Playing with Fabric Twine

Recently a friend demonstrated how to make fabric twine.  I watched but didn't pay too much attention ... a couple of days later happened (!) to come across instructions (see here, includes a video) and had a play.

A few pieces of abandoned hand dyed fabrics ripped into roughly one inch strips ...

... and rather too quickly had a large ball of twine.

 







Days later had whipped up a bowl.

How the bowl was created ...
 
Using a wide and long zigzag sewed the strips together in a circular shape.  I used a large jeans needle (100/16) that sewed easily through all the layers.

To start the bowl shape, tilted the piece as I sewed.

To add a handle, held the twine away from the edge for a couple of centimetres, stitched and then rejoined on the other side and continued stitching.  

The trick is to evenly place the handle on the other side.



To shape the base, use a similar sized dish and iron the base and the edge.  The ironing flattens the twine and seems to hold the shape quite well.














Now on to the next project, this time with a more controlled colour scheme.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

A bit of doodling

I have a colouring in book that is full of lovely designs that, for some reason, I can't bring myself to colour.  It does have some great designs for quilting, etc. 

So instead I've created my own colouring pages.  During our recent holiday I took along an A5 sketch book, black gel pen, selection of Inktense pencils and a brush for a bit of doodling.

 
First effort, coloured with Inktense pencils then brushed over with a moist brush.  

To avoid the colours running into each other, I did one colour at a time, left to dry before wetting the next colour.






 Next effort, this time just brushing over in one go.
 
 













water still to be applied 
 














A selection of pages to be coloured.  

 







 

  Next to try on fabric.

Wordless Wednesday

Showing in October

October is a busy month for some of my quilts, two small pieces are on display this weekend and other pieces have been shown during October.

Aotearoa Quilters Green 12x12 challenge is on show this weekend at Whangamata Patch and Quilt exhibition.

photo from Aotearoa Quilters FB page,
mine is middle solid green one (here it is below)

Also on this weekend is a display of postcards created by Oceania SAQA members at the Stitches and Craft show in Melbourne.  The postcards were shown earlier this year at SAQA's (Studio Art Quilt Associates) annual conference in Portland.

mine second to bottom row, third on the left

My quilt 'Knit One, Paint One' is part of SAQA's 'Redirecting the Ordinary' exhibition and has been showing in Europe.  It has just shown at Abilmente Mostra-Atelier Internazionale della Manualita Creativa, Fiera di Vincenza, Italy.  

During September it was at Carrefour Europeen du Patchwork, Alsace, France.

'Knit One, Paint One' third from the left
'Redirecting the Ordinary' at Carrefour Europeen du Patchwork
photo from SAQA's Europe/Middle East blog

My quilt 'Caveman txts' is in SAQA's exhibition 'Text Messages' and showed at 'Original Sewing & Quilt Expo' in Fredericksburg, VA, in early October. 

Wordless Wednesday

The banner in action

The completed hockey banner (see here for construction details) had its second outing in Palmerston North last week.  There were 24 teams representing their regions in the 2015 Collier U13 tournament. 
  

Banner in place and enthusiastic Wellington supporter!

At the opening ceremony the banners were on the ground in front of each team, the Wellington banner was one of the few that didn't blow away in the strong breeze.  The yellow nylon-like fabric is quite heavy duty and with two layers it isn't particularly light.

Opening ceremony

almost windproof banner

small selection of banners

During the tournament the banners were hanging on the fence.  They ranged in size and style with a mix of professional and hand crafted.

The girls had a fantastic time and played some great hockey.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday