Happy Monday! We are starting the week featuring an extraordinary textile artist! Meet Vanessa Barragao! Growing up at the seaside, she uses the connection to the ocean as an everlasting inspiration for her artworks. Her work features captivating coral reef environments in which she merges and combines crafts and recycled materials and by employing old techniques such as latch hook, felting, macramé, knitting and crochet she brings life to her unique and luxurious sculptural carpets, rugs and tapestries. Visit her instagram and site for more of her eye-catching work.
Apolina's SS20 collection was inspired by summer days spent in the south of France last year. Trawling French flea markets, we admired the simple beauty of antique nightgowns, rails of stiff white cotton and delicate broderie anglaise trims. The simple, time-softened fabrics of vintage table linens found at brocantes inspired our prints and woven textiles. These treasures interlaced with memories of childhood holidays spent on French farms, the warm, faded grandeur of holiday homes with sun-faded paints on crumbling plaster, colorful art on the walls, and worn, patterned tiles. With a casual summer holiday mood, where refreshing sorbet colors mix with our usual natural palette, the collection was created to wear on spring adventures and slow summer picnics by the river. The 'Inga' is a sweet sun romper with pretty linear embroideries in marigold and honey tones. Specially made embroidered broderie anglaise frills trim the neckline and sleeves. Shell button opening at crotch for...
As I scrolled through Instagram on my phone while I had breakfast (we all do that, right?) I saw that @berry_birdy had put out a fun new challenge. Each May, Lesley hosts the Micro Mini Stitch Along #microminisal where we get to play and create little quilts, no bigger than 8" square. The challenge set yesterday was called "Treasure from Trash". We were to use only scraps that were in our bin. Fun! As my sewing room bin was emptied the day before for bin night, I had quite limited scraps available to play with. I only had little bits and pieces that I'd trimmed when preparing rainbow applique blocks (you can see these in my previous post). With a small piece of batting from a previous project, I started out by creating a background. I placed pieces down to cover the batting and sewed some very "rustic" lines to hold everything in place. Last week, I watched some of the Making Zen video classes and one class was by @southerngals_designs. In the class, Tiffany showed us how she uses the teeniest pieces of fabric, glue and thread to create an eye. She then uses these little eye panels on other projects. I set out by cutting the white piece and blue pieces of fabric to make the basic eyeball shape. The upper and lower eyelids were then built up using teeny scraps, held down with just a regular school glue stick. Once I was happy with the layout, I roughly went over the eyelids and sewed the pieces in place. Now for the fun bit, adding hand stitches. Rather than cut thread to add some little decorative stitches, I used to use embroidery floss regularly and would keep the spare threads which I'd split from the floss, in a little pocket in the floss tub. These were great for this project. I had lots of colours available to use and I had two strands of black. Perfect! I added straight stitches, little crosses and outlined the white of the eyeball in black, which kinda looks like eyeliner. I was thinking of adding eyelashes, but figured I should stop before I got tooooo carried away. I added a small piece of fabric to the back (from my scrap bags) of the piece and sewed right around the edge (rectangle). Pinking shears finished it off. The piece measure approximately 2.5" x 5.5" and I had a lot of fun making it. I'll probably end up using it as a bookmark. This image shows the scraps that I had left over after this exercise. They're now back in the bin... unless another trash challenge is set. If you're interested in the Micro Mini Stitch Along and checking what everyone is making with their trash treasures, you can find it on Instagram by searching the hashtag #microminisal.
textile artist photography and mixed media - Carolyn Saxby Textile Art St Ives Cornwall
textile artist photography and mixed media - Carolyn Saxby Textile Art St Ives Cornwall
When I’m running my textile art workshops, I often hear women describe those creative hours as a luxury. There’s a sense that they’ve negotiated an escape from the responsibilities of life, and they treasure every moment. Women with a partner and children at home seem, in particular, to feel that time for themselves can only […]
Detailed hand embroidered piece of textile art made with colourful thread, beads, trimmings and sequins - an ombre decorative pattern of tonal Blues. Framed in white frame, glass fronted 20 x 20cm Other colours available and set of 4 colour ways can be bought as a set for discounted price. ...More Detailed hand embroidered piece of textile art made with colourful thread, beads, trimmings and sequins - an ombre decorative pattern of tonal Blues. Fram...More
Explore Diane Savona's 62 photos on Flickr!
This crochet tutorial shows how to make the long wave stitch step-by-step. The tutorial includes detailed photo instructions.
I have been following Tuija's work for a good portion of time and thought I might share her work on the blog as inspiration, because she is no ordinary crochet artist! She combines her mind-blowing free form crochet with collage techniques to create unique, charming works of art with vintage Scandinavian feel. Tuija Heikkinen comes from northern Finland. She has a fashion & textile degree, but as she says - her heart and soul is in various fields of arts and crafts, hence she works as an arts and crafts teacher and she also has a small company for printed textiles. One cannot find a lot about her on the internet because, in her own words, she is an old fashion person when it comes to social media. What I could find regarding her work is the reference to becoming a crochet artist and creating her crochet illustrations: "I found crocheting by chance some years ago. My grandmother was a great crocheter, and her stitches would have gone around the world many times. My first main material was printed textile. It has all the essential things that drive my working. First there is an empty surface and an idea how to fill it with colours and shapes. The same goes with my crocheting. I don't do sketches, I just start with some theme and let the hook fly. I call my crochets hook pictures, hook sketches or hook illustrations. One could think of them also as print textile sketches, or book illustrations. I don't use much direct instructions or patterns, I get along just fine with some basic stitches." Her instagram is her window to the world. Dive into it if you were seduced by these images!
Beaucoup récupèrent les jeans usagés pour les recycler en autres vêtements, pour en faire des sacs , des poupées, etc...Mais le travail de collage de vieux jeans de Choi So Young est vraiment incroyable. Bluffant, non?
William Morris designs patterns and flowers to download and print for free. All these wonderful examples are in the Public Domain.
When I first saw the work of Sophie Digard, I was stunned. It was the above amazing necklace which captured me with its combination of velvet and crochet flowers in gorgeous colors. Beside the necklaces, her scarves are unique artwork created in her magical Madagascar workshop where she uses rustic linen, merino wool and cotton thread. Her extensive colour palette is out of this world – I learned from Selvedge - the site that sells her work - that each hue used in her creations is made up of sixty threads in merino, mohair, and velvet which gives rich, intense individual tones and makes each item unrepeatable. Enjoy the selection I chose!
Alexandra wild, detail, Alexandra Drenth, courtesy by the artist January 2018, I’m reading the latest issue of Embroidery, the textile art magazine. I turn a page. And hold my breath… w…
Some of Helene Knott's quilts and fiber art wall hangings Yesterday I attended Tidal Treasures, the Tillamook County Quilt Guild's 33rd quilt and fiber art festival at the Tillamook County Fairgrounds. There were some really beautiful quilts, and I had a great visit with featured artist Helene Knott, a fellow member of the Northwest Quilters. It was great to see friends from the Oregon quilting community. "Lemon Pepper" by LaRayne Woodward As soon as I got inside the building, I saw LaRayne Woodward, who had seven quilts in the show, but even more grandchildren and now a few great grandchildren as well. She had recently been to traveling to welcome the newest member of the family, another great grandchild, and in addition to the quilts in the show, she had made several baby quilts. LaRayne is very prolific, and I loved how she was experimenting with modern looking quilts, plus one from the cover of Quiltmania Magazine. "Diamonds by the Dozen" by LaRayne Woodward "Remember" by LaRayne Woodward That Princess Feather quilt looked very familiar. A quilt made with the same design was recently featured on the cover of Quiltmania Magazine. There were many more beautiful quilts, some traditional, some more modern, and some beautiful fiber art. Here are just a few of the pieces that caught my eye. "Boxy Stars" by Carol Weber "Evelyn's Album" by Gail Desjarlais "By the Sea" by Charleen Hakala "Shoo Fly" by Jeannie Marshall "Paper Weight" by Carol Weber "Postage Stamp Quilt" by Virginia A. Johnson The quilt that really stopped me in my tracks was "Oklahoma Twister" by Cathie Favret. The quilt includes a touching and sometimes heart-wrenching biography of her father, Noel Dale Lively, who was born and raised in Oklahoma. He passed away in February, 2013. "Oklahoma Twister" by Cathie Favret Helene Knott was the featured quilter. She gave a great lecture and showed dozens of her quilts. We chatted for a couple hours afterwards and had lunch together. Helene is a wonderful, accomplished artist, and has experimented with many ideas in her quilts and fiber art. The show is up for one more day - today! So, there's still time to go and see it. Kudos to the Tillamook County Quilt Guild for another wonderful show!
A blog about crochet and other crafty DIY things
Fragments of torn collagraph prints stitched with red thread and vintage shirt buttons. Blogged here thiscraftinglife.blogspot.com/2011/11/red-threads.html
The Kalevala is coming again to Rochester NH. The Epic Finnish national poem is a full day affair headed up by friend and poet, Pat Frisella. How exciting for this type of culture to grace our city with the Kantele harps, the poetry and the latest in Marimekko fabrics. Yes, Marimekko sent three patterns of their latest line (which I simply adore) to Pat to display at the event. Here's the skinny on the fabrics and the "lore"direct from the txtlart site: (the blue one above!) Kanteleen Kutsu: This design is part of a trio that depicts scenes from the Finnish national epic, Kalevala. This one features animals enchanted by the tunes of the kantele. Taikamylly : This design is part of a trio that depicts scenes from the Finnish national epic, Kalevala. This one features the Sampo which is a magical mill for grinding wealth. The deets on the event are as follows: The Kalevala - From Myth to Marimekko elen sila lumenn omentilmo. Due to the success of last year’s Celebration of the Kalevala, the Poetry Society of New Hampshire will host a one day conference to mark the 160th anniversary of the Kalevala, titled The Kalevala, from Myth to Marimekko©, on Saturday April 4th, 2009 from 9AM to 6PM at the Rollins Estate of the Governor’s Inn, 76 Wakefield Street, Rochester, NH. Each of the presenters for the conference will explore aspects of the mythos of the Kalevala, its language, its reception and reinterpretation, the concept of shamanism, and its music. Venue: Governor's Inn on Wakefield Street, Rochester NH Web site: www.poetrysocietyofnewhampshire.org Phone: 001-603-332-0732
A blog about crochet and other crafty DIY things
Upcycled t shirts are a great way to recycle your old clothing into something fabulous! Here are some great ideas and tips!
Julia Castaño's fabulous, fish friendly fish bags are my new favorite thing on Etsy. I got my eye in the pink pufferfish!
Make a super-simple landscape art quilt with free-motion thread sketched embellishments, regardless of whether you’re a beginner or advanced.
A series of embroidered landscapes depicting impressions of the Canadian West Coast. Each one is unique and combines many techniques. The techniques include hand embroidery, machine sewing, applique, couching and beading. The materials include cotton fabric, sewing thread, glass beads, yarn and twine. 3 x 4 ½” SOLD www.chursinoff.com/kirsten
Kawandi style quilt project. Great scrap busting project.
