This is the embroidered piece I showed ages ago and finally made into a small wall hanging.

The center is a monoprint that I put painted cheesecloth over. Next came a layer of machine stitching using a programmed pattern of leaves. Then I hand stitched Feather stitch. The flowers are various circular pattern, some are needle woven. The stems were done last which seems weird but worked. Some of them I whipped to change the color a bit. The threads were Perle cotton, embroidery floss, and matte silk. Some were hand dyed by me.

Here's a detail. I do love to hand stitch.

I had planned to carry the design out into the border, but it just didn't work. I also had sewn a dark border on the outside which really overpowered the center and was removed. Pieces just want certain things and won't settle for others!

Bead Journal Project

Here's the latest cuff. Browns and pinks are not my thing, but they seemed right for November when the leaves have fallen and the days are gray.

Fleece is needlefelted to a base. Then I stitched on the odd shaped pearls using seed beads to be sure they stayed put. Ther is only one hole through them even when they are lone. The redish pearls seemed to want to go down the center but needed seed beads to echo them. The edge is beaded picot.