Project 2009 part 2

Here is my next addition to my ongoing project for 2009. I hope to have 12 pieces/panels by year's end to put together and then quilt. The idea is to use the same image but created in various sizes with many different techniques. I began with a piece of cotton sheeting that once washed and pressed remained very wrinkled, no amount of steam would remove these wrinkles so I decided to use it to my advantage. I wet the piece and then randomly applied some watered down Setacolour fabric paint, let it run and bleed as it liked. I sprinkled a generous amount of coarse salt to the wet surface
and left it to dry thoroughly. The result is a very nice piece of fabric for my background.

The next step was to lightly draw the outline of the image onto the fabric as a placement guide, I cut the shapes in appropriate colours and used just a small bit of fusible web to hold each piece in place. I stabilized the whole thing and did some free motion stitching using those very threads I purchased on the weekend (see my last post). Once this piece is quilted the elements should really pop.

Have you seen these?

As you may have noticed I have been playing with thread lately.
If you'd like to try some thread painting but are hesitant to invest
in a lot of expensive threads to begin, these just might be what you
are looking for.
They are an all purpose, variegated thread by Coats and can be found at Fabricland. Each spool is a mere $1.90 and of course if you have a Fabricland membership card you save even more.
I've tried them and have to say I am very pleased with the result.

Bushfire Quilt Project

Have you heard about this effort? You can read about it here and follow the links to find a simple tutorial on making these Wonky Stars as well as where to send them or click on the Bushfire Quilt Project button on my side bar.
I have not done this sort of block before.........they are simple, quick and fun to do. Okay so one is a little more wonky than the other. I think I'll make a few more before I head to the post office and send them off.

Playing with Thread Part 2

I wanted to see if I could reasonably re-create a photo using only fabric and thread. Using the same photo as in my last post I began by assembling a few fabrics, cut the basic shapes and used just a small amount of fusible web to hold them in place. I carefully traced the details as best I could and then just had a blast with the thread.
I chose to use a person for my subject, well me..........because I felt that if I could re-create a photo of a person with half decent results that perhaps images of inanimate objects might be a little easier. I guess I'll see if this holds true when I try this technique next.
Here is the result.......Okay, not very realistic..........I imagine this is how I'd look if I were a character in a graphic novel. (in real life there are a lot more lines) But hey, are there rules to this?
I love the way the hair turned out but the facial features are in need of a bit of help. In order to get the proper shading and definition I really should have used several flesh toned fabrics in the face and neck area, but overall I think it's not too bad considering the size is only 8"x 10"
I am sure this could be further enhanced with the use of pigma pens and or coloured pencil, but the experiment was to use fabric and thread only. I am eager to play a little more with this technique.

Playing with thread

I am slowly working on learning Photoshop Elements 7.........I learn best using a "hands on" approach. After spending some time employing some of the tools on a selected photo, removing a few wrinkles......that sort of thing, I then reduced the image to a pencil sketch, copied the image and practised my "control"at the sewing machine and viola!....... from computer generated pencil sketch to thread portrait!

What's on the go?

I know it looks like I've been a bit idle recently, but actually I have a number of pieces on the go.
All are for one juried competition, challenge or another, because of this, I really can't tell you much about them just yet so I thought I'd put up a collage of sorts made up a snips of each project in various stages..............you'll just have to check back later if you'd like to see how these all look in the end.