Tote, paper, stitch, metal and broken needles.

Two posts in the one weekend????? Whats going on............. Well, I think I have been bitten big time by the textiles bug. I'm loving it. Last year at the Knit & Stitch show I bought a book called Bags, with Paper & Stitch by Isobel Hall, its a fabulous book with amazing techniques using paper and fabric and stitch, obviously, lol. Anyway, one bag in particular always caught my eye and this weekend, yup, for almost 2 days, I had a go and made a large tote. I am off to the Knit & Stitch this coming weekend so I needed a large sturdy tote to carry all my new stuff that I will splurge on and this is definitely sturdy. Its curtain/upholstery fabric and I can you tell I broke a few needles. It was worth it though as this was fun and definitely a satisfying result for me.

textile box update

Well, I wasn't at all happy with my little textile box which I had last posted about so I decided to alter it. I took my trusty heat gun to it, added some beads, more organza and a lovely little bird in a cage sitting on a fabric bead all stitched inside the 'birdhouse' which is what it is now. In reality, it doesn't look like a torn old bag as it does in the photo but its hard to capture the true colour and texture. I'm a lot happier with it as it is now but think a lot more of these will be produced/developed. :0)))) cLick the image for a more detailed view if you wish.

I havn't got lost

I had almost forgotten how to blog.............. Only kidding. I thought I might show you some of the items I have been playing with over the past weeks. I have recently started an online City and Guilds course wtih Linda Kemshall so I have been spending some of my dark evenings preparing the first module. Isn't it hard to get into the swing of things on dark evenings? or maybe its just me. (Thanks to my lovely sister I should have no excuses as she bought me a day light lamp) . Joanne recently made a lovely tea towel tote (or 565 lol) and I thought I would like to give these a go. You will find instructions here on this lady's blog if you are tempted, be warned, you may have to go on a major tea towel spending spree/hunt. Once the bug for trying this was over I had a play at making some jewellery which I had spied in a catalogue but they were an absolute fortune so I have made my version of them. AND lastly, I attended a 'Moving on with textiles' intensive workshop just yesterday at the Draoicht in Blanchardstown and I can tell you I had a fun fun fun day. There were 2 fantastic tutors who were teaching us how to do 3d embroidery, they did have a challenge I have to admit but it was worth it. My pieces here are not what I had envisaged they would turn out like at all but I am very happy to have learned so many techniques that I will definitely refine my next attempts. So, thank you for dropping by and catching up, hopefully it wont be as long until I blog again, but the next few weeks are filled with more fantastic textile workshops and I'm helping out at the Mega Scrap too but I'll be back :0)

Wednesday Stamper - Structure

Its been soo long since I participated in a weekly challenge and I miss them so much. I have too much going on and yet nothing - do you get me? So, this is a little painting which suited the challenge as it has lots of texture paste spread on a canvas board, some gauze was pressed into it for added texture, air drying clay was used for the swirls , I used a mould for them and the focal piece is an etching where I used a Stampers Anonymous stamp and stazon on nickel silver, its a more silvery/pewter colour irl. The background had then several layers of acrylic paint and washes applied to get the desired effect. :-)