Fibre Fling 2021!

This year Out of the Box, the fibre arts group I'm a member of, is having our Fibre Fling show online for the first time.  We used to have it at Kitchissippi United Church every April but things are of course different this year.  Here's the poster with all the info.  As you can see I happen to have a photo of a piece I made on this poster too although it's not in the show.   I have some of my hand coloured and sun printed fabrics in the show and one wall hanging featuring my eco printing for sale.  It's the one I had in the Stittsville Library show.   The show will be starting this Friday.  Please go and have a look at not just mine but all the interesting artwork!

Eco printed apron

 Last summer I did a course with the Wild Dyery online.  For the Leaf  Print Cloth course I made an apron out of all the eco printed samples I made.  They are mostly on silk noil.  I've printed plants from my garden and area such as rose leaves, buckthorn leaves, strawberry leaves, maple leaves, iris petals and a Bachelor's Button flower.  The pink is from natural madder dye.   The browny pink is from avocado pits.   Here's a photo of the apron spread out so you can see all the fabrics.  Click on it to see the details.  I added embroidery on some areas.

Here's a photo of the finished apron.  I'm quite pleased how it turned out:)  This was part of my last assignment of the course.  Thanks for having a look!  Please leave a comment below.

More shopping bags made of recycled packaging

 Here are a few more bags I made by sewing together used food packaging.  I just cut off the zip part and then sewed the packages together.  I was concerned that the straps weren't sturdy enough but I seem to be able to carry quite a lot in them.

I hope this inspires you to make something similar!  If you do let me know in the comments section below.

Recycling plastic

This winter I've been thinking a lot about keeping things out of the landfill and incorporating materials I have into artwork and other projects.  I seem to accumulate a lot of plastic food packaging and I've kept it because it's colourful, because I don't want to throw it out and I wanted to make something with it.  Here's an example of some of the packing I have.

Below is a grocery bag I made out of eight packages..  It's lying on its side.  I've cut off the zip part and then just sewn the packages together so each side is double layered.  I've cut out a square from each side for the bottom and have sewn the two layers together (quite hard to turn).

Here's another angle below.  It was quite heavy plastic so I had to use a jeans needle.  This bag is quite large and will hold lots of groceries.  My next step is to make a handle for it:)  Stay tuned for more...

Eco print cushion

 This month I made a cushion with eco printed cotton fabric and onion skin dyed cotton fabric for the borders and back.  It measures 14 inches square and the plants are coreopsis verticillata and strawberry leaves both from my garden.  The fabric was soaked in tannin water first and then the print was made.  I was going to embroider the print but decided to leave it as is.  Thanks for having a look:)

My piece in the Stittsville show

 Here's a close up of the piece I made for the 2020 Stittsville Library show. It measures 12 inches by 15 inches (30 cm X 38 cm).  It's called Finding Comfort in Nature.  I made an eco print on watercolour paper and scanned it onto white cotton fabric.  Then I attached it to a hand painted piece of blue fabric to use as a background and did some hand and machine stitching.  Click on the image to enlarge.  Look at the posts below for more of the Stittsville 2020 show.  Thanks for having a look!

Few more photos of Stittsville Library show

 I went back to the library to take a few more photos of the ones that weren't as clear.   Please note you can click on the photos to enlarge them and see more detail. 

 Here's Suzanne's The Way Forward and Frances Taylor's work Home Sweet Home:

 

Below is a closer photo of Frances' work:

Next this is Kathy Lajeunesse's Movement in the Field:

And Roberta Russell's piece Country Living During a Pandemic:

I hope you can visit the show.  It's on until December 31st.  Stay safe and well everyone!