Creaworx

Juicy Fruits feltcollage

2011-02-25T15:25:00.003+01:00

Inspired by Jane LaFazio's beautiful felted collages I started this piece a few weeks ago and just decided it was finished now. I am not completely happy with it cause I think the background is too busy, but it is a starting point and the next one is already in the works.
I enjoyed the handstitching part as it is so easy to stitch on felt, even with real thick yarn.

Phantasia redone

2011-02-06T11:14:00.005+01:00

I redid "Phantasia" from last year cause the it started to change it's form due to the method I tried to hang it on the wall. Also the longer I looked at it the more I wanted to do more stitching on it. So, off the wall and redone and finished like a quilt. I like it a lot more now. Sorry for the bad photo. The weather here is awful and I am not able to get a better quality right now. Will give it another try when the sky clears.

Embellisher Armband swap

2010-09-13T13:07:00.002+02:00

I am a member of a yahoo group solely for swapping things made with the embellisher. I don't join in the swaps too often, but this time I had to cause I love making those armbands. The one above (three different views of the same armband) is made by me and will go on it's way to Jenny today.

The black/pink/purple one below was made by Jenny for me. Absolutely love the colours she used and the woven design is lovely. The second photo below shows the inside which is made with a beautiful black and white fabric and the closure is velcro.

We could tell our swap partner which colour we would like and as Jenny chose earthen tones I had to step out of my comfort zone. Not my colour sheme at all, but I enjoyed doing this and while stitching I was thinking of moss and autumn and mushrooms and all I can see right now on my walks in the woods with my dog.

Visitors

2010-09-11T16:16:00.003+02:00

This little bird has been visiting for a few weeks now. He comes, than stays away for days and returns on his own schedule. Not sure if he will be able to make the winter outside, so will try to get in contact with a rescue group nearby. He is afraid of me and won't let me come close, so I think it would be very difficult to catch him. But I am no expert when it comes to birds.
And look who is hiding here? This little guy isn't shy at all. I think if I really try I could make him come to take food from my hand. But I think it is better to keep distance. Sometimes it can be dangerous for wild animals to loose the fear of humas. So I just watch him when he comes and looks for nuts in our garden.

Colourful time

2010-08-29T12:34:00.003+02:00

I´ve been having fun using up lots and lots of colourful fabric scraps from my stash creating fabric beads and some pouches. It's been the first time for me sewing a zipper into a pouch and it worked quite well.
The two boxy pouches on the left and right are made with the help of a great tutorial on the three bears blog. Thanks so much for this wonderful tutorial!

Some more fabric beads

2010-08-19T22:10:00.004+02:00

I've been busy creating these fun fabric beads. I'm not sure how to use them but a sort of curtain takes form in my mind. I need something for our living room window cause too often birds fly into it. I think those colourful beads might help to keep the birds from flying into the window and getting hurt.

Fabric beads class

2010-08-13T18:25:00.002+02:00

I joined an online class with Alma Stoller about fabric beads and other little fun embellishments and this is the first set of beads I did. They are so much fun and it is a great way to use up scraps.

Colour combinations

2010-08-03T15:44:00.006+02:00

After stitching the first 3 squares for my 15 sided biscornu pincushion I felt that the colours don´t work too well with each other. So I did 2 more and am now trying to find the combination I like most. I definitely want to use the threads used in #5. They are so juicy and vibrant and I have 7 or 8 different kinds of threads in the same colour range. Now what to use as the contrasting colour? I like the greenish one in #2 and the pink-orange one in #3. Both are from the Caron Collection which is one of my favourite brands for embroidery threads. What do you think?

Funny thing is when you look at all of them, do you feel that the left one in the first row looks bigger than the other ones? It´s exactly the same size but no matter how often I look at it I have the same funny feeling something is wrong.

I signed up for Alma Stoller's class for her gorgeous fabric beads and I can´t wait for it to start on August 9. I love those colourful beads and already have dozens of ideas how to use these. Thinking mostly of jewelry right now but hope to incorporate them in some future quilts, too.

This, that and another one

2010-07-29T16:22:00.007+02:00

This is a first of a series of quilts I am planning called "... and circles". I would like to explore the circle in combination with lots of other shapes. This one is approximately 25cm by 25cm.

This is one of the larger quilts I started while my Janome was gone for repair (she is back and is working better than ever). It´s made of lots of fat quarters I bought years ago and never found a project to use them for. I know the colours are a bit too wildly mixed, but I had to use them up and this is going to be a nice quilt for the winter when sitting in front of the tv. Back will be all black fabrics, so no way to take a decent photo.

And this is the starting point for another pincushion. This time it will be constructed of 15 of these small squares, all different in design. Wish me luck this won´t end as an UFO!

Trying Pojagi style stitching

2010-07-19T16:00:00.004+02:00

A while ago Victoria posted a great tutorial on her blog about sewing Pojagi style with the machine and here is my first try on this technique. It´s a bit wiggly woggly, but I like the overall look and although the fabric is yellow in reality and it is difficult to take a good photo against a window I think you can get the idea.
Thanks Victoria for this tutorial!

2 new pieces

2010-07-13T14:42:00.005+02:00

"Singled out"

This is a small quilt hand- and machine stitched, all cotton fabrics. It measures 23cm x 23cm.

My Janome sewingmachine is broken and is being repaired right now (at least I hope so) and I dug out my old Pfaff. Boy, do I love my Janome. Although I have to admit that the Pfaff is a bit better in straight piecing. The lines are better and the 2 pieces of fabric aren´t moving at all while sewing. But quilting really was a nightmare and I hope my Janome will be back soon.
I did some piecing over the last few days, so I can start quilting right away.

And here is a new small Canvaswork pincushion. The colours are brighter in reality, but I couldn't get the photo to show it correct. It' about 7cm x 7cm.

Small woven piece

2010-06-06T11:08:00.003+02:00

A small woven piece with handstitching. It´s a bit too large for a pincushion, so I`m not sure yet what to do next. I saw small cushions called friendship cushions somewhere on the net a while ago and I think that is a good idea for this size. I´m slowly getting used to this sort of handstitching and the lines are becoming clearer and straighter. I like lines and although I also like the wavy look of kantha stitching this straight line is more "me".

Weaving and Baby Quilt

2010-05-18T16:07:00.004+02:00

I joined an online class with Jude from Spirit Cloth and it is about various ways of weaving fabric strips into a piece of cloth. This is my first attempt put together from leftover strips from another project. Not sure how to go on from here, but it was fun using up the strips and creating such a vibrant piece of cloth.

Yesterday I have been to a local quilt shop and found a leaflet about a project from Save the children. It is all about creating blankets for babys to make sure they are safe and warm in their first months on this planet. The blankets can be knitted, crocheted or sewn and will then be sent to poor families all over the planet. Germany and Australia are taking part in this project and I just cut up 2 pieces of fabric for one quilt.

Canvaswork pincushion

2010-05-14T16:21:00.003+02:00

I´ve been going through a non-creative time, starting various projects, not finishing a single one cause they all felt wrong one or another way. So I decided to start learning new stitches and following a pattern. And it was fun and it took me only 3 days to finish this little pincushion.
The threads are from my stash, so it has two different sides. I really didn´t expect it to turn out that nice, so I think I will start another one today. I have so many beautiful threads in my stash and it is a shame they aren´t used.
Finished size is approximately 7x7cm and I almost broke my fingers stitching both sides together...

I won !!!

2010-03-22T18:23:00.003+01:00

Can´t believe that I am the lucky winner of those lovely handpainted pieces of fabric created by Fannie.
Thanks Fannie for offering this wonderful Giveaway!

Phantasia - finally a sunny day

2010-03-06T14:16:00.003+01:00

Phantasia 34cm x 39cm / 13" by 15 1/2"

I finished "Phantasia" a few days ago but had to wait for a little bit of sunshine to take photos of it. I really like this piece and it is the first one I did with handstitching only. I started out with no plan and it evolved slowly but without hesitation. I love the colours as they symbolize spring and life to me right now. The title "Phantasia" just popped up one night while working on it. Don´t know why, maybe I´ll find out one day. I often understand the reason why a certain piece has it´s name much later when I look at it again.
I had a dreadful time finding a way to mount it cause there is no batting or anything else to hold the cloth in shape. All you see is all there is. I finally decided to sew it to a piece of gessoed canvas. The canvas is slightly smaller than the cloth, so you don´t see it but it holds the cloth nicely in shape. 2 Eyelets in the canvas make it easy to hang on a wall.

Healing Canvas

2010-02-22T15:29:00.007+01:00

18cm x 24cm acrylic on canvas

The weekend has been filled with lots of anger and bad feelings and I had to get all this out of my system. So I took a canvas, covered it with red paint and then wrote down all the feelings I had. I let got and it felt so good. Then I started painting without a plan. Just adding colours and shapes and this is how it looks now. I really like it. It is the complete opposite to the feelings that are written down beneath it.

And some progress here:
Same colours as the canvas above. Waving "Hello" to the subconcious...

Another exercise in acrylics

2010-02-22T13:27:00.002+01:00

Did this exercise last night. It is about variations in shape and it was very interesting to see it evolve. No matter where you look at the shapes lead your eyes back to the center. No way to focus an outer area longer, cause the eye always wanders back. I love that. The exercises from this book seem to be very simple, but I really learned a lot so far. And I learn how the paint reacts and how the brushes work. I knew I would love painting with acrylics, but I love it even more with every little exercise I make. I hope I can translate some of it into fabric work.

New direction and another WIP

2010-02-20T12:05:00.003+01:00

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions on the stitched piece from last post. I did some stitching yesterday evening and introduced some new colours. It´s a greenish blue and a yellowish orange and I think that might help and get me further. I will add some beads and see how this looks later today. Need daylight to get the colours right.
Thanks again for your help!

And this is a sneak peek on another piece I am working on. All fused and machine stitched so far but still a lot of stitching to do. I bought this fabric by Sherill Kahn years ago and never dared to cut it up. But I so love the colours that I now started and think it might be a nice little quilt for spring.

Undecided

2010-02-17T16:55:00.004+01:00

This is a piece I started years ago. It is a piece of loosely woven cotton painted with Lumiere paint. Then machine and handstitched all in purple and pinks.
I found it last week in a pile of UFO´s and started stitching again, but I really don´t feel like this is worth it. I like the colours, but it lacks contrast and I don´t know how to make it better. Maybe I´ll cut it up for some postcards? Should I add beads? Maybe in complementary colours?
What do you do with a piece that seems wrong? I don´t think I want to put it away for another few years, but am hesitant to throw it away.

Busy busy

2010-02-15T18:00:00.006+01:00

Yesterday I did some more exercises for acrylic painting and as I always tend to put way too much paint on my palette, I thought I could use those leftover paint for painting some small pieces of fabric. So here are my very first pieces of painted cotton canvas.

This is a new piece I am working on. The green background is just a test. The colours are quite awful on this photo. The smaller red piece is red not pink in reality and the greens are different as well. I need a new tripod for my camera to be able to take better pictures. Maybe tomorrow...

And these are a few more exercises in acrylic painting. It is a lot of fun to paint with acrylics and I enjoy learning something new with every piece.

Needlecase handstitched

2010-02-11T12:57:00.006+01:00

I created this needlecase from a leftover piece of the underwater quiltlet a few posts ago.
It was fun stitching, although some of the fabrics were very strenious on my hands cause the scraps were all fused to a batting and in some areas it was almost impossible to get the needle through all the layers. But now it is done and I am glad it is all handstitched.

I´m stuck with my Phantasia piece cause I am not sure if I should stop or add more stitching. So I put it aside for a few days and hope I will find the answer soon.
Will start on a new piece today ...

And this is another try on acrylics. I like the colours but am not sure if I will add a bit more black to get more contrast.

Phantasia - WIP

2010-01-31T12:06:00.003+01:00

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

2010-01-28T13:12:00.004+01:00

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

2010-01-27T13:05:00.003+01:00

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