Tug of War

I have been going to a local drawing class over the last few months and we were asked to bring in images to draw. I decided to use a photo of herdswomen in Tibet playing a game of ‘tug of war’. The image was interesting because of their quite elaborate costumes, including their boots and the general energy they were putting into the activity. The photo is credited to Rhurbu Tashi/Xinhua and I think it was originally published in ‘China Today’.

This is my drawing;

The point of this is that there is a lot of fun to be had with manipulating drawings using ipad apps and computer programmes. 

If you keep going the original idea can be stretched a long way. I mainly used IColorama , Snapseed and Leonardo.

I also taught myself how to scan it and then colour the drawing in on the computer.

Strictly Stitch 2

For a link to this workshop see the previous post.

Strictly Stitch

On Wednesday May 13th 2015 I will be leading a day workshop called 'STRICTLY STITCH' at the National Needlework Archives which is based at the New Greenham Business Park. Please follow the link to book if you are interested.

A Revelation.

I am often wandering from one end  of the room to  the other when working with a group of people and asking where did I put the masking tape, etc., etc.?  A couple of weeks ago it came to me, what I need is a pocket in my apron! Obvious. I won’t say that there will not still be times when I lose the essentials or go home with a needle stuck in my jumper for safe keeping but forgotten. So this was a golden opportunity to do some more block printing.

 It is so much easier when the blocks have already been made and tried and tested. Moo Carve is good because it is nice and thick to carve and print with, and both sides can be used.

Work in progress.

Now I shall not want to get it dirty.

Fabric Basket

There are lots of patterns for fabric baskets on the internet, some people have gathered boards solely devoted to the theme on Pinterest. I wanted to use some of the scraps from my block printed fabric and I followed this tutorial which is nice and clear. It makes a small basket ideal for holding pens on my desk.

It hard to cut up a precious piece of dyed fabric but sometimes it just has to be done.

I made a larger one, it was easy to enlarge the pattern.
Once again using scraps of block printed fabric.

Amazing!

My very much surprising Mother’s Day gift, I was told that I would never work out what it was, and that was true. A box of marshmallows with images from my blog digitally added. I don’t know how I will bring myself to eat them, but fortunately they last 

until September, so no doubt there will be a day when I have any urgent need for a sugary snack before then.

Tale of a Tree

I was excited to receive my first digitally printed fabric last week. I had thought of using ‘Fingerprint’, Laura Kempshall’s business for some time, but could never find the template to upload a photo, when I did the process was straight forward. It only took a week to arrive and was nicely wrapped with tissue using their fingerprint logo.

I have made two cushions with the fat quarters and another with a fabric which I block printed.

The tree image started with doodles of Klimt’s patterns, progressed to a journal, a print block and then to a basic repeat design. 

I have to thank Margaret Applin for getting me started; if you take a look at her blog you will see how she successfully develops her design work into digital patterns.

More Trees

More block printing, there are some amazing examples on the Facebook page for the class, this is a closed group but I think Jen is going to post a selection on her blog at some point as she is planning a new class to start soon. Some people are obviously experts at making clothes and smart bags and are combining their new skills with those they already have to produce great results.

Lined and quilted.

I pursued the tree theme and also made a block inspired by some African patterns to try an all over print, which almost joined up! I used MooCarve which I would recommend.

 The pouch bag I have just made is probably my favourite, I should have planned out the print placement first but I just printed the fabric and then thought what to do with it. I used felt as a backing and lined it. It has a nice squashy feel now that it is free machined around some of the trees.

 I’m also trying out pattern making on the computer so here I made a repeat pattern on paper.

Welcome to those who have just joined the blog; I would 'pop' round to say hello, but I can never work out who the new followers are on the list.