TAST week 16 and Vintage Wallpaper

 Take a stitch Tuesday this week is Italian Knotted Border Stitch. In my stitch book it is called French Knotted Border Stitch - have you noticed how many different names there are for lots of stitches?

As usual I used DMC cotton perle5, but in a variegated colour, looks very pretty. The photo shows very clearly where I stitched in the wrong line ! need new glasses or can't count?

Does anyone remember wallpaper that you had to trim before hanging? A friend found some in a set of drawers she acquired. Glad we don't have to do that now. A great find I think tho.

Feathers, sweet papers, milk bottle tops, wrapped threads

I thought I would put some older things on today.

The one above - bright feathers trapped between plastic and fabric with hand stitched circles.

Below -  painted bondadweb, the circles are sweet papers with their centres cut out. This could be a starting point to be developed with stitching etc

Below - painted paper, the foil centres are milk bottle tops [now you don't see those nowadays do you?], with sequins stitched around them. I used found chain [the type that looks like tiny little balls joined together] around the edge of the darker area.

Below - threads were wrapped around a thin metal frame and a central ring and then circles were stitched on the sewing machine. The threads were cut from the outer frame but not the the ring.

Poppies, felt brooch, tag book [p38,39]

The first poppy of the year [in my garden] was in flower today, and it is such a vivid red. These photos were taken by my son, they came out better than mine, but they still look better in real life.

felt embroidered flower brooch with beads

tag book - handmade book from recycled packaging, envelopes etc, decorated with doodles, recycled greetings cards, paper bags, painted doyley, vintage postcard

Ripple - Gulf Oil Spill, Tag Book [p35,36,37]

above - the small card I did for the animal gulf appeal

other ideas I had are below

below - tag book - hand made book

recycled envelopes, vintage postcards, doileys, tags, recycled greetings cards, doodles, wallpaper

the unicorn tag was made by a friend

Tag Book [p31 -34], Illustration Friday - Ripple

Recycled envelopes and packaging, vintage postcards, book pages, doodles, tags

Illustration Friday challenge - Ripple

It is an old one, but I did some more work on it today.

Hope to do another one for the gulf appeal

TAST week 15 and Art Quilt Update

This weeks stitch [Take a Stitch Tuesday] is Ladder Stitch. I find this a 'slow' stitch, it doesn't fill an area as quickly as I would like [the thread goes quickly however], hence the very small sample.

Another bit for my art quilt - this has been stitched on plastic net

some more on the quilt

the pink stitching below is like half a sorbello stitch

Tag Book [p27-30]

hand made book using recycled envelopes & packaging, and decorated with doodles, magazine images, vintage postcards, book pages, tags, handmade tags, tickets & other found bits

I cut my Denim Jeans up

I had a pair of jeans that were good, material wise but the zip was broken, so I made some things with them [with plenty left to make more]

above is a sewing kit and a covered address book

below is a pen holder [card tube, covered]

and a covered excercise book

Tag Book [p25,26], Illustration Friday - Trail

Recycled envelope, magazine images, doodles, paper bag, tag, tape measure

Packaging paper, found images, doodles, doyley, tags

Illustration Friday Challenge - Trail

the sheep need to follow the trail to their own field.

Mixed Media - watercolour, gouche, pastels, sketch sticks, pen

Tag Book [p22,23,24]

Hand made book from packaging, envelopes etc decorated with doodles, vintage postcards, greetings cards, tags, magazine images, music, tickets etc

TAST, Quilt, Cake

Take a Stitch Tuesday - week 14 - Buttonhole Herringbone Stitch

I think I may have twisted it round a bit on part of it

I also used the stitch [the green thread] on this plastic net for the quilt mentioned in the last post

Another cake I decorated - I bought some more cutters for this one, but I made the colours by mixing white and brightly coloured [green and blue] icing and food colourings [yellow and red]

Monoprint Quilt

A few weeks ago I started an art quilt, inspired by a rainbow of colours. I had the idea of doing a monoprint with lots of markings on it. I put the paint on my covered work surface and made marks in it, then placed the fabric on top & brayed it with a roller. It didn't work out to plan and although I like a lot of the areas they were not exactly what I wanted. The problem may have been because it is quite a large peice 80x130cm, [never even done a paper mono print this big!] so the paint was drying at one end while I was still painting at the other and because it is fabric rather than paper, or maybe I didn't press the fabric into the paint hard enough. Afterwards I scored the surface with a fork to make some marks.

The quilt is to have some non textile elements on it and I plan to do lots of embroidery.

I did do the area below using a plastic net type material with dyed paper threaded through it, then stitched. The actual background fabric is quite hard to stitch through because of the paint as well as the size. 

But then I kept asking myself all week, shall I continue or not?

Well I did a lot more today & I think I shall continue with it.