Flora

Yesterday I spent a relaxing afternoon working on a lace fabric collage. This collage is one of the projects included in the on-line class, Smitten, run by Nancy Maxwell James. As mentioned in previous posts connected with Smitten, Nancy gives us the tutorials which we can follow to the letter or use as a source of inspiration, allowing us lots of freedom.
I always like selecting the image first and then make my choice of papers or in this instance, fabrics. The image I picked is one I have used many times before but never on fabric.
 This collage is a mix of machine and hand sewing. When I say machine, my trusty little handheld sewing machine gadget. I prefer to leave threads hanging loose, in fact I tend to give them a tug to emphasise them because it suits the shabby chic/vintage style. The image was transferred onto fabric (recycled curtain lining) and layered onto beautiful floral fabric. This fabric lace collage is a mix of the old and new. This trim has been in my stash for several months. As it is vintage I was waiting for a special project. I am becoming a bit of a hoarder, especially with anything old or what are in my eyes “precious” so I am now telling myself that I must use these items. Trying to convince myself that there will be more pleasure from seeing them incorporated into a piece of art. Then again, I like to keep bits ‘n’ bobs in jars and have them there merely to look at.  I have no doubt I am not alone in this, anyone like to confess?!The oval button was one discovered in the button box  which once belonged to my Great Aunt and the two smaller buttons were gifted from Marie.  Marie sent a delightful little bag crammed with buttons several months ago yet it is only now that I have actually willed myself into using them.
If you look at the main photograph you will see that I used a small piece of lace to decorate the bottom of the collage, gathering it ever so slightly and seam binding used to create the hanging.
Smitten class is officially finished but I still have one final project to complete. Nancy put so much work into this on-line class that she also included extra project tutorials which I plan to work on as well, so plenty of projects to occupy my time.

The First Day of The Rest of Their Lives

One of the projects at Smitten on-line class was an altered cabinet card canvas. I am lucky enough to have many family photographs from both branches of the family tree, including cabinet cards but I wanted to use a photograph not a cabinet card of my paternal Grandparents on their Wedding Day.  They were not married on Valentine’s Day but it seemed an appropriate day to post this on my Blog.
Before I became “addicted” to stamping and where that has led me, as like any crafter, I dabbled in other crafts, one of which was scrapbooking.  It was very short lived. That is why I was so surprised to realise how much I enjoyed working on this canvas .
The year is 1928 and here are James Moncrieff and Helen McDonald on their Wedding Day.

You may well look at their attire and not be surprised at what they are wearing, after all it is the 1920s but they were married in Perth, Scotland, a town which was and I would say continues to be, very conservative. As I remember my Gran it is so hard to imagine her dressing in such a fashion.  I always find it to be quite sad that our impressions of a person are not necessarily who they are or were. My Grandfather died when I was only a young child and I have no re-collection of him at all. My Gran died when I was a teenager. Although I would visit her twice a week, with my Mum and Dad,  it never occurred to me to ask her about her life. Now, I would have so many questions to ask my Gran in particular, why she chose such an outfit, what colour was the dress. I imagined it to be the most delicate colour of peach or possibly ivory. What a beautiful bouquet she holds and the extravagent sash. All the questions in my head will remain unanswered. Many of you will know by now that I have a fascination with this period of history and it does make me wonder if that has stemed, unconsciously from the fact that my paternal Grandparents obviously embraced the style of that era and my Gran’s sister, my Great Aunt Jean, is the lady who travelled to Paris, as a single woman, in the 1930s.  It is her momentos, an ostrich feather fan and programme I have from the Folies Bergere. On the painted canvas I layered sheet music (“The Wedding March”) and pattern paper. The crinkled ribbon is representative of the sash in the photograph.
More lace and a beautiful vintage button. This button actually came from my Gran’s button box.
I really should make another canvas such as this using a photograph of my Maternal Grandparents on their Wedding Day.

I am entering this into Take A Word’s “Romance” challenge.

She’s A Lady

When I signed up for Smitten, Nancy Maxwell James’ on-line class, one reason was the motivation to work on projects that I’d wanted to do for some time, such as the recent altered bottle (“You Can See Right Through Her”) and a fabric heart. I’m always drawn to artwork which has fabric, trims, etc and it is something I would like to delve into a bit more. As I sat, working on the heart hanging over a few, very relaxing evenings, it made me chuckle. At school I was a disaster in the Home Economics sewing classes and the teachers were not filled with encouragement to help me. At least I had the choice not to continue with this subject but little did I know that when I selected to study Art & Design my misery would return as one of my art teachers revelled in sewing. The class was split, boys worked with clay and the girls, sewing. This was a mild form of torture for me but looking back, I have to admit that I forced myself not to enjoy it. A few years ago when I started to cross-stitch the irony struck me, here I was picking up needle and thread for fun!
This is my heart hanging. There is such freedom in this class as Nancy creates amazing tutorials for each project but then lets us work to our own style and with what materials we have to hand.
On my base of batting I layered various types of lace adding seed beads and pearls. Around the image, delicate lace and more seed beads. To edge the heart I stitched lace and to create the hanging, a different length of lace.
I like a slight distressed look so I frayed the edges around the image. Aren’t those fabric flowers really beautiful? Only added a pearl bead to one flower centre.
As all the stitching is by hand, this is not a project to rush. As stamping/mixed media/altered art occupies so much of my time I don’t cross-stitch anymore but as I worked on this it reminded me how soothing it is to work with needle and thread.

Friends have asked if I would recommend an on-line class. Obviously Nancy’s is the only class I have participated in and I can imagine that every on-class class will differ in what it has to offer. If we are solely talking about Smitten, I definitely recommend it. Nancy has created detailed tutorials which you could follow to the letter if you wish. She has set up a Sugar Lump Society Blog for participants and also provides cabinet cards which we may download and what counts, she is approachable, there to answer any queries. Lynne x

Challenge - I am linking this to Take A Word’s “Vintage” theme.

You Can See Right Through Her

When I signed up for Nancy Maxwell James’ Smitten on-line class it appealed to me that we could work at our own pace, use supplies we have to hand and we could either follow the projects exactly or use them as a source of inspiration.
The second  Smitten project assigned to us was an altered bottle. Now ideally I would wish to have vintage French perfume bottles to hand for altering but once I stopped dreaming and looked around to see what I could use, let me say, reality is far from what my dreams are made of.
Towards the end of last year I made an image transfer of the same image I use as my avatar. It is an image I never tire of and as I plan on displaying the bottle I wanted something that would fit with my style.
It was so difficult to source glass bottles, even looking for ordinary glass bottles was a hard task.  Eventually I found a bottle I could use, this bottle is approximately 6″ tall.
It is a cold contact image transfer onto French text. The photo below shows the bottle from the back.
It was fun to look for supplies to use. I wanted to incorporate bits and pieces that I like to use in my artwork, such as sheet music, the French text, flowers.
A necklace was wrapped around the neck of the bottle, I liked the placement of the bow. A bow was cut from a piece of trim to add to the dusky rose velvet ribbon.The beautiful seam binding was a gift from Marie. I had saved this for a special project, which I found with the altered bottle and it is a perfect colour match.
Altering bottles could become quite an addiction, that is if I can ever get my hands on bottles in the first place!

How A Heart Flutters (Smitten Class)

Nancy Maxwell James creates artwork that always touches the heart with her use of images, text and vintage pieces.  Nancy’s adorably named on-line class, “Smitten”, started on 14th January. This is the first time I have joined an on-line class and I was apprehensive which was silly as friends were also participating – Chris, Marie and Terry. Nancy has created a most beautiful site where she shares her tutorials and we can share our art.
The first project is an altered tag.
Normally my choice of colour would be towards the rose pinks but I had this collage sheet from Gaby and I knew the colours would work well with the Ella Blue papers I have.
The key is vintage. Not entirely sure how old it is but it is very old.