Rainbow Scrap Challenge - more green

I had thought that I would throw the scraps left over from the last piece away – some were just slithers and I couldn't imagine them being useful.

However, before they went in the bin, I decided to use them with my embellisher machine.  When looking through my felt to attach to I saw that I had odd bits of felt too and instead of having to use a complete sheet I was able to join my felt scraps with my embellisher.

 front and back, the khaki is showing a bit brownish on these photos

 The next task was to embellish the cotton scraps on.

Then I softened it with some merino fibres and a couple of strands of scrap yarn

Realising I couldn't see much of the cotton fabrics, I picked some of the merino fibres off to reveal the fabrics again

 close ups

Here's what it may look like, cut up and mixed with pieces created in different colours

I'll keep it as it is until I have made some more pieces in future months, then decide what to use it for.

This has been a great opportunity to use all of those scraps to create a new fabric.

Apologies for the difference in quality of the photos - some were taken in daylight and others in artificial light.

TAG Tuesday - Lace

This week's tag is a reminder of one of my pieces I made for my City and Guild Embroidery Course.   It was called A Metre of Mushrooms as it was a metre wide and the design came from one of my paintings of some mushrooms - hence the words on the tag.  The photos on the tag are of the design (top photo) and the finished piece.  The background of the tag uses leftover lace, other leftovers from the project used for the tag are beads for the tassel and top, and wool for the 'string'.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Green

This month's colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is green.


Here are my green fat quarters to choose from.

 I enjoy a variety of textile crafts but haven't done any patchwork and quilting for quite a while.  These fat quarters (or should I say partial fat quarters) are leftovers from various small patchwork and applique projects.  When I got them out I found this

It's a wonky flying geese pattern.  I don't remember doing it but I must have done.  My intial reaction was great - I can continue this and make it into a large block to go with the red one I made last month.  I don't want to make all of the blocks the same so auditioned the pieces next to each other and was happy.

I merrily cut squares from my fat quarters for the base but couldn't quite work out how to cut the pieces to form the sky as they wouldn't be proper squares.  Then I thought - hang on a minute.  The reason I joined this challenge was to use the odd bits of the fat quarters where squares, strips and other shapes had previously been cut.  By cutting fabric for the flying geese this would create more odd bits not use the ones I already had!

I changed tack, and went back to the fat quarters, opened them out and cut the odd bits off.  Over the last couple of weeks I've come across new terms such as crumbs.  I don't have any boxes of crumbs or scraps, at least my take on these words.  My cut up fat quarters may be scraps to others but they are still fat quarters to me.  The tiny pieces I would think of as crumbs have either been thrown away or are still attached to the main piece by thin strands of fabric.  These are the crumbs I cut from my red fat quarters last month but struggled to use them.

There are lots of curved shapes in there from a flower making project.  I'd like to thank Cathy Tomm for pointing me towards Bonnie Hunters crumb tutorial. Unfortunately, I've not had time to have a go with my red crumbs as we're now onto green and I've been making tags for Tag Tuesday as well as other projects I'm in the middle of.  I still want to make something from these red bits though.

With my green fat quarters I didn't have a crumb problem.  They'd been cut but most had what I would call tails which I could cut off and use as scraps.

Looking at my greens I wondered how they would look together - there are dark ones, light ones, yellowy ones, bluey ones, greyey ones, grids, circles, pea green.  Some I liked, some I didn't.  To me, they don't go together.  I wondered about  putting them into groups for likeness and make several small blocks but decided to use them randomly.  It seemed easier to do it that way and other scrappy quilts I've seen have a mix of fabrics I wouldn't necessarily have chosen to put together but they seem to work well.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as the saying goes.  If it looked a mess when it was finished I could put it down to experience.  They were only small bits of fabric I'd had for ages after all so I wouldn't have wasted any money.  Surely being in my stash for that long could be seen as a waste by some.

I've used the general technique from the crumb tutorial matching pieces by size to put together.  I didn't want to be worried by scale and tonal values but I think instinct kicked in so there aren't clumps of similar pieces together.   In the beginning, I had several little blocks and I wondered if they would have sides the same length to make one piece.  I busily kept stitching and quite soon I realised that a couple of my blocks had grown to 9 inches along so decided that this would be my final block size.  In the end I'd made four blocks and have very few bits left over so I'm pleased with what I have created - all from the odd bits.  Today I saw the term poverty piecing.  I thought it was something to do with making quilts for charity but it comes from the idea of not being wasteful and putting all good fabric to a good use.  I think my blocks qualify for this term - well, once they have been made into an item they will.

I haven't decided what to make from the blocks yet, ideas kept floating round my head and I've been inspired by lots of blogs I've been reading.  For the moment I'll keep the blocks separate whilst I create more in different colours and create an ideas file.

I'm going to work on other projects now but am looking forward to see what next month's colour is.

TAG Tuesday

With a different theme each week it’s going to be difficult to create them in the same style but I would like to use photos I’ve taken in the past and old family photos, together with words for as many of the tags as possible.

When I first saw the vintage theme I immediately thought of a photo of my grandmother taken in 1967 as I have a piece of fabric from the dress she was wearing.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember where it was so my next thought was a photo of my grandparents with their three wheeled car.  I don’t know when it was taken but it would have been at least 40 years ago.  However, I couldn’t find it but I came across one of my dad in a toy car with his mother and grandmother.  This one was taken over 70 years ago.  The tag actually came from my grandparents house so is quite old itself, at least 30 years.  The buttons are old cloth covered ones which I think came from my other grandparents’ house.  I tried several arrangements with the buttons but wasn’t happy until I decided to use name tabs.  

I’ve since found the dress fabric and will be making that tag as well.  Here it is in progress.

 

I started this challenge during the third week and wanted to complete the set by making tags for the first two themes – snow and snow sports and games.

For snow, I have used a photo taken in my garden showing footprints in the snowfall.   Ribbon, beads  and words are used as embellishments. 

 

I also have some photos of frosted spiders webs that I took to use as a design source which I’ll use for another tag. Here it is in progress.

 

The second week’s theme was snow sports and games.  For this one I have used a photo of my youngest son playing with snowballs.  We don’t usually get much snow where we live but in 2008 it snowed over the Easter holidays in the April.  My son is wearing a scarf that I knitted for him.  I don’t have any of the main wool left but used the same wool at the ends of the scarf for the tassels on the tag.   It’s embellished with some words, beads and hand embroidery.  

 

I’m also in the middle of making one with photos of my other son taken in 2009 sliding down a hill on a skateboard without its wheels.

I’m having fun making these tags and will certainly make some relating to lace – the next theme.

I hope you like them.

Challenges

I’ve been looking at lots of blogs in the last couple of weeks seeing what people are up to and what other challenges are out there to join.  A lot are quilting based but I don’t seem to do much patchwork or quilting any more.  The last time I bought a fat quarter (or larger pieces for patchworking) was several years ago.  Don’t despair; I’ve bought lots of other textile goodies like silk fibres, embroidery threads, yarns, mixed media bits and pieces since.   Some things are allocated for projects I’d like to make, others are leftovers from things I have made.  I’ve enjoyed making things for the FAMM and 3 Creative Studio challenges from my stash but these have stopped.  I’d like to join more challenges – ones where I can make things quite quickly as I will have other main projects on the go. 

So far I’ve joined the UFO challenge and Colour PaletteChallenge.  I’ve already completed this month’s UFO challenge and have started preparing for the Colour Palette one.

Two other challenges which caught my eye whilst exploring blogland are the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Crumb-Along.  Not sure if I officially have enough ‘scraps’ (how small is a scrap?) but I have lots of fat quarters which have been partially used, some with odd shapes cut out and this challenge would be a good way to slash that stash.  As I enjoy a range of textile crafts, I also have lots of yarns, silk fibres, merino fibres, buttons, handmade papers.  Some haven’t been used yet but others are leftovers from other projects.  Perhaps it can be my leftover challenge!  I have been thinking of what I could make with the fabrics – fabric book?  book covers? bags? wallhanging? even a quilt!  This month’s colour is red and I’ve got quite a few different red partial fat quarters so it will be a good starting colour. 

Reading about the crumb along I’ve decided I don’t have any crumbs to use, or only very few, so I won’t be joining.  However, it has given me some ideas for the rainbow scrap challenge.  Remember those odd shapes already cut out from my fabrics?  I thought I could square off the fabrics, then I’d have some crumbs which I could make into small squares.  These could be used in conjunction with some of the rest of the fat quarter to make a block or two.  Nothing would go to waste.

I need to go and get my boxes of fabrics out and have a play.  I’ll let you know how I get on.

I'm a Winner and What's Next

My Hearts and Roses shown in the post was picked at random to win the last month's prize - a free online course and some fat quarters.  I'm chuffed to have won and although it wasn't judged competition so that I can say mine was the best I've had some lovely comments.  Why not have a look at the FAMM Challenge Flickr Group to see what other people have created.  They are all wonderful pieces and it's nice to see how others have interpreted Tradition with a Twist. This month's challenge is Lost and Found - Embellishing with Found Objects.  I've had a few ideas of things I can use and am playing with some designs in my mind.

The other new challenge I have is for "Passage" - the new theme for the Three Creative Studios Quilt Challenge.  I haven't had any ideas for this one yet but the deadline isn't until the end of April so I have two months to come up with something and make it.  Last time I had only three weeks as I joined in part way through and I finished before the deadline so I'm sure I'll be ok this time.

A more pressing deadline is Saturday when I'm going to a masked ball.  As yet no mask but I made a protype in silk paper yesterday so today is all go for the real piece.  Must go and get on with it as I won't have time tomorrow.

Fiber Arts / Mixed Media - another challenge for me

Whilst reading other textile blogs I came across the Fiber Arts / Mixed Media group which includes a monthly challenge.  Although only two days to the end of the February challenge I joined up and spent some time working how I could put a twist on a tradtional quilt block.  Out came my patchwork and quilting books and wondered what non-tradtional materials I could use.  The rusted fabric and tyvek I had made on an online course last year came to mind and I was away.  Yesterday I spent some time creating my rusted piece and also another one to submit.

Here's how I made the first - Hearts and Roses: rusted tyvek squares with rusted fabric slashing (apologies if this is not the correct term and also for the seams not lining up accurately); backed with a purple fabric I free machine embroidered some hearts and realising I probably wouldn't be able to work out how to make all 9 different I created some swirls.  The swirls reminded me of roses and hence the title.  To stabilise the fabric before zapping with my heat gun I sewed it to some pelmet vilene.  Whilst zapping I reaslised that I perhaps shouldn't have used the same colour thread and fabric.  Never mind - it's all a learning curve, experimenting.

In all truthfullness I'm not sure whether I prefer the piece before or after it was zapped. 

For the second piece I flicked through my book again and came across the triple rail fence which looked nice and easy to twist with non-conventional fabrics.  Rummaging through my stash I came across some dried roses and decided to use these with some used teabags and an english-dutch dictionary.  These are all very neutral and I wanted something to give it some zing.  Another rummage and I found some turquoise silk noils I had already incorporated with some silk cocoon strippings - bingo.  Now for some more turquoise and I found a lovely turquoise thick paper in my paper chest.  The teabags and rose petals were bonded together with bond-a-web to create a 'fabric' and I also bonded the other materials to it as well for ease of use.  After cutting the pieces they were bonded to some calico.  This piece I feel needs some stitching - obviously the embroiderer in me coming out but I'm not sure how yet. 

Tomorrow's going to be an exciting day for me as the new issue of Workshop on the Web is out, the next challenge for the Three Creative Studio Quilt Challenge will be announced as will the new Fiber Art / Mixed Media monthly challenge.

Puzzle Challenges - What's for lunch?

Last year I took some online courses which I enjoyed.  This year I plan to take part in various challenges and will show my creations on my blog.

The first one I'm taking part in is the Quilt Challenge run by Three Creative Studios.  Every two months a theme is announced and everyone has two months to create a quilt based on that theme.  The first one is Puzzle and although it started on 1 January, I didn't find out about it until the beginning of February and decided to join in.  Quilting is not my main area of textiles but I have enjoyed creating my puzzle which I finished last night, three days before the deadline.

Here's a picutre of what I started with (all from my stash)

All this I planned to use to create a design in the manner of a sliding tile puzzle based on a photo I'd taken of my son's lunch three summers ago!  I just knew it had potential to be more than food for the stomach.

The background fabric was made by felting the merino fibres using my embellisher machine.  The ham is a blend of pink, blue and green merino and throwster's waste - not mould I hasten to add and I used the orange blend for the background.  Although there's only one cheese in the lunch I used several different packs of silk fibres so that each slice of cheese was slightly different.  Wensleydale curls have been transformed into ketchup!

Here's work in progress

After felting the fibres lightly I cut them up, rearranged them into the correct position, and embellished again using some fibres going across the joins underneath to hold the squares in place.  The silk paper was bonded onto the merino an then I attached the wensleydale curls with a herringbone stitch.

Next - the quilting.  I wanted to blend the squares together so I used the ketchup swirl from the original photo.  I planned to quilt with some french knots in silk thread but was worried the silk would wear thin to quickly so I embroidered them before adding the middle and bottom layers.  The running stitch and fly stitches go through all three layers providing the quilting aspect of the challenge.  More silk paper, this time in green/purple was added to the border and here is the finished piece.

I promise that if you cut my puzzle and slide the tiles like the child's toy you'd get back to a ham and cheese roll! 

I'm looking forward to the next theme which will be announced on 1 March and I promise I will blog as I go although only sneak peeks are allowed until the reveal week at the end of April.