Stamping and so on

Lots of stuff to show today - and even more if you want to see it all in depth because you're some sort of mad-dyeing addict... This first piece above is for my stamping swap with my dyeing group - we are swapping 8 fat eighths, done anyway you like as long as the piece used a stamping technique. Because it's a dyeing group rather than a surface embellishment group I have used thickened dyes rather then paints or similar. I had a lot of fun with this - I did this differently than I usually do, in that I did it as one large piece rather than individual pieces. And I decided that I would resist the tempation to get all my stamps out and use them, but rather try out a few things I've had on The List. So I started with bubble wrap to add a textured background, then did a large leaf in two colours, then added some potato stamps (nothing too intricately carved, just rough and ready) and finally finished up with a scrub-brush. I've got photos of the whole process step-by-step in my flickr album for anyone who is one of those dye-addicts I mentioned above...



I also did some stamping for another swap, this time with my surface embellishment group (actually I did these first, but whatever). The idea behind this swap was to use stamps made from styrofoam trays, like pizza bases or meat trays. I "carved" the designs with a fairly pointy chopstick. Because this was a surface embellishment group, I used a variety of paints and dyes - did a couple with thickened dyes, but actually, these worked better with other things - I like the MetaMica paint best, I think. More details on those in the flickr album, as well.

I also worked for a while on my little quilt for the Miniature Booty Swap, but I can't show any progress on that, as it's all secret :) Then I decided to put that aside while I knocked up a quick bag for a friend's birthday. (This is front and back view showing).



The baby quilt below wasn't strictly speaking something I worked on today - I finished the quilting ages ago, but hadn't got around to binding it yet - sewed the binding down last night at my quilting group. I now have two baby quilts in stock, which is a good thing, as I have two pregnant friends. One of the teachers at school, who had two of my kids in nursery is having a baby in the summer so I think I need to get another one ready - and then, of course, I need more for my stockpile - it never ends!



And finally. Last but not least, and all that. A brown postcard from Chris and the piece which I am going to send on for my latest complex cloth round robin. I usually pick a piece which didn't really come out to be as exciting as it should have done. This is a parfait type piece which was just a bit washed out. Hopefully, having three other people add some sort of treatment to it will improve it a bit!