Fashion Floss & Summer Fun

Fourth of July is coming. The perfect time to share this flag quilt 

that hangs in the airport in Bend Oregon. Here is my back story.

 

I purchased this book a few months back.  

Great inspiration for the fashion projects I want to start when I take a break from my vessels. Complete with patterns (you can see mine copied on newsprint behind the book), 

great tips on hand sewing, stencil designs, stitch examples & more.

I almost missed this quilt on the wall as I was leaving the airport on my recent Bend trip.

Serendipity ensured and I took a closer look as the technique looked familiar.

  

 

Sure enough, the card on the wall confirmed

the quilters had used Alabama Chanin for inspiration.

I adore the look & slow hand made quality of the work.

The huge stash of embroidery floss I was given by a friend

will come in handy for the hand stitched elements once I get started.

With doing so much sewing I have accumulated a pile of spent spools.

 Ran across a suggestion to use them for storing floss. Brilliant little idea. 

So much better that the clothespin method in the link above. Looks nice but a pain in the end.

Stylized rose is the latest stencil I've created & started using. 

Pictures of completed projects with this to follow. I could use this in an Alabama design.

 It's summer & the great lakes are gorgeous. 

The colors are amazing along the shore line. 

This is Waugoshance Point at the tip of the lower peninsula. 

A great place to hike and camp in old CCC cabins. 

We flew to Lake Superior for the day to the mouth of the Two Hearted River,

 made famous by Ernest Hemmingway.

The above shot was on our way back home.

Am I lucky or what? 

A Stitch in Time

I'm back to my obsession with Rust. Time to create a batch of ATCs so I decided to play with shibori style fabric dying with rusty objects I found in the man cave. Wrapped and tied the little tid bits then submerged them in the rust solution recipe seen in a previous post, see featured post link to the left. Above is the fabric with no embellishments and a couple of the items I used for the rust.

I went through my stash of stencils & tried a few out to see what I wanted to use to spice up the piece using Shiva Paintstiks. One of my favorite supplies.

                                    

 This is the entire piece with embroidery that accents the imagery as it stands now.  I'm really enjoying getting back to my textile roots and disappearing into the details of enhancing with thread.  A few close ups below.

We'll have to get back to Calligraphy practice later. I tend to jump around a bit in my endeavors.

I'm on Pins & Needles

   Half way through the month & the alphabet. Phew. I'm liking the jumping off point & the "pressure"  (good P word?) to keep going...every day.

                                                 

 Being a fiber gal and a book artist means Needles are an important part of my tool arsenal. It's the little things that matter. As with all things every part of that little needle has a name.

 

 At an art retreat years ago a friend pulled out the needle holder she made.  This is my interpretation. It's a little hand made book with a spine & fabric glued at the top. The hand woven fabric was donated by another gal at the retreat and she let me use her serger to finish the edges. My hand made paper embellished with stamps glued onto mat board is the cover. A real collaboration. The original had felt glued in to hold the needles. the donated fabric makes it much classier don't you think?

       

One of my favorite book structures is the coptic binding. Centuries old, somewhat difficult to execute, functionally a great binding as it lays flat. This one below is over the top in terms of design. Click the link above to see lots of variations both simple, elegant, wild, & whimsical.

                                                          A little guy of mine 

      

 In order to pull this off you need curved needles, more than one at a time in some cases.

 

I've been looking for good reference material on embroidery techniques lately as I think taking fabric, thread and needles while traveling would be a good way to keep my hands busy on creative projects without the need for many supplies that take up room. While at the library yesterday this book practically jumped off the shelf into my hands...

and look, it fell open to these pages that tie in with my desire to create lichen in fabric. See the post from 2 days ago on Lichen.

Serendipity at work.