FALL

I've signed up again for a postcard exchange at the Halton Hills Quilters' Guild.  I have hundreds of postcards and don't know what to do with all of them, but I love making them - little tiny pieces of art.

I just received this one (a little late from last year's exchange).  I love the simplicity of it, and it's perfect timing to celebrate Fall.

GELLI PRINTS

The Burlington Fibre Arts group got together last week for an evening of Surface Decoration.  I couldn't make it to the meeting, but did a bit of work at home.  Using a Gelli Arts gel printing plate and Joan Bess's book Gelli Plate Printing, I was well on my way.

I started using black cotton.  

A dried fern leaf was used to give a mask of the leaf's shape.

The leaf was removed and a ghost print was pulled.

The painted fern leaf was then applied to pieces that had already been printed and dried, giving an added layer.

This is a cedar tree leaf mask.

Then a ghost print of the same leaf.

I don't have too many stencils, so made do with objects found around the house - this is from a bath mat.

Stencil of circles - mask and ghost print - positive and negative.

Bubble wrap.

I'm not too fond of these next two.  Maybe because the fabric is white???   I think I'm going to overdye each one.

I ran out of pre-cut fabric, so started using watercolour paper.  The process is fast and I couldn't find enough flat spaces to lay the pieces to dry, so had to stop, but am looking forward to printing again when space permits.

ORA NA AZU NWA

There is a proverb that "It Takes a Village to Raise a Child". 

There is no evidence that the proverb genuinely originated from the Nigerian Igbo culture, however "Ora na azu nwa" means it takes the community/village to raise a child, not just a mother and/or father.  The Igbo's also name their children "Nwa ora" which means child of the community.  It has been existence in Africa for centuries.  

Here is my village:

The idea came from Quilting Arts Holiday 2015 magazine.  

Strips of fabric were fused to heavy weight interfacing (I used Pellon).  The pieces were heavily quilted. 

After quilting, each piece was painted with Dye-na-Flow by Jacquard.

When dry, acrylic paints were sprayed and stamped over the dye.

House pieces were cut out and embellished.

  Using a zig-zag stitch, roof tops were attached to the walls.

Then the roof pieces were zig-zag stitched together.

And finally, the walls were zig-zag stitched together.

A bit of polyester fibrefill was stuffed inside to give each house some stability.

PRAYER FLAGS CHALLENGE

I spoke about my sister's Prayer Flag Challenge a while ago.  Even though her deadline was the Canadian Thanksgiving, I finished mine and blogged about them.  The Challenge was afoot.  Now, my sister had to finish hers, and WOW, she did a great job, too!  Don't you agree?

EARTH - yellow

WATER - green

FIRE - red

AIR - white

SPACE - blue