Saturday 30 April 2011

Treasure hunting

Every Saturday morning sees us searching the market stalls in our local town for interesting objects, especially old books that I can alter with paint and collage. No luck today sadly. There was one likely candidate but the price was too high - I only buy the bargains! We did find a treasure though -  Laura's latest plan is to make concertina style books to fit into old tins so today we were also hunting for suitable tins. We found a battered old Oxo tin that I hope she can bring back to life with a bit of TLC! It may not look much right now but I know she loves a challenge!

Friday 29 April 2011

You say there's a wedding today?

It's surprising that anything got done today - I was glued to the TV all morning and then watched the replays on the news! You can say what you like about our country but we do know how to put on a good show when it matters. The whole event was magnificent. In these dour times it was quite uplifting. I had a little printed and painted quilt that needed its binding hemmed down so I made myself comfortable and just wallowed!

Thursday 28 April 2011

All play and no work!

My good friend Edwina came to visit today. We had persuaded her to make a video of her Cut and Come Again patchwork technique for DesignMatters TV. We didn't really have to bribe her (much) but once the video was done it was time for lunch in the garden and then back into the studio to play. Us girls have got to have some fun!! The afternoon was spent discharging hand dyed fabrics with deColorant and deColorant Plus. Edwina had brought a selection of Thermofax screens she's using for her current series of quilts inspired by lichen. The discharge paste coped well with even the finest detail and she was very happy with the results. Laura discharged lengths of fabric to make gorgeous linings for the embroidered purses she sells. It may be my studio but it's only small and there was no room for me to work as well so  I was put in charge of the camera!!

Here's a link to Edwina's blog: http://edwinamac.blogspot.com

Bye for now,
Linda

Wednesday 27 April 2011

OK Couldn't wait!!


It's a lovely sunny day here and discharge paste dries very quickly on a warm day. I promised to show this print tomorrow but I was just too impatient to wait that long. I've ironed the fabric to discharge the dye colour and it's about to go in the washing machine to remove any remaining deColorant that might still be on the surface. Not sure what I'm going to do with it but I like it so far!

Welcome to my new blog - I hope you'll enjoy catching up with my news!

I'm having fun playing with discharge techniques on some of my hand dyed fabrics today.  For this piece I gathered a few leaves from the garden to use as masks. If it works as I hope, I'll let you see how the piece turns out tomorrow.