Smaller books made from water colour paper.

Here are two smaller books made from one sheet of water colour paper painted with an extended 

(1 meter long) brush and Indian ink.

After the mark making, the sheet is torn into pages 10cm x 14cm, then each torn page is folded in half to measure 10 x 7 cm.

Each small book has seven signatures of two pages each.

Stitched together using waxed linen thread and coptic stitch.

   

                                               

                                           The spine stitching is woven with embroidery floss, then embellished with

buttons.

Project number three for the year

Fabric flowers from 2" circles

Begin by cutting five 2" circles from fabric using the Fiskars circle cutter.

Fold the circle in half. Thread a needle then tie a knot at the end of the threads. Sew a running/gathering stitch along the curved edge. Begin and end on the same side.

Gather up to form a petal, leave the petal on the thread.

Repeat for all five petals.

Sew the first petal to the last at the gathering point to secure then knot and cut off thread.

Add a button or bead to the centre. Glue a small circle of felt to the back then add a brooch back to the felt.

For the other flower, cut seven 2" flowers in the same way as before. Fold the circle in half then fold a third of the half circle towards you as shown below.

Fold the last third away form you as shown below.

Thread a needle as for the last flower and tie a knot at the end. Sew through the point then leave on the thread.

Repeat for all seven petals.

Sew the first petal to the last then secure with a couple of knots.

Stitch a bead or button to the centre. Glue a small circle of felt to the back then add a brooch back to the felt.

Second project for the year, fabric bucket

This is another project for a customer of Fiskars, these ad hoc projects just add to my goal of weekly projects for the blog and keep the momentum. These are instructions for a small bucket, but just alter the measurements accordingly to make a larger bucket.

1. Choose two coordinating fabrics, choose from heavy weight fabrics like canvas, furnishing fabrics etc. You want them to be pretty sturdy, although you can add stiffening or interfacing to the fabrics if you like.

2. Cut two, four inch circles using the Fiskars fabric circle cutter, one from each fabric.

3. Cut two strips of fabric 14 inches x 5 1/2 inches, one from each fabric, then sew each strip into a tube by stitching the short sides together.

4. Pin the matching circle base to the tube, then sew in place for both fabric buckets. One is the outer and the other is the lining.

5. No need to decide which pattern you prefer for the outside of the bucket as it will be reversible.

6. Turn both buckets inside out, then insert one into the other, right sides together matching the side seams. Pin around the top edges to hold in place for sewing.

7. Stitch around the top edge leaving a gap big enough to turn through to the right side.

8. Turn through.

9. Push one bucket inside the other then pin around the top edge closing the turn through gap. Top stitch around the top edge. 

10. Turn a cuff over the top of the bucket to expose the lining, then fill with your favourite things.

Done!

Textile Forum workshop

I spent a fab week at the Ballarat textile forum over Easter, doing a week long workshop with Meredith Wollnough. She is a very talented artist creating amazing  art pieces using her sewing machine and thread. Below is my final piece for the week. 

Sketch on tracing paper.

Transfer sketch to water soluble fabric, place in a hoop, begin free motion stitch technique.  

finished stitching.

rinse the fabric away, let dry then mount finished piece.

Bag panel progress

 Here is a little snap of what I am working on lately. Its a panel for a bag. I recently went to the AQC here in Melbourne and purchased some Japanese pre cut squares to make a bag, which I started then had a heap of little off cuts that I couldn't bare to waste so I cut them into circles by tracing around the base of a cotton reel before cutting. I then cut 2 inch squares from the remaining fabric and pieced two panels 6 x 6 squares each, popped a circle in the centre of each square using some Vliesofix then hand stitched through them all on the diagonal with some hand dyed thread

                                                                    a closer look

                 Both panels done. Now I just have to decide what type of bag to turn them into.

Finished quilt

This is the finished quilt, I am not used to the whole blogging thing and really don't know what I am doing here so until I figure it all out the quilt steps will be out of order. I think I  need to post backwards.
Any way it's all below, out of order. I hope you like it.

Rag quilt steps part two

 I then arranged all the squares to get an idea of how I wanted the quilt to look, just as a side note I arranged the squares to create an alternating pattern on the back as well. Then I stitched the squares together in rows using a 1/2 inch seam, then stitched the rows together, then lastly stitched around the entire border 1/2 inch from the outer edge again using the red top stitch thread.  Having removed the corners on each of the blocks reduced the bulk in the joins.

 I then snipped all the seams, the outer edge of the quilt and the raw edge of the stars using the rag Quilt snips.

 I used a lot of top stitch thread.

 I then washed the quilt in the washing machine and threw it in the dryer to fluff up the cut edges.