theme January 2015

The random number generator gave us this theme for the coming month: Upside down. Good luck every one :-)

Painted face

A couple of years ago I painted this fabric, but as I had no use for it at that moment it ended up in my stash. This month's theme brought it out again :-). The face is stitched on it.

Painted face - Masquerade

Masquerade

For this challenge, I borrowed my younger daughter's masquerade masks. My version is applique onto black linen. The gold fabric has been bondawebbed in place since it was too fragile to stitch.

Child's Play - November Hand Out Piece

This is a departure from the serious subject of November's Handout theme:

Our world is filled with discontent, violence and pain, and I thought I'd take a trip down memory lane to revisit a calmer time of my life.  My little girl has her hand out picking apples in the 1950's. 

My first memory of sewing is using the cardboard images with numbered holes in them.  Then you used shoelaces to go in and out around the image following the numbers. 

Even at a young age, it felt right to be "sewing" with those shoelaces, and I received these cardboard sewing images everytime it was gift giving time for a few years.  I wore through all of them.  ;-)

Details of how many steps I took to get to this finished piece are on my blog.  It was an adventure.

The Library Clock

December's challenge is "Painted Face" and this is Hilary's small quilt. 

She says, "The Clock Face is a sample of their Fingerprint range that I purchased from the Kemshall's stand at Festival of Quilts. The surrounding fabric is part of a fat quarter that has been in my stash for years - nice to finally put it to use."

Hand out time at Christmas

My piece is rather twee but it did satisfy the theme of "Hand Out". I took the liberty of turning it into Hands and Paws out. Cat colouring is for my daughters 2 cats.
Many people feel Christmas is or has become so commercial, I had this in mind with all the hands looking for their presents.
The cats are fabric painted and the rest is raw edge applique

REACHING OUT

The idea for this originated with a monotype of my hand in a glove which was printed with acrylic paint and scanned.  It was then embellished with various textures which reference fingerprint patterns and surveillance cameras.

My intention is to show two hands which are different in colour and pattern trying to make contact with each other.  They are prevented from doing so by many devices which include fences, 'Keep Out' signs and barbed wire.  The fences are printed with a wood grainer and then part of the print was taken and repeated

The background is meant to show a certain amount of chaos as is the stitchery which also becomes part of the obstacles.  The doves of peace and the CND symbol reference the intent and views of the two participants..

At Sixes and Sevens

Like others I have found this an impossible subject, no idea why but nothing would come to me - until this afternoon that is!!
I have been involved in a small challenge where a group of us were given a piece of hand dyed fabric, 7" x 8" and then were given instructions how to progress it over a number of months, stitch it, decorate it, embellish it and so on.  Finally we were told to cut it into at least six pieces and reassemble in a different format.  As I sat finishing it off today it suddenly occurred to me that I had received a "Handout" of fabric.  Rather a stretch of the subject I know but now that I am back in harness I would really like to try and do one a month for a while.

November Theme... will be late with it

Hi Everyone, I suddenly had an idea for the November theme of -Hand Out - so hope to make a piece but it may be a bit late. Now I have the idea I really want to do it.

theme December 2014

Sorry, but I am a bit late. The theme for this month is: Painted Face. Have fun with it!