Pebble coasters completed

I've now finished a couple of sets of the woven/felted coasters that are based on the pebble design.

It takes a number of times through the washing machine to get the felting to the consistency I like (two times through with towels at the warmer setting, or 4-5 times with easy care clothing). A friend suggested that the sets of four should consist of three light and one dark coaster.

Our utility room is finished!

Kitchen

Storage

Loo

Rocks and water -- Kathy

I had this done two weeks ago, while at a cabin in the mountains on a week's holiday. But then I forgot the deadline! I have two pieces, each is a sample of a different technique in preparation for my final project in Textiles I. They are based on designs from water flowing over and around stones.

The green one is a design using fine-tipped fabric pens, with a stencil cut from firm plastic. Size: 5 1/2 x 8 1/2".
Design idea from a sketch of a cut-glass vase filled with the long white roots of a hyacinth. I love lines, and seem to want to "draw" on most of my projects, either with stitching, couching, or actual paint/ink.

The dark blue sample is taken from various photos/sketches of stones and ripples in a stream.
Size: 7 1/2 x 11"
Background is from a T-shirt with a very slight tie-dye. I first did stamping with actual leaves (poplar, wild rose, and some sort of ash), using a discharge (the VIM, kitchen scrubber under the sink in the cabin!) I was too impatient to leave it overnight, so the images were too faint -- ghost leaves. So I decided to stitch over parts of the images with rusty-golds. I think the actual stones are the weakest part of the whole thing. The leaves and water were the most fun!

My final project is still not resolved, but will likely be a smallish handbag in dark grey/black. Perhaps the design (based on this green sample) will be embossed/raised using felt, still not sure.

The next round

I’ve loved having our challenges, and I have an idea for the next one.

I bought a metre of fabric that I thought was interesting.  I’ve divided it into 4 pieces.  I am planning to send you each one (well, Kathy already has hers because I took it to Calgary in September).  When you get the fabric, you are to decide what you think could go with it and send that to each of the rest of us.  So you might send another bit of fabric, or a few buttons, or a piece of yarn, or a word, or something. 

When we each have all four contributions, then we have to “make something” that uses them .   And we’ll post at the end as always.  I don’t know about the deadline  -- maybe two months after we receive all the items? 

Do you think that will work?  Can you suggest any changes?  I can have envelopes on the way to Ruth and Lesley soon.  But first I need to venture into the disaster zone that is my sewing room and see where I put those pieces of fabric…..

Stones

I was delighted when this challenge was announced.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do – make a random rocky piece with assorted earthy colours and use it for the background behind the bicycle wheels from last time.  Brilliant, I thought!
I looked at lots of rocks and lots of pictures of rocks and pulled a nice pile of rocky looking fabrics.  But nothing much else happened.….

Finally a couple of days ago I grabbed a bin of fabrics and made some little “cobblestones” quilt blocks.  I made 2”, 4”, and 6” blocks.  When I set them all together side by side I realized the 6” one was too big and just took over the piece completely, so I took it out (it might turn into a potholder).  And I realized that I hated the fabrics.  Most of these are cheap (as in inexpensive AND flimsy) fabrics, but they are all fairly new.  Friends gave me fabric for a gift last year, and the only place they had to shop was Walmart


So I put “grout” in between my blocks to give them a bit of space.  The grout fabric looked great when I started to use it, but when morning came I realized the lightest of the stone fabrics just bleeds into it and disappears. 

Piece is about 14” square right now and needs borders, probably a couple of inches of the brown that I pinned it to take the picture.

Striped pebble coasters

When we started the stones project, I was already making the pebble bag (see weaving projects blog). To start the project I made another bag to keep on developing the meandering weft technique while I tried to decide what I wanted to make.
 

I really wanted to make pebble shaped objects, so I settled on a set of coasters. I knew I wanted to work with natural wool that I could felt after weaving. I had a lot of fun making some pebble-shaped "sketches" with two methods: shapes cut out of a sheet of stripes in crayon and ink; and photographs of yarn against dark paper cropped with a pebble-shaped frame.
 

Now I have warped the first coaster and have the weaving to look forward to as a reward once I have finished and delivered the last of the little woven purses to Weft studio (Christmas preview evening is Friday). I'll post the finished project eventually.

Rock Fall at Hunstanton

Our local beach is a place called Hunstanton, the cliffs, made of red and white chalk are rapidly crumbling away, causing frequent rockfalls. The last time I went, I took this picture of the red and white rocks divided vertically which amazed me because the coloured layers are horizontal. I was also keen to embroider some rocks using just straight stitches, so thanks for this theme I've really enjoyed it especially as my current assignment is a written one, this has kept me sane.

Miriam at university!

On Friday we took Miriam to university and here she is in her room in the halls of residence. Miriam's building is right beside a busy road. Fortunately her room is on the campus side with lovely trees to look at. 

She has the weekend to settle in and things start on Monday. She will be cooking for herself, sharing a kitchen with 6 other girls. It is a lovely campus, right in the heart of the city.

Building work at 20 Melbourne Rd

The end of the kitchen as it was last week.

A new doorway.

The door in place viewed from the outside with the outer wall and inner partition of the room taken away.

Bicycle wheels

I knew I wanted to play with pieced circles for this project, based on the book Quilters Playtime by Dianne S. Hire.  I like the author’s approach.  She shows samples and describes her methods, without prescribing how to make any one precise element.  However, a little more direction would be nice – it took some experimenting to find out how to work in a desired size range.

I made a practice piece first – the light coloured circle.  I liked it, and then wished I’d used better fabrics to experiment with.  Decided to stay in that colour range and add some gold, made the one with the gold inserts and the darker blue.  I have a centre piece made for that one that incorporates a bit of fuchsia.  By that time I had a better idea of what I was doing and I went on to make the smaller circle.  I was trying to make them irregular.  I succeeded best in irregularity with the last one.  The second one came out pretty “even”, so that the bits that are irregular look more like mistakes!

I might assemble them something like this – it could become a piece to hang over the stairs by the door.  Needs a background, possibly pieced brickwork in medium browns?  The circles need something in the centres, and at the moment I’m thinking that I could use a lot of buttons in there somewhere.  The edges can be left irregular or smoothed off, as the spirit moves when I get to that point. 

I’d like to finish it up, but there are various classes coming up which require prep work and samples, so this will have to go in the UFO pile for now, I’m afraid.

Off to Japan

 

Ian is in Osaka!  He will be working as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher). 

Here is what his last view of Merritt looked like when we left on Tuesday – we stopped at Tim Horton’s so he could buy a coffee for the trip.

I should have included Tim Horton’s (but we can see the drive thru sign).  There is Canadian Tire, complete with some big flags, a Greyhound bus, and the dry August hills that surround Merritt.  I’m sure the scenery is a bit different for him now!

We met Richard and Luke and went for supper at the nearest White Spot restaurant.  Richard took this picture of me with my two little boys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is the traveler at the airport, ready to head off for his adventures. 

Bike tire border patterns

I did a rubbing from Miriam and Anna's bike tires. Then I charted one of them and tried to make a copy of it in weaving. I gave up after the first row because it was just too hard to follow the chart the way I was doing it. So I loosened up and did a random pattern to finish this bag (green). 
I started one with a new approach (dark purple). This time I wove twill in a contrasting colour to make some of the tire track image and embroidery in between for the rest of it. I used some lovely soft cotton yarn I found in Turkey for the basis of the bags and odd bits of mixed fibres for the contrasting colours.

Spokes and Cogs by Lesley

I used a technique that I learnt at a Japanese paper folding workshop to make this greetings card. I think the origami paper that we used there worked better than this slightly thicker paper. It was difficult to cut the smaller details through 10 layers of paper.

Tim's touque (hat)

Tim has made a number of nifty hats lately, and given many away. This is a keeper, as it has his name worked into it. It was his first attempt at a fair-isle pattern, which he designed on graph paper first. I told him he should go into the business! His collection of crochet hooks is growing.
The other project on his lap is what he calls a "man bag."

Kathy's bicycle theme: Making Tracks

I used my bike tire and fabric paint to print on cotton, but it wasn't as clear as I'd hoped. So I dug in the toy box and found some smaller wheels (cars and trucks) to try next. Matched the colours with a set of curtain samples (nice crushed texture, a bit bi-coloured in sunlight). The variegated yarn is couched on, supposed to make you think of a map.
Tim signed it in the bottom left. It's in honour of his Adventure Race coming up the weekend of Sept 9th. He'll be biking, whitewater canoeing, rapelling (sp?), and mountain climbing in the Rockies as a fundraiser for literacy and Bible translation in Peru. (Did you catch the Andes Mountains on the top right? (", )
Not sure what this will be when finished, but perhaps the side of a bag. It is quilted a bit, but not finished.

Quilting challenge group results

 

A group of friends has an annual challenge.  Last year’s challenge was to make a piece that incorporated a set fabric (which came in several color ways).  The piece was to reflect a month or season of our choice.  Last week we all got together in Kelowna to display our pieces, go out for lunch at the pub next door, and choose a new challenge.

Here is the link to the album of photos:

2011 Challenge Photos

Next year’s challenge will have the theme of Tradition.  If you want to see the conditions we’ve laid down, click here. 

When I suggested the theme I was thinking mainly in terms of new interpretations of old traditions, but as we left a number of people had picked up on the idea of the traditional quilt patterns they had always wanted to try and now was a good time to do it.  So it will be interesting to see what comes out of this when we assemble again next summer.

Weaving trio

Miriam and Anna are making woven bags now. They have really helped me by trying out my instructions and showing me how long it takes to make a bag for the first time.

Here are a some of their creations: Anna's on the left and Miriam's on the right. They are shown with the lining fabric, where I have some already.

Felted Water by Lesley

Sorry this is a bit late, but I've been away for a few days and only got back last night. I've chosen to do felting with fabric in between because I tried this before and enjoyed the results. I was then inspired further by some beautiful, delicate scarves that I saw at Wollfest with Ruth. I think I still had my last project in my mind when I chose the title water. I had been working on a project called light/reflections/shadows and chose reflection in water for my work. So I don't really have just one picture that inspired me but a collection of different images of lakes, streams, the sea, rock pools and puddles all merged together.

I'm not sure if you can tell, but it didn't quite work and the chiffon did not 'adhere' properly to the felting as expected, and it didn't crinkle as much as I hoped.

Water theme by Kathy

This was a sample for one of my course projects. I started with a photo "slice"--a vertical section of a photo taken along the Bow River in Calgary early one spring. There was still ice and snow along the edges, and no green showing anywhere yet. The water was a very COLD blue!

First I attempted to identify the colours using my Aquarelle watercolour pencils.
















The next step was a very quick fabric collage, mostly using torn strips and machine-sewing them onto paper. This was the step I enjoyed the most, trying to use lots of variety and contrast in the texture and value.


















The final experiment was picture three -- using a solid blue cotton. (This was for the fabric manipulation project, which Lesley will remember, back in Textiles I.) I experimented with trapping different thicknesses of cord under the blue, using machine stitching and a zipper foot. Some of the cord was very used, soft rope, over 50 years old. My favourite sections are where the cord "waves" are densest and vary in size and length. At this point, it is just a page in my logbook. Perhaps it will become the side of a bag eventually.

Water Bag

This was a very obvious interpretation of the theme.  I chose four blue fabrics and used them to make some panels with curved seams.  Inspiration failed at that point, so I used the panels to make a bag – “finished is better than perfect” being the principle at work.

 
I see a number of design flaws –

The bag is very much NOT perfect -- I’d like that brown “swoosh” on the front to dip down in the centre rather than up.  If the blue strips are waves, it’s odd that they are vertical on the front of the bag.  But, like I said, it’s FINISHED!

Water Theme by Ruth

I experimented with fabric printing using rubber stamps made from an eraser/rubber.  The colours came from a set of little bags. (Louisa, do you recognize the main colour of the bags? It is the wool you gave me that I used for my jacket.) The scraps of silk I had are big enough to use for linings for the bags. I've woven two of the four bags and have cut out, but not sewn, the first two linings.

My favourite one is the one with the most dense and random pattern. The soft shapes resulted from printing on the silk when it was wet (that's where the WATER theme comes in!) and the sharp edged shapes were printed when the silk was dry. I like the way the ones printed on wet silk appear to sit in the background and the sharp ones come forward.

I'm looking forward to everybody else's water theme pieces!

Anna's Prom tonight

We dropped Anna in the centre of town in front of the big hotel where the prom is happening. Here is a spontaneous group of her friends who posed for my camera.

I helped Anna re-model a dress we found in a charity shop. She found the shawl at another charity shop. Doesn't she look great?!

...and she commissioned me to make a bag to match.

Spun fabric

 

Last year Kathy and I took a class in Calgary.  Kathy might remember the lady at the workshop who was collecting people’s fabric trimmings,  She was taking them for a friend who spins them into yarn and makes small woven articles. 

That got me saving long skinny bits of fabric.  I gave a little bag of them to my friend Joan who has a spinning wheel and this is what she did with them.  (I think she tied the bits together as she went.).

Now what?  Is there anything that can be done with this?  It is all kinky – is that because it’s only one “ply”?  Maybe I could knit or crochet something – a tiny table mat?? 

Suggestions gratefully received.

Miriam's prom tonight

Miriam met up with a group of her friends for pictures before they went to the party.

I finished weaving the bag just in time.

She made the lace to decorate the waistband of her dress. 

Miriam said, "I didn't intend to have such a snooty expression!"

Louisa’s fence

 

When I look up from my sewing machine I have a view of the wooden fence that is badly in need of painting.  I do not expect it ever WILL be repainted, at least not by us, and I do love the colours and shapes of the weathered wood.

 

 

 

 

I had fun experimenting with a bit of free-form curved piecing to make the pickets of the fence.  I made a darker piece for the back pickets and a lighter piece for the front, then cut them into strips and inserted the sky and the cross rails before joining them all together.   I quilted it, then bound it with two colours of fabric so as to continue the “sky”.  My original thought was to add plants in front of the fence to soften it, but I didn’t get to that part.  [And my friend Kim suggested that adding plants would make it “merely pictorial” and dilute the strong graphic lines (or something??)]

Value study in collage

The view out the dining room door has lots of brick and tile. I love the triangles in the view and the textures.

view from my window 2

The finished tapestry is only 10 x 7 cm. I was surprised the lightweight tulle was strong enough to pull even fuzzy yarns through. I have some with larger holes which I will try next, working up to the very large weavings, using strips of fabric.
I got the idea from watching Ruth pin-weaving. This version has a readymade warp and weft, and the colour and texture of the tulle shows slightly. Could be interesting with a deliberately wild or contrasting colour. It's not a fantastic end result but was a fun experiment. (I actually loaded the photo of the finished version last, but it went to the top! I sure need to learn more about this blog editing. I'm hopeless!)