It was rather a strange feeling once the Dubai project was complete as it is after all the projects I have produced. A bit of a 'where to go next' feeling.
Even though I have finished the Dubai project, it is not the end of Dubai. We plan to return later in the year.
And, on Friday, we took our family to the airport to fly out to Dubai for the Dubai golf classic and to stay with their friends who live there. The colour green comes to mind.
Well, I have moved on.
My OH gave me a shirt which he claims has never fitted very well and could I use it? What a silly question. I stripped the shirt down to give me some rather large pieces of good quality deep grape coloured fabric. The quality and colour suggested a large tote. I cut out all the required pieces and then applied a lilac interference acrylic paint over the surface with a roller. Next I made a large oak leaf stencil and stencilled different coloured oak leaves over the surfaces. I also added a couple of fabric applique leaves. In between the large leaves, I stamped smaller oak leaves. I free machined the veins of the leaves and then free machine quilted the background surface. When all the surface decoration was complete, the bag was constructed. I used another piece of recycled fabric for the lining.
When this bag was complete, it gave me the incentive to create more.
Some time ago I cleared out items from my wardrobe which I no longer wear and stripped them down giving me a big pile of recyclable fabric. I decided to have a browse through this pile of fabric and sorted some out to use for bags, art quilts etc.
The first was an old (ahem.... hardly worn) blouse of mine.
The first bag I designed and made was a hand bag. I made up a quilt sandwich for the front and back of the bag and free machine quilted all the flower and leaves detail of the printed design using some newly acquired metallic threads. I added beads and some dark gold gilding wax for effect on the brown flowers. I had a large bag of wooden beads which came from one of those bead car seats that were once in fashion. A friend gave one to me and I stripped it down giving me a very large bag of beads. They suited the bag so I used them to make the handle.
As this bag was such a success and I had only used the two sleeves, I decided to use the rest of the fabric to make a large matching tote. It was much the same as the hand bag but instead of using metallic threads, I used acrylic and polyester threads for the quilting.
When I applied the gilding wax, I decided to make it more rosy coloured and added some ruby pearl-ex powder to the wax but unfortunately when it dried it flaked off. I replaced it with just the gilding wax - a dark gold one. It still gave the effect I wanted. Again, the handle was made from the wooden beads.
All that was left of the blouse were a few tiny scraps. A very successful recycle.
It reminded me of a time when I was giving a talk to a guild and as I always try to use recyclable materials in my work when possible and if it fits I tell them when the piece had such materials. One member asked me - do I ever use new materials? the answer is - yes but advocate recycling whenever you can. Even the small scraps of fabric go into a bag and when full go to a charity shop. They get money for it.
So you could say I am very green - but not the same 'green' I was at the beginning of this post. Full circle though(ha ha ha)
Tomorrow is back to the pile of fabric to see what to make next.
Until then, cheers everyone.
