Ferret Workshop

On Sun 18th April I went on a Quilters Guild Regional workshop facilitated by a lady called Ferrett. It was an interesting day in many different ways though I was not impressed by the way it was organised by our regional co-ordinator . An opinion voiced by a few other people too!

Ferrett was very giving of her knowledge and of the techniques that she uses and imparted a lot of useful information to us.

So this is the Swan that I started on the day and have only just finished. I'm really pleased with the finished result.

Travel Journal

With just a few hours to spend together one Sunday afternoon my friend and I decided to have a go at making paper bags. I didn't want to make a shoulder bag so decided to go for a clutch bag with a travelling theme.

We started of with brown paper which we scrumpled up over and over again until it became lovely and soft and felt like a soft fabric. This was then ironed to flatten it slightly.

Next I dripped on Alcohol Inks in various colours to cover the whole piece. This was then followed by a copper coloured acrylic paint rubbed on with my finger so it picked the ridges of the paper.

Once this was done various travel images, hotels, destinations etc were stuck on and once dried were rubbed over with sand paper to age them before being painted with 3 layers of acrylic wax. Hand stitching was then added round the images and also in the free spaces on the bag.

Black felt was bonda-webbed to the inside and cut round the body using a soldering iron, allowing a small edge to protrude from the finished front. The bag was then hand stitched all the way round.

As I wanted it to be a travel bag I decided to make a matching journal to go inside following the same process but with out adding all the pictures it. The stitching was also kept simple.

We intend to take it with us to Sweden so we can record all the wonderful sights we see.

Another Bag

I seem to be garnering an ever growing collection of bags. This is the latest addition to my collection!

It was made as a piece of coursework and I can't wait till I'm able to actually use it.

The front is made from cotton fabric that has been sitting in my stash just waiting for the right project to come along. The back is a wool tartan fabric, adds a little bit of weight to it. The inside is lined in the same green colour that is around the edge of the paisley patterns.

I like the fact that the opening is hidden in the rear of the bag and not under the flap as you would expect.

Recycle Madness

My trusty faithful very old log basket finally gave up the ghost after many years of service. It was in a very sorry state but I didn't have the heart to just throw it away!

Instead I took some sharp secateurs to it and cut it up, essentially removing all the upright pieces in between the woven sections and ended up with this.....

The very top section had no upright pieces left in it so I was left with open hoops of woven wicker.

The base piece was scrubbed clean before having a padded foam top added to the rim to cover any jagged edges that were left. It makes a perfect bread basket or cheese platter!

The centre ring became a wreath to go over the fire. It's lovely and deep so looks good with lots of ivy and mistletoe around it. I've added some bows and clove studded clementines, just love the smell! The star in the middle came from a technique found on Debbie's blog ( see link on side bar of my blog), it was so easy to do and very effective.

The final open ended hoops had their ends rejoined and wired together. They were then wrapped in torn strips of green fabric to cover them and give them a bit more stability. Red ribbon was then wrapped round followed by ivy. They were then attached to the chair backs with more red ribbon bows.

My very decrepit old log basket has had a wonderful new lease of life!!

Angels

Had a fab weekend with a friend a couple of weeks ago and we started to make Angels for Christmas.

The tall angels are made out of card cones covered in papier mache with scrumpled up paper heads. The flat one is wire again covered in papier mache.

Our 'works in progress'!

Once the bodies were complete various pieces of paper, scrim and caulk were applied to create texture. Once dry the whole piece was painted and dry brushed with numerous layers of paints.

The hair was made with string that had been painted before being glued on and the wings are made from shaped wire that has been covered in scrim. These were then painted before being attached.

Last thing to attach was of course their halos'.

One angel is pale purple, one is gold and the other bronze. The purple one is for my sister!

A4 quiltlets

Just a couple of little A4 size quilties that I've made......

This one is based on the Jurassic Coast of Great Britain....

And this one is inspired by time spent in Australia as a child......

Creative Whims

Having treated myself to a lovely brand new embellishing machine in August I decided it was time to get creative and put it to use.

I found some felt backgrounds that I had made previously and decided to embellish some more fibres onto them. Out of the finished pieces of fabric I made two brooche's, one for my sister and one for a friend

This is the 'Sea Witch' brooch, she is just lacking her wand!

This brooch has more of an autumn feel to her, I haven't come up with her name yet!

Once the shapes were cut out beads and hand stitching were applied along with the face, hands and feet. Then the backing and clasps were attached.

Great fun to do and I've got enough fabric to make another couple!!