Thursday, January 10, 2008

Arch, box, houses



Well, here's what I did today - I worked on an arch page for a swap with a new (to me) group Textile Challenges, which is run by the lovely Carol T. The swap is for the whole year, one page a month to a different person; we each have expressed some preferences about colours and themes and so on. This month, I am making an arch for Judy, who said that she liked trees, doorways, leaves, ancient artefacts, oceans and I forget what else. She didn't specify colours. Given that I'm into trees at the moment, I thought that was a sign, and decided to make a tree the focus of the page (which, I should say, is essentially 4x8 inches, only arch shaped, of course). The tree is done the same way as yesterday's tree - free motion embroidery with brown thread and then over top with the neutral variegated.

The background behind the tree didn't photograph well - it's done with Stewart Gill MetaMica paints - a blue and a green together and looks a lot less silver in reality than in the photo. The archway is German scrap with some views from an ArtChix sheet behind it; the bird is also German scrap. [Looking at it again now, I think the line at the top of the archway piece is a bit harsh - I might play around with it and see if I can soften it somehow.] The charms in the trees are silver keys and parts of an old earring - I loved those earrings - they had the three dangles shown, plus two other longer ones in different colours. Unforunately, as is so often the case with favourite earrings, I lost one of them. This was about 10 years ago and I have been hanging on to the other one ever since, because I knew I'd find something to do with it - and look, I did!

I have stamped in the bottom right corner with a fern stamp and then added some pressed flowers - these were pressed for me by my lovely DD2, Olivia, last summer. Again with the whole "using things someday" lark!

I hope Judy will like it - as this is the first month, I'm flying a little blind, but I had fun making it. The back is a piece of shibori-ed fabric, on which I will write something (not sure what yet); thought it best to keep it simple.




Another thing I did today is this box (which I actually started yesterday) which is made from scraps from the Hawaiian shirts - I had a big freezer bag of scraps; this has barely made a dent in it. But I think it's fun, and I have promptly put it to use holding scraps of pre-fused fabric. It's 8"wide x 5" deep x 4" high. A nice compact size, but big enough to be useful. This was inspired by the scrapbag challenge on the Fibre and Stitch group - I have actually already done one thing for this challenge, but hey, another one gives me another chance in the draw...



And finally, I worked on my postcards for the Little Houses swap. I knew from the time I signed up for this that I wanted to make the basic houses in the same way I did the ones for the Inching Artists challenge, but wasn't sure what else I wanted to do with them. Given my tree theme this week, I decided to add some trees, and some lawn/grass in variegated green. It remains to edge and back the cards, but the basic work is done. And that was my today!

13 comments:

Carol said...

Oh Kate this is gorgeous, if Judy doesn't love it her eyes are not working! Clever you, you are inspiring me to get on with mine!

Becca said...

Kate-I love the box you made-will you tell us more about it? Is it a pattern you bought, your own design?

I have some beautiful floral scraps of my great grandmothers dresses that I've been trying to come up with an idea for-your box is so neat-you've got my wheels turning!

Becca

Unknown said...

This is wonderful, I am looking forward to seeing everyones pages for this swap

Guzzisue said...

those scraps never seem to go away do they? box is lovely but I really do like your archway, I'm sure Judy will love it.

Vicki W said...

And what a fantabulous day you had! The box, the postcards and the arch are all inspired!

Winter Wanderings said...

Wow Kate!
I love the arch -- must get going on mine too!!!

Julie said...

I think you're back in full swing! The arch is beautiful and I like all the adornments. The box is lovely too and yet another great way to have a memory of your Dad close to hand.

Vicky said...

LOVE the arch and box!!! Your tree looks great and will work great for our surfacing class (I think you said you were going to use that for some inspiration, if not, let's pretend I didn't say that!!). Check my blog in the next few days, I took a pic of a tree today that I think you might like (as well as osprey, heron, anhinga, sandpipers, seagulls, pelicans, dolphins, the beach, shells, the US flag waving, some flowers, etc-some of the pics are for texture incase you wonder why I took pics of algae!!)

sewkalico said...

Hey, I love the box and the arch is great too. :O)

Anonymous said...

LOVE the box, did I miss how you made it?

Purple Missus said...

And is this all you managed to do ??? *LOL*
The arch is fabulous, like the co-ordinated stitching around the edge, good colour choice.
And I love the box. I'm in to boxes at the moment. This one is fabulous. Are you going to do a step-by-step?

Joyce said...

You are so productive! The box is amazing. I have tried making boxes but haven't been that successful. I'd love to see a tutorial too.

Val said...

The Arch is just beautiful Kate - lucky Judy. Can I ask - what is German scrap? Val