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Shibori Shenanigans

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Several members of the Solent Textile Group have been running workshops over the past few months.   It’s been a great way to learn about new crafts and techniques.   Last week’s workshop was hosted by Chris, (the Group’s “Chair”) giving us an introduction to Shibori and indigo dyeing. Mr L asked me the evening before what Shibori was and I had to fess up that I had no idea!   It is a traditional Japanese resist dyeing technique where the resist is formed by stitching, folding, binding or clamping cloth to prevent dye from reaching certain areas.   I did take notes but any errors in the spelling or techniques are all my own. Chris started with an introduction and demonstration of three types of stitch pattern; nui, ori-nui and maki-nui together with two knots, quilter’s and surgeon’s, that we would use at the start and end of each line of stitching.   We had been asked to bring a small piece of cotton fabric to practice so after drawing lines, we started stitch...
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Double Vision

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For my Visible Image DT post this week, I’m having a go at a double vision card – a card style I’ve seen all over the socials lately.   As it’s impossible to make identical backgrounds, I used the Tomorrow’s Memories paper pad for my backgrounds.   If you don’t have identical papers, you can make a cheat’s version by cutting just one panel into strips and glueing onto a black background.   A stamping platform is essential for this as the panels need to be identical.   After trimming the paper sheets down to 5½” square, I stamped and clear heat-embossed the branch and lady from Carefree Days . For the next stage, to ensure the stencil was in the same place on both panels, I drew around the panel and the stencil on my grid paper.   I blended Versafine Onyx Black ink through the Leafy stencil around the edges of the panels, added gold embossing powder and heat-set. One of the panels was glued to a square of black card ⅛” larger than the panel.   I glue...
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Location: Fareham, UK
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Lovely Lavender

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Last week, I had another trip up to Oswestry for what I think will become an annual pilgrimage to attend one of Alison Holt’s free-motion embroidery courses.   I had a great time up there and met friends old and new.  You can see all the students' work here  on Alison's website.   As my Mum is not able to sew any longer, I have inherited her old sewing machine and I’d decided to take this with me as it is considerably better behaved than my basic old sewing machine.   (My new computerised machine isn’t ideal for this course).   At the last minute, I realised that I didn’t have an extension table for it, but with my new-found skills for cutting polycarbonate, I fashioned one to fit. My craft room is not at its tidiest at present! The theme for this course was Colourful Landscapes and I found a great image of a lavender field, presumably at sunset due to the shadows, which I was immediately drawn to.   My style choices always seem to include contra...
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Location: Fareham, UK
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Next week is the end of term prize giving for our art group competition.   I’m heading up to Oswestry for another free-motion embroidery course later today so I shall miss it but I’d procured the prizes for the event so I wanted to make some tags for them. Looking through my stash, I could find no stamp set more appropriate for an art group than Color My World by Colorado Craft Company.   I cut two strips of kraft card 2¾” wide plus a tag and stamped them with the various paintbrushes. I coloured them in using my Faber Castell Polychromos coloured pencils. For the bottle tags, I punched a circle from one end and scored a line across.   For the smaller tag, I used a tag-topper punch to trim the fancy top.   To finish them off nicely, I used a corner rounder punch on all the tags.   I decided to add first, second and third to the tags and die-cut the number from glitter card in gold, silver and bronze, backing them with an offset black die-cut. Here are ...
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Location: Fareham, UK
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Cosy Days

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Have you checked out the new Visible Image Wrapped Up   Christmas release yet?   For my DT post this week, I’m using a stamp and stencil from the new collection and my make has lots of texture and shimmer. For the background, I used Distress Grit Paste through the Close Knit stencil then set it aside to dry. Once dry, I sprayed the panel with Distress Spray Stain Lumberjack Plaid and Distress Mica Stain Yuletide.   Whilst the background was drying, I stamped, coloured and fussy-cut the topper elements from Marshmallow Moments . To add some more sparkle to the background, I rubbed my Versamark ink pad over some areas of the background, added gold embossing powder and heat set.   The smaller elements were glued to the background and the mug and sentiment were popped up on foam tape. Finally, I added some Wink of Stella to the heart and then covered it with Glossy Accents.    
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Location: Fareham, UK
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