Embellishing day Saturday 5th March

Greetings everyone, so sorry no posts for a while been a bit snowed under with work and everything!
But here are the requirements for Saturday's workshop with Sheila.
We are making an embellished piece so you will need......

Piece of white/cream wool blanket ( have plenty!)

Pieces of undyed scrim, any open weave cotton fabric (white/cream), fine white cream crochet, lace, scraps of white/cream wool tops , old worn cotton sheeting etc  anything you think will embellish into the blanket.

Sewing machine, free foot , extension lead, dark machine thread.

Embellishing machine ( will bring spare) 
Photo/illustration of a Lilly or flower of your choice
Water colour crayons , paintbrushes , pot for water
Pen for marking design
Ruler/pencil


Looking forward to seeing everyone and having a great day embellishing and stitching!
Have a lovely week and see you Saturday
Lesley

update on the embellished box!

Haven't got the pictures of the bag embellishing off my phone yet but will do tomorrow!
Thought I would post pictures of the top of the box now its finished (on the painting side). I still have to sew my little face that is going to go inside the circular pendant thingy at the top of the box but I have finished the painting of the top. I added some silver gilding wax which really brings our some of the lines from the paintwork and also the edges of the items that were glued onto the top.
Will post the pictures of the bags in progress (that I managed to take on Friday) tomorrow!

Bag finished!

Yeah managed to finish off my bag from Sheila's workshop. Laminating it was quite strenuous (lots of ironing!) and I'm not sure that I managed to iron it on enough but it wasn't too bad to sew, just a little bit cumbersome.
But I created the lining and stitched up the bag this evening. Very pleased with my finished bag, it was a bit tough to turn through mind with the laminate on. I will do this again I think with perhaps a different pattern to make it more like a shopper type bag as I really do like the look of it and think it will be really durable as a shopper.

Many thanks Sheila on a great workshop!

Check out the exhibtion page!

Please look at the exhibition page for some wonderful comments left by those that saw our exhibition. It just goes to show how much an exhibition of work like ours is needed. We need to do this again..!
Well done everyone. See you Friday evening. Don't forget to check out what you need to bring which I am sure I posted somewhere on here !


I'm currently into using my colouring pencils that I bought as a treat. I do like a nice bit of colouring, not those silly books though, they are way too small and end up giving me a headache. Have been using them to try and get my faces right. Challenging myself to learn how to do folk art at the moment. I really love whimsical figures, I don't know why I just do! its very flouncy of me but I just love them. So bought the pencils recommended in my Suzi Blu book and they're not bad. They are quire soft and blend well. I used the Prismacolor pencils. I think they used to be called Karisma colour.
but here is my first journal page (I've joined this online art programme called Wanderlust, you have lots of prompts and challenges to do revolving around arty things so I have to start a journal). We had to say how we were feeling today and I was feeling tired but didn't want to do that because I thought that might not be a positive start! so went for dreamer which I am guilty of being!

I am already behind as I haven't done the second page yet (too many forms to fill in and work to sort and mount in school). I need to get a move on as the prompt to the third page is next Saturday.

See you Friday still not sure what I'm doing but will bring lots of bits and bobs and hopefully in my new bag made from Sheila's workshop! I just have to sew it up!

See you there !

Canvas course

Went on another workshop at my local craft shop and had a great day. We were making canvases by layering painted wax paper on canvas. The idea is that you layer up the picture using paints (very similar to the Bag fabric that I made last week with Sheila- I'll post more pictures when I've taken them! and when I've finished the bag). It was a very interesting technique and one that could transfer to fabrics very easily. You could layer up tissue papers ironed onto bondaweb and then painted over or covered with organza and cut back.

I was really pleased with the results. Found it quite fascinating that it looked so collage like and yet also like one fabric. Painting over the top meant that the background patters and colours could show through. Would be an interesting one to try with fabric but as I say a very similar technique to the one that Sheila showed us at our Bag workshop. The difference being we used a more opaque colour over the top. At the moment however I am loving Posca pens. They have acrylic paint in them and show up on all surfaces.

Will add the comments from our exhibition to the exhibition pages as soon as google let me access them. It's playing up a bit and sometimes I can't get access to those pages. Will sort it ! Some great comments in our book though which is wonderful. Here's to our next exhibition!



mixed media

Went to a wonderful class last Monday where I tried out some new mixed media techniques and paints. No stitching but then that's not all that we are about! What I really wanted to share with you is the wonderful colours that we used. It is mica powder from Prima Marketing. It is called opal magic and you get this amazing metallic lustre paint from mixing the powder with gel medium. You don't need that much just dry brush it onto your embellishments (beads, metal findings etc) and it comes up amazing. I'm sure that we could make use of it on our embellished bag night (February meeting). I'll bring some along and see what you think.

I'll bring it along to the February meeting so you can see how it really catches the light. Might be an idea to add to some of the items we are gluing onto our bags. Gives it a different dimension or look.

Exhibition

Our exhibition opens tomorrow at the Blackwood Miner's Institute. Thank you everyone for putting up flyers and making our work look wonderful.
Hopefully there will be lots of people to appreciate our talents!