Postcard 14

The internet was a bit random yesterday, so I didn't post. I have some other things to show, but wasn't too well today.
My Thoughtful man decided to have a day off and we went to the garden centre in the afternoon and bought an on sale apple tree. Which already has apples growing! which is much more than I can say for the one we have. It thought about having blossoms but the weather convinced it otherwise.
So this one is sort of a dwarf one as far as we can tell, (it hadn't got much by way of a label). And as it already had numerous apples growing, he potted it on into a large pot. We will see if the other apple tree decides to produce next year. If not, we may replace it with this one.

Anyway, I made another postcard for my family member.

Again, like last time, it was a scrap of fabric which I have drawn into with Triplus fineliners. It is a bit interesting how some fabrics allow the ink to bleed into the cloth and some don't. I think it has a bit to do with how dense the weave is.

"And the Bead Goes On..." 10-16 June

2013 - Week 24 Daily Beads
Sort of purple this week

no.161


no.162 this looks the same, but 161 one has gold accent and 162 has copper accents


no.163


no.164


no.165


no.166


no.167

Cedar Tree finish all the way around

A bit late for this today as I have been out all day, and didn't get the photos sorted yesterday. But here are photos of the finished Cedar Tree from the 'front door' of the little tunnel and all the way around.

Looks like there are places they would have attempted if their last day hadn't been cold and mostly tipping with rain. I went and took them a cuppa to say thanks and had a natter about working with wood. (My sis and I earned money for college by cutting and selling pulp wood for the paper mill - Dad cut the trees down and most of the time cut it into 4ft lengths, we did the rest! We also cut birch for people's firewood. and thus the condition of my neck and back!)

Ramshackle Hill finished

I was given some fabric a bit similar to the fabric in the first Ramshackle piece. I thought I would try a different type of composition.

and again, I have learned some things from this which will be helpful for the pieces I am making for CQ Horizons at FOQ and also my Contemporary Entry in the judged competition.

I am linking this to Off the Wall Friday at Nina-Marie's.

If you want to see the other Ramshackle piece I finished this week, click on the label under the post that says Ramshackle and you can see the different ones in the series.

Postcard 13 and 1 for another friend

These came from scraps from a dress.

For the first one - no.13, I was putting the adhesive on the fabric and then on the card, rather than the other way around. I was so focussing on the composition I put the adhesive on the front. So, opportunity for making it work. Colouring into it as well as the mark making.

The second one is for a friend afar who also is going through a long medical ordeal.

These are also giving me ideas for something more than a postcard!

Ramshackle House

I thought I was finished with Ramshackle House. I bound it Monday night. But I wasn't happy with the puffy look. (So I posted the stripe post yesterday instead.)

I am using a new wadding and I don't like it. It seems flat, but it gives more loft than my previous one. and of course, I only buy them King or Queen size and keep cutting out the little bits and pieces from the whole. I am tempted to buy another of what I had before...if I could remember what it was. sigh. I think cotton. This must be a blend. I bought it quite a while ago when I thought I was nearly running out.

Anyway. this was before extra quilting - photos taken at different times of the day.

daytime photo

and this is after.

night time photo

And yes it means I quilted onto the overlap of the binding in back. Oh well. maybe I will colour the cream thread brown at the back. and then save this for some situation where the back won't particularly matter.

So, the quilting was all I got done yesterday because I got one of those eye migraines and had to go to bed. no, actually, I sandwiched Ramshackle Hill before I gave up.

If the brain works, I will quilt Ramshackle Hill today... and leave it a bit to see if it wants more before binding it. It has smaller pieces, so there will be more quilting round those. It might be enough.

Stripes

The prompt for this month on the Ideas of Inspiration blog is about patterns. This is what I posted about. you can click on the photos to make them larger. The composite photo on the bottom is best viewed that way.

It took me a while to work this one out. I had never really thought about it. I think I like organic shapes. But then when I stop and consider what sorts of patterns I take into my work, hmm, not so sure. But the more I have thought about it, I think it must be stripes.

I hadn't realised their subtle influence had become a sort of a basic for me as in the way people in fashion say things like brown is the new black (or whatever it is at the moment)

I have a series of work where I did corded pin tucks inspired by the boning channels in Tudor period corsets.

This is the page in my Research for Design folder from City and Guilds Fashion.

This led to corded channels to highlight the pattern in striped fabric. I have a whole box of striped fabrics to use in this way. This is a duvet cover on the floor in my studio. My friend was throwing away, but I had to rescue it!

However, I am following a stripe related side track at present where the regular lines of writing are being used as a stripe..like this fabric which I am using with the writing turned 45 degrees.

Anyway, the prompt spurred me on to go find stripes round my neighbourhood. I found the fences the most interesting.

Perhaps because both the negative and the positive create stripes?

***
I have nearly finished the Ramshackle House. Should be able to show it tomorrow.

Green t-shirt to cardigan

It is starting to get warmer - wonderful! Sometimes though it is still chilly around my house. I had this green long sleeve t-shirt. Green isn't the best colour for me unless it is broken up a bit by other colours.

So I thought it would make a good spring like cardy. So I cut up the centre front.

I added a flowery trim on both edges and then on the sleeve hems to pull it all together.

I didn't realise til I put it on that it works with this blouse!

"And the Bead Goes On..." 3-9 June

2013 - Week 23 Daily Beads

I mentioned last week I am beading onto washers this month. I intended to use locking washers, but had only been able to develop the ones with the points inward.

I took a bit more time on Monday and worked out a better plan for the ones which point outward. The companion to the one I tried,(pointing in) was also difficult, so it may have been the bead size.

Here are the 2 trial ones which worked (I showed the first one last week)

So, now I have matching pairs to go with no. 152

I had run out of the metallic greeny-blue beads from a blend of beads by this point, so tried these other green ones. Of course this is very close up, at a distance they look more like they match.

and 153 from last week.


and now for this week

no.154

no.155


no.156


using some multi-coloured metallic beads for the next few. They look one colour but when they roll around they look a completely different colour. I usually like to select the same colour, so I thought using these combined with a single colour bead would be a good way of using them up. - I used silver with them for 155. So went back to it for the rest of the week. With pink, then purple, then bronze and then copper.

no.157


no.158


no.159


no.160

and it worked! I only have 3 misshapen beads left from the multi-coloured ones.

Something on Saturday

A few more photos of some of the etchings in the Cedar Tree.

A fox

A waterbird

An owl - waterbird above

These 2 were high up so they are a bit fuzzy, but you can see how they have carved the wood in the midst of a knot and then etched it.

Beautiful.