UFO Resurfaces

Two years ago I blogged about a UFO.  Well it keeps resurfacing so it's out and I'm working on it!  Not quite to plan as I've already unpicked some stitching done last night and this morning (not neat enough ............. the eyes again!) so just needs rethinking a bit but I shall plough on.

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And for inspiration I pulled out a jar of my hand dyed threads.  I have more jars of these ............ and boxes .............. and ................ one might think I have a problem but I'm not the only person in the world obsessed with dyeing threads and yarns.  It's the magic of mixing colours on different fibres with a delightful surprise at the end because they never turn out exactly the same.  Good job I've got quite a stock of them having recently had a compulsory water meter installed!

Of course I have to mention the shirt.  There were problems with the stitching across the grain (the vertical bits in the pic).  It seemed a bit bizarre that with the grain was fine as was any other fabric so I asked on the Sewing Forum and it's been suggested that I try a Microtex needle.  It's a decent fabric (Italian shirting) so could be because it's tightly woven/high thread count now I've looked into it ................. shall remember to get some of those needles when we're out on our travels.

It was quite good to do some "dressmaking" and, though I have more to do, I won't be going into mass production ............ it's not quite the same and I didn't realise how difficult it would be to find some decent shirt buttons at a sensible price (two towns exhausted this week alone)!
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Something Smaller

A pretty fabric, chosen especially for the dusky pink and cream flowers on black ................ cut into strips and started to work into a coiled fabric bowl.  After working just a couple of inches I realised that there was too much cream and I really didn't like the effect but what to do?  Discard and use a different fabric but then what to do with all the cut strips?  Overdying the strips would fray the fabric a lot hmmmmm ............ carry on .....................

and then dye the finished bowl ..................

to end up with something else to cross off last years list .............

I think that's probably it for this week.  Thankyou for all your lovely comments on my blind.

A Journey Revisited

Returning to my rainbow of dyed fabric and how I could use a good number of them in a textile as mentioned in the post before last has confirmed in my mind that I would like to make a wall hanging.

I love colour, I have always loved colour.  Colour is one of my strengths ............ more so than composition.  As a child I was fascinated by rainbows - what child isn;t?  A rainbow piece it is then albeit with artistic license as I will probably have 9 colours.

My passion for textiles goes back to childhood and there have been lots of significant points along the way.  If I made a crazy quilt wall hanging it would give me scope to portray many of these in some form ................. I think this piece will be "My Crazy Journey".

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I think the colours are sorted so need to play around with size & proportion.  Meanwhile, something that I've been meaning to do for ages .............. dyeing some buttons

I have some lovely yellow buttons.  It's unfortunate that the pearlised coating on the large floral one is chipped now it's a wonderful golden colour - unfortunately the underlying materidal didn't take the dye.  This was an experiment - not without incident so not a method I will be recommending and I will do it differently next time.

Scraps

Well that didn't take long ..................... I'm stuck albeit hopefully only briefly whilst I decide what to do now that the daisy punch won't cut through the vilene so I'll write a blog post instead!

I  don't know what is up with blogger this morning, the pics are only uploading one at a time and positioning themselves where I don't want them and not wanting to move so ............ I'll do my best.

Any piece of fabric less than, say, 6" goes in the scrapbag and I'm talking about any little scrap here not just sizeable pieces.  It's a while since I turned the bag right out so, looking for some green bits for the next cup, it was emptied out.  Out came all sorts of bits that I'd forgotten about ................ the cover for my sleeve ironing board (so that's where it went), a couple of bits of net that I use for felting, some scraps of lace that I'd cut off a dress I threw away ............. there is such a dilemma with clothes.  Do you freecycle them, give them to charity or remove any buttons and/or bits that you may use and bin the rest?  Depends what they are I suppose but I deeply regret ridding myself of an M&S long silk velvet blouse (a Christmas gift that wasn't really me) ............. I should have kept it and cut it up.   Last year our daughter freecycled a bag full of hardly worn branded hoodies ................... it's only just occured to me that I could have used the lovely pink & blue zips hmmmmm .......

A small amount of plain green was needed so out came my dyed fabrics.  I just love them as they are .......... a rainbow of colour!  It's a ridiculous thing to say I know but I could keep these out and derive pleasure from just looking at them on a daily basis.  Large scale isn't really my thing but maybe I should turn some of this rainbow into something which I could admire on a daily basis ............... a strippy wall hanging perhaps?  Am wondering how much dyeing I'm going to be doing now that we've had a (compulsory) water meter installed!

Towards the end of last year, more out of necessity to create a couple of presents quickly & easily from stuff I already had, I made a couple of wallets ..............

There's enough scraps in the bag to make three more of these in pink, brown & blue ................ I might do that.

Using the laptop it's really had to tell if I have the photographs looking acceptable.  If anybody reads this I would welcome comment as to whether they are too dark, light or whatever - thankyou.

Microwave Dyeing

It's ages since I did any dyeing in the microwave so following the quick, easy & no mess method here was a very welcome and rewarding break from stitching!

Algerian Eye stitch thus another patch completed.

Dyeing Day

Yesterday was spent doing one of my favourite things - replenishing my stock of hand dyed threads.

Why so many turquoise? Well, two were teal but it had been made up for a long time - possibly up to a year - I never throw leftovers away. The turquoise and blue had also been made up for some time and they were fine but teal, not being one of the primary colours, can be a "funny" one. I can always do more if they don't turn out just as hoped!

I plan to use some of these in one of my next projects - Sharonb's Stitch Along.

Tudor Windows

Another piece of drawn thread work ............



....................... made into a little bag. This was originally one of my C&G samples, "Tudor Windows", and framed with a crunchy gold metallic paper behind it ............. I loved it (except the frame). After ditching the backing and frame, I just couldn't find the "right" gold in a fabric so have had to compromise - it's not the same but I don't think it's too bad.

Having spent the last few weeks "tidying up" some of the pieces laying around, it's time to move onto something "new". Problem is, I have so many ideas it's deciding what to do next!

Herb Garden Bag

The purple dye (top end of the picture) didn't take to the hessian very well but eager to get on (and don't chive flowers turn this colour when they are past their best?), I proceeded with the stitching. Still being disappointed with the dyeing, it didn't get framed as intended but has lain around since summer of last year. Now being on a mission to complete some of the "unfinished" pieces, I thought about making it into a little bag .................

Selecting the fabric to place behind the stitching was quite a challenge. Nearing the end of a whole afternoon searching through and trialling different fabrics I found one that didn't enhance the bit of murky (purple) hessian - polka-dot lime cotton!