Louisa’s Layers and Lines

I’m afraid my project Languished for a Long time, and I am the Last to be done. But I’ve been playing with the components of the challenge and finally have something to show!

While we were still in Portinscale I pulled all the pictures out of my section of Ruth’s magazine and collaged them into my sketchbook – looking at them now I see lots of houses, brick walls, rock walls.  Two other images that I kept going back to were these from our trip.

The bricks are near Ruth’s place in Carlisle, and the vines on the wall are “somewhere in Cumbria” (according to my careful notes!)

With these in mind I took the piece of red fabric and started to add to it.  I fused on some bits of batik fabrics, stitched on some gold mesh (was it a piece of gift wrap, perhaps?) and added some brown netting.  Then I couched various yarns in place on top of that. I don’t usually like “embellishing” – it can be very tedious – but this was all done with fusing and machine stitching and was quite a lot of fun. Some of the yarns are from our last challenge – Ruth and Kathy may recognize them.

I cut this piece of fabric up into squares and rectangles to make the bricks in my wall.  I was delighted to see that each piece was its own little composition.  I stitched them together with “grout” and added more bricks in the “grout” fabric.  Then I quilted it.  I tried to pack down the plain bricks to put them into the background as the collaged bits are the main part of the design.

The piece is about 14” by 27”.

Just a minute! – what happened to the scarf and the tie??

Please look carefully at this picture.

Part two of the project is the bowl made using Kathy’s technique from our fibre arts retreat. 

Here is the interior.  Bits of the tie show through the scarf fabric (that polyester was a bear to work with!!)  

All done!  What will our next project be?

 

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Kathy's 'L' swop -- finally!

My inspiration: a small zippered pencil case of grey felt, from the Dollar store, made out of a simple rectangle. Plus my favourite pages from my fat quarter of Ruth's magazine -- Lovely Ladies in hats, Landscapes, etc. I had a lot of fun, many times over, sorting through those pages and getting ideas. I think this is a good way to jump-start ideas again, whenever I am stuck! For the longest while, I planned to make a hat picture for my swop, like the lovely red one in the photo. But the sewing case won the day in the end.

Decided to use the same design to make a multi-purpose sewing kit, but slightly bigger. Big enough to hold a small knitting or sewing project, but small enough to be very portable, sit on my lap in the car, etc. Made the lining and exterior as separate elements, then stitched them together here and there. Didn't "quilt" it, since there were lots of interior add-ons: a needle-holder, leather loops for scissors, etc.

The bag is a bit of a funny shape when seen from the side!

The original pencil case is 3 1/2 " X 9". The new case is 6 1/2 " by 12". It's fun to use, as it sort of sits on it's flat bottom and displays the contents very handily. I could have designed it much more efficiently on the inside. this was a fun proto-type. perhaps i will design others for more specific uses. Maybe a "man bag" for specific tools...? Have already made Jerry some wrench-storage cases, etc., but they're not quite as interesting as this one!

Used Louisa's pink tie for the binding (perfect, as it was already cut on the bias), and Lesley's Lovely fringe for decorating on the front. The "L-ements" – a Long pouch using Leftover Leather, Loud colours, a Little Leaf from the Lake District in gold embroidery on the front bottom-right corner (should have added it to the Lower Left!), Lines (an idea borrowed from Ruth's project), and a Lop-sided zipper!