A fabric swatch for the Goddess of Fire

Continuing with  the Goddesses of Ice and Fire wall hanging - here is the piece for Malveria the Fire Queen.







 

 

I had almost as much fun photographing these two pieces and I did making them.

A fabric swatch for the Goddess of Ice

Even though I've been missing from the blogsphere, I was still creating, so in no particular order, I'll be posting some of the things I've been working on.

Last August, I took part in ATASDA's Palm House exhibition "Voyage of the Imagination". 

I had a few ideas bubbling away for this but finally settled on a dragon boat and a wall hanging.  (the dragon boat I'll show later)

The wall hanging was in two parts, a red piece and a white which I joined together for the exhibition, but have now separated them into two individual pieces- they are a fabric collage with added surface embellishments including beading and hand embroidery and handmade cords.

I've had the pictures on Flickr for a couple of weeks but here is the story to go with them.

"Fabric Swatch for the Goddesses of Fire and Ice"

I love trashy fantasy novels and in the midst of planning and experimenting for the Voyage of Imagination, I started reading Martin Millar's "Lonely Werewolf Girl"  (the Guardian newspaper credits him with having invented the genre 'pulp fantasy noir')

Two of the minor characters in the book were the opposing elemental goddesses of fire and ice.

 

In this 21^st century, Malveria, the Fire Queen, found it no longer socially acceptable to cast sacrifices to the volcano, so she contented herself by watching fashion shows on cable TV and consulting with her designer to surpass her rivals at the Ice Queen's cocktail party.

I like to think both ladies would approve my red and white pieces as fabric swatches for their latest outfits.

This first lot of photos is for the Ice Godess.

Yay! Winter is finally here

I'm the only person I know who likes winter and the last few years we don't seem to have had one, is that global warming? Last year I hardly got the chance to wear any of my umpteen handknitted scarves, but now it's turned cold and dull and heavy grey rain clouds are hanging over the coast.

And we are crook (Australian slang for unwell) husband had his flu shot last week and became so sick he actually took two days off work (that's an historic event on it's own) and inevitably I've caught it from him (cough cough)

So whilst I'd like be out striding the cold streets in my handknits (just kidding, I've given up striding) I'm actually huddling in the handknits, quaffing vitaminC and picking up some slow cloth.

I think by now most textile people on the net would have come across the slow cloth concept - if you haven't, read Elaine Marie Lipson post on the 10 qualities of slow cloth on her blog Red Thread Studio. I'm not sure if what I do fits the criteria, but there is a certain joy and contemplation in the process.

Jude Hill creates her little slow cloth stories and melds them into quilts and look at Jude's links for other people working this way, it's not a project, it's a process.

It's also about sustainability, with this in mind I took another look at some old indian print wrap skirts that have been sitting in my stash (they must have shrunk because they no longer wrap me!)



What if I rip and weave and stitch together "a la" the slow cloth movement?...



What if I also open up some calico henna dye bags that my daughter gave me - printed with interesting Indian writing which unfortunately faded out when I prewashed the fabric...



What if I add some old doilies from M-I-L's house which were going to be thrown away..







What if I collage pieces?



Because my newly discovered arthritis in my thumbs is stopping me from long handsewing sessions, the contemplation may take longer than the process, which is OK too, I'll just pin them up and enjoy.

Slow cloth or fast?

My maths has never been good which is why it's probably only just hit me that the 1960's was 50 years ago! (or maybe I'd developed a mental block about it)

Back then my mother was the cutter for a big millinery business in Sydney, one of their lines were flower power beach hats.
Mum brought home the offcuts destined for the bin, I think because, like me, she was a bower bird and these were just too bright, too colourful to be thrown away.
They sat in her sewing room before migrating to mine. I've used bits over the years but because of the odd sizes, never really did much with them.



The older I get, the more concerned I am that I have more material than I could use in several lifetimes, and as my friends are all in the same boat, we all worry about the eventual fate of our stashes.

Which brings me to my method of getting over the mental blocks that I'm sure we are all plagued with at times - what can I make next.
I tidy my sewing room, I sweep the floor, I put away, I look at the stacks of material and am blank.

When all fails, I make log cabin quilts.



I know, boring....
but there is something relaxing in cutting up 2 inch strips and mindlessly sewing them together, I don't fuss about matching corners, I put a CD on and just sew.

My mind goes off for a little wander on it's own....and when it come back, it brings new ideas with it.



It's certainly not slow cloth, it's frantic and I love it.

....and I just saw a little face peeking out of the fabric, can you spot it?

Playing catchup

My computer died, it's been threatening to do it since last October, and finally said "see, I told you I was sick"
It's back with a new drive, and I'm trying to remember which programmes I had and where I found them from the old drive, I now have a BOOK and am I'm writing it all down, what and where I'm installing....it's not like I'm new at this and it's never happened before, but some of us just never learn.

So until I get my photos sorted and nicely written up, here is a little teaser

miniature hexagons

Time to get back to something textiley -
I spent last weekend at the Sydney Miniatures Show (will post some pics in the next day or so)
Some of the miniature needlework on display and for sale was exquisite. I can't say mine was anywhere near their standard, but here are a couple of quilts started yonks ago and never quite finished (sigh....why is that not surprising)



This method is usually referred to as 'English Patchwork’. A most used shape is the hexagon, assembled by tacking patches over paper templates, then over-sewing the edges together.

Mal has been showing some of her hexagons here - Mal could easily join the exquisite ranks, she mentions using a ladder stitch to join the pieces, and you can't even see her stitches, unlike my hens teeth overcasting.

I really do admire fine needlework, I could probably do it if I set my mind to trying, I just always seem to be in a hurry and hurrying doesn't gel with fine work.







I'm not sure what I'll do with this last one, it started to sprout in all directions at once, not at all 'quilty'

Salvaged

salvaged bag, originally uploaded by gramarye.

The Generation X'er broke the zip on her cooler bag - "I'm throwing this away mum, DON'T get it out of the bin"
"But it's still GOOD..." says the Baby Boomer mother

and so it was, once the zipper was removed, and the flap lid cut off and the outside patchworked.

and I've got a little carry bag for my little projects.

Voyages of the Imagination

The textile group that I belong to has decided on a theme for their show next year.

"Voyages of the Imagination - journeys travelled or imagined into illusion or reality, resulting in exploration, questioning, challenge perceptions of reality - speculate and discover stories and techniques on a travelled journey limited only by your imagination"

Doesn't that sound fun!

This used to be a yearly show but has just gone to every second year, I've taken part in several of their smaller challenges but never the 'big' show, it always seemed to come around too quickly, so I thought, as I have the rest of this year to work on it, I'll have a go (of course that doesn't mean it won't come around just as quickly - or that my work will be accepted)

I am heavily into fantasy worlds with my reading so I started skimming a few books, as well as skimming the internet, all in the name of research I keep telling the family.

I landed on a name generator site and discovered that I am really Queen Silvercold of Elencia, which took my fancy.

Elencia sounded vaguely familiar so I thought I should google it and not step on anyone's toes if it is being used.
On the Urban Dictionary site I found that 'Elencia is the rumoured nightmare/psychological "happy place" experienced in a coma'- well, that threw me for a moment (only a moment) and then I decided why not, sounds good to me.

I've decided on two directions of work.
First I need a means of travel to get to my happy place, so a boat sounds in order, to be heavily inspired I think by James Christenson.
Then I need a journal for the voyage:
either the "Expeditionary Journal of Queen Silvercold"
or "A Field Guide to the Flora and Fauna of Elencia"

With the field guide in mind I started this piece:



I'd picked this up at a remnant sale simply because I like the gathers which reminded me a little of shibori, it's some kind of elasticised synthetic, maybe it can be distorted and painted to colour that awful green.





Then I tried a few leaves and shapes with free machining on water soluble Solvy plastic, then painted them.



I made a cord by zig zagging thick rug wool, and draped it over my 'shape' - haven't decided just what it is yet - who knows what strange fungii grow in Elencia.
Then I tried to crochet some leafy bits to the cord.
In retrospect it would have been easier to add all the pieces to the cord before fastening it to the shape, but that is what hindsight is all about.



So here is the first trial piece for the Field Guide, I just have to be careful where I keep it, I have a feeling this is the sort of plant that spreads.

weaving cloth

I watch the magic that Jude creates when she takes strips and scraps of cloth and weaves them into whole pieces and makes a story of them.

Way back in another age, I was taught to turn and finish and hide the seams... way back I had problems coming to grips with the raw unfinished edges on 'art' quilts, but the more I work with the ripped and torn, the easier it gets.

This little piece of weaving was just 'for' - not part of anything, not with a purpose, not to exhibit, no one to ask 'what is it for' - it was just for me, to stitch and touch.

It might turn into something else or it might just stay as it is and go into a drawer and years later I'll find it to touch again and be reminded that things don't always have to be 'for' or finished or turned and tucked.

a bag....or maybe not

I started to make this little patchwork bag, really like the way the three fabrics were used in the pleats...and then I thought 'what the devil am I going to do with this bag' I can only just fit my hand inside it, it's way too small to put all my junk in, I don't go places where I need a delicate little clutch bag.....
but it does.. sort of..look like a cocoon
I seem to have a thing for cocoons lately, snug little nests, somewhere to crawl into and hide from the world ....nothing to do of course with the fact that daughter has just moved back home, VERY temporarily, and we are trying hard not to invade spaces...

New curtains and cushions

Oh waily, waily, waily,
it's SO HOT!!
....and everyone from UP THERE keeps posting their snow pictures!

I decided to tough out the heat in my sewing room and make a new kitchen curtain - none of the squares line up because it was too hot to measure the window first, (well that's my story) I just kept adding bits then holding it up to the window.
I'ts really hard to get used to not looking straight out the window so I added a couple of lace squares as little spy holes - and it stops short of the sill so I could show off my teapot collection.



then I remembered some UFO cushion covers started yonks ago, so I finished them off by adding the back and some inserts and ticked that off my list!

slow cloth & practical pottery #4

I decided to start numbering the embroidered pottery entries to keep track of them.



After beginning the lettering I thought it needed some colour, so I added a nest of pots using fabric crayons directly onto the material.
Another way of applying the crayons is to draw on paper then place the paper face down onto the fabric and iron, this transfers the reverse of your drawing onto the fabric - I've never had much luck with this method, maybe I haven't had enough crayon on the paper, but it always seems to be a very pale image.



I outlined the pots in stem stitch then filled in the colour with running stitch using matching thread.





then started the stitching on the background - I'm just using running stitch at the moment, similar to kantha style work.