Inspiration Monday

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
                                                                                                                        Lao-Tzu


My apologies for an unscheduled week off.  Normal service is resuming as we speak...

Inspiration Monday

A stair not worn hollow by footsteps is, regarded from its own point of view, only a boring something made of wood.

                                                                                                                                Franz Kafka.

Tip Of The Week

Lutradur is useful for mixed media work; try it with paper and paint, as well as with needles and thread.

Texture and Pattern

Nature creates its own texture and pattern.  This is one of Ely Cathedral's outside walls.   The colours are caused by chemical changes, some caused by the copper higher up.  They are beautiful, and random.

Photo Friday

Same structure, same size, same basic monoprint as a starting point...but two completely different quilts.  I much prefer the top one; what about you?

Try It Out Thursday : Lutradur Rose

One of the things about lutradur, and other spunbonded fabrics, is that they don't have a bias edge, as they are not woven.  You use the bias edge in wovens to make shaped things like silk flowers, because it is stretchy.  That made me wonder about whether I could use lutradur to make flowers with.  So... I took a piece of florists wrap, which had little pieces of glitz on it, and coloured it lilac using transfer dyes.  I then cut a strip roughly 4" wide, and folded one short edge in on itself, and fused it down (see below).  You could do this with both edges, but it's not really necessary.

I then folded the whole strip in half across the width, and stitched along the bottom, using a doubled thread.  As you can see from the image, the stitches are fairly regular, but not the same; this gives a more random look to the finished flower. It does help if they're in a straight line, but as usual, I'm incapable of keeping anything straight <g>.

You can gather up the cloth as you go, or leave it until all the stitching is done, it doesn't really matter, but make sure you gather it all up as you want it before you finish stitching, using a double back stitch to secure it.  Incidentally, I've used dark blue thread here so that you can see what's going on; you would normally use thread that matches the cloth, so that it can't be seen.

Now, start with the end which you fused down, and roll it up tightly to create the centre of the flower.

Keep rolling, to make a flower head.

To finish it off, wrap the bottom end of the flower with thread, or take a few stitches through it.  If you want to give your rose a stem, then use florists wire to do this, and then tape it with green florists tape.  I'm using mine on a hat, so I'm not wiring it.

To finish it off, you can stitch the other end down using small stitches; I'm going to have mine lying on its side, so you won't see the unfinished end.  Note that lutradur doesn't fray, so you don't need to worry about it coming apart.  And there's my finished flower!

Wondering Wednesday

It's me doing the wondering this week.  I wonder...what would you like to see on this blog?  What would you like to see more of?  Less of?  Different?

Please do leave me a note, and help me to help you!