The Knitting Bug

I've been hit by the knitting bug.

I was given some lovely textured yarn a few months back as a gift & it has been sitting there waiting patiently for me to decide what to do with it. I knew I had to add something to it, but first I had to decide what to make and a scarf was the obvious choice. So when my long time friend M... came for a visit from the country, we headed off into the city to Morris & Sons to see what we could find. Well of course there was plenty, & I came home with some 8 ply in two colours & a pattern for a ruffled scarf.

That night I dug out my knitting needles & as the 8 ply required a different size needle to my textured yarn, I chose a needle size halfway between the two. Nothing like a little creative knitting!

After a little play, I decided to go down a size, but found that my lovely needles that I'd had for many years had started to deteriorate. All the coating was starting to come off & the yarn was catching. Bugger! Not to worry, I had another stash that had belonged to my Mum & I found a pair of appropriate size in plastic which got me out of trouble.

So last Saturday I visited my local Lincraft store to stock up on my knitting needle supply. It had been years since I had bought any, I had a great range of sizes. So much variety! Which length to choose? Metal, plastic or bamboo? I am used to knitting with metal needles so kept with those in a long length. Then I spied these lovely wooden ones with turned ends which I can't wait to try.

So what am I knitting? My ruffled scarf of course! I started off with the pattern I bought, then found a similar one elsewhere but with great variations, so I am trying one variation in a cheap yarn to see if I like it or not. It has picots along the edge, something I have not done before. I hadn't knitted ruffles like this before either but they are relatively easy.


Once I finish this one, then I will decide how I can incorporate my lovely textured multi coloured yarn with my plain coloured wool. The weather has turned decidedly chilly with snow falling last week not to far away so scarves will come in very handy.

Weddings

With all the attention on the Royal Wedding this past week, the talk for the last few days has been about "The Dress", who designed it, what it was made from, etc etc. As a dressmaker, embroiderer, & lace-maker, I want to be able to touch, feel, turn it inside out, & really look at how it was made. ( especially the bustle detail) . I want to talk with the people who were involved in its making to find out every little detail. Television footage, internet pics ( even with magnifiers) & even press releases from the Royal School of Needlework are not enough to satisfy my hunger. This video makes me even more hungry.

We all know by now that "The Dress" was made of lace, & motifs were hand stitched to the dress by skilled embroiderers. So now I would like to show you all a wedding dress that I made back in 2008 using the same process. The bride wanted a wide lace border around the bottom of her dress, but fabrics that included this were out of the price range. So I created the border for her.

I cut the border from the purchased lace fabric, then very carefully trimmed all the excess tulle away. This border was then hand stitched every few mm onto another piece of tulle that became the over skirt of her dress.

The lace fabric had different sized motifs scattered all over it, so from the scraps left from cutting the bodice, I very carefully cut lots of little lace motifs and appliquéd them onto the tulle above the border into a different pattern.It was 7.5 meters around the hem of this layer, so with hand stitching the border both top & bottom, and hundreds of little motifs being appliquéd in place, I think you can all imagine the work involved. I may not have had the Royal School of Needlework to help but I did have help. The bride, her bridesmaids, and my dear friend R.... helped to cut out motifs & to appliqué them in place. My friend & I are both members of The Embroiderers Guild here in Sydney.

When the lace was purchased for this dress, we found out that we could have lace especially made into any design we wanted. It was a little late for that, but still interesting to know, though the extra cost involved still may not have been in the budget

This dress may not have had the amount of lace or work that "The Dress" had, but it sure had a lot of love with every stitch. I think it is one of my greatest creations.

Special Book Marks For Special People

Back in late February & early March I made some bookmarks to say thankyou to some special people. It was a spur of the moment decision to make them, and as I was going away for a few weeks R & R, I packed some of my own hand dyed linen, what I thought was some co-ordinating threads to stitch with, & just one book for inspiration. They have all been recieved now so I can show you all what I did.

This was the first one, and I started by buttonholing the edge first, no counting. Then I decided I had better count what threads I had to work out what would fit in. The book I had taken with me was Gay Eaton's "Wessex Stitchery", so I found a motif that I liked, worked out placement & started stitching. I could fit three motifs in the space, but they needed something to link them together, so the back stitch borders were born. There are three in all, one is in a fine gold thread which is not really clear in this pic.

The second one I made was this pink one. After having fun trying to fit patterns in the last one by not counting the edge, I decided to count fours on this one, that way I would be able to fit in lots. Mmmmmm............. So the buttonhole stitch edge was first, and all the while it screamed "drawn thead " at me, so the satin stitch & eyelets were born. The coral knot channels were first, then the needlewoven center channel. It was fun, because by the time I got to working the center channel, I had decided I wanted to mix up colours & patterns, & this is where my counting by fours didn't work, hence the dominant three needle woven bars in the center. In retrospect, I wish I had of placed this section one block lower, it would have made it more interesting. Maybe next time. The back stitching in burgandy was an after thought to bring out the burgandy backing.

Finally we have bookmark number three. This one was born following a day with my creative stitching friends. On the day, one of our members had us closely looking at pieces of work with a list of questions. I had picked out one piece from across the room which I thought was a piece of counted thread work, but on closer inspection found to be smocking. The patterns were interesting, so from across the room I drew in my sketchbook the patterns that I saw. It was these sketches that I tried to interpret into this bookmark, but they didn't quite work. All that did was the yellow line. So the yellow line got repeated, stitches added in between, & thread colours changed as I felt, usually when they ran out in the needle. The extra yellow lines were added to give balance.

So the bookmarks have all been recieved, & I had some creative fun. They are all original

one-0fs that I am proud of & I know the recipients are enjoying.

For Charity

My local sewing group meets this week & one of the tasks I promised to do was to add some fabric to these cute little digitised animals. The blocks are to be a certain size so they can be cut down & patch-worked together with sashings. The end result will be a quilt to be donated to charity.

My sewing machine nearly had a fit this morning it has been so long. Poor girl has been neglected after all that wedding sewing I did a while back. Must get back into it & do my quilts that are hanging around.

Fun & Frivolity

Last Saturday was the monthly meeting of my creative stitching group. It was a coolish, very wet day( it absolutely poured!) so what better way to spend it than stitching with friends.

Part of the day was spent study a particular embroidered piece, in particular how the stitcher had used her stitches to effect. So the afternoon was spent playing with stitches on a doodle cloth. As it happened, my doodle cloth was a piece of scrap linen left over from something, and my stitch play has turned into this bookmark.

Anyone interested can read about the remainder of the day here.

My New Book

The latest edition to my library. It's in Italian, but who needs to read when the diagrams & photos are so clear? Watch this space!

Irish Crochet Play

I've been playing with some Irish Crochet lately, getting ready for a challenge for one of my groups. My Mum taught me to crochet when I was very young & I have wanted to do Irish Crochet for many years. I thought it was just crocheting motifs & joining them together, but on doing a little research I found it to be much more involved (isn't anything?) , and much more challenging that I thought.

So after practicing some new techniques & getting the feel of them, I present my first ever leaf. It is far from brilliant, and I am sure they will get better, but it is the best motif I have done in my practice. With all the other motifs I have been practicing on, I came across challenges, two of which have been solved on this leaf. So now I am off to find some matching thread & cord, to have another go ready for the real thing.

Round Robins - The Good & the Bad

Way back in late 2006 I signed up for a Counted thread round robin. In case no-one has noticed, counted thread work in it's many forms is one of my most favourite needlework types to do. At the time I was still doing a course which was taking all my time, so the group waited until the new year. That was the beginning of 2007, and there were 9 of us participating from all over the globe.

Today in the mail my sampler has finally arrived home, with only 5 people stitching on it including myself. The stitching is exquisite, and the introduction of the red colours are just amazing. They have made the sampler pop.

The stunning band on the left has been stitched by Norma, the gorgeous blackwork fish are by Mandy, and the fabulous seahorse & shells are by Margaret. Thank you so much girls for such beautiful & inspiring stitching. The hardanger panel is mine.

I have participated in RR's & swaps before & have learnt that you never know what you will end up with, so I decided right at the beginning that this was going to be made into a carry bag, that's why all the bands are going vertical. I would mount it to a backing, add some other fabric top & bottom, some handles & some lining, & I would have a usable article. Well, that was the plan, and hopefully it will still be the plan.

However, did anyone notice the two fine rows of blue & green? The lady who did these had so much trouble that she gave up , but it has left me with a problem.


With all the unpicking that went on, there are now three broken threads that I have to deal with. I have known about them for some time & said I would deal with it when the sampler came home. All the while I thought I would cut the fabric & add some faggotting, the type that joins two pieces of fabric together together. But I am faily certain I need to add a hem to do that, & the broken threads are way too close to my hardanger band.

I have thought about removing the offending broken threads & re-weaving others back in, but I need a place to start & finish. I think I can just cut them back to the hardanger buttonhole, then start a new one from under the buttonhole stitches, weave it in, & finish where? I can't take it all the way to the other end as there is such beautiful stitching in the path.

Anther idea I had is to scatter eyelets everywhere, but in reality I don't think they suit what I have.

A fourth thought was to cut each band apart and applique it seperately onto a backing fabric. Personally I don't think this would work either as there is very little room between my hardanger band & the damaged threads.

So I am appealing to all the stitchers out there as to how I can fix my problem. At this point in time it looks like it will be a case of removing the two lines of stitching, & designing a new band to allow for somewhere to end the old damaged threads & start a new one.

Any one got any other ideas? Feel free to add comments.

How many Eyelets?

At long last I can show my table mat, finally finished. It began as something small to take away on holidays last year and grew and changed lots. At first I decided on the border, then the hem. I wanted to do another type of picot hem but didn't have enough fabric so settled on a buttonholed hem. Then when everything was finished it looked to plain so I added the bullion picots. This is the first time I have ever added them to a piece of work and I think they just finished it off nicely. This was also the piece that was supposed to feature some filet work in the center, but instead has a considerable number of eyelets.

Just a closer look at the corner.

Filet Bookmark

This is the second sample of filet that I worked on the side of my table mat. I showed you the first sample here. This one had a different drawn count than the first one, so leaving slightly larger holes. I've also worked a linen stitch into this one in a pattern that I adapted from Pauline Knight's book "The Technique of Filet Lace". There were no instructions of how to work it, I had to work that out for my self, and it certainly got my brain working!

In retrospect, the linen stitch would probably sit better if I had worked it on smaller holes, but that after all is what samples are for. Something to put in my notes for future reference, and in the meantime I have another bookmark to use.

A Bookmark Sample

When I had the idea of working some filet on the inside of my table mat, I first played with some samples along the side of my piece of fabric. The above book mark is one of those samples & I deliberately made it bookmark size so that it could be useful.

This one is worked by first creating a mesh, withdrawing threads in two directions, then whipping over them to make them strong. As I wanted a special hem finish around the edge, I very laboriously wove all the ends back in to give solid fabric again along the edge. I then worked the filling stitch & finally the hem. Just for the moment I can't place my hand on the reference I used for the filling stitch, but there is one very similar in Moyra McNeil's book "Drawn Thread Embroidery".

A very pretty, useful sample.

Filet

Well, the cream table mat that I mentioned in my last post is finished, well almost. All the stitching is done, & it just needs to be blocked & cut from the remainder of the linen. So you will all have to be patient to see pics.

One of the ideas that I had for this piece was to work some filet in the center. I set myself a challenge way back in November 2007 to try the technique & did so here & here. Filet can be produced a few different ways. It can be crocheted , made with pre-made purchased nets, or on nets made by ones own hands. Adriana over on her blog has shown us some of her stunning examples here, in which the netting is made with a needle & thread, sort of like a fishing net. A different type of net can be made by withdrawing threads from fabric, like in the photo above.

I have tried filet crochet, & working on pre-purchased nets. The crocheting is easy, the purchased nets upset my hands & give me dermatitis, so working on meshes made from withdrawing fabric is my next mission, and was to be included in my cream table mat. However, after working the above sample, I decided that the filet would not suit the border that I had stitched, so scrapped that plan & looked for another filling. That still left me with this sample that I had to find a design to fit the space. It needs to be stitched before I can block my cream table mat as the sample is on the edge of the fabric.

So on Saturday I went searching for a design that would fit. I have graphed it out, & spent hours on the stitching order ( which has to be worked out first). Finally yesterday I got to stitch my little design, ( a practice on my pre-purchased mesh), hours of planning for 5 minutes of stitching! Oh well, I put it all down to practice & the planning maybe won't take so long next time. There should be pics of my practice piece soon & then I will work on the fabric mesh above. All have to be done before I can block my cream table mat.

Bullion Picots - Something New

As I do every time I go away, I work out what piece of stitching I am going to take with me. I have to consider where I am going, how good the light will be, how much room I have to pack reference books etc. So last year when I went on a cruise for 11 nights, it had to be something small & mind numbing, in other words all the thinking had to be done so I could just sit & stitch if I had the time. It also had to be easily visible as I was not taking my portable lamp in my luggage. So my cream table mat was born. I had scoured my books for something new that I had not done, worked out a border & hem, & got it started before I left. Since then the mat has grown, with a filling in the center and decoration on the hem.

The photo above is my sample of my hem finish. It just needed something, and some of my stitching friends suggested a few things, including these bullion picots. I hadn't done them before so I had to practice. I am happy with the result & feel they just make the finished piece. I'll certainly do them again, & it has made me think of other finishes for something different. This piece will be totally finished in a few days! Yippee! Now I have to think of what's next.

Waste Not Want Not

A few years ago I was given a bag full of scrap triangles. They were off-cuts from someone's quick method of making a Flying Geese quilt. I brought them home & had a play, thinking I would join them together & just see how far they would take me. All the triangles were slightly different sizes but they all had one thing in common, they were all right angled triangles. So over time I have joined them together, and then re-cut them into the same size squares. I have 157 of thes little squares, & have worked out that if I join them together into strips, and add in some strips in a plain colour, I have enough for a quilt. As I child I was taught not to waste anything, so I am making use of someone else's waste, making it into something very useful. What a shame though that I have to visit the fabric store to purchase fabric for the other strips!

Happy New Year & 2010 Review

A few days late I know, but I would like to thank all my readers & wish you all a very happy, joyous, prosperous, & productive 2011.

In the past, I have usually set myself challenges for each New Year, but in review, I usually set myself too many and then get disappointed when I don't finish them. So this year I am going to go with the flow, and go just wherever my needle decides to take me.

My 2010 review reads like this:-
Challenges set 4, challenges achieved 1 ( to reduce the WISP file)
Pieces started 13
Pieces finished 10, one of which was a UFO

So what does this all mean? More WISP'S of course, something I do not need.


However one of the pieces I did start & finish in 2010 was this Christmas decoration. I like to make a new one every year, and I managed to make a few of these to give to family & friends. It is playing on the Teneriffe lace theme again, set into a gold ring & hung with gold ribbon. I wonder what my new decoration for 2011 will be. You will all have to watch this space to find out.

Lace For a Friend

Well, it's been a while since I have posted any new work here, so I thought I would show you all what I have been working on the last few months.

I have been obsessed lately with teneriffe lace, and as well have a friend with an "0" birthday. I wanted to make her something special, & thought of a few different things, and settled on this. At first I just stared making the motifs in a thread that I had been using, as I had plenty of it & I didn't know how much I would need. I was also using the same sized wheel as before, but soon scrapped both the thread size & wheel size as the whole project was going to take me way too long and be way too big. So back to the drawing board I went.

I knew roughly what design I wanted, & approximate size, but had to work out the individual circle size. I also wanted the circles to touch, but how to physically work out a pattern? I knew it was a geometry thing but it took me a while to get my head around it and even then I needed some help.

Once the maths was worked out, I knew my circle size & could try another thread, which in the end was better as one motif only took me two days to do. So with six motifs complete, I then had to think about how I was going to join them. I did some reading, & drew on my needle-lace experience to join them together & create the filling in the center.

I am not sure if there is a right or wrong way of doing this, but it was my very first attempt and for the next one it may happen differently. Just for the record my friend has had her birthday & this piece of lace is now in her possession.

In Loving Memory

Over time, people come into our lives & touch our hearts. Quite often it is too late before we realise just how much they mean to us. The little pouch above has been made by one such person, an exquisite stitcher, who gave her knowledge freely to anyone who would listen. May you rest in peace, knowing that your stitching legacy is alive & well.

In Loving Memory
of
Heather Daphne MATTHEWS

Missed dearly, loved always, never forgotten

Experimental Fun

A few years back I salvaged this piece of disgustingly (to me) coloured fabric. I thought it might be good to play with some experimental drawn thread work on it. It sat in the cupboard for a long time, then about a month ago I needed something to take to my creative stitching group, so out it came, along with some coloured threads that I thought would go. On the day, I just threaded a needle & started stitching, letting the needle go where it wanted. I soon discovered that the fabric would pull to a certain extent, so a piece of experimental pulled work it became. The most fun I had was with the eyelets.

I'm not sure what I will do with it yet, it might somehow get turned into a little notebook cover. Time will tell.

Photo Play

Another one of my textile inspired groups is Stitchin Fingers. This group is such a wealth of information with it's member list of over 2,000, & has specialized groups covering all kinds of textile inspired topics. A while ago, I joined another one of these groups called "Digital Designers", who chat about & play with graphics programs. This morning, with thanks to this group, I have been playing with Photoshop and all it can do. I have used Photoshop before, but mainly for cropping & resizing photos, & sometimes rotating & straightening them. Once, I had to change some pics to black & white for a particular purpose & found that very easy to do.

Some of the book pages I made a few years ago used images I had manipulated in another photo editing program, but it's been a while. Back then I learnt about layers, and this morning I have learnt to take the layers to a different direction, and about things to change within each layer itself.

My play this morning has taken this pic of one of my begonias,


to this...................

My mind is boggling, and all I need now is time to play more. Many thanks girls for all the inspiration.

An Exhibition

Those people who know me well know that I belong to a few different textile inspired groups, one of which is called "Stitcher's Plus". We are a group of creative minded stitchers, and have been meeting & stitching together for over ten years now. Recently, we put together a collection of our works into an exhibition. Below are the pieces that I had in this exhibition.

First up is a book cover. This was the piece of Reticella that I worked for our tenth anniversary calendar. The piece has been sitting for quite some time waiting to be made up into a finished piece. I needed a book cover, so a book cover it has become, & how fitting that it should be a cover for my lace journal.
Next is a piece of Teneriffe Lace that I inserted into a handkerchief. Inspired by pictures of teneriffe lace that I have seen on the internet, I have been playing with different designs using the technique. This was one design that I found, & had to work out the method by myself as there were no instructions. Not my design, but definately my stitching, and was great fun using the brain to work it all out. It was relativley easy once I thought about for a few minutes.

Piece three is my first piece of Reticella which I showed you all here. This piece has been in two other exhibitions, and will probably go in at least another one or two. I am extremely proud of this piece.

Piece four,"A Summer Sanctuary", has also been exhibited twice before. The challenge proceses involved can be read here.
Next is a bag that I made from a challenge we were handed invoving faces. The face has been created using applique & FME, then pieced into the front of the bag.

The back of the bag has been pieced using the Flying Geese pattern & the whole bag has been machine quilted. This face has become my internet face & anyone who knows me personally will tell you I look nothing like this. A bag I use a lot.


Then there was my scarf. Made with a daisy wheel using a fancy knitting yarn, then crocheted together. Very slinky & warm.

Finally, my "Bugs In Boxes". These were another challenge & both consist of a painted canvas backgrounds which have been threaded with various yarns . Both also consist of couched yarns for the tree branches & leaves made from hand dyed fabric that has been FME'd with a metalic thread. The caterpillars in the top one are stuffed rouleau tubes featuring surface stitching, while the butterfly on the second one has been digitized & stitched onto water soluble fabric.



The exhibition is now closed, but for some more pics please visit our Stitchers Plus pages.

Wild & Free"

This page was created for the book called "Wild Side". I felt it was a bit dark but wasn't sure how to lighten it up without starting all over again. I created a spiral design with the words "wild & free" & various sized paw prints in my drawing program, & imported it into my digitizing program. The design was stitched onto gold fbaric which was layered over a background created by joining strips of black & green fabric & digitized leaves. Once stitched, the excess gold fabric was cut away to reveal the background. All the layers were then added to another background of brown felt with added brown fabric leaves.

This is the last page in this book series. On reflection, it was great to go back through them all & see just how much I learnt. My main aim when entering this Book Page Round Robin was to learn about my digitizing program, but I learnt heaps about my drawing program & the power of photo editing programs, about layers & effects & merging two or more images together. I learnt not to be scared of computer programs, but to experiment & see what they could do. I also learnt not to be scared of FME, it was not as hard as I had always thought.

The pages have long since gone to their new owners, I hope they have as much fun looking at them as I had creating them.

Regenerate & Recycle

A different shaped page this time, this one for a book called "Regenerate & Recycle".

I started with a pile of plastic rings, the kind that come from milk containers & soft drink bottles once the seals have been broken. I dumped the rings on my scanner to create a pic, which was then manipulated a few times in my photo editing program. The final image ( which looked nothing like the plastic rings any more) was printed onto white polycotton & then layered with net & organza & FME'd.

Pansy Passion

My "Pansy Passion" page was for a book called "Purle". I had thought of using the iris flower for inspiration but settled on a pansy instead. Once again I played with a lot of photo manipulation. The pansy pic went through a number of effects including distortions, rotations, stretching & adding twirls. The final image was printed onto textile transfer paper, ironed onto white cotton, then embellished with layers of shot organza, net, chiffon, FME & a button. All was appliqued onto yellow felt.

Money Tree

"Money Tree" was the page I created for the book called "Nonsense". How much nonsense was this? We would all want one, but we all know that such things are complete nonsense.

I started with a hand painted background which I layered with brown satin & brown lace. A tree picture was digitized in outline only, then stitched through all layers. The brown layers were then cut back to reveal the background. $ symbols were also digitized & added to the tree, along with some leaf patterns & FME.

Not one of my better efforts but it filled the criteria.

My Fuchia Page

Fuchias were my inspiration for the book "Nature Enfolding". This page was more about playing with photo manipulation than anything else. I used one photo, then cut two different sections from it to make two different images. Both images were resized to make them the same size, one was manipulated using the effects - texture - polished stone menu, while the other had the background removed just to leave the flower by itself. The two images were then combined, printed onto white cotton, then FME'd.

Hexamorphis

"Hexamorphis" is the page I made for the book called "Metamorphose".

Beginning with drawing a hexagon in my drawing program, I changed it's shape just by playing with the nodes on the corners. The hexagon morphed into a star shape, and all kinds of other weird & wonderful 6 sided shapes. So these shapes became the basis of my design. Cut from hand dyed fabric, appliqued onto purple cotton, added machine stitching & all appliqued onto yellow felt.

Rainbow Lollipop

"Rainbow Lollipop" is the page that I made for the book called "Just For Fun".

"Just For Fun" is the catch cry for Luna Park, the fun park here in Sydney located just at the base of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, so this became my starting point. I thought of ferris wheels, lollipops & fairy floss, bright colours & noise.

The basic petal shape was drawn in my drawing program, then imported into my digitizing program to be played with again. Seperate files were made then combined into one before the final design was stitched onto a FME'd background.

Fragile Fragments

"Lace - A Frragile Textile" was my page that I created for the book "Fragile Fragments". Lace is my other passion, and though it appears fragile, if it is made correctly it is quite strong, and will outlast most fabrics that it is attached to.

For this page I chose a lace doily from my collection that I bought at an op shop. (The aim was to reproduce it one day) . I then scanned it, cropped it, added 3D effects, embossing effects & printed the final image onto seeded homespun. Digitized flowers, lines of stitching to reflect the shapes in the doiley, & stretched lettering were stitched into tulle which was then overlayed over the doiley image.

Earthsong

My "Sea Shell Whispers" page for the "Earthsong" book was once again inspired by water. I love water, & eveything it holds. Many holidays at the beach have resulted in a collection of shells, & if we hold them close to our ears we can hear the waves of the ocean.

For this page, my own digitized design of a shell was stitched onto tulle. It was then placed on a background of layered hand dyed fabric & organza which had been stitched with lettering & FME.

Flight

"Fly Ladybug Fly" was the page I made for the book called "Flight". My drawing of a ladybug was digitized and stitched to a background which I made by stamping painted leaves onto fabric.

All Creatures

This page, "The Pelican - My Forster Friend" was created for a book titled "All Creatures". I love pelicans, & photograph them quite often, especially along the Mid north Coast of NSW. This page was inspired by one of those photographs. The background was created using layers of blue polycotton & organza, using FME to hold them together. Some sections of the organza was cut away to give a different texture. The pelican itself was sketched, digitized, & stitched onto the background.

Hundertwasser

When I received the title of this book to create a page for, I was in a dilemma. I had not even heard this name so had to do lots of research. In the process I learnt about the artist Hundertwasser, his life & his works. Not really my cup of tea, but the challenge was real & I still had to make a book page.

I started by cutting small pieces of fabric & ironing them onto vylene. Machine stitching was added, followed by strips of the same fabric also machine stitched in place.

The spiral shape was drawn in my computer drawing program, imported into my digitzing program, digitized & finally stitched onto the created background. The angled shapes were also computer drawn & digitized, but stitched onto another pieced background, which in turn was appliqued onto the main page. The final page was finished with a twisted cord made from fancy knitting yarns.

Interplay

This is the page that I made for a book titled "Interplay".

I'd been having fun playing with a photo program & all the effects that could be created, so believe it or not, this started as a photo of a nodding violet. I used two different effects, one after the other to get the base image, which was then printed onto textile transfer paper and subsequently ironed onto fabric.

The image was then used as a background in my digitizing program to design swirls of stitching. These were stitched onto net, which was then appliqued over my base fabric image.

Certainly something different for me, but I was having fun with photo editing programs.