And now we're into June!

Isn't the year flying by? Perhaps it seems faster because we're being so creative lately! Some of us managed a visit to the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair and were blown away by the work we saw there. Maz had a piece of work on display at the ATASDA stand. The theme was Little Fragment and each work had to fit inside a 25cm (10in) square, and you can see her work here.

Tricia and Nola had some more breakdown printing playdays. Tricia still had her second never-ending screen to print from, and both painted new screens. Nola wanted to try block printing with the thickened dyes onto fabric as a first layer.

She plans to print over these pieces to see how this influences the pattern.

She also painted two screens:

She used her Indian print blocks to print on this one, building up layers on the screen and letting them dry in between. The layers were very thin, compared to other methods she's used so they dried quite quickly. For the last layer, she used black thickened dye. The screens that have been so reluctant to break down were built up using this layering method, so she expected to produce a screen that would print quite well.

The results were mixed. The initial prints were very interesting but the screen discharged very quickly.

The strongest area of print is in the lower right corner, and it's certainly very interesting. But the dried media broke down very quickly. 

Her other screen was painted using more usual methods, using sponge brushes, syringes, stamped elements with plastic containers and thick drizzles spread with a comb. These are the techniques they used on the screens that were reluctant to discharge.

However, this screen also discharged very quickly.

The dye was slightly runnier than last time, because they had a problem with the screens clogging up. The humidity was slightly higher as well, and the screens did not sit unprinted for as many days. A couple of the screens were dried using a hairdryer. Clearly, there's a dynamic between all these things, determining the kind of results.

Meanwhile, Tricia was printing from her second never-ending screen.

She printed from it in various colourways.

Even washing the screen out between colours didn't cause it to break down...

...nor did using very runny media. The screen hasn't  been washed out, since it's making such lovely patterns. The resist design looks more ragged each time, so it is finally beginning to break down.

Tricia also painted another larger screen.

Like Nola's screens, it broke down quite quickly.

They are producing some breautiful fabrics, though, aren't they?

Meanwhile, Bev was creating some interesting effects on paper. She took various leaves from her garden, including eucalypts, oak and other unknown ones. She laid the leaves on paper and steamed them in a bamboo steamer, the kind used in cooking Chinese food. Here's the results:

Aren't they fantastic? Another interesting way of making patterns.

Helen brought along an embroidery she's made, for a challenge in another group, of a puppet soldier. 

Meanwhile, she was working on her triptych.

They're looking good.

Bev brought along her Lost Treasures piece from last year, which as risen to the top of her pile.  It's coming along nicely.

Nola made a visit to the bead shop this week and was making some new earrings.

We also brought along our works-in-progress Fragment sections to share. The group is making a collaborative piece for ATASDA's biannual exhibition at the Palm House in the Sydney Botanic Gardens in August. We cut a photo into sections and each of us is making a work inspired by that section of the photo. The finished works will be 8in square and will be mounted into a cube for exhibition.

This one is Helen's...

(which is finished, of course), and Maz's...

...and Nola's, she's building up layers with applique, stitch and Inktense pencil...

... and Tricia's...

... who's also building up layers with applique, pencil and stitch.

Stay tuned for images of finished works!

Our own work

Phew, running a little behind with updates on our activities! Our second May playday had no particular theme, so we were all working on different things.

Bev was doodling, with the idea of making small framed pieces for sale.

I love pattern-making like this!
Carol was working with  more paper serviettes, mounted onto mat board.

This one had been adhered with diluted PVA glue, and then she painted it with watercolour paints.

These ones were laid down over moulding paste.

 They are all intended as the base for future work.

Carol was also cheering up some very basic Masonite clipboards with some paint:

Helen was embroidering as usual:

Nola was painting some bits she'd made from glue and dimensional paint, for her Lost Treasures challenge.

She used her hot glue gun to make some shapes. When she painted them with Lumiere paints, they behaved as if the paint would rub off, so she coloured them with Sharpie pens and then painted over them with Lumiere and Setacolor paints. The first two coins were fabric, adhered together with fusible web and satin stitched. They really didn't look much like coins, even after she stamped on them with Setacolor paints, so she added Pebeo Expandable paint and painted them with Setacolor paints before heating with the heat gun. Some areas puffed to white, so she added more paint and Treasure Gold. Later coins were made from circles of medium weight card, painted with the expandable paint and over painted with Lumiere and Setacolor paints.

We also swapped postcards as usual. Bev's postcard was made from fabric snippets, free-motion stitches and beaded.

Carol made doodle patterns using the programmed stitches of her sewing machine:

Helen's postcard used fabric scraps, pieced together and embroidered.

First April meeting

Our meetings in April were rather disrupted, first because of Fibre Forum at Orange and then by Easter. But we still managed to find a time to meet, although we were few in number. Our first meeting in April brought the unveiling of our second challenge, Lost Treasures. You'll have seen some of the pieces along the way, but here is what was unveiled on the day.

Helen's Lost Treasure was a treasure box, made for her, years ago, by her granddaughter. She had collected togather all sorts of tiny treasures in a chocolate box and presented them to her grandmother. There are buttons, a pretty marble, beads, all manner of lovely little things. It really is gorgeous! Helen decided to cover the box in "treasure" fabric and present it back to her now-adult granddaughter.

Nola struggled to get her Lost Treasures done in time. She's making a journal cover, but it didn't come together well. This is what she unveiled on the day.

She's hopeful of things to come....

Carol lost her Lost Treasure. However, she made this beautiful crochet shawl. Made from man-made fibres from a pattern, Exquisite, from Heirloom Afghans for Baby. She had hoped to enter it in a local fair but it wasn't finished in time.


Carol also brought along an experiment she'd been working on.  It was a dye silk cap, moulded over an Ikea vase and stiffened using floor polish. She notes that it's important to use a shape which is larger at the top than the base, or it becomes a probloem to remove it from the mould!

Busy busy...second postcard swap

Fibrecircle has been quite busy lately but unfortunately, while that means we've done some fun things, no-one has had time to blog about them! At our second meeting in March, we swapped our monthly postcards. This time, we had several swappers - Carol even made two! This one is Beverley's.

Does it remind you of anything? Yes, it's made from one of the samples she did for her Language of Thread challenge work. For both pieces, she was inspired by a technique she saw in a Quilting Arts magazine, of stamping the same image onto different fabrics and then combining them together. She tried stamping with several different media on various fabrics, to get the best effect. Once the two fabrics were combined together, she embellished the stamped image on the postcard with machine stitching. The images on the final work also had quite strong hand stitching. It's a difficult piece to photograph because both the fabric and thread have a sheen to them. The back looks like a postcard, but it has a beautiful hand-drawn element as well, which wasn't photographed at the time. The edges were straight stitched and then satin-stitched with a slightly longer than usual stitch.

Nola decided to use a piece of fabric she'd previously painted as the background to her postcard. It looked rather spring-like so she decided to embroider a butterfly.

The image was a copyright-free image from a Dover Press sampler. She resized and printed the image onto water soluble paper, and used it as a guide for the main stitching. The background fabric was layered with thin cotton batting before stitching. Once she was happy with the stitching, she washed out the paper and added finer details to the image. Then she painted the stitched card with Setacolor paints. The card was a bit floppy so she lined the backing fabric with fusible Vilene. She folded in all raw edges and hand-stitched a buttonhole stitch around the edges.

Maz hand stitched her card on a machine embellished foundation.  She turned the front edges to the back and covered them with a backing piece. The card was stiffened with fusible Vilene.

Helen's elegant card was made by stitching free-standing shapes, joined with fusible web and edged with satin stitch. These were joined to each other and the card background with some beads. The edges were satin stitched. 

                       

Carol made two postcards to swap.  Both used paper serviettes as the basis but in different ways. The first postcard  had the serviette adhered to the backing and overlaid with a mesh fabric. Motifs from the serviette were adhered over the top.

The second postcard used a serviette with the same motifs. The serviette was adhered to the background and this was cut apart and reshuffled. The pieces were stitched back together using a single machine stitch. The motifs were attached to a backing, so they sat higher than the surface, giving a sense of depth. Both cards were stiffened with card and the edges were stitched with a machine buttonhole stitch.

These were a good advertisement for our next meeting, when we plan to swap serviettes with interesting motifs and have a play day with them.

Carol was busy sorting loose beads and stringing them. However, this is just her "loose beads" box - it seems she has a lot more other beads at home!

Helen brought along her canvas embroidery piece that she's been working on for some time.

It really is a lovely thing. She was talking about making it into a three-sided vessel, if she can work out the technical challenges.

Maz was stitching on her Lost Treasures challenge piece. It's a lost treasure because she began it in a workshop some time back, and found it again recently.

The background fabric has stamped images of carafes like the stitched one.

Tricia was continuing her Tunisian crochet.

It's a gorgeous scarf, with a selection of different yarns in deep jewel tones. She also brought along another scarf she'd made:

It's so light and soft, I think we all wanted to steal it!

Helen brought along this treasure to show us:

Nola was playing with books. She's making a book cover for Lost Treasures, but she also pulled out her Round Robin book pages that we made two years ago. Her theme was Sailing to Byzantium, so she was sketching various Byzantine motifs that might work on her book page.

Next time, we'll have the revealing of Lost Treasures!