Out of Africa stitching series (& other projects)

It's all complete except for the wood rod that will have the cord for hanging

(the DH is doing staining and varnishing on that this week)

I'm am really pleased with how this came out, and excited about the idea of doing some more things on this theme

Out of Africa seems like the appropriate title for this series of mixed media pieces

Aside from this piece and the zebras (which I'll talk about more in a minute) I'm thinking about doing an elephant and maybe a rhino

We'll see how that all goes



the new zebra stamp is finally finished

you may recall that while I was in California I had cut two zebras, but instead of them facing each other as I intended, they both faced the same way (ok, I'm directionally challenged!)

So, now that I've recovered enough to sit in a hard chair for a while I decided to try again

and here is the very first print of the newly cut stamp

success!!

this first print is going into the mail this week to my friend in California for her to play with





and so I wanted to figure out a way to put the zebra that faces the other way into the original stamping I had do, but how to do it?

Here is what the original stamp looked like

Two zebras facing the same way and on a piece of fabric that does not have enough space for the third one at either end






So my idea was to use some freezer paper over part of the front and the back of the zebras that had already been stamped












then I printed the new stamp over the freezer paper to add the third zebra to the print













after the paint dried, I peeled away the freezer paper

it's neat!

there are now three zebras in the picture and they face in different ways

so, next I wanted to create a picture from them







Then I decided that I wanted to put a blue sky behind the zebras, so I cut another piece of freezer paper and ironed it over the zebras and the bottom edge of the fabric so I could use a big sea sponge to create a blue sky










and here it is after I used Copic markers to add "rocks and grasses" at the bottom of the fabric.

So, now I will be using threads and beads to embellish this piece (like doing turkey work along the neck of each zebra to create a 3 dimensional mane on each one)

Guess this will be #2 in the "Out of Africa" series!






since I'm spending a lot of time sitting as I recover, I'm getting a lot of other work done too

this is the 5th afghan square completed and I've started a 6th one (with a lot of bright orange in it)

I'm finally feeling well enough to go back to quilting on the piece I'm making as a Christmas gift, have finished the sleeves and the back of the sweater I'm working on and I'm making good progress on the beading project

This week I'm still not allowed to drive or go up and down stairs more than once a day, so I need to plan my trips carefully (do I need to shower more than I need to do a load of laundry, for instance) --- a two story house with the washer in the basement is not real convenient right now!

But I'm hoping to get a lot of projects done!