Textile Postcard Project Week #139

May 31st - June 6th 2020

My special birthday week. What a beautiful sunset to celebrate it with. I absolutely love the colour of the sky at dusk or dawn. The reflections across the sky and in this case onto a foreground lake, can be stunningly beautiful.

The sunset photograph has been printed onto fabric and consequently made into a postcard. It is my 139th week and the last blog of this postcard project.
I hope you have enjoyed the series. I have enjoyed making the postcards and entering them each week into my blog.

Textile Postcard Project Week #138

May 24th -30th 2020

I gained a lot of pleasure from making my own stamps. This kangaroo has been 'stamped' onto appropriately coloured and printed commercial cotton fabric.

The detailed view shows that the stamped image is not quite perfect. This allows for the casual appearance of 'hand made' items

Textile Postcard Project Week #137

May17th - 23rd 2020

 A piece of procian dyed cotton fabric has been altered to display irregular pleating. This was done by firstly wetting the fabric, then leaving it to dry in a scrunched and twisted roll. When dry, the fabric was opened and the pleats were ironed in place. The pressing with a hot steam iron makes the pleating much more permanent.The sample fabric was placed on the card and the pleats were over stitched with a variegated cotton thread. The scrunching and stitching can be seen more clearly in the detailed view below.

Textile Postcard Project Week # 136

May10th to 16th 2020

The frayed piece of fabric is silk from the end of a roll. It appears quite attractive as it is positioned on the dull pink backing.

The near view clearly shows the frayed edges.

Textile Postcard Project Week # 135

May 3rd - 9th 2020

I have used a scrap of black cotton fabric for this week's postcard. The black fabric was bleach discharged into a very 'unexpected' design. I have over-stitched it with free machine stitching using a variegated thread. Discharging of colour always leads to an unexpected design...that is the fun of the process. The detailed view really shows the odd pattern that the discharge left.

Textile Postcard Project Week # 134

April 26th - May 2nd 2020

 My passion for Eco dyeing has grown during the last few years. Dyeing with eucalyptus leaves and rusted objects give my favorite results. Both cream woollen fabric (old blankets in particular) and cream or white silk are the most successful types of fabric to use. The fabric on this card is actually very fine cotton which I rarely use. It is surprising how attractive rusty marks can be when there is no definite definition or planning.

Textile Postcard Project Week# 133

 April 19th -25th 2020

This piece of Japanese Obi silk has been Eco dyed. It has been attached to the postcard with machine stitching lines which have followed the marks on the fabric.  

Textile Postcard Project Week # 132

April 12th -18th 2020

The postcard this week
features an off cut from a small quilt - showing Procian dyed fabric, hand and machine embroidery, Treasure Gold accents and a narrow binding finished with a decorative machine stitch.
 

The base fabric on the card is an over dyed  commercial fabric which is is quite affective.  

Textile Postcard Project Week # 131

April 5th -11th 2020

What fun I had the day I stamped and printed this piece of Procian dyed fabric. I used some commercial stamps but the dominant 'artist made' stamp I had glued a piece of string to the wooden stamp base. Can you see it, as it curves across the fabric sample?

Textile Postcard Project Week #130

March 29th - April 4th 2020

 Camels are an animal of the the Australian Deserts. They are not native Australian animals. I believe they were brought to Australia by the Aphganstan  travellers when the inland was first explored and the building and the development of the the Ghan Railway line took place..hence the name. I have seen camels running  free as we have travelled the inland. They are certainly extraordinary animals. They are difficult to draw but I managed to develop an acceptable image and cut out a stamp of this queer animal. I have printed the image on a torn piece of procian dyed cotton.

Textile Postcard Project Week # 129

March 22nd -28th 2020

This week Victoria is in lock down because Coronavirus is raging through our population. It is a blessing that we have computers and the internet in our lives....and so my Blog project will continue.

 

This postcard features an off cut sampler where the wooden stamp of a daisy was used, with bleach, to discharge colour on hand dyed fabric. Some sections of the daisy print are more distinct than others.

Textile Postcard Project Week # 128

March 15th -21st 2020

This is an off-cut sample of stitching by hand and machine, also showing simple stenciling in a wavy  pattern...maybe 'water lines on sand'. Close up photo shows stitching and colour more clearly.

 

Textile Postcard Project Week #127

March 8th -14th 2020

For this postcard I have used an experimental scrap of painted canvas. My aim at the time was to paint a textile suitable for the skin of a lizard. The near view, below, shows the 'lizard skin' to be quite 'grainy' as it can be in reality.

 

Textile Postcard Project Week #126

March 1st - 7th 2020

 Diagonal embroidery with running stitch and variegated thread is the feature of this postcard. The background fabric has been discharged using a spiral stamp that I have made myself.The spiral is very faint so only appears in the original card. I really love doing running stitch which can be used to embroider many, many patterns.

 

Textile Postcard Project Week # 125

February 24th -29th

This is an experiment using toning colours and straight machine stitching. The background has been hand dyed, rusted and printed using a stencil. The result is very pleasing. However it does remind me of the dry farming hills we see throughout this drought in Australia.

The machine stitching is very clear in this photo.

Textile Postcard Project Week # 124

February 16th-22nd 2020

Unfortunately this postcard has not photographed brightly..However I hand dyed the fabric on the card with Procian dye and discharged it with bleach. Over this I have used my own 'stamps' and fabric paint to print images - thus giving the finished fabric a more complex appearance.

The close up view shown here has been stamped with a spiral image on a section of bleached pattern.

 

Textile Postcard Project Week # 123

February 9th - 15th 2020

Could this be the surface of the Tasmanian bush track that we travelled today? It was a beautiful drive through wonderful wattles, eucalypts and tall tree ferns, a little south of Stanley in the north-west area of the Tasmanian island.
To give this appearance I have done a rubbing on fabric over a rough surface using 'shiva' sticks. ( these sticks are similar to an oil crayon.) 

Detailed view of the rubbing on fabric

Textile Postcard Project Week #122

February 2nd  - 9th 2020 

We sail across Bass Strait this week to spend a month in Tasmania. These hills have been screen printed and could easily represent the hills around 'Lake Pedder' in Central Tasmania. It is a very pretty island which was first settled in the early 1800s.

A closer view of the hills and still cool waters.

Textile Postcard Project Week #121

January 26th -February 1st 2020

 Images of Australian Eucalypt leaves have been screen printed and used as appliqué images as we celebrate Australia Day January 26th 2020.

Note, that the green printed fabric, on which the leaf images are printed, is still visible after cutting.

Textile Postcard Project Week #120

January 19th - 25th 2002




An experimental sampler using paint, paper and stitch on black felt.
Close up photo shows detail of stitching and colour.

Textile Postcard Project Week # 119

January 12th - 18th 2020

This an example of the type of small card I made to swap with other like minded creative ladies. The detailed photo shows the machine embroidery with a finishing touch of beading.

 

Textile Postcard Project Week # 118

January 5th -11th 2020

I found this teddy bear motif among my stash of treasures. I wondered how many small children had been given a teddy bear over the Festive Season. The background  fabric has been machine stitched. The near photo shows the perfect commercial stitching on Teddy's ear and paw.