STAMP CUSHIONS!

In between the mixed media artwork, I like to get my sewing machine out!  I have just completed these two patchwork cushions, which have stamps as the main motif.  All the pieces of fabric were sewn by hand onto a background with large decorative stitches.  I then machined lines of parallel stitching all over the surface, before inserting the zip and making up the cushion cover...

LEFTOVER WOOL CUSHION

My friend Emma is a keen knitter who uses her leftover wools, combined with a Kaffe Fassett pattern, to make cushion covers for her daughters. As she hasn't got a sewing machine, I end up sewing them together!  I featured a dotty cushion she had knitted in a post last December and have just finished the one shown below. The only problem with this one was that the cushion filler she gave me was too big so I had to open it up to transfer some of the filling to a new inner cover. That was when I discovered it was filled with feathers! There were feathers everywhere, so I wore a face mask and used my vacuum cleaner which became blocked!

DOTTY CUSHION

My friend Emma is a great knitter but she has the problem most knitters have - small bits of leftover wool.  She has come up with a good solution - multi coloured cushion covers using Kaffe Fassett patterns with her own colour schemes.  I helped her by mounting the knitting onto a plain background fabric and making it into a cushion cover, as she hasn't got a sewing machine.

I remember going to a talk by Kaffe Fassett many, many, years ago.  It was so exciting, as he introduced loads of colour and pattern into garments at a time when knitting was dull and boring - not the exciting and colourful craft it is today.  He came to knitting as an artist and worked with Rowan Wools to introduce ranges of beautiful coloured yarns. He was also intriguing, being a young good looking man in a world which at the time was dominated by middle aged women making unimaginative  knitted jumpers. He is now somewhat older, but is still going strong, having introduced his colourful world to needlepoint. mosaics, fabric, rugs, patchwork and painting.

 

BROWN OWL

For my third owl cushion I have used some of my favourite newsprint fabric as a background.  It was Lizzie Oliva, the gallery's fantastic hat maker that introduced me to some of the great fabrics you can get these days by trawling the internet.  I often use recycled fabrics and try to use up the materials in my studio stock but occasionally I can't resist buying new, such as this fabric.

Brown owl (height 42cms) joins my other owls.

I have made this cushion in much the same way as the other two, except that I have covered the background material with a patchwork of fabrics before adding the face and strips of material for the wings.  The one thing that I haven't mentioned is the way I put my animal cushions together. Instead of the traditional method of stitching right sides together and turning them inside out and stuffing, I stitch wrong sides together with a line of machine stitching close to the edge. A space is left to stuff the cushion using a polyester filling and then this is closed with machine stitching.  This is possible as I don't over stuff the cushion.  I find this method retains the animal shape better and I don't mind the raw edges as it adds to the feather/fur look.  If the background material is one that tends to fray, I do a line of zigzag stitching around the outline before I start to work on it.

OWL CUSHIONS

Owls seem to be popular at the moment, particularly for jewellery.  In October we are making owls our theme for the windows at the One Craft Gallery; so I have started making some owl cushions.  My aim is to make three, but I have only made two so far.  This is my first one, which began life as a sketch that became the paper pattern.  I tried it out in scrap fabric and stuffed it to see if I liked the shape. Then I cut the two sides from some multi-coloured upholstery fabric and the face and wings from a thinner plain fabric which was then covered with bits of materials, mainly sari silk, and sewn deliberately leaving the fringes free.  These were attached and eyes, beak and ears in felted wool and leather were added. It is 48cms high (excluding ears).

Above is the finished cushion with a second one made from some of my recycled denim - bits of dungarees, skirt and jeans make up this owl. The embroidered flowers were already on the section of skirt used.  I added some simple embroidery stitches, machined everything together, leaving the pockets free, so they can be utilised. The final touch was the leather eyes with white buttons. This owl is a completely different shape and 40cms high.

DENIM DOLLS

I love using denim for projects, particularly old worn denim.  Over the years I have bought denim clothes from jumble sales and charity shops.  Also, people who like the idea of recycling, have given me their old jeans and denim jackets.  I have used them for making bags, cushions and textures under artworks, all of which I will feature in the future, but for this blogpost, I want to show you the rag doll I made, inspired by a child's denim dress with an embroidered collar.

Dolly lounging on a sofa with a cushion that features the seams of old jeans.

I wanted my doll to be useful, as well as decorative, so there is an opening at the back of the skirt, so that plastic bags can be stored and it is decorated with useable pockets from old jeans.  She is quite tall - 3ft 3 inches, and her face is hand embroidered.  I have read somewhere that, when making dolls, the creator tends to use their own features and colouring. I instinctively didn't think of making the eyes anything but blue, and I have been told there is a resemblance in the face!  The hair is strips of muslin and the ears have eyelets punched in them with stationery rings hanging from them. During the making she somehow acquired a cleavage, cowboy boots and a personality!  When it came to a name there was an obvious choice - Dolly, after the fabulous Dolly Parton.

Hippy Chick sporting her new wellies.

       

Dolly now has a friend - Hippy Chick, the creation of fellow mixed media artist, Dawn Porter.  Hippy Chick's body is also based on a denim dress filled with plastic bags.  Her face is hand embroidered, her hair is made from sari silk and she is 3ft 5 and a half inches tall.

I love seeing art dolls made by other mixed media and textile artists, especially those that are imaginative and have a message, such as those made by Junker Jane.  I admire those who, unlike me, make dolls of unconventional shapes and features.  I always seem to want mine to be 'doll like'!

CHUNKY KNITS

I did a blog post back on May 13th on extreme knitting and promised to show some results. Here they are. It is so satisfying to do, as the knitting grows so quickly. I haven't the patience for knitting with normal sized needles!  I also don't like having to think about what stitch I should be doing, so stocking stitch suits me just fine.  The beauty of extreme knitting is its chunkiness so no fancy stitches are required.

The cushions are done with loads of balls of wool of different thicknesses and colours, knitted together on my enormous needles.  I produced a long rectangle which was then folded in half and the sides sewn together with wool.  A cushion pad was placed inside and the open end was fastened with ties made from material in the same colours.  As regards to colour, I didn't worry too much if a ball of wool ran out, I just tied on another one within my colour scheme. If you look carefully you can see variations of colour within the cushions.

The top picture shows a bathmat I made with two fleece blankets - one lime green and one turquoise - which were on offer together in a discount home store.  It would have been bigger if I had known how much material the knitting would take!  I did go back to buy another set when I realised how small the mat was going to turn out, but the store had run out of the colours I wanted! I cut the blankets into strips and sewed them together, alternating the colours, with a zigzag stitch on the sewing machine.  It does make a lovely soft and washable mat.  Now that I am getting used to the big needles and how far wools or materials will go,  I shall certainly be doing some more soon.

FLOWER POWER

It is all about flowers at the moment - the Chelsea Flower Show has just gone and the garden centres are bursting with bedding plants. It made me think about the simplest flower shape. There are some shapes that are iconic, symbolic and instantly recognised throughout the world. The heart shape is an example, as is the flower shape with rounded petals and a centre.  It was particularly used in the 1960s - a version in black and white is the logo for Mary Quant to this day, and hippies and flower-power was a popular cult movement full of simple flower images. With current interest in everything retro it can be seen everywhere - in jewellery, soft furnishings and fashion.

In the above montage, the top brooch is a modern glass brooch made by Fran Davies.  She is a fellow member of the One Craft Gallery. The middle brooch is vintage 60s and the cream flower necklace is also vintage.

It is an easy shape to draw and make into a stamp or stencil, which can be layered up to represent all kinds of flowers.  I have used these simple flower shapes in many of my paintings and also for textile jewellery (see above).

When I wanted some new cushions for the conservatory, I drew several flower shapes and decided  that the simplest would be the most effective. I put together a background patchwork of materials with embroidery - one in shades of pink and red, and one in different black and white patterns.  I then drew a flower template, cut it out and swapped the petal section over. The cushions were then reconstructed using hand and machine embroidery and then put together with a plain black backing with a zip. 

 

BIRDS, BIRDS, BIRDS

I do love simple bird shapes, but I haven't really used them much before, so when it was decided that birds was going to be the theme for the next window display, (after the Easter nests), at the One Craft Gallery, I had a go.  So far I have made some gift bags, cards and two bird cushions.

As I tend to work in 2D,  I was surprised how my birds turned out from the template I had drawn (see below).  I forgot how much the stuffing changes the look of the shape.  My papier mache bird sculptures are formed without drawing a design first. This newspaper print fabric makes a great background.  These two will shortly go into the gallery and when I have time I will make some more, perhaps trying some different bird shapes.