This is.......

.........what I was doing yesterday.

Giving a 'Play with Paint' workshop to the lovely ladies of Swansea Quilters.

I always enjoy visiting this group as they are a happy friendly bunch.

I have never been kept so well supplied with tea and coffee!

As you can see we were a bit short on space, but everyone mucked in and we got lots done.

Thanks for inviting me ladies

Tag Along

I have been TAGGED!

Thank you to Heather whose work I love, for tagging this blog.

I was unaware of this blogging phenomenon but the rules are as follows

1. Tell who tagged you. (DONE)

2. Add a link to their blog.(DONE)

3. Award 3-5 bloggers who you think deserve this award.

My choices are Anne, whose work always makes me feel nostalgic because I used to live in Borneo too!

Sandra, who is a very well known and accomplished art quilter, but I love her work so much and I have two of her books, and her blog is so very informative.

And Marianne, because I have completely fallen in love with her "Quilt As You Go" quilts.

Inform them & post directions to your blogspot. (Will do)

The goal of this award is get more publicity to blogs that are good, but not so well known.

I can't say that the blogs I have chosen are not well known, but I like them and I hope you do too!

The pics are of the back of the work from my previous post. I think I would like to do something in black and white.

Finish

This was supposed to be a quick project to get back into the swing of things.

 It has taken rather longer than I had planned, guess it was all those filler stitches (note to self: not good for a quick project).

I love the texture that lots of stitching gives a piece though, so I am glad I did it, and I now have a new cushion.

I even put a zipper in using a tutorial from House on the Hill

When I started this piece, I chose the dark stitching to add contract to the pieces of fabric that were very similar in value.

Progress

First the flowers

Then the filler stitches.

Gettng back into things -making a pillow.

Whenever I teach a fabric painting workshop, because of our climate, it is rarely warm enough for the fabric to dry by the end of the class.

What happens is that I usually end up wrapping everything up in plastic, which inevitably ends up in the colours becoming a bit muddied, as happened with these samples. (I have to confess that these spent rather a long time wrapped up in the plastic and as the paints I use really like light in order to perform well, they didn't get the best chance.)

  

I don't dislike the colours but it has to be said that there is not much in the way of contrast here. No light and dark values to give real interest.

So in the spirit og "getting back into things" I thought I would make some cushion covers and explore the possibility of adding the contract through my stitch choices.

After stripping pieces together, I did some sketching.

This is what I have done so far.

It feels good to be stitching again.

I have been painting too.

The colours here are actually stronger than they look here. I need to play with my camera settings.

Bye Bye Birdie

These little birdies are off to a new home tomorrow. They look a bit sad don't they?

Not to worry. I know they are going to good homes where they will be well looked after.

They came into being after I got myself a copy of this delightful book. It is full of wonderful bird designs and inspired me to make these.

I winged it with the pattern; no pun intended, and so they are not the most elegant of birds but I love the way the hand painted fabrics show themselves off in these creations and I think I will be attempting some more stuffed animals soon.

This fella below is staying home with me. He was the prototype and a few mishaps occurred, one being that I stitched the wrong sides together (AGAIN!) but after the others were finished I thought "What if"  and produced this version.

 Can you spot the other error?

I forgot to reverse the wing shape while cutting out and so his wings are blue from one side and pink from the other.

I like these mishaps so much that I think I will see them as a design opportunity!

fabric friday

More fabric available here.