Fibre and Stitch is out!

It’s the 28th here and soon around the globe the date will tick over. With the holiday season just around the corner many of us are running around with long to do lists, and organising gifts, holiday plans or the worst part for me is cleaning! But you may like to take some time out for yourself, put your feet up, and read Fibre and Stitch as the second issue is out. What is in it this month? Loads of goodies.

There was a lot of chatter around the net about the first issue of Fibre and Stitch and I don’t think subscribers will be disappointed with the 70 page second issue. The magazine aims at textile practitioners who are interested in techniques that include, printing, painting, dyeing, and manipulating fiber to create complex textures for use as a foundation for, or along side contemporary embellishing techniques. If you are a traditionalist this is not a magazine for you.

This issue has two articles that were immediately printed and pasted into my notebook for future reference as they contain useful and informative information. In the first installment of a series on using text on textiles Sue Bleiweiss has written a detailed article on working with pens and markers. There is some very useful information in this article including how particular brands behave when washed. Margaret Roberts demonstrates how to print on fabric using an ink jet printer in Ink Jet Textiles and compares various products on the market.

There is a distinct book theme running throughout this issue. Carol Clasper in from Sketch to Stitch illustrates how she made her own sketchbook using Evolon and Punchinella which is otherwise known as sequin waste. This is a highly illustrated and detailed 7 page article that gets the creative juices going. In Keeping Tabs Teri Stegmiller creates a functional and ususual book using tabbed index cards. Gina Ferrari really sparked my interest with her small origami folded books which have decorated bonded covers as a Christmas gift problem might just be solved with this project. Another gift idea was provided by Carol Mcfee who shows us in clearly illustrated article how to make a concertina book with hand made papers. Sara Lechner in Book-Bag to go, creates an usual bag from wool roving and an embellisher and Linda Feldman show us how to make a fabric photo album

Non woven forms of fabric construction and manipulation is an area of texiles that enjoying a growth of interest. Felting is of course a time honoured manner of taking a a fiber and manipulating it until it is a textile. In this issue Marie Johansen looks a needle felting to make a contemporary small bag. By far the most interesting article to me is Sue Bleiweiss’s technique of using different shrinkage rates in fibers to create fabrics with interesting surface textures.

For those who enjoy free machine embroidery Carol Mcfee uses water soluble fabric to create a treasure box. Also contemporary thread painting for free motion embroiderers Terry White thoroughly explores pattern in Cover it with Stitches. Margaret Roberts shows you how to create small folding screens.

As you can sense I think the magazine is great with loads of ideas, inspiration and eye candy for anyone who interested in contemporary textiles. I was thinking I just need to find time to try them all when I read Sues “letter from the editor” as she has a few time management tips. Mmmmm… I guess its time for me to get on with day…