A Day to Play

Everyone else here has been either at work or busy with friends, leaving me free to play all day. Which has been wonderful as I start to get withdrawal symptoms if I go more than a few days without stitching, sketching or doing something creative. I started with my Opus sketchbook which has been sadly neglected of late. I was drawn back to the rust pages and the layers so decided to try another Lutradur sample. I started with my rust dyed felt onto which I embellished some of the rust dyed scrim, trapping some scraps of gold fabric between the layers. The photos of this were all out of focus for some reason (One day I'll learn to use my camera properly!) I then added two layers of painted Lutrador and did some free machining on the surface to anchor the layers together - doesn't look very inspiring at this stage.

I then attacked it from both sides with the heat gun. I prefered this to the sample I did a week ago - the scrim seems to add another dimension but I wanted to add more texture to the surface.

One of the things I hope to get from the degree is a better understanding and knowledge of hand stitching. I would like to be able to use it in my work with confidence, combining it with the machine embroidery and so I decided to add some large straight stitches to the surface to add texture and interest (I hope!) I didn't put too much on this sample but now I've tried it I think I will be bolder when I come to my finished item. The chunky beads seem to fit quite well - I tried small ones but they were lost on the surface.

I finished off by painting some washers with metal effects paint and rust activator and attached these to the surface too. I loved the colours that developed on the washers - a combination of verdigris and rust (the close up didn't come out!) The sample has now been put into my sketchbook on a page painted with rusty coloured inks. The background looks rather like a stormy sky. I definitely want to develop this into a finished item.

While I was waiting for the washers to rust and my pages to dry I remembered the lovely fabric I got from Julie and thought the colours were very similar to those I was working on. While the embellisher was still out I embellished a piece of the fabric onto some felt - at this stage it looked like Draylon furnishing fabric! I then embellished some of the fibres from Julie onto the surface and finally added lots of free machining. It has made a lovely firm fabric which I think would be perfect for a bag - so another one for my list! I need more days like today.

And finally, as a bit of fun and an antidote to all the rusty colours I embellished a piece of blue felt with multi coloured viscose fibres and remembered an article on "Wild Women Brooches" by Sarah Lawrence in an old copy of "Stitch"... so made my own Wild Woman! She looks a bit like I feel after such a busy day!