The Australia wall hanging is now finished

the Australia wall hanging is now finished and will be photographed in full in May when it hangs in the exhibition, soooooo exciting. But for now here is some of the work which bought me to the finished piece.
paper collage

paper collage

paper collage

markal paint sticks with a stencil cut from freezer paper

paper collage with words printed onto old brown envelopes

Sample Piece using
strips of fabrics ~ sheers, organza, hand dyed cottons

above is the front cover and below the back cover of the sketch book which goes with the Australia wall hanging and shows some of the techniques I used, painted bondaweb, painted vilene, layers of sheers, Stewart Gill chips, hand printed organdie, free machine embroidery using different threads all worked on hand dyed cotton fabric

close up detail

Oh yes I've done it!!!

A fabby day all round at college, we dyed in cat litter trays and plastic bags it was awesome, I dont know what I've been scared of all these years. I've had procian dyes at home for probably 5 -6 years so I mixed up some more dye and this morning I dyed a heap more fabric and tomorrow will rinse them out. I love how yesterdays colours have come out and its a brilliant way to help you understand colour theory. I also painted my sketchbooks pages with brusho as they were way too white!!

Yesterday afternoon I did some more stitch samples on the sewing machine and great news for afew weeks time ~ we're going to do some drawing workshops!!!!!

Im also starting to think of inspiration and design now for my first project, Im thinking along the lines of my garden and whats found there, perhaps my little birds will feature, I've some photos of montbrecia; gorgeous bright orange with flashes of yellow and lime and also the ceanothus with its amazing blue blooms that look like lilac flowers and on the ground theres the beautiful purple/grey slate and the old chimney pots Jim collected for me, so many ideas ~ might work on some tomorrow!!