more angelina!

Before I start on my latest angelina project, let me say thank you for all the e-mails and blog comments wishing me a happy 60th. I intend to take all your advice about enjoying life and making the most of things very seriously and have already had a week of celebrations (unusually for an introvert like me) and a couple of days recovering and getting back to normal. Just to quote one thing I was told (I think the quotation originally came from Garfield) "Life is short - eat dessert first!" - this appealed both literally and metaphorically!

On to the more serious business of the day: latest experiments in stitching. Using angelina was set as a challenge by the Self Expressions Studio group I'm a member of (a group of us who all took Myrna Giesbrecht's class at Quilt University). The earlier pieces have already appeared on this blog. However, after the deadline a parcel containing more angelina - which I was beginning to give up hope of getting - arrived, and I couldn't not play with it could I?

I began by making a large sheet of angelina that I could cut then fuse. I began by cutting off a piece of bondaweb (wonder under in the US) and laid strands of angelina in different colours across it, blending as I went to try to get an effect like a variegated watercolour wash. I put parchment paper over the top (I had already put some under the bondaweb) and ironed just enough to begin to bond the angelina, then turned it over to iron the underside enough to melt the bondaweb film (doing it this way presented less risk of overheating the angelina), then peeled it off the backing and laid it down on more parchment paper (ordinary baking parchment from the supermarket).

I planned to make up designs just using squares and oblongs, so out with the rotary cutter ruler and mat, and I had a number of squares and oblongs in different sizes, which I arranged on a p0stcard sized "sandwich" of backing fabric, wadding and base fabric then ironed down. Then it was merely a matter of finishing off with some stitching (Madeira Metallic 40 - a thread I love to sew with, which generally behaves itself well). This is the result:

I love the way the colours change with the light.

For the second one I began by taking a single larger square which I exploded (i.e. cut into pieces) then added some small squares at either side, fused the pieces, and finished off by quilting with the same thread as before.

I still have some angelina left over, and really fancy the idea of trying it in 3D (the cats, who have a knack of always choosing the right present bought me a heat-gun for my birthday) and of making some angelina beads. I've already been asked to do a workshop for my local quilting group on using angelina so I also need to design a few small projects that are flexible enough for those who prefer to design their own to do so. I'm looking forward to it - should be fun!

Whilst I love making postcards - together with journal-sized pieces an ideal way to experiment - I think I'm going to have to attempt something larger soon!

I been busy!

Finally got round to using the fantasy film/angelina fibre/cellophane pieces. They were the right size for postcards. Decided to use them to practice techniques/try out techniques new to me, adding angelina fibres and simple applique.
First I fused some pink angelina to the film, then stitched on the 'pod' shape which was cut from silk chiffon, stitched down, then I added a line of couched rayon/glitter chainette outside the shape, filled the gap between the two with dense free-machining, added beads, and free machine quilted the area outside the shape. I finished it with two couched threads - wool roving and glitter chainette (one of my favourite yarns for dyeing and stitching).



For this I fused opal white angelina to frame the film/cellophane snadwich, free-motion quilted, then couched down real twigs, painted with copper paint. It was finished by adding strips of silk/metallic organza instead of binding.



The third one had angelina fused in a sort of frame and the outside was free-motion quilted. The applique is a small piece of elaborately sequinned and beaded organza saved by a friend from a costume-deigner's cutting-room floor. The edging is hand-dyed cotton chenille.



The final one's my favourite. I stitched the film/cellophane shape to the base fabric, then added fused angelina outside this and free-machined it (took ages but it was fun!) Dipping once more into my stash of hand-dyed rayon glitter I couched this down to create the "leafy" shapes - did this in a "just do it" mood - atypical for me - sort of on a wing and a prayer. I decided to thread-paint parts of the leaves in some places, merely outlining in others. It needed something at the cetre, so spent an afternoon at my friend Judith's stitching down the seed-beads. Outlined in wool roving.

I been playin'

Ok I should have been sorting out my studio (more of this later) but I found some cellophane bags plus fantasy film and angelina fibres and I got sidetracked into an "I wonder what would happen if..." moment.

This is the result.

These pieces were made by cutting pieces of cellophane and fantasy film and laying them together (with strands of angelina sprinkled over the top, plus afew seed beads on the third one) between two pieces of parchment paper (baking parchment) then ironing lightly until the cellophane started to crinkle (use a silk setting and keep checking what happens - it's very easy to destroy the cellophane if you over-iron it).

The second picture shows the other side of the pieces.

Now I have to decide what to do with it. Or maybe I'll experiment some more - I've just acquired a heat tool that I'm itching to use.

a few postcards

These are postcards I made as part of Myrna Giesbrecht's Self Expressions Studio class at Quilt University.

The first two are developed from some close-up photos I took of mosses. The first is made of layered cotton scrim, hand-dyed, cut and roughed up with a fingernail to get the soft blurry effect, plus hand-dyed wadding. The second is wadding on hand-dyed cotton, with couched rayon/glitter thread, also hand-dyed.

This one is based on English woodland, specifically Wytham Woods near Oxford where I grew up and where my brother still lives. It's made of fused hand-dyed cottons with free machine stitching.

The shiny bits in this postcard are fantasy film fused onto cotton, plus Angelina fibres melted cut and fused - the first (but not the last) time I've used these.

And finally, a piece I made for an exercise which was to take a favourite artist as inspiration. I got two for the price of one here - Henri Matisse's papercuts and the Welsh quilt artist Bethan Ash (who at times has also drawn on Matisse for inspiration). The shapes are cut freely from cotton bonded onto Bondaweb (same as WonderUnder) and fused onto the background, then quilted with various coloured cotton threads in vertical lines.

Altogether a lot of fun, and quick tomake.