Monday, 28 November 2011
The facebook page has arrived
I have now set up a facebook page dedicated to Sewing the Thought and will link the blog as well as adding lots of photos and comments.So search for the Sewing the Thought page on Facebook and click on the like button and you will get all the updates and blog links
Will eventually add the like button to this page, but one step at a time !!!!
The button obsession continues
Well after yesterdays blog update I thought that would be it for the next few days, but oh no that was not to be the case I was on a role and I decided to have a tidy up of the corner of the spare room where I keep all my art and craft materials.
The things you find stuffed away in boxes and this time it was some buttons kits which just need to be covered in fabric. So off I went to the scraps box and located lots of little bits of fabric and turned them all into buttons which I can use on my new bag collection.
Now if you think that was it, oh no I was becoming obsessed with the scraps box and found some lovely chintz fabric which was just crying out to be made into something. As it was evening and too late to get the sewing machine out and I was also wanting to chill out on the sofa, so decided to stitch this by hand and made a little pouch to carry my sketch book and pencils. This will fit into my bag and stop the edges of the sketch pad getting damaged.
By then it was time for tea and hot buttered toast and bed, but then I spotted my fabric designs from last week and thought I could leave that to the next blog,so as they say in TV to be continued.......................
The things you find stuffed away in boxes and this time it was some buttons kits which just need to be covered in fabric. So off I went to the scraps box and located lots of little bits of fabric and turned them all into buttons which I can use on my new bag collection.
Now if you think that was it, oh no I was becoming obsessed with the scraps box and found some lovely chintz fabric which was just crying out to be made into something. As it was evening and too late to get the sewing machine out and I was also wanting to chill out on the sofa, so decided to stitch this by hand and made a little pouch to carry my sketch book and pencils. This will fit into my bag and stop the edges of the sketch pad getting damaged.
By then it was time for tea and hot buttered toast and bed, but then I spotted my fabric designs from last week and thought I could leave that to the next blog,so as they say in TV to be continued.......................
Sunday, 27 November 2011
Buttons, Buttons everywhere
Its been a busy weekend on the craft front. I have had a couple of days holiday and the weather was cold (even a flurry of snow this morning) so I decided to have a quiet long weekend at home and get busy with my projects.
First up were some new Christmas decoration which are a great way of using up all the buttons that seem to accumulate in the sewing box. Hearts were cut out of red and grey felt, and a collection of buttons were sewn on one side of the one of the hearts. The pair of hearts where then hand sewn together and then stuffed with toy stuffing and a ribbon added. You can use any combination of shapes, colour of buttons and colour of felt and ribbons to make a great collection of decorations.
Next up were a couple of little lavender bags that can be popped in among your laundry, this was great way of using up some bits of tartan wool that I had in my scrap box. I even added on a little unusual button that I had bought some time ago and hid in my sewing basket
My final project of the weekend was a few more bags to be made up ready for setting up the shop on Folksy/Etsy. I decided a couple of week ago that it time to build up a stock of products to get ready so here are a few samples
First up were some new Christmas decoration which are a great way of using up all the buttons that seem to accumulate in the sewing box. Hearts were cut out of red and grey felt, and a collection of buttons were sewn on one side of the one of the hearts. The pair of hearts where then hand sewn together and then stuffed with toy stuffing and a ribbon added. You can use any combination of shapes, colour of buttons and colour of felt and ribbons to make a great collection of decorations.
Next up were a couple of little lavender bags that can be popped in among your laundry, this was great way of using up some bits of tartan wool that I had in my scrap box. I even added on a little unusual button that I had bought some time ago and hid in my sewing basket
My final project of the weekend was a few more bags to be made up ready for setting up the shop on Folksy/Etsy. I decided a couple of week ago that it time to build up a stock of products to get ready so here are a few samples
Oh there are still lots to go what a busy weekend !!
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Christmas is coming, PANIC!!
I was just planning the next few weekends and realised how close to Christmas we are and a minor panic set in. So much to do and so little time.
Christmas is a great time for turning craft projects into gifts but of course that takes time, so I a decided to have a real focus on the weekend projects.
This weekend was gift tags and wrapping, I use luggage labels in all colours then decorate them with stickers or stamps and same goes for plain wrapping or brown paper and in under 30 mins I had a great little collection going
I also hunted through this years craft projects to see what I could make good use of. In an earlier blog I mentioned the ribbon brooches that I had made, well a collection of them brightened up an plain bag.
So a great shopping companion and something to carry all the christmas pressies in.!
Christmas is a great time for turning craft projects into gifts but of course that takes time, so I a decided to have a real focus on the weekend projects.
This weekend was gift tags and wrapping, I use luggage labels in all colours then decorate them with stickers or stamps and same goes for plain wrapping or brown paper and in under 30 mins I had a great little collection going
I also hunted through this years craft projects to see what I could make good use of. In an earlier blog I mentioned the ribbon brooches that I had made, well a collection of them brightened up an plain bag.
So a great shopping companion and something to carry all the christmas pressies in.!
Saturday, 12 November 2011
To print or not to print !
It seems such a long time since I last updated the blog, but I have been so busy I now have a host of projects to update you all on so I thought I would do in all in one big page.
Well I cannot believe it but there is only a couple of more weeks to go and my first term at art school will be over. I have absolutely loved doing the textile course and learning all the techniques in printing, fabric and colour and the group on the course have been great and we have really been bouncing ideas off each other.
I have spent this term not only learning all the different process's but also trying lots of different designs to find a theme I want to work on, I have also have loved designing and making stencils. Next term we are looking at building our portfolio ready for our exhibition and I have a few ideas I am working with and suprisingly they have a vintage theme. I also have to decide with I want to focus on interiors or fashion, oh the decisions!!
I have found freehand work very calming but with interesting results as you can see from the pic my tulips are not perfect but I kind of liked that but it was really time consuming and you had very little control over the final look.
Tried a couple of techniques with stencils this week, using a pre dyed fabric and using a discharge technique to strip the colour out and leave the pattern we also used a similiar version that replaces it with a colour. This has been the favourite of mine up to now. I enjoyed doing the arabian stencil which turned out to be really intricate after it was drawn.It was also great to try different types of cotton fabrics to see the varying results.
I even managed to try a few colour combinations to dye the fabrics and it resulting in some interesting combinations.
Well I cannot believe it but there is only a couple of more weeks to go and my first term at art school will be over. I have absolutely loved doing the textile course and learning all the techniques in printing, fabric and colour and the group on the course have been great and we have really been bouncing ideas off each other.
I have spent this term not only learning all the different process's but also trying lots of different designs to find a theme I want to work on, I have also have loved designing and making stencils. Next term we are looking at building our portfolio ready for our exhibition and I have a few ideas I am working with and suprisingly they have a vintage theme. I also have to decide with I want to focus on interiors or fashion, oh the decisions!!
Tried a couple of techniques with stencils this week, using a pre dyed fabric and using a discharge technique to strip the colour out and leave the pattern we also used a similiar version that replaces it with a colour. This has been the favourite of mine up to now. I enjoyed doing the arabian stencil which turned out to be really intricate after it was drawn.It was also great to try different types of cotton fabrics to see the varying results.
Lookin foward to exposing images on a screeen this, so look for next weeks results
Monday, 17 October 2011
Red and Yellow and Pink and Green, Orange and Purple and Blue!!!!
Well what a surpise I had this week. I sat down with a cup of coffee and my latest edition on Making magazine opened to the page called making views about what people have been upto and thought a picture looked just like a project I had featured in my blog, I read the text that went alongside it I realised it was my project and actually comments from my blog and the blog address. It really made my day
Well I have survived the first few weeks of my textiles course and it has been great fun. We are a real mixed bunch, some are students putting together their portfolios and others like me who just want find a new creative release.
For years I have been working with some great ranges of fabrics but having to design some to print is a whole different ball game. We have been asked to keep a visual diary throughout the year with our designs and inspirations, this is something that I have been doing for many years, so I decided my mood books would be a great starting point but oh dear all I can say is my thought patterns are all over the place and they cover everything!!!!. But what stands out is a great love of the autumn and winter months and of landscapes and buildings so maybe this could be the theme of this collection. Who knows watch this space
Anyway we had to start somewhere on our first prints and so I decided to stick with an easy floral pattern. It was the mixing of the colours that turned out to be the really interesting bit and was a case of try it and see and oh my what a collection of colours we produced and also trying different types of fabric were really interesting to see the different results. All our aprons and hands looked like a finger printing class at Nursery. Anyway here is the first sample print!!!!!
This week we are looking at a completely different technique and looking for a landscape style print and I am thinking of using this picture that I took last year in monument valley while doing a tour in the states.
So lets wait and see what we can produce
As for the sewing well I am currently working on a project I have named the Guilt Quilt. All will be revealed in my next blog
Well I have survived the first few weeks of my textiles course and it has been great fun. We are a real mixed bunch, some are students putting together their portfolios and others like me who just want find a new creative release.
For years I have been working with some great ranges of fabrics but having to design some to print is a whole different ball game. We have been asked to keep a visual diary throughout the year with our designs and inspirations, this is something that I have been doing for many years, so I decided my mood books would be a great starting point but oh dear all I can say is my thought patterns are all over the place and they cover everything!!!!. But what stands out is a great love of the autumn and winter months and of landscapes and buildings so maybe this could be the theme of this collection. Who knows watch this space
Anyway we had to start somewhere on our first prints and so I decided to stick with an easy floral pattern. It was the mixing of the colours that turned out to be the really interesting bit and was a case of try it and see and oh my what a collection of colours we produced and also trying different types of fabric were really interesting to see the different results. All our aprons and hands looked like a finger printing class at Nursery. Anyway here is the first sample print!!!!!
This week we are looking at a completely different technique and looking for a landscape style print and I am thinking of using this picture that I took last year in monument valley while doing a tour in the states.
So lets wait and see what we can produce
As for the sewing well I am currently working on a project I have named the Guilt Quilt. All will be revealed in my next blog
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
The wonders of the scrap's box
It has been a manic couple of weeks and it was also back to school for me this week as I started my textiles course at art school. I am really looking forward to learning new techniques and mixing colours and building my portfolio of fabrics ready for our exhibition next year, it gives me a great chance to think about what I can turn the fabrics into and I am sure that lots of my efforts will appear on these pages
As for my current projects, I have lots of quilts and embroidery on the go at the moment and they are all currently in progress which hopefully will feature in the blogs over the next few months. I suddenly realised my scraps box is growing bigger and bigger and I was wondering what to do with some of the Christmas fabric scraps as they have limited use the rest of the year so decided to turn them into little fabric parcels to hang on the tree. They are little squares sewn up, a ribbon added and filled with soft toy stuffing and a few drops of Christmas aromatherapy oils. Its a great way to use of bits of fabric left over from projects
With the other scraps I have made little gift bags which can be filled with a chocolate or a little gift, tied with a ribbon and they can be hung on the tree.
Another project for them is to make 25 little bags add a number 1 - 25 on the bags either by embroidery, applique or fabric paint, add a chocolate and tie with the ribbon. In the meantime find a branch that has lots of twigs on it, this can either be left natural, or painted white or sprayed gold or silver. Then pop the branch into a large vase and then hang your little bags on the branches.
Oops , I now need to go off and finish the Christmas table runners that I started on earlier this year as I have ended up with a few requests from people for Christmas orders. Better get stitching!!
As for my current projects, I have lots of quilts and embroidery on the go at the moment and they are all currently in progress which hopefully will feature in the blogs over the next few months. I suddenly realised my scraps box is growing bigger and bigger and I was wondering what to do with some of the Christmas fabric scraps as they have limited use the rest of the year so decided to turn them into little fabric parcels to hang on the tree. They are little squares sewn up, a ribbon added and filled with soft toy stuffing and a few drops of Christmas aromatherapy oils. Its a great way to use of bits of fabric left over from projects
With the other scraps I have made little gift bags which can be filled with a chocolate or a little gift, tied with a ribbon and they can be hung on the tree.
Another project for them is to make 25 little bags add a number 1 - 25 on the bags either by embroidery, applique or fabric paint, add a chocolate and tie with the ribbon. In the meantime find a branch that has lots of twigs on it, this can either be left natural, or painted white or sprayed gold or silver. Then pop the branch into a large vase and then hang your little bags on the branches.
Oops , I now need to go off and finish the Christmas table runners that I started on earlier this year as I have ended up with a few requests from people for Christmas orders. Better get stitching!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)