Bags and books for Christmas . . .

 

 . . . perhaps I shouldn't be putting pics out in public till after they've been given! 

 

I found a pattern at the Festival of Quilts for these bags, made with strips, but went for the single fabric for these presents as it is a lot quicker and I started making them a bit late.  They are a sort of box substitute - put your bits and pieces for a particular job into one and carry it off with you to do it.

 Here's my original effort, on the right, using strips from my leftovers collection.  There is scope for a lot more interest with the strips, but the single fabrics I've used all come from Africa - the top two from Uganda and the others from Togo in West Africa -  and for me that gives them a special interst all their own.

 

And then books, of course.  These are made from pill packets, slit down one narrow side, all the flaps stuck down, and the whole covered with coloured paper, on both sides.  It could be collaged, but I'm not much good at that so tend to use a large enough piece of paper I've painted and printed myself. 

 Pages for the signatures have to be cut to fit, which can be a bit tricky when one's mathematical skills are weak, and a tendency to do things back to front is active, but once I start I get into the swing ok.  I've been trying out different styles of long stitches and arrangement of holes or slits.  Weaving across plain long stitches is fun, as is the linking across the stitches, by sliding the needle under the previous stitch as you come by on the next signature.

 

Some packets aren't very big, as the hand shows.  It's a mixture of pills, asthma inhalers, throat lozenges and, oh yes, the packets Tesco sardines are sold in!  Well, omega 7 is good for you.

The print block used for the one in the hand was made by incising the pattern with a biro onto stuff like the polystyrene backing pizzas sit on.  It's worth saving!

Feb - May journal quilts

I decided to go back to doing Contemporary Quilt Group journal quilts again this year.  They are 10" square this time and have an additional aspect which must be included.  in this set it was circles.  The next four need some lettering in, and the final 4 buttons. 
Some people have tried to hide a very small or not at all obvious circle somewhere but I tried to put as many circles in this one as I could.  There are circles of sweet wrappers under strips of organza, machine stitched down with more circles and circular scribbles.

 This one has circles printed over it using things like a cork, an empty party popper, thread reel, pencil end, card tube.  The concentric circles are done using a drawing pin stuck upside down with masking tape on the sewing machine.  The sandwich is pressed onto the pin and revolves neatly with the stitching.  Shift the pin across for the different sizes.  A bit cheaper than those gadgets you can buy.  I started cutting back layers (there are fabric scraps trapped under rusty calico), but found it really hard to cut away my nice printed circles, so stopped!

 This one has transfer painted circles applied with zigzags and swirly background quilting.

 This has more choc wrappers flattened and stitched.  The main circle has some foiling across it and black net, with patches of purple net under,  cover the whole

Joggles - Sumptuous Surfaces

I've decided to take one of Sharon Boggon's courses hosted by Joggles - Sumptuous Surfaces. It is about creating texture with stitches, which interests me particularly. It has a strong design component, which is useful, as although I've done design study relating to patchwork and quilting I've not done any directly relating to embroidery, and I feel the lack of it. So I have an idea - to do with moving and the potential for new developments, and a motif to express it - horse chestnut leaves. ( Sounds a bit unlikely? I'll explain it a bit more another time!). For now, here are some of my design exercises, in paint. There'll be some drawn ones next time.

First, made 2 print blocks, incising polystyrene sheet with a knitting needle, and a stencil from thin strong card, preserving the piece that was cut out.
Then I played around with them on the pages of my A4 size sketchbook. This was good fun but they don't say 'stitch me' to me yet.

Ink wash over the printed pages (acrylic paints btw)

Two postcard size efforts that are beginning to say 'stitch me', but I'm not sure quite how yet.

I've a couple more drawn ideas for the next post.