Taking Things Further

Remember the rust dyed fabrics? I got them out last night and decided they looked a bit plain and I needed to add some colour to them.



A little while ago I bought some lovely wooden stamps that I hadn't yet used so I got them out along with the fabric paint and this is what happened.







I'm not exactly pleased with the results but I haven't finished so I'm trying not to be too critical of the mess I have made. I am hoping to get some stitching done on the fabrics today. Our homework for the new group is to make an Artist Trading Card and I'm going to use this fabric for it.

This is my favourite stamp so I thought I would share a close up of it with you. So pretty.

The Final

I have re-dyed the calico and printed cotton fabrics with the rusty bits and some copper. I'm very pleased with results.





I have got some very definitive marks.



And I've also got some lovely turqouise ones. Having three plumbers in the family means I'll never be short of copper and I'm definitely going to do this again.

Now I have these lovely dyed pieces of fabric I'm not sure what we are going to be doing with them. I vaguely remember Gina saying something about ATCs.

A couple of weeks ago Pam and I signed up for a 'quilt-along' with Fat Quarterly (see link on the right). Neither of us know why we signed up for it as we have both got so many things on the go already. I think it just sounded like fun. We should both know better really.

I'm using a jelly roll called Verna. I managed to get the cutting done last week as you can see. Monday we received the piecing instructions and yesterday I started to put them together.

Halftime Results

Don't panic there's no football results here just the halfway results of my rust dyeing.

From left to right, Calico, nasty cheap Polyester (which I didn't think would work), Silk Dupion.


Printed cotton fabric, Silk Scrim and Evenweave fabric.




Last but not least some Tapestry wool just because I had it.

Now you ask why halfway, well I'm re-dying the calico and printed cotton pieces. I re soaked them last night and I've wrapped Malcolm's rusty bits up in them and held them in place with elastic bands. I'm hoping to get some definitive marks. I've also wrapped in some copper piping , hoping that I'll get the nice green colour.

I will confess that I couldn't wait and I had a sneak peek this morning and there was some green colour on the fabric. So I quickly wrapped it up again and I'm going to leave until Thursday evening.

Finished Bag

I've finished the bag and I'm very pleased with it. It took 5hrs to do each beaded ball but it was worth the effort. I think they finish the bag off nicely.




Remember Barbara and the picture of her with my 3D piece on her head, well she's been at it again with the bag this time. It's a good job she has a sense of humour as she doesn't know I'm putting this on my blog.



Yesterday was the first meeting of our new group, the group with no name as yet. This term we are looking at Goldwork, but not in the traditional way.

We did some rust dyeing which by the time I had got home yesterday had already started to work. You can just see it through the bag. I'm going to leave it until tomorrow evening (if my patience lasts) to rinse out the fabric.

This is the start of a goldwork sampler except it's not gold thread it's a coppery colour but teacher says that's okay.

We have been looking at different stitches - from left to right Straight Stitch, Zig Zag, Satin Stitch, Vermicelli, the squiggle is meant to be Feather Stitch but it wouldn't go right. I'm going to have another go.

In the evening I went round to Barbara's to take a picture of her passion flower, it's a very good specimen.

And it has fruit which when it's ripe Barbara is going to pick for me so that I can grow my own.