Monday, February 24, 2014

Copying a skirt

Early in January one of my grand daughters texted me about skirt that she found on the internet and loved, but it was no longer available. Could I make one? How could I turn her down?  A trip to a fabric store with picture in hand, I found a pattern that was close enough and fabric that would work. Then the whole works sat in the studio untouched for several weeks. This weekend I finally spent a few hours and made the skirt that looks almost the same as the one she loved.

 The picture of the skirt and the almost copy.

Today it went into the mail, hope it fits!

The Weekly Leaf, week #8

This week I used Jacquards Color magnet, screened onto a previously dyed pale tan fabric. Then the piece was over dyed green, the area where the color magnet had been screened on took the dye darker  than the rest of the piece.

 The screen is an old one that I had made from an image I cut from black paper in a Notan exercise.

After dyeing.




Daily Stitching Projects

Indigo and Rice #343 -#348


Line dance #50 - #55

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Vintage block quilt done

The quilt made from vintage blocks is finished, except for the label. I need to get some information about the woman who had these blocks, she passed way recently and was in her 90's. The quilt is 75" x 75" and too big to photograph on my design wall so I've put it on a spare bed to get a photo.



The leaf this week is based on a doodle that I did while in a meeting. I enlarged it, reversed it, made a toner copy and used Citra-solv to transfer it to hand dyed fabric.


The original doodle and the enlargement.


The reverse image and the transfer.

The Weekly Leaf #7


Daily Stitching
Indigo and Rust #338 - #342


Line Dance #45 - #49


Monthly Project
Mom and Me, February



This is one of her crocheted doilies that would have been starched so that the edges would ruffle. I don't think it was ever used. I found that if it was folded not quite in the center and pressed, it would lay fairly flat. It's mounted on an eight inch canvas.


Linked to "Off the wall Friday"

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Valentine Postcards

Every year I make a few valentine postcards for my younger grand children and since it was a snow day when I started making them this year I made a few extra for friends. I stitched a heart shape using french knots and cross stitches, photocopied it and made a thermofax screen.


The original on the left, the photocopy and the screen.

The screen was then used to print on either a pink cotton or some vintage plaid silk with burgundy fabric paint.

The hearts were fused to Timtex and a few more stitches were added in different spots on each one. A backing was fused on and the edges were stitched.


Ready for address and message.

The best part is that I also received some valentines from some of the same friends I sent them to!

The weekly Leaf #6


This leaf was printed with green fabric paint on hand dyed fabric using a thermofax screen. It's a very old screen and I can't remember whether I drew the image or used clip art or a combination of both.

Daily Stitching
Indigo and Rust #334 - #337

Line Dance #41 - #44

I've also finished quilting the vintage block piece, all that's left is the hand stitching to finish the binding.

Happy Valentines Day!

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Stitching and knitting through the Olympics

I'm not much of a tv watcher, but we do have it turned on most evenings. Evenings in front of the tv is where I do my weekly stitching, knitting and reading. With the Olympics on for the next two weeks I should get a lot done. This is how the table alongside my comfy chair looks.

On the upper left is a bag with the sweater I'm knitting. Underneath the bag is the stack of books I'm currently reading. In the middle is the small bowl that holds my weekly stitching, that's #6 in the bowl. The bowl to the right holds this winters pair of socks in progress.

We have had a few snow days lately so I've gotten some quilting done on the vintage blocks.

Daily stitching updates.
Indigo and Rust #327 - #333


Line Dance #34 - #40


I've also been working on this years Valentine cards, I'll show those next time.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Finishing up and moving forward

I've been assembling  my 2013 weekly stitching blocks. Each one of the blocks was completely finished as I did them, now I'm using some small cube beads to sew them together.

The beads


The bead sewn in at the corners.


The back of the assembled blocks.
Now I've got to put a sleeve on it and see if it will hang correctly with just beads on the corners. The vertical rows are all attached and just the top horizontal row so the vertical rows hang loosely. At least that's what I hope they do when the sleeve is attached and it's hanging from a rod.

I'm really getting into my weekly leaf and will probably attach each of these blocks the same way, only I'll do it as I go instead of waiting till the year is done. This week I used my Gelli plate again, this time with a rubbing plate from Cedar Canyon Textiles



I used a mix of olive and brown textile paints applied with a brayer, then pressed the rubbing plate into the paint to make my image, then laid a light hand dyed fabric on the gelli plate and picked up the image.

Fused the flannel on the back and did some stitching.

The Weekly Leaf #5


Indigo and Rust #321 - #326

Line Dance #28 - #33

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"