A Tribute and a Reveal

I can now show you what I have been working on for my MUSIC challenge.  It took some time to come up with the idea and after some researching on the web I decided a tribute to Frank Mills' melody Music Box Dancer was in order. 

Initially I printed the sheet music and was going to incorporate it in the piece.  After a few attempts to stitch the paper to a backing fabric and having it shred, I gave that up.  How was I going to portray music.  Ah yes, I was going to need considerable bias tape to create the image that the melody was producing in my head.  I printed some musical notes,

made plastic templates, appliqued a musical staff in place and overlaid the notes.

Buttons gave the notes dimension.  Next came boxes.  I had some jersey in my stash with music notes on it, but had to stabilise it.  It was far to "flimsy" to stitch to the heavier weight cotton.  I also wanted the boxes to look three dimensional.  Stitching together diamond and triangle shapes gave me the look I was going for.

One small box and one larger box were appliqued in place.  I hoped their placement would give depth to the piece.

Now I needed a dancer.  I found a ballerina silhouette, created another template and fused her into place.  She seemed a bit flat and really needed a tutu.  I had some blue organza and black tulle that would do the trick.  The organza was layered between two rectangles of tulle and gathered together to form the tutu.  Hopefully the picture shows you the effect.

With all the pieces in place, it just needed some free motion quilting, binding and it was done. 

Here is my tribute to Frank Mills, and my interpretation in fiber of his Music Box Dancer.

Why not hop over to the Tangled Textiles blog to see what the others in the group have created for this challenge.   It's reveal day.

A few different things

Since the last post, I have been working on a few different things.  For example, I recently learned about Kantha stitchery.  There are a number of images on the web so I won't bother to put some here. However, after a good tutorial and demo from Catherine Nicholls, here is a picture of my first attempt.

 

I used a variegated 12wt thread and rather like the effect of the colour changes.  It may be hard to see in the photo, but the idea was to create ridges that eventually create a dimensional design.  After a bit more practice, this was my second piece.

It may be a bit easier to see the patterning in this one.  What I found the most difficult was that the stitching of the pattern is worked from the outside in.  You had to pay very close attention to the tension and maintain the tension's consistency.  This will be a wonderful way to embellish small quilted gifts.

I have also finished up some small cross stitch pieces that will eventually end up as gifts for friends. 

They still need some pressing and dressing up, but won't they make lovely gifts?  With Christmas just around the corner, it's a good idea to finish up these small items.

I've also tried my hand at rust dyeing.  Some pieces turned out wonderfully, some not so much.  I used a ratio of 1:1 vinegar to water and let the fabrics soak for two days.  Perhaps next time a longer soaking period may help.

This first one was done with a chain.  I discovered too late that the chain, although it looked rusty, wasn't.  It was actually galvanized so it didn't produce the image I was hoping for.

This second one was done with rusted rebar.  You can see the imprint on the upper portion of the fabric where it was wrapped the closest to the rebar.

This last one was an impression created by a rusty wrench.  This one turned out the best.  Unfortunately the picture does not do it justice.  The colour is a more burnt golden that the brown-black you see here.

Now I'm off to use one of these pieces in a journal quilt for a challenge.  Let's see what I can come up with.