Knitting & Stitching show

I went to the Knitting & Stitching show at Harrogate on Friday with a few friends, we had a great day.  Luckily we missed the snow by 1 day, though we've only had a bit here - about 2 inches so far!  In between we've had some lovely sun and blue skies but it hasn't cleared the snow.  Thought I'd show you what I bought and just a few pics of some quilts on display for Elizabeth.  I didn't take many pics as I'd forgotten I had my camera with me till later on.  I bought some fabric, lovely threads, Brusho, Koh-i-noor waterbased dyes (the little palette), a brayer (I already have the softer one but this one will be better for using with textiles), something for a Secret Santa gift (just peeking out from under the fabric) and soy wax to have a go at Batik.  The checkered fabric and the 2 underneath are a much deeper shade of green than showing here and look much better IRL.  The other little pile of fabrics aren't normally colours or patterns I would go for, but I think these co-ordinate really well and will be great for dolls.

Haven't been online much due to going to the show and then on Saturday I was on for a short while earlie on but I had a migraine later and was in bed by 9.10 :-(  I thought it best not to use the PC yesterday.

Blog Award

The lovley Linby has kindly nominated me for this award.  I have to state 3 things that make me different from everyone else, these are:
1 My eyes
2 My nose
3 My mouth
Hehe, just a bit of fun, but they are unique to me ;-)  I should also nominate 5 others for this award and they are, in no particular order:
Pat
Jo
Ann
Donna
Heidi

Now supposedly you can claim $5 of digi downloads but the link didn't work for me, but I mention it here in case anybody has seen this award on other blogs and is wondering about the downloads.  If I can sort it out I'll amend this.

Getting Plastered

We had a fantastically messy playday yesterday at the doll group.  As I've explained before although ostensibly a cloth doll group we do much more, yesterday being a case in point.  The work? (I question the use of that word 'cos it was pure fun :-)) we did yesterday was the result of some of the member; our leader included; having attended a workshop with the author of the book 'Get Plastered, Plaster, Print, Stitch'  I don't have the specific recipe for the plaster mix but it's basically a dollop of white emulsion paint, a dollop of PVA glue and enough plaster to mix to a single cream consistency, though in fact ours was thicker and worked fine.  Then we took a strip of calico and painted areas with the mix adding texture in the form of lace, string, bits of thread, stamping into it (you can use rubber stamps but wash immediately) etc.  You can also stitch into the calico first then pull some of the stitches out after plastering - of course you can do anything you like but just giving some ideas if anyone would like to try but may be stuck for ideas.  On one of my 'squares' I've added a piece of textured wallpaper but on another just used a piece of textured wallpaper underneath the fabric while painting the plaster mix on; you could use your stamps in this way without having to clean them but I think you would need a stamp with a strong outline to show up.

Then paint with any medium you like; if using acrylic paints they need to be watered down well to a runny consistency.  I've used Brusho (see end for description) on mine and added a little mica powder in places once dry.  My pieces are far from complete, I'm going to add some stitch and embellishments, maybe some images etc  You are meant to iron on the back when it's dry, though I'm not sure what this achieves as it didn't appear to make any difference.
I've done 11 'squares' altogether (the top 2 pics)

BRUSHO is a form of transparent watercolour available in an extensive range of exciting colours, supplied in small drums containing dry, crystalline powder. They mix instantly with cold water to produce a painting medium that is renowned for it's versatility.

Mini art quilts

I can show the mini art quilts in full now :-)  On the fishy one I've used organza ribbon to represent scales.  The picture looks a little fuzzy, this is due to the organza I've used on top of felt.  Just so you know the stitching on the seaweed is intentionally wonky - though I do wonky very well even when it's not intentional (but not quite this wonky) LOL
Translation should you need it (Elizabeth): wonky = not straight; lopsided; unsteady. ;-)

Sunday Stampers - Santa

Hels theme for the Sunday Stampers challenge this week is 'Santa'.  I've made 2 tags and used 2 different Santa stamps.  The first one is black card which I inked all over with Versamark, then covered it all over with mica powders.  I then inked the stamp with Versamark, this lifts off the mica powder where you have stamped; I've sprayed this with a clear acrylic spray but you should be able to use a cheap hairspray to set the mica powders.  The snowflakes on this one I've had for a few years, they are a clear material which I covered with Jones Tones Diamante glitter.  For the other tag I used Adirondak Butterscotch and Ginger inks for the background and also inked over a Craftynotions stencil.  Both the snowflake and Santa stamps are Tim Holtz stamps.
NB I've realised the last sentence is misleading, only the Santa stamp with 'Believe' on is by TH the other Santa stamp isn't - I said stamps 'cos I was referring to the snowflake and Santa stamps on that one tag.

Mini Art Quilt number 2

I've almost completed another mini art quilt, just need to do the backing and bind the edges and put something on to hang it.  Not showing the whole thing again as it's a gift, but I'll show it and the other one (shown in an earlier post) once they've been given.  This one measure approx 111/2" square.  The bit showing here is about 5" square.  I've used felt covered with a piece of rainbow organza for the base.

Lovely day here in West Yorkshire, so I hope it's just as nice where you are ;-)

Sunday Stampers - Winter

I'm early with my entry for the Sunday Stampers challenge this week.  Pop over to Hels for more info.  the theme this week is 'Winter'; I decided I'd just do another card to add to my Christmas card collection.  Just a bog-standard card.  The thing I'm most pleased about is the sentiment - my own homemade rub-on yay!! soooo easy :-)  Sorry I can't remember whose blog I saw the link on, but here is the link

Ask Erin

Creating pages in someone else's journal

Someone asked me if I'd like to do a page in a journal; she'd just completed her pages but the journal belongs to another person.  How scary is that, letting other people loose in your journal :-0  hehe.  As the owner is unlikely to view it here I'm showing my pages.  I started with colour without any idea of where I was heading.  I'd sorted one page and was trying to make a kind of papier mache bird for the other; I used a mix of kitchen roll and book pages and didn't want it too dimensional but when I was painting it I decided I could've achieved the same thing with some thick card and though it would've still been ok to use I started looking for something else for a focal point.  I came across the house I made some weeks ago for the Sunday Stampers'challenge and thought the colours fitted really well with my pages, I just added a little Wild Plum ink to the other page to tie it in.  The pages are a bit greener than they look here.

I've been doing more sewing and am just showing a sneaky peek of a mini art quilt I've made for someone; I'm still a novice at free machine embroidery!  The quilt only measures 101/2"x73/4" and the piece I'm showing is 4"x5".  I've used a mix of sheer fabrics for the background, the stems and leaves are felt.

365 Journal

I actually managed to complete October's pages on time :-)  Not sure about all the circles on October's they were an afterthought but just think there are too many; I am not going to attempt to alter it now :-/  I also added a few images from Crowabout Studios as a nod to Halloween.

I painted November's pages yesterday and have just finished putting the days on and added a border at thetop. I painted the background but it was a bit dull so went over it with my gorgeous 'Colourful Thoughts' paints from Craftynotions, these are multi-surface including fabric (need to heat set) they do have a wonderful lustre to them so the Sunshine yellow looks like gold. I'm going to the Knitting & Stitching show later this month and plan on buying more of these as I only have 3 at the moment ;-)