Category Archives: fabrics

Fused Paper/Fabric

Posted on by under fabrics, Level 3 Art and Design, mixed media, paper making

My art group got together last week and made fused paper/fabric. This is a different technique than the paper fabric lamination that I do. This one involves using fusible and ironing the paper and the fabric together. We also added Pearl Ex Powders to get a little bling and glam.

Here’s Deb working on her creations. Somehow, I didn’t get any photos of her finished pieces. Sorry Deb!

Here’s Louise and Sally working away.

These two are Louise’s creations.

These are Sally’s creations. Doesn’t that middle one look like a birthday party?

Here are mine. I was planning on using these for some of my collages for class homework so I made some “matching” pieces that go together.

But when I started making collages, I didn’t end up using the pieces I thought would go together. Here’s one that hasn’t been glued together yet.

Here’s another collage I did. The background is stamped and painted fusible adhered to black paper. I cut the leaves from my other piece of fused paper/fabric.

Thanks once again for stopping by, leaving comments and cheering me on in my fiber art pursuits. I appreciate everyone’s compliments and suggestions. I hope you and yours have the best of holidays and a creative New Year.

 

Couple of Cards

Posted on by under fabrics, free motion machine stitching

I finished a few more of the greeting cards that I posted about previously. I get them set up ahead of time but when I start stitching the plan sometimes changes.

Card Components

 

I had planned on doing automatic stitching on this card but then I thought that it looked like a tree trunk on the right. So instead, I did some free motion stitching and removed the blue-green silk pieces.

Free Motion Sketched Tree

 

This is the result.  I might need to add a bit more dark thread but held up close, as you would a card, it looks fine.

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Next I worked on the one on the right. It had some felt but those spare pieces of blue-green silk went so well…

Blue Green Card

 

Here’s the end result. I don’t usually baste or fuse down my fabrics on these cards, I just stitch over them. Sometimes things get a bit wonky but that’s OK. I’m working on not having to have everything “perfect”.

Little Snippets of Work

Posted on by under fabrics, free motion machine stitching

I’ve been trying to get back on track since I’ve gotten home. I am still trying to do at least 5 minutes of creative work every day but I’m having a hard time somehow. I have lots of things I want to get done but sometimes the list feels a bit overwhelming. So I’m just doing a little bit at a time and hopefully, I’ll get back into the groove soon.

Being You CardI finished one of the greeting cards that I laid out last Friday with my art group. I decided to add a background fabric and then just used one of the programmed stitches on my machine to stitch it down. I used fusible to attach the words and to attach the fabric to the card.

Being You CardHere’s the card ready to be written in and sent off to someone. I really like using hand-made greeting cards. They don’t take very long and people are always impressed. It’s nice to give a little bit of your time and thought to a card instead of just buying it from one of the box stores.

Card ComponentsHere are the ingredients for the next one. The white piece to the right is stitch and tear interfacing. It gives enough of a backing to prevent the stitching from buckling the fabric. If you do a lot of free motion stitching, you might need two layers of interfacing. I’m thinking about doing free motion stitching on this card. Perhaps following some of the organic lines.

Matching ThreadThen I just choose which color thread I want to use and it’s time for stitching. I usually keep these cards fairly simple and practice a bit on making a balanced composition.

 

 

 

More Fiber Art Cards and Hoover Dam

Posted on by under fabrics

Last week, went to Las Vegas to go to a wholesale buyers show for the store.  It was a pretty small show so we had time for a little site seeing.

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Here’s a bad photo out of our hotel room. I know it’s desert in Las Vegas, but the dryness of the landscape is such a change from north west Montana.

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We decided to go to Hoover Dam and it has really changed since the last time we were there. They have built a very tall bridge over the Colorado River which is the dividing line between Nevada and Arizona. The bridge is built to accommodate pedestrians so we walked across it. I don’t like heights much but survived.

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This is a photo of Hoover Dam looking down from the bridge. It is a massive structure. It was built in the 1930’s.

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This is  the bridge that we walked over. It is a good thing I didn’t see it from this perspective before I walked across  it. It’s another impressive feat of engineering.

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Here I am in the bowels of the dam in front of the generators.

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This photo is taken looking down towards the river. I liked the juxtaposition of the different textures, natural and  man made.

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After I got home, we had our monthly surface design meeting. We did some ice dyeing and made fiber art cards. The photo above shows two different cards. They need some stitching. I am trying to decide between machine and hand stitching.

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Two more designs.

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And the last two. I will show these again once they are stitched. Please go over to the Felting and Fiber Studio to see my post about ice dyeing.

Level II Hand and Machine Stitch Class and a Surprise

Posted on by under Dyeing, fabrics, plastic fiber, threads

 I started the Level II Hand and Machine Stitch class at Gail Harker’s last week. The first two and a half days was spent in the dyeing studio. Gail has just moved recently from Oak Harbor to LaConner, Washington. Her new studio is wonderful and we had a great time. I won’t discuss the10 hour drive from Montana to Washington with two Yorkies who both had Giardia. The less said about that the better!

 Here are some other class members hanging up their dyed fabric and threads to dry. It looked like colorful prayer flags all around the room.

 Here are some of the threads I dyed after they were dried. They were waiting to be wound up with a thread winder. Normally, we wind the thread on half of a toilet paper tube but they didn’t have many so I only got two in class.

 Here we are at the table discussing something. We worked on hand stitch this session and I have lots of homework to do. We’ll be working on Kantha stitch on our next session in February.

 Here are some photos of my dyed fabrics. We will be using these over the entire course of the class. This is silk organza. We used Procion MX dyes. I usually use acid dyes at home but I’ll be ordering some Procion MX as it is part of the homework to have another dye session.

 This is cheesecloth – #50 and #90 weights. A lot heavier cheesecloth than the kind you buy in the grocery store around here which is #10.

 This is linen.

 And muslin.

 And then white burlap.

 Here are all the threads I dyed on their cardboard tubes. I finished winding them at home. We used all cotton threads in a variety of weights.

 Don’t they look yummy?

 I need to dye some deep purples and perhaps some more greens. So more thread to come!

 When I got home I found a package from the UK. Zed had sent me samples of nylon and plastic fiber to experiment and add to felt. Thanks Zed – it was a wonderful surprise to find this package waiting for me when I got home.

And look at these wonderful buttons she makes out of polymer clay. I can’t wait to add them to something.