Summer tie dyeing

Tie Dyeing makes me so happy, first sign of sunshine and we go mad. All of these fabrics end up getting used in one way or another, mostly as backgrounds for printmaking.


The following prints have all been printed onto tie dyed fabrics, some are commercial rubber stamps, the bees and daleks are my lino cuts.

Feathers, lino cut, fabric printing

So this today's work, feathers this time, I cut 5 different sizes of feather, again all individually so I could play around with the arrangements, I don't love these as much as the mushrooms, but I am pretty happy with them.

 this is on a fairly coarse piece of fabric, so there is a lot of texture with the prints

 This is on yet another piece of fabric that I tie-dyed about 9 years ago...

 Dense print on a fabric that someone gave me, the colour doesn't 'read' very well on screen, it is a kind of lilac

 Close up of the same print

 A totally different arrangement, fading out to grey for the smaller prints (ink was running out!!)

two quilts and a moral

The first of these two quilts, the log cabin, was a top that I had started to piece over twenty years ago, Some of the scraps came from a friend who was then working at a couture house in London, (the queens dressmaker!) and some were just bits and pieces that have been added over the years. In the end I started to really dislike the top, the fabrics were just too scrappy, there was no over all theme, it wasn't well made. But as a result of a craftster challenge I decided to get it finished...Now that it is finished, I don't hate it, but would never part with it as it represents a huge chunk of my life, marriage, divorce, daughter, living in 3 countries, countless house moves etc etc...

the next quilt was much more recent and has a moral. it started life as a coin stack quilt and was intended for a colleauge that had a baby boy, but I realised that they wouldn't really appreciate it and so bought them something instead. So I added to the top intending to make it into a full size one, Not huge, just enough to sit on the top of a double bed...Which I did, but at that stage I was seeing a guy...who loved it, so I gave it to him as part of his christmas present....we broke up about a month later...

the moral is, never give quilts to new boyfriends!...it can be such a waste... lol

Linocut fabric printing flamingos

This is the start of another new obsession, I scored a load of lino from a kind soul on Jumbletown and it lay around for a while until I signed up for a fabric printing swap, so I had a go. My first try was pink flamingos. And I really like it, the flamingo body and beak is hand coloured, printed using speedball screen printing inks for fabric and printed onto some vintage fabric.

 this is the lino block that I used, I don't bother mounting them onto wood as it allows me to position more carefully if I can see where the image is, although subsequent blocks have even more of the excess lino cut away.

I made a bag out of the two types of fabric...!

Fabric cover for a gratitude journal

This is another project destined for a swap. it is simply sewn from a simple green corduroy fabric, with some patches appliqued on, I used some buttons and a ribbon for the closure. it holds a simple hardback notebook, which is replaceable when its all used up.

Did you know that one of the techinques that have been proven to contribute to long term happiness and contentment, is the practice of gratitude. i have been making lots of journals recently to give to people as gratitude journals. The idea is that you write in them every day or so, just make a note of three things that you are grateful for in your life.

I think this would make a fabulous gratitude journal, which is why i used the colour of the heart, green..and of love..pink

A quilt in a day, from 9 fat quarters

It was time to make a quilt..

 I decided that I wanted to start something new and found these great instructions online, to make a quilt from 9 Fat quarters. I have some nice FQ that I had been saving for a special occasion. It is my new resolution to stop saving fabric....I plan to use it instead. I also had a very cute (Very expensive) FQ that I got in Galway last weekend)

I had just decided to piece the top that night, it was Sunday afternoon,  but the cutting and piecing of the top went so fast..it would have been about an hour and a half. If I didn't have to rethread my machine about 10 times, not sure why..crappy thread perhaps...and if I hadn't got impatient about one mistake and instead of using a seam ripper...ripped it by hand..and yes, ripped the block, so had to resew the whole thing....

so it took about an 1 3/4 hours. Having more time in hand..and only sunday night, -back-to-work-tomorrow- blues to look forward to. I thought I would work on a bit of overachieverness and see if I could finish it..

and I did!! I used an old foxford wollen blanket for batting, and even pieced a strip for the back and put a label on it- using the embroidery function on my machine-

The whole thing took about 4-5 hours I'd say, allowing for mistakes, it is far from perfect, I did mostly quilt-in-the ditch on my regular machine, so there are some puckers, and the corners are awful..but it is a finished quilt, rather than adding to my many unfinished objects...and I love it to bits!

12 days of christmas swap

Over at craftster I like to participate in the 12 days of christmas swap, where you make a gift(s) for your partner for each of the 12 days of christmas, here are some of the things that I made for mine. Some bags and slide pendants for her 3 sisters, I was given themes to work from.

PJs bottoms (aka lounge pants) and a sleep kit. I love a sleep kit, I make a zippered pouch and add earplugs, eye mask and lavender oil. I recommend them for travel, if you are a light sleeper like mine. You will notice from this pic and the next that the colours are absent..pretty much monochrome, My partner didn't like much colour and so I was limited, but as I said in a previous post, limits and boundaries are so good for me.They help focus my work and stop me adding too much colour, too much randomness to things.

I love this, this quilt was very difficult to part with (I didn't send the cat!!) it is IKEA fabric and I think the whole thing came together very well.

 

I also sent some blank cards, they were altered art, starting with some images from a calender, and for some reason upside down in this picture!

recent random craft projects, cushion covers, needle roll, etc

More recent projects, all of these were made for craft swaps, I really enjoy the process of craft swapping as it sets limits on what can be done, defines a theme and sets a time limit, which gets me off my ass and working! Has to be a good thing. This is a crochet needle roll and craft apron for a swap (I really should start making stuff to keep!)
And some cushion covers, the recipient of these had a thing for crows and also wanted some little stone from Ireland, the crow cover is obvious, I really wanted crow feathers for the top cover, but I couldnt find any, went wandering about old churches and tall trees looking for a rookery but no joy, all the crows were hanging on tightly to their feathers. For the last pillow case, I sewed in some little stones and shells into pockets created by the gauze ribbon (not very comfortable admittedly! but its her favourite)

spring craft bags and purses

well I've been having major attacks of craftiness lately, the weather has been unseasonably beautiful here in Ireland all the flowers are blooming, I took some nice photographs, and interestingly when I took this one and looked at it closely I noticed two aphids trysting in the centre, what a place for a date!



with sunshine it seemed a shame not to do some tie dying , here's a photo trying to catch the colours of the sunset with the colours of the tie dye.

I have been making a lot of bags lately, but they have all been for swaps on craftster.org, so I decided it was time to make myself some, this one was made out of fabric that I received in a swap package, it was only 1/4 yard but I just managed to squeeze this little bag out of it.

This bag is for a swap, the fabric is reversible so I swapped around the central panel for contrast and added the riveted and bead detail to the front

This is more fabric I got in a swap, I love it! My girly pin-up bag!




I was looking in the Avoca handweavers shop fell in love with a very pretty skirt, but an insane price, so I made myself this version, with a matching bag.