Pohutukawa

Christmas is upon us, so something Christmassy. The Pohutukawa symbolises NZ Christmas for me.
Textile inked some calico in different strengths of green.
Pohutukawa flowers. Drew 6cm and 4 cm circles on wash away stabiliser. Put the stabiliser in an embroidery hoop. Using red variegated crochet cotton in the bobbin, I sewed straight stitch from edge to edge, 1oclock to 7 o’clock, to 2 o’clock to 8 o’clock, etc, making sure I met and crossed in the centre.
Changed the tread to normal cotton and did none more large flower, then zigzagged 30 gauged beading wire to the flowers, about 8 times, making sure the thread is touching other thread.
I also just sewed 4 lengths of beading wire with zigzag stitch over the beading wire. Cur all the threads on the outside of the circle and washed it all away.
Leaves – painted Lutradur (sp) with textile ink, and then rubbed some Shiva paint sticks over when it was dry. I cut heaps of leaf shapes.
Onto the green fabric I zigzagged some red flowers, then stitched the leaves into place. I folded some over to give a 3D effect. Stitched some more red flowers and added more leaves.
Hand stitched the “wash away” flowers to the stitched one and manipulated the wire.
Unfortunately the picture doesn’t do this piece justice, but it is so 3D you expect bees and flies to land on the flowers.
Perhaps the quilt could benefit with brown stalks or yellow beads on the tip of the sewn down flowers.

Failure and Success

I wanted to do some more laser printing, so in Publisher I created a graphic about success. My success comes from learning from my failures. “In order to succeed, it’s okay to fail.”
Found a quote from Winston Churchill about complexities, and a quote from Albert Einstein about simplicities.
Printed the graphic onto yellow rose fabric and it looked awesome. Red textile paint and a very fine brush, I painted “OK” red and bold. It stands out and catches the attention. Yellow quilting in a square spiral around the words in a straight stitch.
Printed a practise graphic out onto calico and washed it by hand. The printing held.
Chucked it in to machine on a normal cycle, and the ink came out and was very faded. So, laser printing is only good for items for wall hangings, not anything that will get wear.

Hamner Hills

Tidying up I found an old canvas that I had used when practising colour mixes with oil paints, it has to be at least 10 years old. The colours remind me of the hills in Hamner, South Island.

Using some left skeletons picked up on Mt Ngongataha, and using textile ink, painted them yellow, red, and orange.

Once dried the ink has given the leaves a little more strength, but using black tulle, collaged them as autumn trees to the canvas background.

Found some turquoise ribbon, and laid 3 strips inform of the leaf “trees. Felt the landscape need green, so chopped up a green fabric scrap into to bits, and arranged as shrubs on the right.

Twirled some ‘jazz” novelty yarn as grass/ flax at the front, but I am not sure if it is lost in the colours.

Sewed everything down with orange / yellow variegated thread, and managed to break 2 needles in the process. Perhaps the machine doesn’t like sewing through canvas?
Outlined the leaf shapes, do they look like trees? Used the skeletons as a guide and sewed over them for trunks and branches.

Looks a bit messy, but I like the trees.

Poppies

“Are they what I think they are?”
For several months now, I have been considering using the outside green wrapper, which I think is polypropylene, on the packs of “naturals range” of Libra pads. It reminds me of the tyvek building wrap which is strong and doesn’t rip.
After laying the wrappers from one packet out onto the painting sheet, I painted them with yellow and red textile ink, and mixed up the leftovers for orange. The stuff soaked up the colour fantastically, even though it began as a pale green base.
While I had the ink out, I painted some cupcake liners red and yellow, then decided they needed a “center, so a dab of black or purple paint plopped into the centre of each pleated circle.
When the wrappers were dry I cut them into 1.5 cm strips and wove them to create a background. They cut well and there is no fraying. The leftovers I melts together to create a nest mixture. Texture and all that.
The cupcake liners also hold the colour and creases well, and remind me of poppies, so they started my piece. Silver paint stik was used to stencil poppy leaves around the outside. I also cut some poppy leaves from an unpainted green wrapper. Using the melted “nest” and the green leaves, completed the composition.
Quilted in red thread around the sliver leaves, and stitched the green cut out leaves with green variegated thread.
The poppies needed more, so I popped some yellow seed beads in the centre.
Surprisingly, the products worked well, and I will use both of them again.