Those Lines Aren't Straight!

You know it's time to tidy the studio and inventory your work when you happen upon a piece that you started a couple of years ago, finished many months ago, and realize you still haven't put a label or hanging device on it!

As I considered what to call this piece, I was reminded about something that happened while working on this piece at a show one day. I got such a chuckle out of a young boy who said to me, with some concern in his voice, "Those lines aren't straight!" 

And so, I have decided to use that as my title.

All It Needs Is A Name...

It's been almost another month, but this piece is finally finished. I showed you the work in progress here and I've finally finished the last bit of hand stitching. I'd love your suggestions for a name...I'm completely at a loss for what to call it.

It's made entirely from my hand dyed and indigo dyed fabrics and threads (except for the machine thread). I love the contrast of the tight machine quilting and the seed stitches on the background piece.

If you've got an idea for a name, please leave your suggestion in the comments. Thanks!

Here are a few detail shots:

Another Look at a Work in Progress...

A while ago I showed you a few shots of a new piece I'm working on. Life (and puppies) are keeping me busy, but I am still working away at it, so I thought I'd show you a few more images. Today I've been working on some machine stitching before I get back to the rest of the hand stitching and beading...

I should be able to show you the finished piece before too long!

Another Sneak Peek...

Yesterday, while looking for something in my stash, I came across a wonderful piece of hand-dyed fabric I had dyed quite some time ago. And to quote my friend Leah..."SQUIRREL!"

Yup, that which I was working on was forgotten as I started on a completely new piece! The moment I saw that hand-dyed fabric, an idea for something came into mind and I just couldn't let it go.(Partly because Leah's voice was also in my head saying, "One month! One month!" LOL.

Here are a couple of sneak peek images I can share with you so far. I'm off to an encaustic workshop today, so I probably won't have time to work on this piece again this weekend, but hopefully I'll have more to show you soon.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend too...I know I will!

You've Got to Love When a Plan Comes Together!

Last week I posted about the hand dyed batik fabric I made and the little quilted piece that resulted from it (see that here).

Well, after many hours of thinking about my design and mulling over ideas, I finally sat down and got to work making this fully lined and totally organized puppy raiser carry-all bag.





It's amazing what you can do with a recycled old pair of your husband's jeans, some colourful quilted fabric, muslin and a repurposed adjustable strap from a bag that's never use.


Here are various views:

 

The front zippered pocket allows me secure but quick access to a bit of cash and/or my iPhone.

The back outer pocket, for puppy training treats, is lined with a piece of an old denim shirt. This will allow me to turn it completely inside out to shake out crumbs that inevitably end up in the bottom of the pocket in which I carry dog treats.

I decided to add grommets with brass rings through them to attach the strap.  Since I have a small carabiner attached to my keys, this also gives me a great way to attach my keys to the bag and tuck them inside so I can get my hands on them quick and easy!  You can see all of the internal pockets for everything I need...no more digging around trying to get my hands on what I'm looking for!

It's big enough to carry extra little things I might pick up while shopping, or to carry a light jacket or umbrella, or my DSLR camera when I want it, yet not so big and bulky that I can't comfortably wear it wherever I go! I'm thrilled with how it turned out!

Blog Hop - Mary Beth Shaw's Book: Stencil Girl

The inspiration for this piece came from Mary Beth Shaw's book, Stencil Girl (and when you buy the book, you get an exclusive stencil/bookmark with it!). Mary Beth uses paper for a wonderful paper batik 'quilt', but since I have other plans for the finished fabric I have used cotton muslin instead of paper.

Since it was a cool day and we needed a little fire to warm up the cottage, I melted my wax on top of the wood stove.









After melting the wax, I kept it at temperature using an electric melting pot while I worked on the kitchen counter.  I layed the stencils over the fabric and applied the wax with a brush. I used soya wax since it was all I had on hand, but I wasn't thrilled with the results. If I do this again I'll go back to a combination of bee's wax and paraffin. I've used this combination for batik before with good results.

Once the wax was appied I used these liquid dyes in little misters to apply the colour.








This image shows how the soya wax let some of the colour through.  Not quite what I was going for, but the end result is pleasing non the less.

The pieces were put into little ziploc bags and left over night.

 The pieces were then hung to dry outside on the line.



Unfortunately, when they were rinsed the colour became a little more pastel than I was counting on.  Oh well, they're still lovely bright colours.  These next images show the quilting that was done, inspired by the stencil patterns.

 And these images show a few of the stencils that were used. Some of the pieces didn't turn out as well, so the original stencilled image was lost.

Stencils used:

Buildings Stencil by Carol Dube 
Gears Stencil by Mary Beth Shaw
Greek Key Stencil by Mary Beth Shaw
Dots and Dashes Stencil by Jessica Sporn
Trees Stencil by Mary Beth Shaw
Pods Stencil by Jane LaFazio

My plan for this wonderful piece of quilted fabric is to make myself a carry all puppy 'diaper' bag for all the things I need to have with me for my Future Dog Guide foster puppies. I'm still designing the bag, complete with lots of pockets inside for maximum organization.  I'll post a picture of the finished bag when it's done.  Until then, thanks for visiting and joining in another fabulous StencilGirl blog hop! Please make sure you visit all of the other blogs on this wonderful week long hop!

Giveaway: 

One lucky winner, chosen at random, will receive Stencil Girl the book with exclusive stencil bookmark and (3) 6" x 5" stencils designed by Mary Beth Shaw. 

All comments left on all of the blogs will be entered into the draw.  
Giveaway will close: Sunday, September 21st @ 11:59PM Central Time

Good Luck!

Hop Stops:

StencilGirl Talk

Leslie Tucker Jenison

Linda Kittmer - you are here!

If you missed the first few days of this week long blog hop go here to find the start.

Didn't win the giveaway...buy this incredible book here

The Little Prince...

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery was a favourite when I was young, and one quote in particular has stuck with me.

A few weeks ago I showed you the beginning of this block (it will be part of a larger art quilt based on literary quotes) in this post.

There is still more hand stitching to come, but so far the quote and the outline of the Little Prince are complete...I just had to show you I have been doing a little stitching. :o)

Heart Swell...or puff...

I've decided to do a series of small pieces using my hand dyed fabric and various techniques, all incorporating hand stitch.

This piece is starting with a heart stencil designed by Margaret Applin.

Using a palette knife, I applied a nice thick coating of Pebeo Expandable Paint through the stencil.  Be sure to keep the stencil firmly held onto the fabric so that you don't get any paint under it.  I used a temporary spray adhesive to achieve this.

Let dry according to paint directions and then 'puff' using a heat gun.

I'll show you more once I get to the hand stitching. Have a great day!

Quilt & Fibre Art Festival...and the beginnings of something new...

This week is the Quilt & Fibre Art Festival of Waterloo Region and Beyond, and I'm excited to say that the Group of Eight Fibre Artists have a show in The Mill, 1441 King Street, St. Jacobs, ON. The show runs from Tuesday, May 27th until Saturday, May 31st.  We hope that you'll be able to come and see us there!

I was in need of a new project to work on, particularly since I wanted some hand stitching I could do while sitting at the show for my 'shifts'.  

I had just purchased a few new threads (12 wt. Spaghetti by Wonderfil) and I was inspired by their fabulous colours.  I went 'shopping' in my stash, pulling out out any and all hand dyed fabrics and threads as well as some batiks and purchased yarns I had that coordinated with those new threads.  

Then I went between the cutting table and the sewing machine and I started to play, intuitively piecing in very random strips, intentionally not cutting anything too straight (no ruler was used in the cutting).

Some of what I had found in my stash were some pieces of fabric that already had Misty Fuse on the back, so I used scissors to cut rectangles and squares (again not worrying about perfectly straight lines or perfect shapes) and I fused them in place along one of the wider strips. A bit of the black and white stencilled fabric from a journal cover project I recently did was still lying on my cutting table (sometimes it's good to not tidy too quickly LOL), so I added that as I went along.  

Here are some shots of where this is going so far.  I'm looking forward to adding the hand stitch!

Opposites...

I needed a quick little diversion from some of my ongoing fibre art pieces and I wanted to sew and thread doodle, so I decided to pull out some of my hand dyed fabric and play around with complimentary colours and the concept of opposites.  Here's what I've got started so far - a half square triangle and a circle with some fun curves and swirls.

               

  

I'm thinking of some fun stitching, both machine and hand stitch to further the idea of opposites.  Hopefully I'll be able to show you the finished piece soon.


Until then, Dime and I wish you a wonderful Easter weekend!

Snow Dyeing Reveal...

As promised, here are the pieces I snow dyed the other day.

 

If you looked at the previous post, these two were from bin 2

 This is the result of the bin 1 dyeing.

 And my favourite, the result of the bin 3 dyeing.

This crazy piece was in bin 1, but it didn't take the dye too well. It's a piece that has been used for a wipe up cloth, then had some left over setacolour paint poured over it while it was folded and crumpled, and now it's been snow dyed.  It has some interesting potential in small pieces perhaps.

I also had these skeins of crochet cotton in the bins. Some nice variegation...

I think I'll do some more of this.  We've certainly got enough snow!!!

Machine Doodling 'Celebrate Who You Are'...

Last Friday I posted about how I created the beginnings of this piece which I've called 'Celebrate Who You Are'. Today I want to show you the next steps in this on-going 'work in progress'.

Using an off white thread, I stitched the lines from Sue Pelletier's Loose Woman #1 stencil over the image on the fabric.  I intentionally used a very loose stitch line, going over each line two or three times, to create a very 'imperfect' doodled line in keeping with the text on the piece.

 I outlined the text boxes and loosely traced over the text.

Here are some close up images of various parts:

 

And the finished focal piece in it's entirety.  I plan to mount this element onto another quilted piece, and then add some hand stitch and maybe some beading.  Hopefully I'll be able to show you the finished piece in the near future!