Two More Sketchbook Pages

Posted on December 5, 2014 by ruthlane under sketch book

I have been working in my sketchbook lately (see post on the Felting and Fiber Studio for more photos). These are two pages that I worked on yesterday.

I have showed you this page before, it has a background of gesso and green paint, then it was stamped with the leaf shapes. I drew the roses with a pencil, then redrew in black pen. I then used Tombow pens to color and shade the roses. I am planning on adding stems to the roses and leaves so that all the stamped leaves will be background. I will post another photo when it’s finished.

This one is a painted green background with the purple blue color mono printed off of the remaining color left when we were screen printing. I then drew the echinacea with pencil and redrew with black pen. The next step was to paint the flowers in white so that then I could add the color of the flowers without it being overwhelmed by the background. I actually kind of like it this way but I’ll still probably add the color. The only problem is that I used watercolor pencil for the white (the only paint I had at the time) so I will need to go over it either with gesso or white acrylic paint. Or I could just leave it and call it “Ghost Flowers”. What do you think?

Holiday Postcard Exchange

Posted on November 28, 2014 by ruthlane under swap

I got word from Angela that she received my holiday postcard. So I can show you what I made for her.

I started with a nuno felted paper laminated poinsettia. The fabric that I used was some type of really shiny organza. I didn’t test it in advance for nuno felting which was a mistake. It just didn’t work all that well. It did attach but the wool fibers just didn’t want to stay attached very well.

Stitching to the rescue! I stitched around the main items. You can’t see very well in the first photo but there were brown stems underneath the fabric. I stitched on both sides of the stems and then cut back the fabric. Then I decided to cut away a bit more of the fabric from the center of the poinsettias. I had started with a size that was much bigger than the postcard. So I cropped it down until I found a pleasing design.

I then added some gold beads to the centers of the poinsettias and attached it to a piece of heavy interfacing with white fabric on the back. Then I stitched around the edges three times. The thread kept breaking and it was driving me crazy but finally I switched to a metallic needle and it worked fine.

Here’s a little closer view. I am happy with the results although I got a bit discouraged in the middle of the process. But that’ usually how things go, isn’t it? Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Angelina Challenge

Posted on November 21, 2014 by ruthlane under machine stitching

One of the members of my local group got some free packages of heat bondable Angelina and challenged the rest of us to use it in a project. The color she gave us was a “glowing” yellow. I have two other colors of Angelina fiber in my stash that I rarely use, blue and pink. So I mixed them up in various color combinations, ironed them together and then ironed all the different colors together into a big circle.

So now I had a big sparkly circle of fiber.

Each side looked different depending on how the fiber was mixed together.

Here’s a little closer view.

I then decided to stitch on the Angelina to give it a little more strength. So I stitched in circles and then added some “pleats” to give it shape.

I used metallic thread to stitch on the sewing machine. This is so not me.

It still isn’t a very sturdy bowl and my husband says “What would you put in it?” Typical husband question!

But I used up the entire package of yellow Angelina. I still have a lot of pink and blue Angelina left. So it went back in the stash to sit for a while longer. I’ve only had it for three years but luckily it doesn’t go bad. Have a great weekend.

Felting Forum Holiday Postcard Exchange

Posted on November 19, 2014 by ruthlane under Felt, forum

We have a Holiday postcard exchange going on over at the felting forum. Angela from the UK sent me a lovely “card”. Actually it is more of a felt picture as it is bigger than a postcard.

It reminds me of a snowy evening.

It has wonderful texture.

And a bit of sparkle which is hard to see in the photograph. I mailed one to Angela at the beginning of the week but I won’t be able to show you that one until she receives it. Thanks Angela – it’s beautiful!

Screen Printing Results

Posted on November 14, 2014 by ruthlane under surface design

Our local group met today and we worked on shibori. I’ll post about the shibori session on the Felting and Fiber Studio site in a week or so. But I did get some photos of the favorite pieces from the screen printing party.

Here is Sally with her favorite piece.

And a little better view of the piece. It has some really nice background details that almost look like water or a lake with trees in the background.

Here’s Paula with her screen printed scarf. She nuno felted the center section and is meant to be a head scarf. The screen that she used was one of my fabric lamination screens.

And this is Louise with her screen printed piece. She has it wrapped around a board. She is thinking of adding some stitching and then covering it with a cold wax technique.