"Paper Birch and Swallowtails"

Leaves were the next step in my project. I decided to make them with a photo on fabric instead of the Lutrador. So I grabbed a branch off of my birch tree and put it into the scanner. I printed it with the computer, larger than life size onto fabric pretreated with Bubble Jet Set. I fused it with a Bali batik and stitched the veins first then the edges, with green rayon thread. There was very little detail in the leaves, plain and simple, the stems how ever were difficult. I started by zig zaging a fine wire onto the leaf backs and the stems, awful, they looked ragged and unfinished. So I ended up wrapping the stems with a 3/8" cut strip of bias batik. It made it a little bit heavier than I would have liked but the color is good.

I worked on the birch bark to get it into a tube shape, after stitching it, I quilted over the seam to blend it together. I found a half inch piece of PVC and a dowel that would fit into it, and a piece of finished board for a base. Wrapping the PVC tightly with a cotton batting, I got the diameter I wanted and stitched the edge to make a roll. Stuffing it into the bark tube was a trial in patience. Whew, pulling and tugging!! I screwed the dowel to the base, and the PVC with the bark tube slides on nicely.

I worked on the butterflies next, I printed them on treated fabric, and fused them to a pale yellow backing. Thread painting all the black detail was next, I used rayon thread, and it was difficult stitching black on black. When I turned it over, you could see areas I missed, but couldn't see it from the front. Since the back of the butterflies would be seen, I used Pigma pen to black in the area on the back. Tiny details of orange dots, turquoise dots and yellow crescents were added, and a gray body. The yellow of the photographs was left plain with no thread.

The finished butterfly, I trimmed it and added fray check along the edges. The wings will be free, it will be applied only on the body.

Two views, lit by side lighting. It is so awesome, the pictures don't do it justice.

Two views with natural lighting, still not the best, I think the focus is off. I still have to finish stitching on the butterflies, and put a top on it. I need to take a pic of a cut tree with the growth rings on it. I thought I had one in my photo files, but no luck. I will link this with Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click on the badge in the right hand column to see what other wonderful, creative, talented textile people are doing.

Birch Tree & Swallowtail

The inspiration for my next project comes from another of my photographs. The birch bark will make some wonderful texture to stitch, and I can make it into a 3-d tree section. I'm going to make it tubular, so it stands, with a branch of leaves and several swallowtail butterflies.

I will use my own pic of the swallowtail also, it was sucking moisture from the mud, I have since found out, that the males do this to get minerals from the mud to create pheromones for mating.

I enlarged the bark to 2 x 2 pages in the posterize setting in Windows print wizard, it will make about a 5" diameter tree trunk. It is all fused together with a muslin backing with Wonder Under for stability, for when I do all the stitching. I am using rayon thread, it is not so "natural," but I like the shimmer it creates, and it will highlight the texture. One side of the tree is slightly green, I used a dull gray green thread, and on the other, I used black first and stitched over it with a charcoal. On second thought, I probably should have threaded BOTH spools thru the machine and stitched them together for the effect I wanted. Oh well, next time. I am adding bits of small detail with a pearl white thread, to give it a lift, as it was getting too dull. On the dark slashes on the tree bark I used a gray cotton "Halloween Netting" that I dyed to green, it has knots at all the intersections and LOTS of texture. I keep looking for more every year, to dye other colors, but can't find it again. Last year I did find a black cotton netting with larger holes, and no knots, but it worked beautifully on the knot holes. I cut a few paper butterflies to check them out and pinned in place.

DETAIL PHOTOSI am going to print the butterflies on fabric, and I'm deciding how much of them to thread paint. Also deciding if I want to make leaves free hand out of Lutrador or print them on fabric and thread paint them. I am linking this to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click on the badge in the right hand column to see other wonderful textile artists.

And the Winner Is...

And the Winner Is... Bonnie! Yea! For the Frog draw string bag.

And the Winner is... Dottie! Yea! for the teal wall hanging. I'll get this off in the mail to Santa Cruz.

Thank you all for looking at my blog over the years. The 20,000 page view went by quickly this week. I started my blog in August 2009, to just share some of the art quilting that I am doing. It quickly became a record of my work and a "How To" of all the different techniques that I've tried. I love to try new stuff, materials, techniques, styles, and themes. But the best feeling is when I have a challenge or a new idea, and all these studies come together to create something of my own. Knowing when to use folding for texture, or my hand dyed cheese cloth. Knowing when to use Shiva Oil pastels, or Tskinecko inks, or acrylics. Then all my training and playing around gels into something interesting. Thank you for watching my artistic growth, on my blog, I hope you learned something as well. My most viewed blog page is still "How to Thread Paint a Dragonfly" click here it receives 5-8 views a week. Next up is "Birch Trees" click here It is a combination of Gelli Prints with a stencil and snippets of fabric. Creating dimension & texture with muslin and tissue paper, is the next most popular, clcik here it is a technique I learned on the blog "And Then we Set it on Fire" click here a wonderful technique oriented blog that I have gotten a lot of info from. So as I move forward, I am looking forward to the next 20,000 visitors, to meet all you wonderful people in blog land, and to sharing my art. Please leave comments, I like to know what you think of my work. Thank you! AMY

Red Devil Begonia Leaf

The original leaf photo.
This project began with a walk through the local farmers market on a sunny Saturday, with my neighbor, we usually walk there every Saturday. I saw this beautiful begonia plant, that one of the vendors had, I asked if I could take a picture, as I have been making quilted leaves from my photos. He said he had a leaf I could have, that broke off when he unloaded the truck. What luck, and generosity! It is quiet large, at least 8" long, and very wide, the color is a bright vibrant burgundy, with darker green accents, and lime green veins. I carefully carried it home, and put it on the scanner, it did not turn out well, the scanner flattened the ripples and it did not look right, so I went with a regular photo on a white background. I was so excited, I could not wait to begin.

I enlarged by "postering" when printing, so it was on 4 sheets of paper. I did a black and white copy first to check the size, and how to make the curled part of the leaf overlap in 3-D. I printed on treated sheets of fabric with "Bubble Jet Set" and freezer paper backing. I did not have any trouble feeding the fabric through the computer printer. I printed a second sheet of the top left corner, to use behind the leaf curl overlap. Even though I used Photoshop to increase the color saturation, it still printed out very blah, so I made a light wash of acrylic paints with glazing medium, to punch up the color. It worked very well, but I lost some of the lighter highlighted areas.

I began by trimming each section, butting the edges together and fusing an iron-on fusible (Wonder Under) to the back, then fusing it all to a Bali batik in a very similar color. The technical difficulty of adding the extra piece to curve out over the front, was a challenge, I needed to find a pivot point, which was NOT where the four sections came together. It was at the base of the curl. I thread painted with rayon thread, the lime green veins first, then added a dark green around them, following the color on the photo.

A very dark burgundy went a round the edges, and a medium burgundy spread inwards in flame type veins, and mottling. I followed the darker areas of the print, and added some in the center also, surrounding the dark green and working towards the edge. OOPS!! I sewed two of the layers together, on the 3-D curl, rip...rip... unstitch! This was not the only time I did this, it plagued me all the way through the project. Pay Attention!!

You can see how the curl overlaps the bottom part of the leaf. I stitched a lighter burgundy, in the center from the veins out, then a medium mauve rayon to finish in a net pattern to fill all the center areas.

The Finished Leaf Wow, it came out awesome!! To finish it, I had to trim the outside edge, close to the stitching, then used a black Pigma pen the darken the edges, where some white fabric was showing. I decided to use a fine floral wire around the outside edge, to give it shape and help crimp and ripple the leaf edge. It took patience to zigzag stitch the fine wire to the back, with dark burgundy thread. I did not want a satin stitch ridge to finish it, the zigzag was softer and blended with the stitching I had already done.

The back of the leaf stitching, and a photo with the original leaf, the edge is turning black, my neighbor is trying to root it in a glass of water. The color is almost identical. The finished fabric leaf is 14" long by 12" wide.

Remember to enter to win until June 1st, a wall hanging or drawstring bag, by scrolling down to the previous post, and leaving a comment there. Click on the # of comments to add yours.

I am linking this to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" to see what other creative textile artists are up to click on the badge in the right hand column.

Win-Win-Win!!

Here is your chance to Win!! To celebrate my 20,000 page views, coming up soon, you will have a chance to win a small wall hanging or a drawstring bag. I will be drawing two names, Sunday, June 1st, when I get on the computer, so up until then you can leave a comment on this post. Make sure I can get in touch with you, with an email or link to your blog. The wall hanging is 13" x 15" it is a Gelli mono print, with my handmade stencils, then stenciled another layer with acrylic paints and sequin waste. A fabric border was added as well as additional leaves with fused applique. I was trying to find different ways to frame an 8" x 10" Gelli print.

The Frog Bag is my own pattern, I call it "Twisty Bag" as the strips twist around the bag, creating the points at the top. It is a fun vibrant green frog print, and is about 8" tall with a heavy drawstring. I am linking this to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click on the badge at right to see other wonderful textile artists.


There have been 48 page views, but only 3 comments?? If some of you don't know how to add a comment, Click on the "# of comments" at the bottom of the post, to add your comment.

Keep in Touch - Give Aways

I am planning some give aways for the week of my 20,000 page views. So keep in touch for your chance to win some handmade goodies. I am collecting items now, to get ready, it will be next week, or the week after. If you follow me on "Off the Wall Friday" by Nina-Marie you will get notified there too. Thank you for checking out my blog, AMY

Needle Felted Landscape

I wanted to start a quick little project, so I got my needle felting machine out from under the table. It is a Pffaf, Smart Embellisher, I have hardly ever used it. We are gong to be working with wool in the Fyber Cafe group, for the next couple of months, so I wanted a sample to show them. At our May meeting,click here we did some hand needle felting, with one needle or the hand held multi needle tools. We are going to be dyeing some wool at our August meeting, then have a wet felting Play Day.

I had my handy helper sleep test the piece as I worked on it. She said it was soft enough for a nap, but needed some black fur felted into it.

Note the box of colored wool roving behind my assistant. I also have some silk, silk blends, mohair, mohair curls, and some blends with Angelina fibers in it.

I began with some felted wool, from machine felted sweaters, that I got from an artist at a garage sale, I wish I had gotten it all, she had felted tons of sweaters. I needle felted the two pieces together, and started adding blue sky colors, some light teal, and some bits of purple. The background blue was fairly dark and it gave it great depth where it showed through.

I added some green wool balls for trees, added little brown twists for trunks, and made two red barns as a focal point. Various shades of green layered the hill side, I did not have a plan as I went along, maybe a plan would have helped the layout a bit. At the bottom right I added "nepps" little balls of waste wool, I had to cover them with loose fibers to get them to stick down, otherwise they just stuck to the shaft of the needle. I have lime green and lavender, they created lots of texture.

I added hand embroidery with vintage rayon threads, gold on the left for tufts of grass, and pink, lavender and lime green French knots on the right. I have an old Whitman's Chocolate Sampler box jammed full of vintage Rayon embroidery floss. It is a bit of a rat's nest, but I pull out individual strands of thread to embroider with.

I used rayon thread to machine free motion quilt the entire piece, the shine adds texture to the soft wool. I added a third barn on the far left, and some gray silk for smoke from the chimney. I think it came out lovely, it's about 8" x 10" and now it needs a name. I will probably add a yarn to hang it from a branch.

The finished piece. I am linking this to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click on the badge in the right hand column to see what other talented textile artists are doing this week.