Cloth doodling

Cloth doodling?... Well, I can't think of a better name for it! It's what you do when you just pick up the cloth and thread and without really knowing where it's going, you start something ;)

It's what you do when you forget the iron and your sketchbook!


















Calico and two strands of DMC embroidery thread.


















A design outline sketched in graphite and then stitched using blanket/buttonhole stitch.


















Couldn't resist peeking! Reverse applique using a scrap of hand-dyed, upcycled silk, in a slightly darker tone as the under layer.


















For successful reverse applique it's important to do the stitch so that the passing of thread through thread happens on the inside of your design, where you'll be cutting through the top layer of cloth.


















Intricate designs are hard to stitch in this fashion. It's diffiuclt to get around all of those complex corners!


















This is how it's looking so far.

Reading through missed posts on Jude's blog yesterday, I was introduced to Manya Maratou's blog Mythcolor. If you don't know Manya already, I recommend that you visit her soon! Have a lovely Sunday afternoon!

Boogie!

Following on from yesterday's post...

Now that Nilo is back to school, I am going to have to progress with my real design work! I've kind of been fiddling around these past few weeks, in all sorts of directions. Which is important too, of course. Play! I don't know about you, but that's usually where my best ideas are concieved of, even if the end product is nothing like the thing that I started out playing with. To me, good design could be defined as the successful outcome of a good What-If.

Ok, this is wierd for me... but I'm looking at these bright colored cotton scraps! Well?... Gotta try everything, right? At least one time! ;}















Bright colored cotton scraps from Boquete, Panama.



















This morning it occurred to me to try the confetti spiral again but this time as a donut, and I really like the neat little twist that's added to my initial idea.

I've been thinking about working with indigo and or upcycled denim for a while now. Looks like I'm not the only one. You should definately take a look at this and this. Both of which are fabulous examples of [re]using denim and of posts that have popped up recently that I really ❥ed.

Of course, one cannot mention indigo without drawing your attention back to this and this.

Ladies, I salut you!



















And following on from this, I'm still thinking about putting a new spin on things. I like this one alot!

Talking of making design progress... this is where it's all heading now.



















"Boogie": A neat little shoulder bag, from upcycled denim, muslin, calico, and cotton scraps and colored silk thread.

It's my project for the coming week. Something to be working on even though we'll have guests. I want to come up with something that is funky but chic. Something with a sense of fun about it. Watch this space!

P.S. And for Kaye's sake, you should know that only the best sketch with biros!

A little blue?

I'm feeling a little blue today, knowing that I have to leave in the (early!) morning, to make that damned long journey to the city again. Another 8 hours on a stuffy coach. I'm thinking about what stitching to take along for the ride. I never like to have to leave my little home and the boys. This is a quick one. I hope to be back on Wednesday. We have guests booked all of next week!

I've been playing with the fruits of Conostegia subcrustulata (Melastomataceae) again. The last time I tried to solar dye with these, I used too few fruits and it just turned the small scrap of cloth a slightly tan color. So yesterday Nilo and I gathered more fruits for this small experiment. We have alot of these shrubs in the garden and the great thing is - assuming that this dye is ever going to work for me - that they fruit and flower constantly throughout the year. Discover more about this plant here















Thought you might like this image of buds and immature fruits of Conostegia subcrustulata and a visiting grasshopper. The image was taken by Reinaldo.

So... on with the show!



















First I masked a small square of calico, leaving narrow spaces between each strip of tape.



















Then I started to smush the berries with a wooden pestle directly onto the cloth.



















Doesn't that look yummy! Actually, you can eat these berries, they're sweet and gritty because they have so many minute seeds (which you can see in the images).




















This is how it looked when I had done that with all of the gaps.

Next...















A random berry smushing! Pour the berries onto the cloth, place a sheet of paper on top, and roll over it all with a rolling pin.



















Hmmm... interesting! Love that vibrant blue where the light shines through. It reminds me of...

When I was a child I was fascinated by the color of the jars of Vick's Vapor Rub when held up to the light. It was the only bit of entertainment one got when sick. I have a love of Bristol Blue Glass, especially that which comes in the form of a bottle of Harveys Bristol Cream, which, sadly, I can no longer drink :( I went to the Bristol blue glass factory on a school trip once. It was very cool! My (other) home town is about 40 minutes drive from the city of Bristol.

Moving on...















Some very random strokes made with a paint brush, with concentrated berry smush juice,painted direct onto the cloth.















A close-up...















I especially like this section.















And here they all are, hanging out. I'm leaving them there... because, let's face it, it is never going to rain!















And here is a new solar dye experiement, this time using a much higher concentration of these fruits and a piece of rolled calico.















This morning it looks like this... I'm optimistic! I will leave it in the sun soaking for a week.















I had to put a rock on the top to hold the cloth under!

Coming soon!...















Reinaldo came back from the field with several of these yesterday... Genipa americana (Rubiaceae - that's the coffee family). But more about that later!

My posts seem to get longer and longer. Thanks for your attention span!