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!

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!

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)