landscapes of my mind

My friends Kaite and Penny B. have either shown, or are in the process of showing small landscapes on their blogs, so I thought that I would share in the fun. Penny's was posted a couple of days ago and Kaite's is now posted. Mine are a combination of free motion machine quilting/embroidery and hand stitching. The heavier emphasis is on the machine. The backgrounds are serendipity transfer/disperse dyed monoprints on commercial satin. Fun to do and quite addictive! The monoprint sets the mood and the machine just follows along for the ride............................

For those of you who aren't familiar, transfer/disperse dyes are used on regular copier paper, left to dry and then ironed onto polyester fabric. The satin is my favourite, because the colours just seem to glow. Both pieces are layered like a quilt with the top, batting and a backing.


Storm - 6 1/4"W x 6 1/4"L




Serenity - 7 1/2"W x 10 1/4L




Don't forget to follow the links to visit my friend's pieces.

citra solv - a new frontier

Please excuse the black plastic and masking tape. This is what happens when you splash full strength Citra Solv natual cleaner (the original orange, concentrate) between the pages of an old National Geographic magazine (the older ones are supposed to be better). Mine was circa 1983 courtesy of Value Village ($.99). I found the Citra Solv at a health food grocery store in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, but I know that it's also available locally and online. If you google the Citra Solv company, you'll find lots of eye candy and instructions. I've been wanting to try this for a while and believe it or not, it's quite an easy process. Messy and stinky though, so be prepared to do this outside. Don't even start if you hate the smell of oranges!

Liberally splash or brush the Citra Solv onto the highly coloured pages (the mainly text ones turn out black and boring). Keep the magazine closed for at least an hour. If the pages look ready and you're satisfied with the effect, rip them out and lay them to dry on newspaper or plastic. Don't leave them too long or the pages will stick together. The ink quite literally runs off the page, so make sure you wear old clothes, gloves and remember to only do this in a very well ventilated area (outside is good!). Be responsible! Protect your clothes and your health and follow these instructions at your own risk! I doubt that you'll have problems, but be aware that I'm not responsible for any reactions you have to either the ink or the Citra Solv.

This photo isn't elegant, but it shows you the variety of pages I got. More black ones than I was expecting, but the ink movement is still quite interesting.



Three of my favourite pages......think of the possibilities!


The edge of a stream?





An underwater cave or grotto?





Fire or lava?




Any other ideas??

What will I use these for? Good question! My initial plan is to mix in a little fibre, collage is a given and the rest for the stash. Possibilities for inchies, artist trading cards, post cards and even larger pieces are limitless!

I'm itching to stitch! What about you?

what the heck does confetti have to do with procrastination?

I was avoiding a project that's due mid-November (actually one of two projects due at the same time). I wasn't inspired and didn't really feel like working on anything serious, so I decided to play with a technique Penny B taught me several years ago. You start with a base fabric and then lay on many different squares of fabric (I used my procion mx hand dyed cottons in 2" squares). I cheated and fused them, but then stitched all the edges with a stitched out zigzag. When that was finished, I sliced down the middle of each square with a rotary cutter, rearranged the strips, then butted them together and stitched again........



......repeat as desired......I think that I sliced and diced around four times before I was happy with my confetti............




I have an idea for this, but won't post until I'm happy with the results. Of course, it won't work for either of the official projects, but at least I'm playing my way out of the doldrums....

a little local colour

All photos in this post are taken at the Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto. The colours in this particular area have not quite reached their peak, despite the fact that other areas of Toronto have. It's been a strange year! The Don Valley Parkway is absolutely spectacular right now, but I can't snap a shot when I'm driving at 100 kms.

I don't have much to say today, so I believe I'll let the pictures do the talking. Happy Thanksgiving from Canada!



















Okay, I just need to say one more thing. When I looked at this sculpture, I thought that it was an interesting abstract piece of rusty metal. It wasn't until I uploaded the pictures, I realized that it was a pair of work boots! Giggle!