FibreWorks

Christmas Decorations with a Difference

2007-11-24T22:27:00.001Z

Another productive day at Bassingham, experimenting with bonding 'toppings' on to Vilene. Lots of hearts and stars - the black ones are very striking, but they are all gorgeous and all the best-dressed trees will be wearing them!

Happy Christmas ...

Book Covers at Bassingham

2007-11-06T07:15:00.000Z

Everyone worked really hard on Saturday and some lovely book covers were produced. It was lovely to see work from previous workshops being incorporated.

Not all were finished, but well on the way. Some diddy ones were made too, which will make nice covers for mini-books or credit card holders.

We'll be making Christmas decorations in the next workshop on 24th November - using pelmet vilene and transfoils.

Burned Out at Bassingham

2007-09-02T08:34:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we had a day experimenting with the soldering iron. Amazing results again. And so different, given everyone starts at the same place with the same technique. I do look forward to these workshops and watching everyone experiment.

I shouldn't have used the flasn on the camera as it's distorted the colours, but you get the idea.

Zena used a chicken wire mesh to get these designs

Val used a coin - must be careful, metal gets very hot! Sorry about the colours, my camera doesn't like pink! The photo doesn't do this one justice.

Sue layers lots of little bits to get an interesting surface.

Pauline has used several layers of organza, scored a grid design with the soldering iron and then made marks in some of the squares.

Kate burned holes in each piece of organza and then piled them on top of each other - nice seeing the ways the colours change as you look into it.

Another piece from Sue - lots of different marks
We were talking about other Blogspots - Maggie Grey's is http://magstitch.blogspot.com/

More Tissue Textures

2007-09-02T08:08:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Zena, Val, and Pauline for bringing their Tissue Textures back for me to photograph. I'm afraid that the photos do not really do them justice. It's so nice to see the results. Alison has some lovely work in progress too - so perhaps a picture of that another time.

Zena's design started from one of the Medieval tile designs, and she's added hand embroidery to develop the design further.

Val's is a fragmentof a tile, the colours work really well together. She painted the background purple and then tea-dyed it before outlining with gold thread and embellishing with beads.

Pauline also started with a Medieval tile design which she has repeated and rotated. They look stunning in black and white - the stitching is in red and orange by hand & machine. They have been mounted on painted pelment vilene which has been printed with a 'text' stamp and hand drawn letters - stunning!

Another one from Pauline, based on one of the Lewis chessmen. You can see the texture of the tissue in this one. Cut out with a soldering iron.

Thank you for sharing them.

Crazy Patchwork

2007-08-11T21:11:00.000+01:00

The next Dunholme Workshop (24th August) will be at home at Sudbrooke again.

We'll be decorating patchwork blocks with hand embroidery. It's a simple technique that can produce stunning results just by combining stitches.

The photo is a book cover I made using crazy patchwork. Click for a closer view.

Medieval Tiles

2007-08-11T21:00:00.000+01:00

I'm enjoying playing with the tile designs. Have done another one today. The watercolour works well. Used gold thread to outline the shapes

Tissue Textures Workshop

2007-08-10T12:52:00.000+01:00

I really enjoyed the workshop on Saturday. We experimented with tissue and acrylic felt. The design is drawn on to the tissue and coloured with crayons or paint and then applied to the felt with Bondaweb.

Some lovely designs - but I forgot to take photos. So if you came to the workshop please send me your photos and I'll post them on the blog.

I've continued working on the sample I started at the workshop. It's based on a medieval tile pattern, coloured with wax crayons, coffee dyed and painted over with watercolour to bring out the colour more. I have hand stitched and outlined the shape with a soldering iron.

Here's the other one - still working on it.

Tissue Textures 4th August

2007-07-29T09:00:00.001+01:00

The next workshop at Bassingham is 'Tissue Textures'.

I'll show you how to use readily available materials and combine with stitch to create interesting textures for your embroidery.

I like to use papers in my embroidery as there's so much you can do with it and effects that you can't get with fabric alone.

Felt at Bassingham

2007-07-07T20:52:00.000+01:00

Nine people came to the felt workshop at Bassingham. Had a lovely day, with some fantastic results. Lots of colour and very theraputic. Some novel techniques developed, including rolling the felt with feet! I can't wait to see what you all do with your treasures.

Rain stopped play

2007-07-03T15:34:00.001+01:00

I did get tidied up yesterday, in between setting up the Lincoln Stitchers Group Blog. It's quite a novelty being able to see the table tops in my work room! I wonder how long it will last. If anyone has any good ideas on how to keep your workroom tidy please let me know.

Bev brought her Sizzix machine and spent all evening stamping out pages from old brown envelopes to make books with. Every year we have a Christmas Challenge and make a 'pot luck' gift. This year we're going to make little books with decorative covers - that's the creative bit! I'll put some photos on when we've finished them.

Today I made some felt samples for the workshop at Bassingham on Saturday. It's been fully booked for weeks now.

I bought some carders from Wingham Wool Work recently and I used them for the first time today - they blend the colours beautifully. I'll take them with me on Saturday.

Wimbledon's been rained off again, so I've got no excuses. But my server's ('scuse pun) down too, so I've not been able to browse the web. I might just have to do some design work ....

Big Tidy Up

2007-07-02T12:49:00.000+01:00

Big Tidy today! The Girls are coming round tonight and I can't move for fibres and fabric around the place.

Trouble is, I keep getting sidetracked - all the lovely things I've bought and not used!

I went to Craftynotions in Newark yesterday. Sarah's place is packed with stuff - all very tempting. I think labelling is the key - then I'll know what's in all the boxes. I should be more disciplined - and PUT STUFF AWAY!

I'm not at work this week, so have more time on my hands than usual. So, in theory, I should get lots done.

There are things that I must do - like getting ready for the Feltmaking Workshop at Bassingham on Saturday. I sorted all the fibres out last night - lots of yummy colours - so that's a start.

I'd like to

do some more dyeing - overdye my disasters - not really disasters, but not what I wanted. I love the fabricdyeing101 blog - loads and loads of information and ideas
finish off the Fibreworks website
do some design work - and some stitching and embellishering
visit an exhibition or two - the Leicester C&G have their exhibition this week

Getting started

2007-06-30T17:37:00.000+01:00

Got to start somewhere.

This is Lucy in her collar, to stop her nibbling her tummy