Bank holiday sewing day

Well, for once the weather forecast was wrong about the bank holiday weather and it was actually warm and sunny rather than the warm and rainy which had been predicted. However, I still stayed in for most of the morning and sewed - why let an opportunity go to waste? And then, I spent several hours in the afternoon in the sun doing some hand-sewing, which was lovely as well.


I started out with my current round of the Spring Fling Round Robin, which I knew wanted some vines or flowers appliqued to it. Even though that's not my favourite method, I was being a good girl and listening to what the quilt wanted, so here it is, with lots of pins still in, but with some vines and leaves attached all about, in a pink background. (Placement of the leaves is approximate and subject to change as I go on.) The person who worked on it second passed on the brown stripe from the narrow inner border to me, and although I included a small bit of it, I thought it really wanted to be the binding, so I have left most of it for the next person to use as binding. Consequetly, I have raided my scrap basket for a variety of scraps in the right sorts of colours, and I think it works. As I type this, all the green vine is actually sewed down (all that stitching in the sun), as are all the green leaves - the other colours I shall make a start on this evening in front of whatever telly is being watched.


Also this morning, I made 5 ATCs with a garden theme - two are to swap with Susan, who offered to swap on a garden theme, the others are for the general ATC swap I am offering (see previous post).



And finally, I wrapped up the day with some work on my two complex cloth pieces - I decided to use paintsticks on both of them - the first one, I didn't want anything too dominating, so I have used a pearl white paintstick all over with a flower texture plate underneath - the flowers are heavier in some places than others and I have let the edges of the plate show in places as well. I think it works ok - another day or so drying and it will be ready to heat set and send on.


And the other piece, which was a sort of parfait to start out with, only a bit washed out, I thought I'd carry on the parfait style by emphasising the colours that were already there - what I've done here is use the paintsticks with my fingers - rubbing the paint onto a finger, then rubbing onto the fabric in an area of similar colour, again with a texture plate underneath. I've left some parts virtually untouched and filled other parts in more heavily than on the original cloth, but I'm really pleased with this effect (in fact, I think I may do some other pieces like this, just for fun - someday). Again, it needs to dry thoroughly and be ironed, but it will be ready to move on before too long.