bits and pieces

Well my workshop was interesting. We had a slide show first on the work of Don Driver and some of his influences. We were to then do a small fibre collage based on what we had seen. Obviously we weren't working to quite the same large scale as some of his works but it was fun to work even on a smaller scale. With the speed that we worked it was all very intuitive in placement and design. We used staplers and glue guns to attach a lot of pieces. There was an amazing variety of fibres to work with - nothing really very traditional. Lots of feed sacks, tea towels and larger pieces to use as backgrounds and then lots of less usual pieces to put on them including cutlery, metal pot scrubs, suede, silver heat blanket etc. I can't say it is something I would do again but it was fun to do something totally different.

Our embroidery guild had a friendship day during the week and we had a very successful day with lots of visitors. I didn't get around and see what everyone was doing this time - ended up being very busy with a new piece that I have started. It took me ages to decide what to do for the day, not being a traditional embroiderer, and I ended up with a piece of calico that I had dyed and then ironed on a large piece of painted vliesofix (wunder under I think some call it). I am doing herringbone stitch in the crease lines with a little straight stitch and some couching. There are interesting lines of movement and shadowing that should make it look interesting when I have finished.

I also did some quilting. My maths was out in calculations and I need to do about four times as many blocks as I had originally thought. They are just some basic stuffed puffs using a lot of my scrap basket fabrics. It was started in an effort to radially use up a lot of my scrap basket and something easy to sew while I procrastinate in finishing a lot of other projects. I didn't want to start anything new that was too complicated and distract me from what I should be doing which is sandwiching and quilting about 6 tops. What I really need to do is take myself off somewhere peaceful where I can sit and quilt without interruptions.

Oh, and I did some paper collage - I tried to do something a bit different and it was fun - I work better if I work quickly and don't think too much about what I am doing and don't dither too much on my decisions. If I start to think too much about what I am doing and the whys and wherefores of what I am doing then I start to procrastinate about what I am doing and end up in a muddle and very unsatisfied with my choices and decisions.

Next week I must make a start on a quilt that a friend asked me to do for him. It is really easy peasy - just two large pieces of printed fabric to be sewn together and then bound and tied. It is a wonderful ethnic fabric that is too nice to cut up and really doesn't suit a lot of machine or hand quilting. It shouldn't take too much time to do once I get started so since he is coming next weekend for a visit I should at least make a start on it for him.

cruising around

I had a bit of a surf amongst one or two blogs this morning. It is great how someone will mention anothers blog that they enjoyed and so I checked one or two out this way. They are definitely ones that I will check out again. I was good too and let a small note that I had visited - it is nice to know when someone has visited. It made me even more seriously aware that I need to organise myself with regards to doing some photos. I always enjoy others photos - they can be quite inspiring for me and lead me to one or two ideas of my own or they just inspire me to get out and be creative (in any form). One in particular had some freeform embroidery on a background that looked interesting and reminded me that an experimental piece at a recent "play day" wasn't that bad afterall and was really worth trying that technique again. The one good thing about freeform embroidery is that my lack of skill with embroidery doesn't show - the stitches all look as though they were mean't to look so rough and haphazard.

I also enjoy the humour - I am still finding it hard to put words on paper but the more that I write the more my style will improve. One of my biggest problems is the worry of what other people will think of me and that I am not really good enough or as good as "the others". I usually talk myself out of that by saying to myself that I am doing it to please me, it is something that I am enjoying and the more that I do the better I will become. Well that is the theory but on the way I try to make sure that I am enjoying myself and having fun. Life is too short not to have some fun in our daily life.

So I am off today to our local art gallery for a workshop. I am not quite sure what to expect except that we will be creating with fibres in the style of one of the featured artists in the gallery. He had created an amazing large wall hanging with old feed sacks and old garden implements. I am looking forward to doing something totally different and out of my usual comfort zone - this definitely fits the having fun criteria. Will have to report later on what the workshop is like.

May Day

I had a creative day playing with textures. We were using furnishing fabrics - all the synthetic ones and after cutting the fabrics up and laying them onto a background we stabilised them with a few stitches and then got out a heat gun and singed them - they really shrunk up and melted to create interesting textures. Something interesting that I want to play with more. They were also using a paper that reacted similiarly to Tyvek - it is normally used to wrap flowers in by a florist - will try to see if I can get some. We also used the same types of fabrics and wrapping them around a satay stick and burning to create beads - they looked quite interesting and were a lot of fun. It was interesting to see how the different fabrics reacted to the intense heat.

I had a bit of a spend as well (as you do). Bought another book on silk paper making which was excellent - it goes before the other book I have in that it has more basics in it for beginners to silk paper making. I bought a small pack of silk in very dark colours and some silk rods. I had seen an article in a magazine that used silk rods that had been sewn together and embroidered - very nice. Bought a mould as well that I want to use with silk and some very nice dyed thread that I have no idea what I will do with it beyond that it appealed to me.

I have also been playing with some ATCs and silk paper that I had cut up. I did a few embroidery stitches on the silk and then glued it to a painted card. They look quite nice but I wondering if they might be too plain for some people. I shouldn't worry about it because the cards are an expression of me.