Bits and Bobs

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These photos have all loaded in reverse order so I'll start at the end and work forward to the beginning! ;-)

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I have been panicking a bit about getting caught up on my Contemporary Quilt Group Journal Quilts as we are coming up rapidly to the next 4 monthly deadline. My original quilt for July is a very slow work in progress and I have gone off at a tangent and am currently working on 3 JQs! Something reminded me that I had been wanting to try faux chenille so I thought I would get some fabrics together and have a go. I googled faux chenille and straightaway found this free project from "twocreativestudios" otherwise known as Sue Bleiweiss and Terri Stegmiller. The photograph above is the result of my efforts.

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I have used about 6 or 7 layers of fabric, mostly cottons and silks with a brilliant orange shiny base layer which isn't cut through. Unfortunately I don't possess a tumble drier to fluff the fibres up so I have had to employ a suede brush to fray the edges. I am quite pleased with the effect although I am not sure that I used the fabrics on the correct bias. I may add some beads yet, too. Anyway, this is officially now my July Journal Quilt.

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Since my DH's blog friend in Norway was planning to give us a guided tour of his home city I felt I wanted to make him a little something as a thank you. But what do you make for a gentleman? I decided on a bookwrap with a notebook. The photo above shows the inside of the bookwrap which has been painted with metallic paints.

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The bookwrap was made from fabric paper that I made by layering brown paper, muslin/scrim and tissue with watered down pva glue. Once dry I painted the fabric with various fabric paints including metallics and also squirted some inks on to give a bit of tone. Once dry I sealed the surface with some acrylic medium (I think!). The tie closure is a bootlace with several coverings of metallic machining.

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I used to do a lot of painting and just lately have been wanting to have a play with my oils again. My first effort was a quick sketch from one of my DH's holiday photos of Geiranger Fjord taken in the early morning.

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This sketch above was done really quickly and, not to make an excuse, I was fighting the quality of the white paint which was an alkyd oil and a bit old. It didn't want to blend or move smoothly.

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Last week I went out painting with members of our art group to the grounds of a local college which used to be a statey home. I spent some time making rubbings of bark and stone walls but eventually settled to do another oil sketch, this time of a view across the valley to the nearby hills. You may notice one or two kamikaze flies that insisted on investigating and ended up stuck. I did warn them! For a change it was a lovely sunny day with rapidly moving clouds which made for a lively sky.