Fabulous Friday!!!

As I write this I am watching the BBC interview the lucky ones who have got tickets for tonight's Olympic Opening Ceremony. I am envious? You bet I am!

I apologise for not having something a bit more interesting to show you here, but I feel that I am having my own personal Olympics as I get ready for this years Festival of Quilts. I will have my own booth in the "Quilters in Action" section for the first time and it has been a lot of work since I found out at the end of May.
Swerving between great excitement and huge nerves here!
If you are going to the Festival please come along and say hello. I am in booth O14:)

In the mean time I am going to have to move my sewing machine from the shed and into the house in front of a T.V.!
Go Team G.B. !!

I did it My Way!

I don't know why that certain song is going through my head as I put this post together but these are the facts:

From one small bag of scraps (measuring approx. 8 x 12 inches) I have made 14 things!
Six art pieces
One journal cover
One coaster
One scrappy heart
One prayer flag
One tassle
One machine wrapped cord
Two questionable canvases (counted as one)
One 'Stitch Then Paint' sample ...there might be more of these, there might not :)

To see all the step by step posts that show the details click here.

1. the bag, 2. the scraps, 3. Teasel, 4. finished, 5. Embellished #2, 6. embellished background III, 7. Untitled, 8. Play, 9. making tassles, 10. making machine wrapped cords, 11. making coasters, 12. scrappy journal cover, 13. my scrappy heart, 14. Another scrap bag project, 15. covering canvas, 16. stitch and paint

I don't really know what compelled me to begin this but I have to say that I have got a lot more from it than I was expecting.
You are probably like me in that you have an idea in mind of what you want to make, and then set about it. You probably have to make a few purchases in order to do that too!

With this it was different. I looked at what I had FIRST, and before I had any idea what it would become, I set about creating a background or structure.

I then let what I had speak to me (Sorry for sounding a bit 'airy fairy'. That's not really me but I can't think of another way to put it:)
I also went to my sketchbooks and doodlings to give me ideas. Sometimes it was an object I had in the house. The wooden lizard that has been languishing in the attic for a while would probably still be there if the background I had made hadn't reminded be of the Red Centre of Australia.

I would probably never done a piece on a teasel, even though I had done a sketch of one at least three years ago.

I have added new quilting stitches and techniques to my repertoire.
I have reinforced the fact that I love my embellisher machine. I thought I was being extremely extravagant when I purchased it but I now realise that it is an important part of my Art Quilting arsenal. 

I enjoyed 'using' my sketchbooks again.
I have a few bits and pieces to use in future projects.
Doing this has left with me with lots of directions to go in, and lots of ideas for more projects.

PLUS... I HAVE BUSTED THIS PILE OF SCRAPS!!!!!

An added bonus is that I have also been asked to talk about this at a Quilter's Guild meeting in the Autumn.
I am thinking of calling it "Tales from the Scrap Bag" ...but I am open to any better suggestions!

Thank you everyone who has followed me with this over the last couple of months and special thank you to all those that left such lovely comments about the projects. I hope you have enjoyed it.

Now off you go and bust out one of your scrap bags/boxes/piles/mountains :)

To see all the step by step posts that show the details click here.

Are you ready for your close up?

The painting has been done, and you are getting close up angled shots.

Gloomy, wet conditions here mean that it is still wet. Plus the light is not good for photos.
I have tried to inject a bit of summer colour while we wait for the Jet Stream to move!

 Maybe this was a bit too much, but never fear.

A few more warm colours and a bit of toning down has resulted in this.

There might be few more light patches when it has completely dried!
I am not sure what I feel about this at the moment. I am fighting the urge to get a dark thread and stitch around the flower design.
I think I prefer the back!

I can see this working on a cushion or table runner maybe but as a piece of art I'd need something more. I have gone back to look at the work of June C Barnes and can see that I could achieve more contrast with the right choice of colours. More experiments with this technique are needed I think.

Well, that is it!!
I have reached the end of the scrap bag !!! Time to move on to other things.
I hope you will check back on Friday for an overview of the whole project, and and my thoughts on the experience.

Almost done

As boring as it is to show pictures of white fabric with white stitching, that is what you are going to get here today :)

Apart from some very small bits, which I may or may not try to use at some point in the future, all that is left in the scrap bag are some pieces of white/off white.

A discussion of the wonderful work of June C Barnes and her Stitching To Dye technique while at my Art Quilt group last week, brought me to the thought of trying something similar here, but with paint instead of dye, of course.

So here is the piece all stitched up and ready to go. At this point I have no idea how it will turn out or what approach I am going to take. Neat or diluted paint/Pre wet or not/One colour or more...
Decisions, decisions!!

P.S. The stitching was based on this done previously

And there's more...

Are any of you beginning to tire of the scrap bag project yet? Am I? Maybe a bit. Of course not!
Although this bag is beginning to feel a bit like the carpet bag in Mary Poppins!!!

This one might seem a little bit out there but it is another, much smaller version of something I first did here.

I gessoed a previously used small canvas and started layering strips of fabric down, using the gesso as a glue. I varnished it and left it to dry over night.

This was the result!

What I neglected to say is that the canvas had been previously used by my 13 year old son. He drew a dragon in felt pen on it and then discarded it as is the way with 13 year old boys!!
I assumed I had covered it up with the gesso but I guess the varnish drew the ink out again.
You win some you lose some :)

I did have a go at another one, but suffice to say I don't feel this is my best scrap bag moment.
They are best viewed from a distance.
Moving swiftly on...

Purple Roses

the flash was on when I took this hence the difference in colour to the following pics

I went for a dark grey thread and appliqued in a scrappy style.

I would have chosen a stronger contrast to the background had the colours been available in the scrap bag. This was not working for me.

I outlined the flowers in black.

Then decided that it all the stitching needed to be black to stand out. (Just seen that stray thread. LOL!)

I have edged it in green but may go over it in black. Can't decide on that at the moment.

And because I have just discovered the Super Macro on my camera, here is a close up.

There's more...

Green grass... part two...

I decided to go with this old sketch as inspiration.

So using the colours left in the scrap bag, time to add the applique elements...no wait...background first :)

Time is of the essence and I want this to be done quickly, so I have managed to stop myself from getting drawn into intensive stitching.

A comment left on a post from last week from Frances at frantastic-stich witchery led me to this post where I saw this stitch. I decided this project would be ideal to try it out. 

A wavy line one way...

...and back the other way.
I think I will be adding this one to my repetoire. I quilted this in about 3/4's of an hour!
Thanks Frances!
If you don't already know her blog then it is worth taking a look as it has great free motion stitching tips.

Which way is up?

Decisions, decisions!

If you have noticed any gloopy bits then blame this old lady. Rosie has found that the best place to cool off after a bit of sunbathing, is in my shed, by my feet, under the sewing machine table!
(Now you know that this was done a week or so ago when there was a bit of sun around here. Not so at the moment. Nothing but rain, rain and more rain!!)

Now I can add the appliqué!

Green, green grass of home...

I seem to have a lot of green in this bag. There were a few long strips so I started piecing and cutting and have ended up with this.

At this point I have not decided whether to add lots of straight line stitching and do something like this or this, or whether to try and use up those scraps a bit quicker by throwing a load of applique at it :)

There were lots of smaller bits left over and so I have pulled out the embellisher again and added them to a scrap of wadding.

This will be kept, cut up and added to some future pieces.
Both remind me of a patchwork of fields, hence the title, which might give me some direction in what I do next.
Stay tuned!

Looking at these photos I see the difference in the greens. The first were taken in rare sunshine.

The last in the ever present rain!