Pictures as promised

the first portion of the sashiko work is complete

the dragon took an amazingly short period of time to stitch, and the whole look is pretty neat

yesterday I started on the sleeves -- the will be covered in an all over interlocked geometric pattern and because it is something that I could easily create a cardboard template for, I am not using the interfacing on them -- they will still be lined, but the extra layer just doesn't seem necessary

I had originally thought about using a bamboo motif along side the dragon on the back, but I have decided that would take away from the awesomeness of the dragon itself, so I will use those on the front

so I still will need to figure out what I will use to "frame" the dragon and what the lower part of the back will be, but it's moving right along!

beading is progressing

I've finished the "craters" on the moon and I'm now doing the fill stitches to cover the rest of that surface

then it will be on to the sky -- a whole assortment of blacks in matte, AB, transparent and opaque beads with a few that will look like stars in the sky




I'm testing some painting techniques for the Trees project

on the right hand side is the first test --- I mixed airbrush ink with ordinary laundry starch (the liquid kind) and applied it with a piece of wadded up newspaper

the left hand side was test number two --- I mixed a different color airbrush ink with textile medium and applied it with both a toothpick (the little pine branch looking area) and with some crumpled small size bubble wrap

the idea was to find out which "carrier" was better to work with in terms of having the ink "stay put" as well as finding out if either one would fade out when washed or change the whole "feel" (hand) of the fabric in such a way that made it hard to work with (paint does that which is why I wanted to use something else)

so, here are my conclusions:

neither the starch or the textile medium changes the feel of the finished, washed fabric, but the starch does feel stiffer before it is washed.

neither the starch or the textile medium faded or "bled" when washed

I like the look of the bubble wrap stamping better than the newspaper, and the textile medium did a better job of adding body to the paint in the working stages so it would stay where I put it

looks like I'll be using bubble wrap and textile medium and getting started on painting the background of the Trees project sometime in the next week

I have finished knitting one wool mitten body and I'm ready to start on the thumb -- no pictures on this project until I get a finished pair!

this is the newest afghan square all finished though


we're working on taking down Christmas a little each day (much like we put it up!) I'm getting antsy to have it done so I can get back to projects --- yesterday I came up with an idea for a couple of birds for the Out of Africa series, which means more cutting of stamps, printing of stamps, etc., etc.

wishing for the packing chant! (hockety, pockety, wockety, wack, odds and ends and brick a brack, shrink in size, very small, we've got to make enough room for all)