I've made my own rubber stamps

After a whole lot of inspiration from a class I attended on Sunday (see previous post), I thought I'd give stamp making a go.  Yesterday I went to an art shop at lunchtime and purchased a couple of ezy carve printing blocks and some lino cutting tools. These first practice ones I did last night using erasers, the flower below was from an eraser 2cm x 6cm.  It's quite satisfying dabbling in this new found craft.  I'll admit I was a little pleased with myself :) I'm well aware they aren't works of art, but I'm happy with the outcome and the possibilities.

The one below is of flip & bells, which I may put on my fabric collage - I had sketched this in the class with the intention of sewing the design on.  I used the real printing block for this one, it's so nice to carve into.  The block is 8cm x 8cm.

what will tonight bring forth......?

fabric collage with elizabeth barnett

Today I attended a class at amitie with Elizabeth Barnett who is a young, very talented Melbourne artist, the class was on fabric collage.  I really loved the class and it was great being able to look and touch some of Elizabeth's works of art.  This is what I have started, a piece of linen with a $0.50 ikea tea towel as the backing/binding.  I still have a bit to add, my idea is to sew on a representation of flip & bells and lots of running stitch all over the place.  I have 2 weeks until the next class - we'll see what eventuates...

In the next class we'll look at creating our own rubber stamps, I can't wait - I'd love to have something stamped onto my collage, a pic perhaps or maybe some text.

My collage is around 7" x 14", the smallest in our class today.  One of Elizabeth's pieces was a fabric book which was just beautiful, a great idea to capture a little story.  She also showed us some silk that she had dyed using natural dyes from leaves, onion skins and tumeric, just to name a few things - that too was beautiful. 

So much fun, I love the non-perfectness, the frayed edges & the mix of media you can use.

squares is finished

Squares is finished, it was a pleasure to make - completed last night.  The only fabric I purchased was for the binding.  Everything else as previously mentioned was from the stash, a dent has been made which I'm very happy about.  I decided against more quilting, I think it would have been too much - I'm really happy with the outcome.  The binding was hand finished, I did do stage 1 of the binding with the machine - the machine has this thing behind the foot which feeds the top at the same rate as the bottom making sewing several layers a breeze, no need for a walking foot.  No regrets at all about spending a little more on wool batting, I love the look and feel of the finished product.

I had a helper this morning, bells was keen to get the photos done so it could be put on her bed.  A happy little girl this morning when I told her her new quilt was finished.  "Hurry up mumma I need to put it on my bed now!"

and now flip would like a new quilt.....

soft toy cube

This is for a new little man whose name is Thomas, although he won't be throwing it around just yet - before you know it I think he will.  A big congrats to the 'B' clan, you can see the little fella over here.

This was whipped up last week-end in a few hours, with direction on fabric selection from bells.