Last night I loaded my February effort for the 6 x 4 lives fabric postcard challenge. (As usual click on the post card and it will take you to the flickr site where you can see a larger version)
In case people are unaware of this challenge the idea is to use the fabric postcard format as a journal. It is a freeform challenge to produce a fiber postcard once a month that records what you have been exploring, doing, or thinking about. The format can be used to explore telling stories visually, experimenting and exploring with techniques, or involve taking up design challenges such as experiments with colour and composition.
This is not swap challenge, but a personal challenge to share with others. The postcard can be made using any textile technique so no matter what you do the challenge is open to you.
Most of this month seems to be devoted to crazy quilting or activities that relate to some aspect of crazy quilting. Either I was polishing the lessons for the online class which is now running at Joggles.com or in the forum over there answering questions and chatting to students. It shaping up to be a lot of fun. So of course I felt I had mark the event with a postcard. I also had a birthday hence the birthday cake charm.
Firstly my camera has really picked up the blues and the purplish corner is actually a shot fabric, which is more blue that purple so the card looks a little unbalanced but in life it looks fine. As an experiment I tried an old blackwork design in the top left hand corner. It’s worked in hand dyed thread and I used waste canvas to do it.
In the bottom right hand corner is something a little more interesting. The S shaped seam treatment is whipped back stitch with little pockets attached into which I tucked a bead. The pockets were worked using Detached buttonhole stitch. I am going to experiment more along these lines as it’s very interesting technique. I stumbled on it accidentally as I had been reading about Turkish Oya needle lace and decided to explore detached buttonhole a little more. I think it has loads of potential.
Sharon, I have finally been able to get onto your blog after two months of trying every day (and countless times emptying my cache and anything else I could think of). I don’t have time to catch up on everything I’ve missed but it’s great to see the Katrina quilt coming along and I’m really impressed with this postcard. I’m copying that seam treatment into my visual journal right now and can’t wait to try it on something!
Melody
Oh, Sharon… just love that S seam treatment… love it…love it…love it…
I really like the Oya-type pockets,though…I love it when you get an investigatively curious idea like that. I’ve always enjoyed following your brain-throughs!
Your block is beautiful, as always! But how is it communicating? Mine, as soon as I make my camera work more, are not art works. They are expressions. Well, plain, per se.
OH this is just the most gorgeous piece of needlework!!! LOVE each of the colors, the ephemera, the stitches !!!! AWESOME!
This is a beautiful piece of work. I’ve found myself drawn to this color palette lately as well– this entry is very inspiring to me!
When I first saw the whipped backstitch and bead pocket area, I thought I was looking at some strange new kind of oya!…love how you are incorporating the concept and making it your own.