Silk Box

Just over a year ago I treated myself to a Pfaff Creative 2.0.  I really like it.  I have a Janome 9000 which I do like very much, and also a Janome 300e embroidery only machine.  The Pfaff lets me do a much larger design than the 300e and I like the IDT (integrated dual feed) too.  I made this box almost as soon as I had the Pfaff just to sew a design.  I stitched onto some silk, possibly I should have used two layers of the stabiliser.  

I have visions of having all three machines embroidering at once and me running back and forth changing thread colours.... just imagine all the beeps coming from the machines saying I'm next change my thread!

I cut the box shapes out of greyboard. I bought the box templates some time ago from a patchwork show so I always draw round the templates rather than use them! There is a lot of glueing to do, the box is lined with a magenta coloured fabric, but I forgot to take a picture before I gave the box to my daughter for her necklaces.

Cynthia

May Textile Challenge

This month we had to work on a patterned fabric.  I decided that a patterned fabric was just something that wasn't plain, so I settled on trying to put together a check pattern using some ribbons saved from chocolate boxes.  It was suggested we make a needle case.  The colours were determined by the gold and purple ribbons.

I wanted to try to weave the ribbons and yarns into a fabric and then stitch over it.  I ironed some Bondaweb onto a piece of felt first.  Then did the weaving on top of the felt so that I could then iron the ribbons down so they would hold together whilst I did the top stitching.  I then got carried away with the top stitching, my motto being 'if in doubt add more'.  I remember this phrase from attending a Kaffe Fassett evening where he discussed his knitting.... he said if in doubt add more colour.

I've never been quite happy with just a satin stitch edge onto this sort of project, I always get a few pokeys showing through the edge, so I tried something different this time.

First I went round the edge in zigzag stitch, 4.2mm wide and 1.0 long, then a second round in 5.5 wide and .8 long.  I used Madeira Classic 30s embroidery thread.  Then I used the saddle stitch to sew down the middle on the satin edge in metallic gold which stabilised the edge a bit more.  Finally I added some cord which I made on the sewing machine - I stitched this on by hand.

The finished needle case is quite busy and glitzy, but yet again the Textile Challenge has encouraged me to try the weaving technique which has been on my list for long enough.

Quick Quilt!

Well it was a quick quilt for me, I started it around Christmas 2008 and finished it by Easter.  I did start a quilt for my daughter to take to university with her, and I presented it to her on her Graduation 5 years later... so yes a quick quilt.

This one is made in Van Heusen shirt fabrics which a friend, anxious to destash, so kindly gave to me.  The fabric is so smooth and nice to touch.  I did the quilting on the centre squares on my Janome 300e embroidery machine, then I pieced the logs right onto the wadding, which gave me a chance to use the IDT function on my new Pfaff Creative 2.0 machine.  I put the quilt together using Sharon Pederson's book called Reversible Quilts : Two at a Time.  This quilt has plain squares on the reverse side.

The beauty of this method is it is quilt as you go, so you don't have to manhandle the quilting of a large double bed quilt other than the joining strips.

April Textile Challenge

The focus for April was using a rubbing to create texture and pattern.  When I joined the Textile Challenge Group I added a couple for rules for myself, firstly to make something of the challenge rather than just a sample, and secondly to try not to buy anything to make the piece - I have so many things on hand and lots of projects in mind, so I kill two birds with one stone, I challenge myself and make a project too.  

I had a carved wooden box, so I decided to use this for the rubbing.  A friend had given me some Markal oilsticks (and yes you know who!) so I thought maybe a cushion would be nice.  The fabric is a deep red and black shot taffeta, remains from an evening skirt which I made for my daughter.

The rubbings done I backed the fabric with batting, cut a template from the rubbing shape and stitched around in machine saddle stitch to give the quilted ovals.  I used a decorative stitch to go around the edges of the Markal shapes and then I applied some beads and just a little hand stitching.

I applied a zip in the back of the cushion, by following this YouTube video -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTKn_QrvU-U

Then I put the front and back of the cushion, wrong sides together and piped the edges first with some drab old gold fabric, then I bound the edges as I would for a patchwork quilt.

March Textile Challenge

This month we were asked to work with the colour wheel.  I chose to use a bright blue and it's opposite colour on the colour wheel.  I made a padfolio, the instructions are here -

http://www.fibreandstitch.com/pdf/padfolio.pdf

I used blue felt with some orange silky fabric for contrast with an overlay of different net fabrics.  I used the Pfaff couching foot to apply the orange cord.  The felt and the lining were attached to craft vilene with Bondaweb before the edges were satin stitched.

Details of the satin stitch -

Pfaff sewing machine, first pass 4.2mm wide and .8 long, then second pass 5.5mm wide and .8 long.  I had the foot pressure set to 4.0.

I intend to keep my machine instruction book in the padfolio.

Tricia's Textile Challenge for February.

Earlier this month I joined the Yahoo Group called Tricia's Textile Challenge.  Each month members participate in a mixed media Challenge and Tricia's gives guidance and instruction.  February's challenge is about Tonal changes.

I chose a photograph, changed it to a black and white image, and attempted to pick out the tones of colour.  Then you traced the design lines and made a record of several of the tones in the picture.  You could then go on to change the colours but trying to keep the tonal structure.

I chose a photograph of a church dome taken inside a church in Paris.  I did think that I would use a picture of a lane going through fields with hills in the background, which would probably have been easier as it turned out.  However I did like the structure of the dome and thought it would be a good exercise using mixed fabrics, machine and hand embroidery.

I picked out satin, net, synthetic and metallic voiles and layered them onto a piece of craft vilene. I used the line tracing on the back of the craft vilene, and I free motioned stitched all the lines through all the layers of fabric.  Then I proceeded to cut away varying layers of fabric to get the tones.  The piece is 7x 5.25", and being this size made it quite fiddly to cut through the layers of fine and slippery fabrics.  That done, I did some free motion stitching with metallic threads.  I couched the lines of thread by hand, then added beads to highlight.  Finally I did three rows of machine stitches in metallic threads, squared up the embroidery, stuck it on to a piece of card and edge stitched it.

I haven't done anything like this before so it really was quite challenging, but also enjoyable.  The pity is that I can't get the glitz and glamour of the fabrics and threads to come through on the photos.

My thanks to Trish for the Challenge.