Printing And Pumpkin Time!

I haven't blogged for a while as I started chemo again and haven't been feeling too great. My mind is whizzing with great ideas for sewing, but alas, the body is not willing. I have been sitting around like a big fat slug for the past two weeks on an electric heat pad. It's quite nice actually! I did make a start on the three cat quilts though. I used my new fabric transfer dyes. They're very cool to use. You mix up the dye powder with water and then used them to paint a picture or pattern on paper. When it's dry...and here's the cool bit...you flip it over and iron it onto fabric and it transfers the print! Below is a photo of the painted paper.

Here is the fabric once the paper pattern has been iron-printed onto it.

And this is what I have done with them so far. I have pieced the backgrounds with different neutral pattern fabrics and stuck the cat shapes on ready for embroidering. This is fat boy Arthur.

This is Minnie Moochie Pie.

And here's Chicky Chick Chick.

I shall keep you up to date on any progress. It's funny actually because if you knew my three cats you'd see how these simple shapes truly represent them!

Yesterday I bought a big pumpkin. I can't decide whether to make soup, sweet pumpkin pie or wait for some nice pumpkin recipes from Jo in Texas. I did ask her, but I don't even know if she has any!
Obviously this photo illustrates how undecided I am about pumpkin usage!

Self Portrait.

I was looking at some self portraits last night:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/selfportraittuesday/pool/

I don't know why, but I found them fascinating (and sometimes pretentious) and it occurred to me that unlike all these people, I usually avoid being photographed, or if I am photographed I do my utmost to make it look like I really don't mind! I try and reason that even if I don't like photographs of my big bum, it shouldn't matter because everyone can see it in real life whenever I turn round anyway!

The other night it was mum's birthday. We had an hilarious discussion about double chins and how best to avoid them in photographs. And so started an hour of different camera shots, from the floor, from above, from the side and even from the back. We eventually decided on a camera shot taken slightly from above with the photographee looking up Princess Diana stylee. It takes lbs off you! Here's my best shot (with cosmetic computer dentistry I might add!) Look, only the one chin :

And here's Gary. Now anyone that knows Gazza knows he's fat too. This photograph takes stones off him! Look at my hunka hunka burning love. X X X X

So, after much hilarity, I decided to take my self portrait. Digital cameras are very limiting and you can't do anything special with them. I decided I wanted a blurred background and of course my face in focus so I hit on the idea of whizzing round on the office chair! It worked (even if I do look a bit stern) Notice that the shot is taken from above, thus eliminating the multiple chin problem!

And here is a shot of me and daddy in the midst of much guffawing and cackling over something very rude that he'd said!

I have put another self portrait at the top of my blog.

New Shelves and Fabric Dyes.

At last! Gary finally put my shelves up today. It's not his fault as he is working such long hours and hasn't had the time to put them up so far. However, this morning we awoke at 9.30am as Gary has the day off. I couldn't believe it when I saw the time, I never sleep past 8am. I bet I won't sleep tonight now. :0( Anyway, the shelving has been sitting here for over a week now, so I was glad to be able to organise at last. It didn't take Gary long and at last my desk is clear of clutter as it's all on the shelves now. Look at all my pretty colourful boxes and crates.

The little colourful plastic boxes near the top are empty and are waiting to be filled with gorgeousness. The shelf below that holds my dyeing powders and made-up dyes. The crates on the bottom shelf are filled with all my smashing variegated and metallic threads. The box to the left on the bottom shelf holds my silk threads which I think should be kept away from light. And all those those gorgeous little glass jars I got from Freecycle. They're baby food jars, perfect for all my beads and buttons and 'stuff'. I am collecting some more in the week that I'll need for storing some more made-up dyes.

I received some new dyes from Beary Cheap in Australia (wages for pattern sales) and I bought these from eBay:

One of these pots ranges from £5.21- £9.40 (depending on colour) on the website and I got them all from eBay for about £10 including P&P! I have purchased a yellow dye from the website to complete the set, but it's still such a bargain as each pot is 100g (a lot)! I have also purchased some pipettes and small spray bottles to aid with the dyeing process. So expect great things on the hand-dyed fabric front in the coming weeks.

I hand painted a couple pf pieces of fabric yesterday. I don't think I shall ever use them, but it was good to practice and experiment. :0)

I prefer a more subtle, subdued look to fabric. I might try some tie dyeing in the week, that's always fun!

Cat Quilt Sketch.

Nearly forgot! Here's one of the sketches for the trio of quilts I'm planning of the cats. This one is of Minnie. You have to imagine that the straight lines are different colour chunks of quilting. I think they'll make quite a cute set. :0)

Mum's Birthday Picture

I sat down today to make mum a birthday card and I just had no botheration for it. So, I decided to do her an embroidered picture instead. I was inspired by a gorg book that Bry gave me. :0)



First I used my trusty airbrush to do a pretty blended background.

Then I machine embroidered some grass and greenery and added a bit more airbrushing.

This is the picture with finished airbrushing and embroidery. Next I sewed the little hand-dyed disks of fabric on to represent flowers and anchored them with French knots.

Here's the finished picture all trimmed up and sewn onto a border of hand-dyed fabric. It needs to go in a frame really, but I don't have one so mum will have to find one.

Here's a close-up. I added this because I think it's a cool photo!!!

I have banned mum from looking at my blog today as it's not her birthday til tomorrow and of course I don't want her seeing this til then. :0)

More on Cat Quilts.

Firstly, let me show the pussy cats in question (requested by GoldAnne):

This is Minnie and she's a very delicate little lady. She's quite aloof and only gives affection on her terms. She likes a very gentle touch and lashings of cream and tuna. She's a bit naughty sometimes and breaks into food packets to eat the contents. A.K.A Minnie Winnie Moochie Pig.

Here we have Chicken, he's the baby of the bunch. he's very vocal and talks to me all the time. He's a real character and he's SO affectionate. If I look him in the eye he starts purring loudly! You can throw him about, drape him over your shoulders and carry him like a baby and he loves it. My mate Bry caught him when he was a wee ferrel kitten and in real danger of dying. He was born late in the year and the farmer's wife said she'd lost wild kittens before in the cold weather. You'd think the silly woman would round them all up and get them neutered at the Cats protection league or something wouldn't you? Anyway, we've caught five kittens from that farm so far. Chicken for me, then I went and caught a kitten for Auntie's Babs and Mo and then I think Bry had three? A.K.A Chicky Chick Chick Chick.

And lastly this is my big hunka furry love Arthur. He's so beautiful, look at that pretty nose! He's absolutely huge and makes me feel like I own a dog! He's always there. When I was going through chemo he kept me company for months as I languished in my pit. He wakes me at night by biting my nose if he wants love. He's so fat that his belly swings to and from when he walks. He just can't get enough love. A.K.A Aaaaaaaaaarfeeeeeeer.

As Babs says, it's so difficult to capture the essence of a cat so I shan't even try! I have decided to go with an abstract theme which will probably turn out quite grown up. Maybe I will capture the essence (rather than the likeness) by the time I have finished? I will go away now and do some preliminary sketches and maybe blog the results a bit later?

Nearly Forgot...New Painting!

I spent all of last week creating a painting for mum and dad's wall. I say 'creating' because the actual painting was only the half of it! First I made a huge mask over the triptych canvases (see, there are three of them!) then I slopped some Artex on it to represent bark. Then I took the mask off revealing a raised and rough tree shape.


Here is the painting half way through. At this point I always think I have ruined it, but I press on knowing it will probably be alright in the end. There are about five layers of paint here and I'm nowhere near finished.


This is the finished painting on mum and dad's wall, not sure if I like it though. Mum and dad seem to and Gary certainly does. I don't think Gary 'gets' my abstract paintings, but this one is something recognisable so he thinks it's great!