Don't bin it.

Recently we had a bit of a sort out of our clutter box, you know the place where you put all those odds and ends and then completely forget not only where they are but when you see them what they were for in the first place.

Always be aware of the potential of these oddments for printing. These are some experiments on a sketchbook page first coloured with watercolour paints, but this could just as easily be done on a piece of fabric, perhaps coloured with a ‘thin’ fabric paint and printed with acrylics or fabric paint.

The sort of flower shape is a plastic insert from a jar of peppers; I suppose to stop the liquid inside spilling. This worked best with a stencil brush, although a piece of sponge is usually adequate.I have no idea what these other bits are.

In a paint programme you can use photos of these ‘prints’ to make digital brushes and then have hours of fun playing around with patterns and varied colour combinations.

 If you are not sure how to do this, I’m sure many of you know much more about it that I do, but for the rest do a search on the internet and you will find instructions.You could then take it further by treating your fabric with Ink Aid, or using ready prepared fabric and printing out your ‘designs’.

Endless cheap fun.
For more about Stitched video workshops click below or from the sidebar.
Alma has just announched the first giveaway, a Janome Sewing Machine.

Click here to visit Alma Stoller.

The Sketchbook Challenge

The Sketchbook Challenge: Images in a pile of plastic...: Sue B here... Sketchbook Challenge participant Jackie Bowcutt recently came across a pile of plastic waste that turned out to be inspir...

Sue was kind enough to highlight some of my pieces for December's challenge.

'Stitched' Workshops

I am delighted to have been asked to be part of Alma Stoller's new venture for 2012, 'STITCHED'.
 She has set up a site for fabric art videos which is crammed with information and just the thing to start the New Year with a creative rush.


STITCHED is a collection of 20 online video workshops by fabric artists with varied interests and talents. Alma's aim is to provide  workshops offering  high-value and high-content information to get you sewing, designing and creating.


Alma also has  the support of some well-known companies which will be providing  giveaway items and products for several lucky STITCHED members.

In addition, Alma is providing a full video workshop about Fabric Jewellry;you have probably seen her unique fabric beads.There will be 5 additional mini video workshops.

Each of the 20 main workshops has a printable pdf file which includes patterns and related instructions.
The workshops will be available for six months and through out that time there will  be online support from each of the experienced tutors.


Click here to view more details

Progress of a kind.

I seem to have galloped ahead with finishing the throw and think it will be a present for some unsuspecting person come Christmas.

I write with this little room in utter chaos as a BT engineer is due to arrive at the end of the week to upgrade our Broadband. I live in hope but not expectation of great things. My room is packed to the smallest corners with very useful bits and pieces which in no way can be thrown away and in the midst of this is the cabling for the computer, so I will leave the picture to your imagination. Its rather like an archaeological dig, going back in time with all the levels of  'experiments'. I even found a half finished 'knot garden' and marvelled at my tiny stitches.

If you would like to know how to tie a square knot properly, something which I think I have done incorrectly for years, and also why you should make the effort to get it right – then follow this link and if you are like me spend quite a bit of time until you get the satisfaction of getting it perfect. You will feel so proud of yourself! The whole site is worth a look and you can listen to Susan Mills book artist talk about her work.

Sketchbook Challenge - The Book.

Sue Bleiweiss



'my book!

I’m calling it my book but it really wouldn’t be a book without the generous and gifted artists who contributed their time and artwork to it. You could say that I’m excited about seeing the cover out on Amazon but that would be a pretty big understatement…


 I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Jill Berry,Jackie Bowcutt,Laura Cater-Woods,Violette Clark,Jane Davies,Jamie Fingal,Judi Hurwitt,Tracie Lyn Huskamp,Susan Brubaker Knapp,Lynn Krawczyk,Leslie Tucker Jenison,Lyric Kinard,Jane LaFazio,Kim Rae Nugent,Kelli Perkins, Carol Sloan,Carla Sonheim,Kathy Sperino,Diana Trout,and Kathyanne White. Their contributions to the pages of this book make it a work of art. The book has a publication date of June of 2012 (hopefully it will come out a little sooner than that) but you can preorder on Amazon .'

So sometime in 2012 I'll be in print!

On with the Throw.

I am continuing with finishing the throw along the lines of Alisa Burke’s Free Motion
Graffiti class. It now has a blue backing, which was nearly fleece but then I found quite a heavy suiting material which feels like wool but is a polyester blend.

 I decided that the best way forward was to ‘tie’ the three layers together; which I have now done and am sewing on the binding. So this week it could be finished. I could have gone on with the free machining for weeks but decided enough was probably enough.

I have just bought some jewellery as presents from an Etsy seller in Holland. I can’t tell you more about it as I don’t want to spoil the Christmas surprise for the recipients, but I want to tell you that not only is it unique and lovely, but also thoughtfully and beautifully packaged. I found out about http://www.etsy.com/shop/jmsstudio    from another blog but can’t unfortunately remember whose.

If I have not got back to new followers or people who kindly left comments it is most likely down to the vagaries of Blogger.

Stitch Interval.

A little bit of hand stitch for a change.

Variegated thread is so useful.

I want to share a link to Noela Mills' blog. She is a visual artist working in Queensland, Australia and her blog entitled WABISABIART features her interest in Wabisabi, finding beauty in the old, worn, rusted and patched. I am paticularly taken by her artists' books, as I think you will be,paticularly if you have not seen them before. It is also worth following some of her links to some of the interesting work being done by Australian artists.

More Free Motion Graffiti

A few pictures of the Free Motion Graffiti throw as it progresses, slightly interrupted by an exciting project this week. I’ll tell you about that in weeks to come, enough to say that I have been working away very hard on it.

There is now a catalogue to go with the ‘Crop’ exhibition which you can get from the previous link. MagCloud also offer a digital catalogue for a few dollars which is a bargain I think if you are interested in artists’ books.

crop exhibition in situ

crop exhibition in situ, a photo by rejectamenta on Flickr.

Mine is the one with the apples; there is a life drawing on the inside, looks as if they were shy of showing that side!
http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/283676
Digital catalogue for under $4's.

'Crop Exhibition'

‘Crop’: An Exhibition of Experimental Artists’ Books



Avenue Campus reception and gallery corridor

The University of Northampton 31 October—16 December 2011 Open daily 10am-4pm


Opening Event: Tuesday 1 November 5-8pm

This is the seventh annual exhibition of experimental altered artists’ books, curated by Dr. Emma Powell (de Montfort University) and Melanie Bush (The University of Northampton). Work by international book artists will be on display alongside students from both institutions. For more details see the ‘We Love Your Books’ web site.

I'm pleased to say that my 'crop' book is amongst one of the 50 books chosen from the online exhibition to go on show at the above venue. I am hoping that there will be a catalogue as I have no chance of going to see the exhibition this year.

FreeMotion Graffiti

There are a number of good reasons to stop by Alisa Burke’s blog at the moment; one is to congratulate her on the birth of her baby girl and to' oooogh and ah’ over the photos of the new baby. The other is to take a look at her new class Free Motion Graffiti. I was tempted and joined recently. I have been free machining for a long time, in fact back to the days when I had to take apart my old Singer to disengage the feed dogs – the machine itself was so heavy that my husband had to lift it onto the table for me. I think of free machining as a skill that takes some time to master, yet I have recently seen people new to it sit at an up-to-date Bernina and get going straight away with not one broken needle. Life moves on.

Anyway, back to the class. It is not expensive and frees up ones approach, and is fun to take part in. First of all I went back to Alisa’s DVD which I downloaded from Quilting Arts quite a time ago, and painted some fabrics ready to cut up.

These are some bits and pieces from the small throw I am making. I am also using both string and Quick Print blocks to show the different type of marks  they make, as a group I am teaching are in the process of making various types of simple printing blocks at the moment.

'Fragments from a Life'

As promised some time ago I am posting more details of the pieces I exhibited earlier this year for the exhibition ‘HerStory’. I made two pieces. The first was a fabric book. I used pieces of rusted fabric together with various fibres and scanned notes bonded with cocoon stripping. I also incorporated pieces of waxed paper which had been distressed with a wood burning tool. I wanted the book to look and feel very fragile and used ‘fuseFX’ a gossamer bonding mesh which was helpful to get the effect I was after. I was given a pair of rusty scissors the builder found in our garden which came at just the right time. I also added some pine needles which came from the road in Bournemouth where my mother lived.

Here are the notes for my submission for the exhibition:

‘Fragments from a Life’
When someone dies one can wish that, like the great diarists, they had left fulsome accounts of their life, telling all, answering all the unasked questions; however, most often we have only the odd fragments of fragile lives from which to try to piece together a story.

‘Fragments from a Life’ One and Two are based on this theme.
One piece is an artist’ book and the other is a small wall hanging.
Scraps of recipes, misspelled notes about how to manage a pension, very little is left, yet saying so much.

The second piece was a hanging loosely based on an open book. The pleated spine is padded. Some of the added elements use sheer fabric printed using a foam block. You may recognize the woman from my drawings of people in Dubrovnik last year; which shows that sketchbooks are really useful.

I thought I would post these here as now the excitement of the exhibition is well over it seems unlikely that they will see the light of day again for some time.

Rare Bird

Rare Bird, a photo by stitchworks-jackie on Flickr.