Playing Catch-up

Yesterday's heatwave proved great for the BBQ, Mum went home tired but happy and I was left exhausted. Too tired to blog or finish off the WIP's I had around. Today though is a different kettle of fish the sun has gone in and its cooler so much pleasanter to work. Keith's on nightshift and has gone to bed so I can't make much noice doing housework (vbg) so I guess the only thing left to do was sew, say awe.... Managed to finish my July arch for Anne Marie who is part of the TextileChallenge one-2-one group. Anne Marie wanted an arch where you looked out and she wanted saturation of colour. I used a photo taken on the Amalfi Coast where the colour is naturally saturated!! Also its of a harbour wall so if you fall in you'd get saturated in a different form. I crumpled some tissue paper and smoothed it out then ironed it onto iron-on stabiliser. This makes it firm enough to go through the printer once its trimmed to size. I know you could use freezer paper, its just a matter of preference.

The arch fabric was made on the embellisher then bonded onto pelmet vilene and the inner arch shape cut out. I sewed the arch onto the photo creating stone block pattern in the felting. I also felted a small amount of silk and wool tops onto the photo and did a bit of stitching. You need to be careful when felting onto paper not to over do it or it disintegrates.

This arch is for Dotti Cullen of Surface Design fame - this is the first time Surface Design have ran an arch swap. I wanted to create a Moorish door such as I saw in Spain some time ago. Its not a depiction of a real door, more like several aspect of several doors rolled into one. I realised I could use a metal stencil I'd bought some time back for another project to create ironwork effect. After layering several sheers together I used the stencil to burn out the pattern. I then layered the 'ironwork' background and frame together and spray painted the lot to integrate the colours a bit more. The frame decoration and door handles were machine stitched using a gold thread. For once the gold thread behaved beautifully and didn't curl or snap. A couple of beads to the handles and an edging and its all ready to go into the post tomorrow for Dotti. I hope she likes it.

These four cards are also a Surface Design swap called "in the garden". I've delayed making these as my muse deserted me on this one and I can't just bring myself to slap something together. I found a piece of yellow chiffon with white colours on it and used this as the background. I machine felting it onto an acrylic floor cloth. The floorcloth had the feel of felt can't for the life of me remember where I got them from but I think they are Vileda. Anyway the embellished okay but proved a bit more difficult to shape correctly as it stretches slightly when sewn.

I'd bought some craft flowers and leaves from a local store and embellished these onto the background. I had to be careful as they had a tendency to shred so I decided to beaded the centres making each centre different.

This last card in particular reminded me of clematis in my garden - a happy accident!

I've got a fabric brooch and a set of cards to do before we go on holiday on Friday. I'm way behind with my 100 stitches but I intend to do some tonight while I watch telly and I'll probably take them away with me as they are east to transport.

Well my peace has been broken Keith has appeared begging for a cuppa and Sy will be in soon looking for food, best go and sort something out.