First Challenge

I made this so that I can take part in the latest challenge, Spring Flowers,  on the  'A Vintage Journey' blog......

I used Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass, Shaded Lilac, Shabby Shutters and Seedless Preserves for the background and the 'sticky powder with glitter' technique from Creative Chemistry 102 on the stamped seed heads and the flowers - these were made using the mini tattered florals die.  So, I hope, enough Tim Holtz inspiration to meet the brief. I think the seed head stamps are from Inkylicious and the rabbit and dragonfly from Crafty Individuals.  Apologies if I'm wrong - I've had them a while.

Think I need to improve my photography skills! 

a little bit of paper crafting

I haven't done much paper crafting lately but I very much enjoyed making these 3 mini postcards and a (long overdue) ATC for a swap with the Vintage ATC group.  We are asked to use some Tim Holtz products and to give at least a nod to his style.  Eventually, the postcards and the ATC will embellish the tags we made to begin with.....

Tim Holtz Distress inks, a selection of his papers,stamps and embellishments and Lisa's Altered Art sayings.

Tim Holtz distress inks, embossing folder and embellishment, a 'winged cutie' from Artchix Studio, Lisa's Altered Art sayings and some tissue tape.

Bradford Industrial Museum

Really great place.... visit if you can and marvel at the spinning and weaving machines.

 great texture in this uncleaned wool

Wet felt, dry felt and old silk pieces

Last Sunday,I went to Northlight Studios in Hebden Bridge for a textiles class with Sally Darlington (www.sallydarlington.co.uk)  In a fast paced day, we dyed, made felt, tried free machine embroidery (with varying degrees of success.  I wasn't proud!), did some stitching and slashing and ate a great lasagne made by Sally.

I like these pieces.......................

A close up of a wet felted piece.... I'm not sure you can properly see the wonderful sheen on the green fibres or the subtle grey tones which is a pity as they are lovely!

a needle felted piece on which I later added machine stitching


I'm so lucky that I have such generous friends............take a look at these pieces of old silk I received yesterday.  They were stitched together and had, I understand, been part of a skirt now too stained to wear. I removed the stitching and washed and pressed each piece and they are now ready to be re-constructed.  May be I'll show you what I do in a later post.

Work In Progress

I've just started stitching on this piece...............

It began at a class I'm doing at The Hive in Shipley with Claire Welllesley-Smith where we tried image transfer techniques.  These transfers are on fine lawn inkjet printable fabric:


                                              

I have chosen a piece of fabric to layer behind the sheer fabric so that the stitches frame and enhance the images, the writing and the stains and I have made.............

a sandwich of vintage linen, light wadding and fine cotton.  

Here is the fabric sandwich with the lawn laid on top:

I haven't got very far yet with the stitching so I'm off to thread my needle now.......

My latest haul

A good post bag today...... my latest Ebay finds:

                          lovely pieces of vintage patchwork and

hand dyed threads 
which are just
delicious!

One I made earlier

So, I'm watching a You Tube video about how to create a blog.............  this post will be a record of how well I do following the instructions, which, incidentally, are aimed at 6th grade students.

  This is called 'flying man'