Craft Conversations

Experimenting with heat gun

2012-01-22T11:19:00.000+11:00

Using my new toy the heat gun, I picked out several layers of plastic bags from my overflowing plastic stash bags, fused them with the iron and then heat gunned them to distress; then I looked at the holes and realised it needed another colour behind to show them up, so I ironed a blue bag on the back. I don't actually like it but it gives me some experience in this technique and I can see the potential when I start including sythetic textiles in with the plastic - the next step. The layers then will look quite interesting. It's going to be really hot all week in Adelaide (33 degrees to 36 all week) so don't know when I will feel like heating up the room again.

Experimenting - Altered Books - Money grows on trees pages.

2012-01-15T11:20:00.000+11:00

Another thing I have been experimenting with is Altered Books. Altered Books are any old book that you take and - yes - alter it, as you like. For instance, paint pages, collage onto them, sew into them. Obviously you don't do it to a book that is valuable to you or that you think someone else would like; but there are many books in charity shops, or you may have some at home, that aren't of much interest or may be outdated information or that are simply falling apart - these are ideal to use because you don't feel like you're destroying something useful. I picked up a child's board book for 50 cents in a charity shop and because I thought an advertisement's text was so funny, I used that for my first experiment in an Altered Book page. First I painted the page with a pale blue over the Christmas scene, then added the cut out headlines which I altered slightly with pen and some receipts to tie in the theme, adding a couple of cuttings of leaves and plants and drawing the tree branch.

Experimenting with Tyvek

2012-01-12T16:16:00.000+11:00

My latest experimenting is with bead making - I love making beads from fabric, and now I have bought a heat gun I can have even more fun. I started with some leftover sheer fabrics, synthetic organza and so on, and this is the result. The heat gun shrivels up the synthetic fabric creating interesting effects.

Then I bought some Tyvek, which is a strange synthetic solid type of fabric, painted it both sides and used that to make beads. The heat gun again gave some great looks, even better than the last lot. Some beads I made with just Tyvek and some I combined Tyvek with synthetics.

More experimental textiles

2012-01-06T16:26:00.000+11:00

This is painted Vliesofix (Bondaweb) adhered to crumpled brown paper. It has a great texture and I want to use it but not sure quite what to do with it. Could just be part of a page with fibres added on top ... the great thing about experimenting is that you can do what you feel like.
For art journal ideas try http://www.tracibunkers.com/

Experimental textiles 2012

2012-01-04T11:23:00.001+11:00

I have been experimenting recently with techniques unfamiliar to me, and relating particularly to my focus for this year's college, where I will be working on textile books and journals. This is a focus I started in 2011 and I enjoyed making books so much (see my website for completed textile books) that I decided to continue and expand in 2012 with a third, recently acquired passion, Altered Books (my first two passions are books of any kind, and birds). This experiment has a base of a mop-up cloth from fabric painting; then I carved linocuts of abstract shapes which I printed in acrylic paints; layers purple and blue crystal organzas, and a piece of text from a book which I want to use this year with the message "Don't sweat the small stuff, and it's all small stuff." I used some contrasting yellow silk thread to attach the layers, in running stitch. I outlined some of the shapes in their colours in silk. To see larger, click on image.

Notice the loose threads - I don't do "neat" now if I can avoid it. That was me in the past.

Website

2011-12-28T19:34:00.001+11:00

If you have trouble getting to my new January 2012 updated pages - showing an orange Albatrosses & Archaeopteryx Journal at the top - try either Internet Explorer, or type this URL http://www.christinelinton.com.au/index.html - I hope to fix this problem soon!

Feathers of White Ibis

2011-12-23T14:48:00.000+11:00

You may notice I have updated my logo. It is now the feathers you see on the right, instead of the embroidered bottle brush flower. This is part of my revamp of the website, which I will be uploading by the end of December. I decided to go for the feathers as part of my artistic development, showing the things that are more important to me right now, and that I am using in my work. New Year is a good time for a new look.

Preserving leaves

2011-12-22T14:16:00.000+11:00

For my Nature Journal I have been preserving leaves in glycerine. You dilute one part glycerine to 4 parts water, and stand the stem in it for about two weeks. I have found this is quite successful for gum leaves, and you can soak the whole leaf instead if it has no stem; however the leaf has to be fully green or it doesn't work. Not all leaves take to it - geranium leaves just wilt and die within a few hours. I have used some gum leaves, attached to a machine-made cord and a tassel made of silk thread, as a decoration to my Nature Journal.

The journal cover is a fabric collage which I machine embroidered, then made in the normal way into a cover for the A4 sketchbook I am using. I also added a machine-made cord as a bookmark for inside, attached to the top of the spiral binding like the decorative elements.

If you have been experimenting with papers and/or fabrics, try using your results as a book cover.

Albatrosses and long line fishing

2011-12-11T10:47:00.000+11:00

Below is the centrespread of my textile journal Albatrosses and Archaeopteryx. I have used my hand-dyed fabrics on which I linoprinted my fishing boat and attached beading wire as the long lines which attract seabirds but drag them under to drown if they are not quick enough to untangle themselves. The albatrosses are appliqued, with the focal bird incorporating bits of rubbish and mesh to depict other threats from us they tackle every day. Fishing line and net waste is a major killer of seabirds.

I enjoyed the making of the book which you can see more of on my website when I have finished updating it over the next few weeks.

Textile Journals

2011-11-24T15:25:00.000+11:00

This is a photo of the front cover for my "Albatrosses & Archaeopteryx" journal. I completed this for my major final project for Cert 3 Visual Arts (Textiles) which I have just finished. During the time I was working on this project, I became very interested in textile art journals and making books and journals of all types, and plan to continue this interest next year when working on Cert 4. I will show some more of this journal later. The concept for the journal is the way that our way of life affects birds; the cover shows bits of litter, especially plastic, caught up in the net around the albatross heads. The net is lace made on the sewing machine. The heads are lino-printed on organza and calico layered which I dyed. The beads on the spine are made of painted recycled paper scraps.

Birds - White Ibis

2011-11-14T13:37:00.000+11:00

White Ibis are quite common in my local area where I took this. I've been trying to get some photos of birds taking off so that I can use them in my textiles without copyright issues. I'm thinking machine embroidery for the body and head and one wing and then white sheers as a detached wing element for that nearside wing ...

Birds - Archaeopterix, and bird photos too

2011-09-18T10:46:00.000+10:00

If you go to
http://www.birdway.com.au/index.htm
you will find a great site with bird photos, and you can join a Google group where Ian Montgomery (from Queensland) will send a free Bird of the Week photo to your email. This site was recommended to me by the Collections Manager, Ben McHenry, at the Science Centre of the South Australian Museum. I went there this week to see the Archaeopteryx fossil cast - actually they have three, of two specimens - because of the research I have been doing for my college project. Ben was very helpful, pointing out that as a member of the public, the Museum and the specimens are mine (and everyone else's!) because our money pays for them; so they are happy to show specimens not currently on display, such as "Archie" as I have taken to calling him. He explained that all the specimens ever found (I think it is eight) have been found in one quarry in Bavaria.

This is my own photo of a New Holland Honeyeater on the Grevillea in my back garden. The shrub was a Mothers Day present from my daughter a couple of years ago and has grown amazingly well. The Honeyeaters love to take the nectar from the flowers. Tibs the Cat gets scolded by them if she goes out when they are wanting to feed. Lying about under the Grevillea is her favourite spot.

Birds - Archaeopterix

2011-09-10T12:59:00.000+10:00


My sample for Archie,as I call Archaeopterix

I am working on a textile art journal with a theme of Birds for my MAJOR FINAL PROJECT for college. This is my sample for Archie's page. Archie is one of about eight fossils aged around 140 to 150 million years old, and is thought to be a link between dinosaurs and birds. However, as he came before any of the bird-like dinosaurs there is quite a bit of controversy - that's all science, I'll just get on with the art! I'm using printed organza, with some orange and blue fabrics (complementary colours) and some albatrosses flying. This may not be the final layout but I do like it.

Embroidering texture with yarn and other threads

2011-08-18T09:37:00.000+10:00

This is a sample of hand-couching that I have completed for my college class. I have used various yarns including crochet cotton, eyelash yarn, plain double knitting, slub yarn and DMC embroidery cottons. What is it? It is the bark on a tree trunk; the Bristlecone Pine Tree has this appearance, so I made a sketch of the trunk and this is my interpretation in stitch. It is very tactile (just has to be touched) which is one of the things that attracts me to textile arts.

Dyeing the Coral Reefd

2011-07-21T12:51:00.000+10:00

This is my finished dye project. The sea was pole-wrapped and dyed shibori-style; the reef components were drop-dyed with a few lines from fabric markers to define a few corals; the fish were made of vilene. The dyes were cold water Procion dyes. I very much enjoyed this project and left the border open (just a zigzag finish) because I wanted to show the vast openness of the sea.

Textures in Embroidery

2011-07-21T12:41:00.000+10:00

If you look at this side-on view of these ducklings, you will see the fluffy texture, especially compared to the smooth poppies above. The ducklings have been worked in Ghiordes knots, a stitch also known as Turkey Work, in which a loop is made followed by an anchoring back stitch. These are worked closely across the area, and the loops cut open when finished. They can be trimmed or left as they are

This close up of the poppies shows their smooth texture alongside the butterfly, which has both smooth satin stitch for the wings and Ghiordes knots for the body.

This embroidery was worked from an English book called Countryside Embroidery Book by Lalla Ward, now unfortunately out of print but sometimes available in public libraries.

Experiment with different stitches yourself - have fun!

Fabric Painting and Beyond

2011-04-02T15:15:00.000+11:00

Since my last entry I have been having the time of my life, learning new techniques, working on a project for my Dyeing Unit - pix will appear when it's finished. The photo I uploaded last time has a successor - after we talked in class about stitching into our fabric painting, I made another with my daisies more daisy-like by stitching on it.

Next week we start "Embellishment" - lots more fun - now I understand why people study textile arts.

Dyeing

2011-02-28T08:24:00.000+11:00

I've just started studying Textile Arts at my local college (hence no recent entries, too busy) and one of the subjects is Dyeing. This is one of my early efforts, I was rather pleased with it. I plan to use dyeing lots more in the future in my work, I love the brightness of the colours.

Birds and embroidery

2011-01-12T12:39:00.001+11:00

This is a pic I drew of an owl to embroider. So far I have done some of the feathers on the wing - it is brown (being a Boobook Owl, Australian) and I am working in cottons not silks and I have tried twice and can't keep up the interest! If anyone wants to use this drawing and work it themselves, they are welcome - I doubt I'm going to finish it. If anyone does copy it off, print it and enlarge it and work the design, I'd love to see the result, you can send a photo to my website email at christinespatterns@hotmail.com and I will publish it there. For more bird embroidery patterns, my website address is christinelinton.com.au

If you go to the website below, you will find some interesting information on birds and birdwatching generally. This is the British site.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/watchingbirds/

Embroidered Birds

2011-01-01T11:04:00.000+11:00

http://birdsinbackyards.net/

Returning to my first love of birds (after a season of butterflies) I have found a great site to look at which you see above. Birds Australia is a very interesting site, worth taking time to explore, and includes bird calls. Look under the Birds tab at the top, then About Birds, leading to Bird Calls.
One of the calls is the Kookaburra. My embroidered kookaburra is on the right - also can be seen as part of a wall hanging in the Gallery Page at www.christinelinton.com.au
I will look at the British site, Royal Society of Birds, next time.

2010-12-18T17:58:00.000+11:00

This is my idea of New Years Eve - not that I normally go out and celebrate but I worked the skyscrapers at the bottom in running stitch, then machine-embroidered with gold metallic thread and other bright colours, randomly, showing my impression of fireworks. Then I added some gift ribbon retrieved from various parcels, which I pinned into the top (I had used a piece of a box side for the mount). The black satin is from a pillowcase given to me by my daughter. She knows I'll take any sort of textile, I can always find a use for it.

Pincushions

2010-12-03T19:17:00.001+11:00

This website has interesting stuff about pincushions.
http://tinyurl.com/24zchyt
I discovered it when I was looking for information to put in the Blue Box on a new pattern of mine, and on this other page,
http://tinyurl.com/6ajo7g
you can see a tutorial on how to make one.
The one I have made is different to this, you will see it once I have typed the pattern - only just finished making it. Here is a sample of it:

Craft Shows

2010-11-18T14:51:00.000+11:00

Recently I went to the Adelaide Craft and Quilt Fair. Had a great day, spent all the money I took, but bought some good stuff. One of the things I bought was "Shrinking Sheet Fabric"which is fascinating stuff. For those who have never seen it, you machine it to the back of whatever fabric you want in your design - I did some free machine quilting - and then you hold a hot steam iron close to the Shrinking Sheet side. It shrivels up which causes the main fabric to scrunch up between the stitching. As you can see from the photo, I sewed several pieces together. More on that another time.

Embroidery Patterns

2010-11-10T10:55:00.001+11:00

In Embroidery & Cross Stitch Magazine, Gift Special, Vol 18 No. 2, I am delighted to say I have had 2 patterns published - Queensland Icons, which shows Gouldian Finches and Ulysses Butterfly, and my Country Cottage tea cosy.

The Queensland Icons is worked in silks and the Country Cottage in cottons. Both patterns are available on my website at www.christinelinton.com.au

Beading

2010-10-31T10:46:00.001+11:00

I recently was inspired by the Commonwealth Games in India to make a beaded wallhanging. It is called Shades of India and is satin, habutai, microdot, sequins and beads, and hand quilted to finish. Oh and feathers and strings of beads along the bottom. You can see a larger picture on my website on the Gallery Page at christinelinton.com.au

Fabric Flowers

2010-10-26T15:23:00.000+11:00

http://www.linda-matthews.com/tutorial-fabric-flower-embellishment/

For a terrific fabric poppy, go to Linda Matthews site above, where there is a tutorial.

Making ribbon roses

2010-10-26T14:36:00.000+11:00

or the link below will give you a YouTube video on how to make a ribbon rose, it is so simple and looks so good.

http://tinyurl.com/2d3whzg

Lace Butterflies

2010-10-20T19:19:00.000+11:00

This website has some lovely lace butterflies and other beauties. However, I had trouble finding out how to actually make lace. There are lots of links on this site so maybe with more time I could find out more. I would love to put some photos on here but of course they're all copyright.

http://lace.lacefairy.com/Lace/

Lace

2010-10-15T12:00:00.000+11:00

I've often admired lace and lacemakers at shows, and yesterday at my local library, on the "chuckout table" I found a book for 20 cents called A Dictionary of Lace by Pat Earnshaw, printed in 1982. It is so interesting to find out about different types of lace. Unfortunately the photos, though lovely, are all in black and white and fairly small. Still, it was 1982 when you didn't always expect big colour photos such as we are used to now. Having had my interest whetted, I googled Venetian lace and found this page on Mary Corbet's Needle "n"Thread site, which is interesting anyways, as it has lots of different types of needlework. I recommend it.
http://tinyurl.com/247mx6x

Embroidered Butterflies

2010-09-15T15:18:00.001+10:00

There is some new information on my website ( www.christinelinton.com.au )about butterflies, along with a link to a site with lots more information on South Australian butterflies. Butterflies were around alongside the dinosaurs, which is something I don't remember seeing in Jurassic Park ...
http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~rbg/amaryllis_ds.htm This website has some lovely pictures.
Look out for some more butterfly patterns from me in the next few months.

Baby quilt

2010-08-13T14:33:00.000+10:00


Baby quilt

Here you see the lovely quilt my sister made ready for the arrival of her first grandchild. There is also a close up view on my website, at www.christinelinton.com.au on the What Have You Made page, as well as new green information boxes.
I recently wrote a profile for Country Bumpkin embroidery magazine about myself and they have kindly published in in their free online newsletter, or Webletter, which is easy to find at this link:
http://tinyurl.com/23sgyox

Making money from craft

2010-07-18T11:33:00.002+10:00

Making Money from Craft

I have always wanted to make money from craft. I have made some, but not much!

When I was at primary school, I made "pom-pom" animals for the kids at school. I charged sixpence a time. When my Mum wanted to know what I wanted all her spare balls of wool for, and I told her, she made me give all the sixpences back!

Then when I was a young mum myself, I bought myself a knitting machine. After I had mastered it and was making my family good stuff, I offered to make an acquaintance a hat and scarf set for her child, in their team footy colours. Unfortunately, I didn't follow footy at the time, and used the wrong shade of blue! She was very understanding and bought it anyway. I didn't offer anyone else this dubious opportunity.

Then when I was in the swing of patchwork and quilting, I started making quilted patchwork shopping bags for market stalls. Unfortunately - why does that word keep coming up? - people didn't want to pay a fair price for a handcrafted item, when they could buy a bag for $1 or $1 at the supermarket. I sold two, both to the same lady. She wanted to send one to her sister in America. Many months later, I realised that was all I was going to sell, as I had done the rounds of markets and people only wanted the cheapest of the cheap, and there is, after all, no point selling at a loss. At the same time I was sewing from home for people, but as nearly everyone just wanted hems taken up I decided I could die of boredom some other way, and discontinued sewing from home. It's just not viable.

Once again I am in the sewing business, but this time just offering my patterns on a website at www.christinelinton.com.au and you can see the rest of this article at Ezine articles.com. If you click on the Ezine articles button below, and type my name in the Search box, you will find the list of my articles and can click on any you want to read.

New Patterns

2010-07-03T13:25:00.001+10:00

These two pictures show the two new patterns I have on my website. The bottlebrush flower is embroidered in silk with beads, and the knitted doll is 5" tall, for the dolls house, and has flexible limbs so that she can sit down in a chair. I sent my Mum this doll, I called her Mini Molly after Mum. Go to www.christinelinton.com.au

My computer woes are resolved - all my old files just reappeared after another update! Still, I now save all new typing of patterns or anything else onto a USB every time.

Computer glitch ...

2010-05-15T17:06:00.000+10:00

Just a note to say I can't update this blog right now, as my computer "crashed" and although most programs are fine, all the data I have entered has disappeared. Fortunately I tend to back up fairly frequently on CDs or USB so I don't have too much to update, but must do it straight away! Keep sewing (or reading about it).

Butterfly applique in felt

2010-04-30T11:26:00.000+10:00

This is my applique of the Ulysses Butterfly, shortly available as a calico bag applique motif on my website www.christinelinton.com.au and as you can see, with an applique motif, it is easy to simplify a complex shape down to the basics. After all, you're not trying to applique a photo - that is a completely different technique. Look at your favourite animal and see if you can simplify the lines so that you can make a felt applique.

Autumn Leaves

2010-04-15T10:15:00.001+10:00

Now that autumn is here in Adelaide, I'm waiting for the wonderful colours of the dropped leaves along the roads. This is a photo of some of the leaves I picked up last autumn, just for the sheer pleasure of looking at them. I know, weird. But anyone who loves arts and crafts will know what I mean. I did intend to print the photo on inkjet fabric sheets to make a border for my Cootamundra Wattle embroidery, but never got round to it ...
Cootamundra Wattle embroidery next time. Meanwhile, see my website for more embroidery information at www.christinelinton.com.au

Knitted scarf - oh so cuddly!

2010-04-06T10:24:00.000+10:00

I have taken up knitting again, now that the weather is cooling at last here in Adelaide, and I found several balls of one of those variable width wools in Lincraft, one of the big suppliers.I couldn't get more than half a dozen balls of it, and none in any other store, so I decided to knit a scarf rather than leave it in my Stash drawer. It is basically stocking stitch with several rows of garter stitch at each end and, of course, a nice long fringe. If you would like the pattern you can go to my web site at www.christinelinton.com.au and on the Extras page there is a link to the pattern. You can print it straight off. I am working on how to do PDF documents - my son Brian has downloaded the program for me and it doesn't look too hard, so my intention is that my next free pattern will be a PDF. Thanks Brian for all your help with the website - and for showing me how to edit it myself, which I very much wanted to know about.

All of the links on the website have been mended, so you can get to the full-size pix from the thumbnails. The order form comes up too, and can be printed off, though I have posted a suggestion to email me if you cannot get to it. I've put 2 new patterns on there as well, my crazy patchwork sewing machine cover, and my doll patterns.

Crocheted leaves - and a solution to the ordering on website

2010-02-27T15:03:00.001+11:00

As you can see, I have been crocheting again. I'm hopeful that the worst heat of the summer is over now so it's more comfortable to take up wool and hook once more. These are some of the leaves I have been making. I'm not quite decided what to make them into. Possibly another waistcoat, or else a scarf. I have used several different colours, and each one is slightly different - I did start off trying to follow a set pattern but after all, did you ever see two leaves the same? So I just did them slightly different lengths and shapes as I felt inclined. Still waiting to fix my website links but I'm not too bothered as the site itself is up, and if you can't get to the order form, just send me an email by clicking on the email link and I will send you an order form by email. If you haven't seen it yet, it is at www.christinelinton.com.au .

My website

2010-02-14T10:48:00.001+11:00

At www.christinelinton.com.au you will find my new website. A few problems with links at the moment, as my thumbnail pictures don't link to their larger counterparts, and a couple of other links, but overall I am pleased with it. The link problems will soon be fixed (my son is the computer whiz, I'm afraid the web server pages are clear as mud to me) and that will be great, but anyway it will get there in the end.

This fishing rod bag is one of the free patterns on my website. I made it from an old pair of jeans but you could certainly use new denim. It doesn't take long to make but you need to put a heavy needle in your sewing machine, and if you have a walking foot that makes it a bit easier as sewing over denim seams can be hard going. If you would like to make hubby's fishing rod a cover, you can print the pattern off from the website.

The heat ...

2010-02-04T18:36:00.000+11:00

Too hot for crochet, sewing or any other craft in South Australia right now - in fact too hot to think much even!

Applique Vest

2010-01-29T19:24:00.000+11:00

The gum leaves on this vest were cut from felt, and attached to the background with a line of light green stitching down the centre. The red gum blossoms were embroidered with straight stitches and a gold french knot tips the red, with a yellow french knot centre.

This simple decoration gives a lift to a plain vest. Have a go yourself and put your personal favourites on a plain vest.

Crochet scarf

2010-01-16T11:40:00.000+11:00

Welcome back to Craft Conversations and a happy new year. I have been having a break from posts but am now raring to go again. Above you can see my latest creation, a crochet scarf. I almost broke my own rule and followed a pattern, but did change it to the degree of using a much thicker yarn (Moda Vera Mousse, from Spotlight) which is 70% wool and 30% soya (!!!), thicker than 8ply and soft as anything. Also it was in the "specials" basket so it didn't cost much. It crocheted up beautifully with a 7mm hook. The pattern is from a great new book on freeform crochet called "Freeform Style" by Jonelle Raffino and Prudence Mapstone, 2009. This book will get you experimenting with your crochet hook and any old yarn you have. Look it up in your bookshop or public library. Note that being Canadian, like American crochet patterns, the terms are different to UK/Australian terms, mainly that their (American) single crochet is our (UK/Aus) double, and their double is our treble, and so on - make yourself a note about that if using an American pattern and you are used to UK/Australian patterns. And in reverse of course if you are American!

I made this before our heatwave (in South Australia) kicked in. Woolcrafts are no fun when it's too hot to do anything.

Machine quilting with thread waste

2009-12-12T12:19:00.001+11:00

After having an obsession with skies, I think I may have conquered it now. I've painted them with fabric paint, I've machine quilted them and now I've used a technique that has satisfied me. I read about using thread waste - all those little bits of coloured thread you cut off from your sewing and embroidery - and I machine quilted them on to this sky, which I made by appliqueing "sky" shades onto a foundation, along with a few seagulls cut from the beach/lighthouse fabric. I had to cover the thread waste with Sulky water-soluble stabiliser first as they kept catching in the darning foot I was using; that worked and when I'd finished machine quilting I just dipped it into water and the Sulky dissolved. Here are some close-ups to show you how it looks.

I hope it gives you some ideas for yourself.

At http://bird-diary.blogspot.com/ you will find my other blog.

Inkjet printing transfers

2009-12-06T14:57:00.000+11:00

Look at this picture from a calendar and you will see at the top of the wombat a mark where the calendar hole was. This picture is to be printed on an inkjet transfer sheet, a piece of fabric which is made to go through an inkjet printer, because it is for my wombat-mad grandson Pete, to form part of a storage bag for his wombat collection. Because of the fault in the picture, I scanned the calendar picture in and opened it in the Paint program, after making a copy to save as the original. Then I had several attempts to brush paint effects over the affected area. There are sufficient colours available in the Paint program to restore the picture to normal, and when I saved my best effort and then printed on the inket transfer paper I was very pleased - see the next photo for the result.

Try this yourself with a calendar picture.

Crochet

2009-11-29T12:52:00.001+11:00

I needed a change of pace so I got out my crochet hook (the big one, 7mm) and a ball of 8ply variegated purple (very pretty) and retaught myself how to make an afghan square. I've made 4 so far (two came out correctly!) and I'm quite pleased. My crochet tends to get looser and looser but that doesn't really matter for this sort of project. Sometimes you need to do something different - have a go, life's not an exam. There's no evidence of crochet before 1800 which I find interesting.

Thread painting

2009-11-20T20:11:00.000+11:00

This tabby cat is one that I embroidered recently, with a technique called thread painting. After stitching the black outline where I wanted it to show, I threaded my needle with three different shades of grey DMC embroidery cotton, a pale, a dark, and a medium grey. Towards the end of the tail where you see the shades are lighter, I used two strands of pale and one of medium grey. Around the rear, I sometimes used two strands of dark and one of medium - and each stitch goes from the unstitched area into the stitched area, in between two other stitches, so that it all blends in together. That is thread painting. The background to this is fabric painting, which is another story altogether. Have you seen my other blog yet? Its at http://bird-diary.blogspot.com/

Hoping to get the website up tomorrow!

2009-11-14T10:10:00.000+11:00

Here are my patchwork mice, though the pink one is not patchwork but felt. The pair are smaller than the bigger blue one. I made these last weekend, sewing together lots of squares of fabric to make a larger piece of fabric, then cutting out the mouse body shape and a gusset. The ears are felt and the tails are felt except for the blue one, that is a piece of string covered with zigzag stitch which was quite easy, just put the feed dogs down on your sewing machine and use a darning foot, then you can zigzag as densely as you like with blue cotton, slowly working down the string. I made the gusset by holding the 2 body pieces, after sewing them together and turning inside out, and pressing the seam flat, hold them open over felt or fabric and draw round the wedge shape, cut it out and sew onto the bottom, stuffing before you close it up - also put the tail in before you close it up. Make the ears from felt, giving them a little pleat when you sew them on to make them look right, and sew on a couple of black beads for eyes. Add a few stitches for a mouth. I forgot whiskers but you could use fishing line - they might stand out instead of flopping - I'll have to think more about whiskers.

Getting organised

2009-11-10T10:16:00.003+11:00

You can find info on getting organised at my other blog http://filingspace.wordpress.com/ where I will be giving you tips on how to organise various things around your home, including shortly organising your sewing area. If you are making a few notes about what you plan to make next, you might find my ideas useful.

Craft and Quilt Fair

2009-11-08T09:51:00.002+11:00

Just been to the Craft and Quilt Fair in Adelaide - had a terrific time, saw some wonderful quilts; I feel full up with the beauty of it all. I enjoyed the traditional quilts but mainly I was drawn to the art quilts, they were absolutely riveting.

I bought a kit to make silk flowers, and some fabric paint that I was looking for - I have learnt the hard way that not all fabric paints can be sewn through when dry, so always ask!

A technique I saw a lot of at the Quilt Exhibits was the building up of layers of tiny pieces of fabric to show texture and shading, e.g. trees, landescape; and the building up of layer of various media for the same purpose, e.g. yarn couched on fabric A, which is then sewn on to fabric B ...

Also texture was shown with "clumps" of beads, and different types of stitching on the same piece, next to each other, such as areas of close machine quilting next to open hand quilting.

I'm ready to experiment!

Free pattern

2009-11-06T19:32:00.004+11:00

You can now get a free pattern for a Crazy Patchwork bookmark, from CQMagazineOnline, in the article I wrote for this online magazine. This mag has some delicious photos in the Showcase, including my green vest(waistcoat), but lots more besides, and will wet your appetite to make some crazy patchwork yourself.

UFO's

2009-11-02T19:52:00.003+11:00

UFO's, in textile terms, are "unfinished objects", those craft items that we started, ran into a problem with, and put away to finish later. I can't bear to leave these UFO's hanging around for too long; it's all too much clutter. So I get them out again, and have a fresh look at them. It may take a few months to do this, but I can't leave them for years like some people do. Often, a break means the brain has had chance to come up with a way to tackle the problem, or I may need to research how to do it. If I can't see any solution that I am prepared to actually do, then I either put it in the charity box for some hardier soul to have a go with, or - yes - I may well chuck it in the rubbish bin! It is only stuff, after all, and if I can't make use of it then it is no good to me. The quilt I am sewing in my photo on this blog is one of my UFO's which I had half-completed, having finished the patchwork, then put away for some months while I psyched myself up for the quilting. I just couldn't get the enthusiasm to finish it until I read the idea of using fleece as a backing, instead of a layer of batting and a backing layer. This is much simpler, quicker, and it quilts really easily too by machine.

Sewing machines

2009-10-24T19:45:00.005+11:00

Here is an interesting snippet about a basic - the sewing machine. This photo is courtesy of Wikipedia, thank you.

We all know the name of Singer in relation to sewing machines. He was an engineer, and when he saw a rotary sewing machine (an earlier type) being repaired, he decided he could make a better one. He mounted his needle vertically and included a presser foot, so that the cloth could be held in place. Combining elements of earlier machines, he gained an American patent in 1851. After some legal jockeying with earlier inventors, he joined forces with a lawyer named Edward Clark,
and together they formed the first hire-purchase scheme to allow people to buy their sewing machines in an affordable way. Singer Sewing Co invented the first electric sewing machines in 1889, with the motor strapped on the side, as most homes did not yet have power connected.

Embroidery techniques

2009-10-23T19:45:00.001+11:00

Master Embroiderer Helen M Stevens tells us about "opus plunarium" which means literally a work of feathers, describing a form of embroidery developed over the centuries. She believes it originated in Anglo-Saxon split stitch. Opus Plunarium is similar to satin stitch but it changes direction so that it gives a three dimensional appearance to the stitching. It is achieved by gradually changing the angle of the satin stitch as you work around a curve or change in shape of the motif, by slipping the next stitch beneath the previous one, about half to two thirds of the way down, so that effectively you have worked half a stitch at the wider end of the motif and none at the narrow end.

I don't have a photo to show you but Helen Stevens does, in her books, which feature the most beautiful embroidery.

Website

2009-10-13T20:01:00.004+11:00

At last - my website is ready and I am just waiting for my son Brian to give me a hand with the web server stuff - nothing like having a family member who knows what they are doing! My favourite page actually has my daughter's patchwork cushion on it - it is a page for people who have not got a blog or website to show their work on, they can put it on this page of mine for free and their family and friends can then visit the page to see their latest creative efforts. Angela doesn't do a lot of sewing but this cushion cover came out so well I put it in as the first entry. My plan is to have the website up and running by 1st November, and once I have the URL I will post that here as well as everywhere else I can think of. I'm going to update at least the information boxes (a prominent part of the site) every month, and I have another pattern I have just started typing to add as soon as I can, hopefully in December. I've been doing quite a bit of embroidery too but the patterns are lagging behind the sewing!

A small preview of Angela's cushion cover is shown above.

Embroidery - grading your shades

2009-10-03T18:21:00.003+10:00

(Shiny satin doesn't photograph too well, but I wanted to talk about grading shades of colour)

This embroidery was stitched in stranded cottons on black satin. I wanted to embroider a bird (as I often do) and the owl begged for a nighttime scene.
A cat had to go in somewhere, so that outline was on top of the wall - just what you might see dimly in the distance. The moon was to one side, so I
graded the colours of the tree leaves - dark furthest away, then a shade lighter and lighter again on the side closest to the moon. I had scope to use
gradually changing shades of the strands in my needle. The shading of the tree actually shows up better on the photo than the owl, which I was so proud
of, as I followed the colours in my bird book as accurately as I could. There are hundreds of shades in stranded cottons, you can always find a match
for whatever you are stitching.

By the way, I have altered the name of the stitch I used in the last post - the leaves were not cretan of course, but fly stitch.

Australian native flowers

2009-09-29T19:45:00.000+10:00

Once the website is up and running, I intend to stitch embroideries of all my favourite native flowers and plants. I have already embroidered the Cootamundra Wattle, and just need to type up the pattern. I have done several on a crazy patchwork wall hanging that I made a few years ago. This photo shows the bottlebrush tree flower. The stitches were stem stitch (for the stem!) and cretan for the leaves, with straight stitches gently loose for the flower, and beads at the ends of the flower stamens to show the gold tips. Do try it for yourself. Copy mine, or look in a book of Australian plants.

Sewing machine maintenance

2009-09-23T19:17:00.000+10:00

Yes, I know, how boring - but if you don't clean out the lint from your sewing machine from time to time, it can jam up and cause problems. Check your sewing machine manual from instructions on how to remove the bobbin holder and shuttle race. I have only had my new machine for a year and decided to clean these two places out, as I have done a lot of quilting this year. I found a very solid piece of lint inside!

Here is an interesting web site with free sewing patterns including a bag to hang from a walker or wheelchair.
http://www.sewing.org/index.html

Cootamundra Wattle

2009-09-16T20:02:00.001+10:00

Here is the picture.

Website construction

2009-09-13T17:08:00.000+10:00

At last I am underway with my website construction. Not without incident. After typing up enough patterns to launch my website, I downloaded some programs from the internet to use to set it up. Unfortunately, they interfered bigtime with my husbands PC games, so I uninstalled the website programs and bought a laptop computer! Now I can dedicate it to "Business", so I'm off again.
Here is a pic of a beautiful Cootamundra Wattle tree - watch out for an embroidery based on it.

Hexagon Quilt

2009-09-05T16:23:00.000+10:00

As you can see, I have another article printed in Ezine - click on the button to go there.

Ezine articles

2009-08-29T12:00:00.000+10:00

As you will see, I now have some articles published on Ezine - if you click on the link button, you will go directly to Ezine where you can type my name into the Search box, and a list of articles by me will come up. Click on the one you want to read.

2009-08-29T11:54:00.000+10:00

Embroidery threads

2009-08-22T12:14:00.000+10:00

Here is a small sample of some of the lovely threads you can use to create different textures.

Cotton – 6-stranded such as DMC or Anchor; can be separated into 1 or more strands.

Perle cotton, comes in different thicknesses, with the higher the number, the finer the thread.

Silks – floss silk such as Madeira. This is untwisted with a high sheen. Can be separated into 4 strands.

Synthetic threads – come in a smaller range of colours than cottons but are shinier.

Metallic threads – come in different thicknesses, but thicker threads need to be couched, as pulling through fabric causes them to splinter.

DMC threads have have a great website at http://tinyurl.com/lehgvg, it is well worth a browse.

I have just had an article published at http://tinyurl.com/njryhs - hope you enjoy it, it is a lighthearted look at learning about patchwork and quilting.

More on embroidery design

2009-08-18T11:06:00.001+10:00

For anyone interested in all the textile arts, I recommend this website I found this morning, I have a tinyurl for it which is http://tinyurl.com/olywmv

More on embroidery design.
Think of the threads you are going to use -some like silk, some like stranded cotton – silk shines, cotton gives a matt finish, so you may consider these points.

Think too of the scale. If your design is farly large, you can include lots of detail. If small, you need to simplify – pick out the major points such as eyes, and just suggest smaller details with a few stitches, e.g. spot on fur can be a few small stitches.

Add notes on your final drawing about colours, stitch direction and any other things you may want to refer to later. This makes your embroidery pattern more useful to you as a working plan. But expect to change your mind – it makes life fun!

Also consider being innovative – you don’t have to only embroider or only applique for instance – combining techniques can give a highly original look and I will give you more ideas on this in future blogs. This is commonly known as Mixed Media.

Designing your own embroidery

2009-08-15T09:10:00.001+10:00

Many embroiderers don’t want to design their own embroidery patterns, but for those who can’t find what they want, or have an idea in their head they want to embroider, it is a satisfying process.

First, know what embroidery style you are comfortable with. For beginners only just discovering surface embroidery, patterns for a stumpwork design are too adventurous. Wait until you have tried a style before designing for it.

Second, draft a few sketches on paper. Try different placements for the elements in your embroidery pattern, moving them around till they appear balanced – not evenly spread necessarily, but till it “looks right”. For example, if you have a bird on a branch to the left of centre, try a flower to the right.

And remember the basic rules of perspective – items closer to you will be larger, and lower in the picture. Items further away will be smaller, and higher in the picture.

To see the Collection Showcase of the UK Embroidery Guild go to this website:
http://tinyurl.com/lmtp6s
I am now using shortened URL's to make addresses less cumbersome, I get them shortened through tinyurl so you can be sure they are genuine.

More on embroidery design next time.

Crazy Patchwork

2009-08-08T16:31:00.000+10:00

I love crazy patchwork. I sew it the traditional way, with the raw edges being covered with either ribbon, braid or embroidery, because I can make the patches irregular and place them where I want to. I know many people now prefer to use the sewing machine, but this looks to me like a modified log cabin design and I am more interested in the freedom of irregularity. I recently made a waistcoat which I show you here. It is velvet, satin and heavy Chinese satin, kindly donated by my cousin Jan, and I enjoyed making it, though it is quite heavy and hot to wear.

Embroidered galah (Australian bird)

2009-08-05T21:44:00.001+10:00

The galah as promised.

Texture in Surface Embroidery

2009-08-05T21:16:00.001+10:00

One of the loveliest things about embroidery is the textures we work to create. Smooth, fluffy, bumpy - so many different textures, all of them interesting and tactile.

As a textile artist, embroidery has long been one of my loves. I have given away many of my creations (I'm a "process more than the product" person) but I will show you one of those I couldn't part with. It portrays a variety of textures.This is not my design, I took it direct from a book by Lalla Ward called the Countryside Embroidery Book. Unfortunately it is no longer in print; it is a most beautiful book showing 12 scenes, one for each month, of British birds, flowers etc. The ducklings in this pic are fluffy, being worked in Turkey stitch/Giordes knot, which is basically a long looping stitch that is then cut to produce the fluffy effect. This contrasts strongly with the poppies, which are in smooth satin stitch. The butterfly has a fluffy body and smooth wings. The borders are first, padded satin stitch, stem stitch and blanket stitch.

Another way of creating texture is with the stitches themselves. For instance, in my galah, the bird is actually painted with fabric paint and them embroidered with detached chains. This gives the texture of the feathers quite well.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to upload this photo so I will show you next time!

Patchwork Piecing

2009-08-01T11:05:00.000+10:00

Today I have a few hints on patchwork piecing. I'm thinking about it because my husband has picked out a patchwork quilt for me to make, and it contains hundreds of squares cut into triangles. A couple of posts back I gave you my idea for using glad snaplock bags for categorising the various sizes and shapes. Another idea is to use fleece as a backing instead of the usual batting and fabric backing. This makes for a light quilt, better for summer use, or if it is going to be a throw rather than a bed quilt. I have machine-quilted on this very successfully - the walking foot goes over the two layers like a dream with no rucking-up of the patchwork layer.

As far as the piecing goes - there is a tradition that you have to build in a mistake because only God can achieve perfection. I like this rule because I can excuse my mistakes by saying they were meant!

I do use a rotary cutter for large amounts of straight cutting, but I am a philistine really because I prefer scissors - anyone else out there who shares my feeling?I found this pattern in a magazine several years ago, before I started designing my own patterns, and as I have a great affection for a cup of tea, I made it straight away.

Back to embroidery next time.

Newly published crazy patchwork

2009-07-28T20:31:00.000+10:00

Yes, I now have a photo of my original crazy patchwork wallhanging published on the following site
http://cqmagonline.com/vol08iss03/showcase/index.shtml and I hope you go and have a look! Look for "Christine Linton".

Also for more beautiful embroidery, go to Helen Stevens website http://www.fritillary.co.uk/ and you will have a feast for your eyes.

I do applique too - see this apron.

More soon.

Yet more makings

2009-07-24T16:48:00.000+10:00

This is a photo of my Mixed Media pic, made of velvet, velour and white card. It is called "Dusk".
I can now also be found at http://www.quiltingarts.com/members/Christine-Linton/default.aspx

2009-07-24T14:58:00.000+10:00

This is a photo of the Crazy Patchwork Bookmark that I made recently. It was really easy and was inspired - wait for it - by the card inserts in a box of teabags. They are the right size for a bookmark, but being Christine, I had to "make something" so, as I do love the look of crazy patchwork, I decided this would be an ideal quick project. I will have the pattern available for free once I get my website open - still working on that, lots of typing of patterns.

A tip for those who do lots of patchwork piecing. When you have to cut lots of small squares and triangles for one of those intricate designs, you can avoid enormous confusion at the sewing machine by separating each type, e.g. 2" triangles, into different Glad snap-lock bags, with a brief note to tell you what the size is. Takes the nightmare into a good dream.

I had a long gap between posts because I couldn't get on the internet - traffic jams I suppose!

2009-07-15T21:29:00.000+10:00

Hi to everyone, this is my second blog (not counting twitter). My blog is going to be all about textile crafts, this is my favourite subject.

One of my favourite pieces of embroidery at the moment is two Gouldian Finches and a Ulysses Butterfly, I designed this and used Madeira silk thread. It is all set to go on my new website which I am in the process of creating. I show you here a pic of the butterfly.

I recently discovered a great product called Gutermann Sulky; it's not new except to me, it is water soluble. If you draw your embroidery or quilting design on the rough side, pin it on your fabric, sew along the lines - so easy, it just rinses away in water. Use a water soluble marker; I made the mistake of using a felt tip pen, which worked, but left marks on the fabric. I ended up machining extra lines to cover them so all challenges can be solved.

http://bit.ly/xFAW8 is the shortened URL for my other blog, which is called http://embroiderypatterns.iiabblog.com