AEDM-Day 9-Hand Stitching

Yesterday I sat with friends, all of us chatting and stitching on a rainy afternoon. So nice! 

I was working on this embroidered cloth which I had started back in February. You can read about my inspiration and the beginning of this project here. I like hand stitching and my goal is to cover this whole piece with all sorts of stitches, almost like a sampler.

Meanwhile, as I took pictures this morning....

my snoopivisor Rosey just had to get in on the act!!

Hope everyone who reads this has a great day!

AEDM-Day 8-Lavender Landscape

I'm getting into a pattern of working on something one day, then posting about it the next. So this is what I worked on yesterday, Sunday.

It was a quiet day, as my poor hubby has the flu, so I spent much of the afternoon in my studio while he rested. I had previously painted this piece of linen with Pebeo Setacolor textile paints. I like the way the grayish color of the linen subdued the colors I used and the result was very soft.

I found a piece of lavender cross stitch fabric in my stash, liked the texture with the linen, and fused the painted piece on to it. Oh and I had trimmed the linen and frayed the edges.

Next, I did some loose machine stitching to suggest details in the earth and sky.

Finally, I added more machine stitching, some hand embroidery and then trimmed the whole piece. Although I thought about leaving the ends of the threads floating free, neatness prevailed and I pulled all pieces through to the back!

Here is the finished piece,

and a closer view of the stitching.

(click on photo to enlarge)

By the time I finished, with the time change this weekend, I looked up and saw the sun setting outside my window. It felt good to complete something!

Hope everyone has a lovely week!!

AEDM-Day 6-WIP

This work-in-progress has been hiding in my "in progress" drawer for quite awhile. It was part of a challenge I was part of and represents a tiny corner of a Georgia O'Keeffe painting.

I'm going to finish the beading and add either a mat and frame, or a border. 

Also painted more fabric today and enjoyed that - a continuation of what I was doing yesterday. The next step will be to use the hand painted fabrics in a landscape or still life. Art Every Day Month is helping to make me conscious of art, every day and I'm happy about that.

AEDM-Day 5-Painting Day

Today I decided to work on some fabric painting and I spread out in my 'laboratory' (on top of my washing machine!). I've been painting some black and white print fabric with moss colored Setacolor fabric paint. Since it's transparent, the design comes through and I've been experimenting with different brush strokes.

Once the fabric is dry, the paint can be heat set and becomes permanent, so there's a choice to blend paints right on the fabric by spritzing with water, or heat setting the first layer and then overpainting with a second color. Since I know I'll be cutting up the fabric for applique, I usually try a few techniques on the same piece of fabric.

I also worked a bit on this piece of cotton fabric which I had previously designed with a paint masking gel (I can't find the tube to tell you the brand) and a fine Sharpie (waterproof) pen. The gel parts I'll paint over with acrylic paint, let it dry for 2 days, then wash the fabric to remove the gel. The Sharpie designs I'm painting in with my fabric paints, which I will then heat set.

This is all absolutely playful experimenting for me, and I love it!!

AEDM-Day 4-Bouquet

Today I'm showing a card I made years ago, but never posted on my blog. It is a fused fabric bouquet - very small - only about 4"x6". It was part of a series of florals, with very tiny fabric leaves and petals cut out using scherenschnitte scissors Most have been sold or given away and there are only a few left.

Hope to have something new to show tomorrow! Rainy weather here - good days to hunker down indoors and do something creative!

AEDM-Day 2-Fantasy Landscape

My effort for today is a whimsical fabric landscape, fused and machine stitched, with a bit of hand embroidery and beading. I had already begun this piece quite a while ago, and I'm happy to have finished the main portion of it. Now to add a border - I'll get to that later!

I'm so happy to be visiting the blogs of all the Art Every Day Month participants - it's great fun! You can find the list here.

Art Every Day Month - Day 1

Happy November!

Today begins AEDM, or Art Every Day Month! I participated in this challenge last year, met many other creative folks through their blogs, and really enjoyed the whole process. Leah Piken Kolidas, who organizes this challenge, makes it very clear that there is really no pressure to produce something every single day, and I have to remind myself of that. But I feel that I need a creative push right now, and I'm in it to have fun and be creative.
I've set some goals for myself this year: use more color, loosen up, and celebrate pattern and print! Because of time constraints, I'll be doing mostly fused fabric or cut paper pictures or collages.

This fused fabric applique comes from a memory of my childhood. I was about 12 years old, wearing my new cordovan penny loafers and purple knee socks, and walking along a sidewalk in the fall. I can see it in my mind as clear as a bell and it is an image I've carried with me for many years!

I may add some stitching, and this piece will go in a new fabric art journal of memories I'm starting for myself. A lot of my memories reside in my imagination like snapshots, so it should be interesting!