Phantasia - WIP

These are 2 pics of the piece I am working on right now. It is all hand stitched and as this is new to me it takes time to get to the point of being complete. I love doing this slow work, which was inspired by some wonderful textile artist I found online.
I even was lucky to buy one of Jude Hill´s creations. You can see "A few magic tricks" here and read her blog "Spirit Cloth" here. I love her work and following her thoughts on her blog is something I am looking forward to every morning.

Underwater / abstract challenge

Yesterday I finished this little quiltlet for the monthly abstract challenge group. Theme is UNDERWATER. It did not come out as abstract as I had in mind, but I like the colours and how the tule gives it some depth.

Key Ring

This is a little key ring tab for an embellisher swap. I added some beads and hand stitching and hope Jean will like it.

BJP January finished

Today I finished my January piece for the Bead Journal Project
It is a needlefelted base covered partially with seed beads and measures 15cm x 15cm (inside the green stitched line). As I haven´t decided yet how to finish all pieces by the end of the year it will stay like that for now. I thought about making a book of all 12 pieces but think it would be way too bulky. So I now think about making 6 cushions out of the 12 pieces. But there is still lots of time to think about that.

Flames and start on BJP

This is an acrylic painting on paper. It is inspired by a workshop in book-form and although I like the colour combinations I am not happy with the area in the back. But I learned a few things here and I will give it another try. Painting a fire with so much snow outside is feeling sooo gooood...

And I started beading on my BJP piece for January. I changed my mind about the size and will be making them all 20cm x 20cm. The background is done on the embellisher with various wool fibers.

Cold

This is a little "something" I did for a monthly challenge on a german embellisher group. Theme for january is "Cold".
Basic part is a shawl I knitted years ago and got totally out of form over the years. It is cotton, so I couldn´t felt it in the washing machine, but with a polyester felt backing it worked good as focal piece. I added some yarn, beads and white scrim.

Oh, I can´t believe that I just finished the first challenge piece fot this year. Happy Happy Happy...
And now on to the BJP for january and the mini quilt challenge. Background for both pieces is done already.

Doodle Book

Finally I managed to make this book look a bit more fun. I started doodling in this book a while back and always wanted to create a colourful cover. Now this is inspired by Tracy Bautista´s book "Collage Unleashed". There are so many fun ideas in it how to make your own papers and she even incorporates fabric in her work.
Background is painted with gesso and acrylics, then I drew those doodles on it with a pit pen and the "Doodle"-writing is on a scrap piece of linen. All attached to each other with gel medium.

Fiber Arts/Mixed Media announced a january challenge I can´t resist.

>>>> Pick one of your ugly, or plain, or "why did I ever buy that" commercial fabrics, and enhance it with fabric paint so that you end up liking it! Paint over it completely, outline or color in the shapes, give it an all-over tint, etc. <<<<  

Does that sound like fun or what? Oh my, another monthly challenge for 2010...

What I found...

...yesterday behind the sofa. A little wirework/beadwork I did a while ago. I think I should try some more wirewrapping cause it is so much fun and might be a nice addition to some of the Bead Journal Project pieces. I think I finally decided on the size for the BJP pieces. I´ll make them 10cm x 10cm on a needlefelted base, so I can bind all 12 (if I will ever finish them all...) into a little book. Already did 2 felted pieces yesterday, so let the beading beginn...

Inside 1

Inside 1
Lutradur, Silk Hanky, machine embroidery, cotton, stretched onto canvas frame, 30cm x 30cm / 12" x 12"

This piece started out months ago as an experiment. I attached a silk hanky to a lutradur background with gel medium. I thought it might give a nice silk paper. First I didn´t like it too much as it was stiff and very flat, but then I thought the colours were so lovely, I should try to work on it some more. So I started painting the yellow lines with acrylics onto the silk and added the red dots, all inspired by a magazine picture. I don´t recall exactly what this picture was showing, but I guess it was something with bloodlines.
Then I machine embroidered onto the painted lines and dots and it was a pleasure to do this on the lutradur. The gel medium made it all very stiff which was perfect cause I didnt need a frame to prevent it from puckering. It was so easy to machine embroider on it.

When the stitching was all done I wasn´t sure how to finish the piece. I added the red borders (cotton) and thought I would make a quilt sandwich, but it somehow didn´t feel right. So I tried to put it on a stretched canvas and I liked it much better.

Inside 1 / Detail

Zen 2

Zen 2
25cm x 25cm / 10"x10", Acrylics on paper

Next acrylic painting in the Zen-series. It is a bit too dark, but the more I look at it, the more I like it.

Acrylics Zen1

Zen 1
Acrylics on paper 30cm x 42cm / 12"x16"

Something I am hoping to get to do more often is painting with acrylics. I like the japanese style of being very minimalistic and hope to find my own style by creating simple pieces without too much planning and thinking.
What looks like a mirror in the upper right corner is silver acrylics paint. It was a first try and it is funny to work with cause it has a strange consistency.

Felted Biscornu Pincushion

In Stitch magazine I saw a lovely pincushion called Biscornu. It is done with cross stitch and if you google it, you can find dozens of interesting variations. As I am not into cross stitching but needed a new pincushion, I thought why not do one with felt. I had a prefelted piece on the shelf, so cut it out and started stitching. It is quite easy, but looks very interesting when finished.
I added a few stitches on top and stuffed it with some old nylons. The nylons work much better as stuffing cause the needles won´t disappear inside the cushion like they tend to do with stuffing for softies.