For Margaret: copper/bronze and yellow
I went to a rusting workshop with Margaret, I wanted to incorporate some memory from that day. If you hunt you’ll see three triangles with snippets of fabrics I created on that day- bird heads. I decided upon triangles, I’d never made a patchwork piece from triangles before, so that was a bit of a challenge.
I like the symmetry of triangles, and the tessellated patterns they can create. I left the rusty fabric squares unstitched among the kantha stitched square, using hand dyed and commercial fabrics. It is backed with a piece of reclaimed blanket which I’ve also dyed, then simply blanket stitched around the edges using variegated thread.
For Rosemary: lime green and orange
I coloured and distressed tyvek at one of our play days, and used this as the main background as well as some extra pieces included as embellishment, and tyvek beads, wrapped with wire and seed beads. For a complete contrast in appearance and feel, I made a small piece of shibori felt, and included silk and and trilobal nylon fibres for lustre. I added couched threads along with multiple French knots, throwsters waste and sequins and beads. A zingy citrus combination of colours that I really enjoyed working with.
For Sue: green and grey
Following a tip from a fellow Maid, I had another play. I bonded some painted tyvek to a cheap velvet, with a felt backing and then heat distressed the layers. This gave the mixed texture background as my starting point. I added circles of manipulated ice-dyed cotton, silk and velvet, emphasising the large circle with a bound wire edge, and adding stitched washers. ( a favourite of mine!) Adding tyvek beads- again wrapped with wire and seed beads, and leaving cut-off threads added interest and further dimension.
For Jenni: blue and burnt orange
Burnt orange made me think of sunsets! Allowing myself time to play again, a piece of tyvek was painted, using shimmer paints, and distressed, then applied to a piece of my dyed felt, along with more tyvek pieces, hand dyed distressed chiffon silk strips, and silk velvet scraps. Then I added random free machining, to secure the bits and pieces. Embellished with couched threads, sequins and beads.
I love this colour combination- memories of long hot lazy summer days by the sea, waiting until the last moment to return home!
For Jane: turquoise and gold
What a super colour combination- for this page I had an itch to return to another favourite of English paper piecing. For my sample piece I worked with teeny tiny hexies, but my fumble fingers couldn’t cope, so I upgraded a size. The backing was a section of old repurposed sheet, painted with fabric paint and scrunched about. Some of the same fabric was used in the applied hexies, along with dyed curtain lining and commercial fabrics. The hexies were applied with visible stitches for interest, then I followed some of the same angular lines with hand quilting to fill in the absent patchwork shapes. As I stitched I was recalling the wonderful colours caught in glacier ice- and how hexies and snowflakes are both six sided, somehow this seemed fitting and connected.
Hope you enjoyed seeing my pages.
Debbie
