Back to the Scrap Bag

There are still lots of scraps left in that one small bag. I have been back to it and chosen some hand dyed scraps and pulled out some leftover pieces of wadding.

I know not all of you will have an needle felter/embellisher machine but it is my latest toy and I enjoy playing with it. If you don't have one there are lots of ideas for creating backgrounds with strips here.

Using the embellisher is a great way of creating backgrounds and using up scraps really quickly.

You just have to be careful about which fabrics you use. I had planned to add this piece of commercial fabric but I could tell that the needles were not happy by the noise they were making. When it is noisy it is best to stop before the needles break!

Back to the hand dyes!

Three backgrounds prepared in under an hour!

What to do next?

P.S. Thank you to everyone who came to my workshop at Busy Bees on Saturday. I was so engrossed in what we were doing I forgot to take any photos. It was a good day which was thankfully not hindered by the fact that the crate I was carrying the paint bottles in collapsed on my way in! No paint spilt at all! :)

Background stitching/quilting

Lots of close up shots in this post.

When I began to stitch the background I didn't like what I had done and was just about to start ripping out stitches when I remembered that I am playing and so I just kept on going  with a variety of different patterns.

My repertoire of FMQ designs is not huge. I do a lot of straight(ish) lines in my work.

I do a LOT of pebbling.

And a bit of spiralling.

I also have a go at flowers now and again.

To finish off I randomly stitched lines around the edge.

But that was after I once more stitched around the teasel to give it added definition as you can see from the back view.

The backing fabric was put on with 505 spray to hold it in place after the background was stitched.
Now back to that bag of scraps.

The next step

The design needed to be brought out so I painted with white opaque fabric paint.

Next step, background quilting.

Playing with Scraps continued

The next step in this process was to lay some "stitch and tear" stuff over the top.

I think this is a brand name but there was nothing on the packaging and I bought my roll at a show years ago. You could use tracing paper or tissue paper for this step.

Referencing a drawing that I have done of the teasels that appear around here every other year, I sketched this.

(Don't you just love a plant that can only be bothered to turn up every other year!)

I then use the lines as a guide for my thread sketching. I also think I need to I need to do some de fuzzing of my sewing machine!!

If you haven't tried this before it is a great way to get a design or motif onto a background. You can move around by sewing a few stitches on top of each other before moving to where you need to go next. The threads can be snipped off at the end.

There is no need to do too much stitching at this stage as the simpler the stitching the easier it is to remove the drawing.

When the stitching is finished, the paper comes off.

Playing with Scraps

Not much fabric painting going on here at the moment. It is just so wet and cold, meaning slow drying times, so I have decided to wait for the warmer weather. It is coming isn't it!!

Time to do something else.

This particular bag of scraps has been following me around for years now; and I do mean years. The scraps in it are almost entirely bits of previously completed projects. Some may say they should have been chucked but....

This is the bag tipped out.

Sorted into colours...sort of.

There seems to be a lot of green, and so that's what I am attacking first.

There is a mixture of batiks and hand painted greens, and the pieces were more or less in strips so I have laid them onto a piece of fusible batting and ironed them down.

The hand painted pieces have been stamped with some commercial and home made stamps (and I have absolutely no memory of doing them, or what they were for!)

More to come.

Inspiration (and giveaway winners).

I picked up some inspiring postcards on my recent trip to Portugal.

I can definitely see some ideas for art quilts.

This fella below was everywhere, but as I couldn't carry a big ceramic one home with me I bought this shopping bag instead.

I have drawn the winners for the giveaway of Seaside Home.

The book will be going to Debbie of Woolen Sails. The ebook will be going to Nini, who kindly promoted the giveaway on her blog:)

Thank you to everyone that entered. I enjoyed reading about your favourite beaches and was thrilled to find that I knew a few of them personally.

Wishing you all a productive week.

Poppies....

....everywhere.

I had the pleasure of working with Port Talbot Quilters yesterday. Apart rorm lots of stitching there was lots of laughter and lots of lovely homemade cake!

For me it was a thrill to see these ladies, working outside their comfort zone in a free style, and enjoying it.

If you fancy doing some poppies, there are some ideas here.
And don't forget the giveaway here.