At last I've got this posted, I've been without Broadband for ages because I did a silly thing... I did some spring cleaning! (never a good idea!) and knocked the wires, BT were baffled and finely got it working again yesterday. 

This book cover acted as a sort of mock up for a felted one that I did for my course, and I think for various reasons I almost prefer it. All of the fabrics seemed to work so well together, except mine, and Ruths ribbon threw me for a while,  until a friend had the obvious solution to use it a s a book mark. It is stitched together with Ruths embroidery thread and there are one or two other fabrics mixed in too.  One bonus is that I only used fairly small amounts and  so now I have some lovely additions to my pieces box. Sorry but I couldn't seem to turn the small picture around, limited technical skills you know. 

Louisa’s swop project

When the young people left I finally got down to work. 

I took another look at the fabrics and realized that Lesley’s piece had some great shapes all ready to be centres of flowers. I started cutting and sewing curves and came up with a basket.  I think that was what I had in mind when I first found that fabric with the reeds.

Then I pieced together a background.  I cut reeds and cat tails and filled the basket. 

I’m almost tempted to leave it like this – except that there are those stems sitting there with no heads on them.  I was very surprised at the colours of the fabrics.  I thought Kathy’s fabric was brown, but when I started working with it I found it was rust and green.  Doesn’t it make lovely cat tails!  Had quite a time choosing a fabric that would match to use for the reeds because I thought I was looking for greens.  Actually the fabric is gray with just a touch of yellow green in it.  I used both sides trying to get a bit of value variation. 

I might have to remove the funny pieces in the bottom left corner – that was leftovers from the basket and it was already joined to the light strip.  I thought I could balance it with something else, but doesn’t it just look silly?

Next step is to attach the flowers.  This is the arrangement I’ve decide on.

The flowers are constructed (centre blobs are fused to background blobs).  I’m hesitating at this point as they look rather…. blobby!  At this point I have tried out appliquéing them on with a wandering “scribble” using a variegated thread – that might break up the flat cream section and add a little bit more of the warmer colours, the rust and the gold. 

I also have a few small circles cut from the batik that I thought I could fuse on in groups of 3 or 4 to fill in a bit, and I could use Ruth’s floss for a bit of texture (french knots, perhaps).

 

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This is a sample that I tried on a scrap of fabric to see if the scribble stitching would work.

 

 

 

I’m at the point where my decision-making abilities have ground to a halt.  But if I stop now this will turn into another UnFinished Object.

So what do you think?  Should I get rid of the bottom corner?  Shall I put the flowers on as planned, or should they be re-shaped or otherwise re-thought? 

I think I’ll go and start on those mola cushions for a change of pace.

Easter weekend

There wasn’t much sewing done, as the house was full of family!  The weather was nice enough that we spent some time outside – it was great to have some help with spring yard chores. 

We pulled out board games and jigsaw puzzles in the evenings.   Sure missed Dad – he would have been busy with the puzzles and would have challenged everyone to games of cribbage. 

Kathy's 4-way swop bag

These fabrics were a challenge for me! I liked them all, except the one I had contributed myself -- that one I wished I could leave out in the end! I tried to make a dark-to-light set with them, by adding a couple of others, but in the end decided to use Lesley's main piece as the quietest central element, and pull out the red in it by adding a couple of other pieces in my stash. The red/cream print is one I just bought in S.A., actually made in China, but the colours look a bit African. The dark red is from a blouse I made for myself, to wear to Mary's matric. I loved the fabric, but the pattern was actually meant for a stretchy fabric, and this is a woven cotton. So once I got it on, I was fine, but getting it off was a bit of a job! So I decided I did not want to wear it again. I used the strip with the Chinese buttons up the back of this bag, including the black piping.

The green ribbon is used as the zipper tag, and the gold embroidery cotton adds some elements to the outside pocket. The sides can be pulled closed with a magnetic fastener inside. The pattern is from a book Louisa passed on to me, called "Slouchy bags." I plan to take it to a friend in Dublin in June, as my boss is sending me to Ireland for a 5-day writing conference. Lorraine has moved from Jo'burg to S.A., so it will be fun to take her something that has a bit of African fabric in it. I added the red to this bag as I think she likes it, at least, I seem to remember her wearing red.

I especially enjoyed the red and black spots on Lesley's fabric, and designed the main pieces around those.

Hawthorn berries

The motif on Lesley's fabric was the inspiration for my piece, it reminded me of some photos I took of hawthorn berries in the autumn. I tried a method Anna told me about which she calls reverse applique. I used the zigzag on my machine and kept changing the width of the stitches to mimic the lines defining the motifs on Lesley's fabric. Kathy's fabric was perfect for the tree bark and Louisa's had a good red for the berries. I used Lesley's bonus piece and some curtain fabric I had for the background "landscape" behind the branches and a piece of a scarf I bought in Kazakhstan for the sky. The ribbon and embroidery cotton became the little end bits on the berries.

I need to add a border but can't decide what it needs. Please comment if you have ideas for that, here are some "photoshopped" possibilities.