Playtime

Last week I went to one of the city's craft emporia (I use that word advisedly - it is crammed and hard to find your way out alive!) and bought among other things a piece of silk georgette for making nuno. It was a lovely tomato red, with a few blemishes, which would not show up in a felt piece anyway. Before I allowed myself to play with it, I made myself finish the peacock piece, which was coming together at last.

As usual, I intended to put heaps of beading on it, but ended up undoing some, and having only a few sequins on the larger feather eyes. I realise now, a little late, that I am not a glitzy person and am very unlikely to use the beads I have accumulated! Maybe ebay? I actually like the piece to speak by itself without dress-up clothes. This is a shame, as I love, for example, Larkin Van Horn's beaded pieces. But I read today that the art we admire is not necessarily the art that we are meant to make - an aha moment!

Back to the nuno. I re-read the chapters in my Sheila Smith and Christine White books, and laid out my bubble wrap ready to start. It turned out that I had exactly the right shade of merino roving. I started out intending to have the fibres on only one side. I laid out the edging tufts of roving, and then added some semi-random silk tops, and some corn fibre, and three strands of a toning rayon yarn I had also purchased. I tacked the yarn and the silk and corn down with wisps of merino and got rolling. I had purchased a pool noodle for this. After I had done the requisite 400 rollings in each direction (phew! and had lunch!), it seemed that, though the fibres were migrating through the silk, there was not enough to give a pull and ruching effect. So I laid it out again upside down, and added some 'clouding' of merino only. Then did the next 400 rollings. By this time my bubble wrap had pretty well popped its bubbles, so I went up in the garage roof to get the remnants of my pool cover, much tougher bubbles.

That worked, and I then started fulling. It did take quite a long time, longer than I remembered, to get the wool to start shrinking. That was with a mixture of rubbing against the bubbles, and soaking in hot water and throwing it in the sink. I was pleased with the final result. It could have done with a few more fibres to give more ruching, but had a nice drape, and the silk fibres look especially yummy. I will have to stitch the yarn down, as it will catch where it isn't felted, but then I think it will make a good shrug - just the right length and width.

Fast Friday piece completed.

I still haven't done challenge 38, though I know what I am going to do. I finished challenge 39 at lunchtime today. I had seen the photo on the leech's central nerve cord in a photography magazine over a year ago, and cut it out. Just by chance I found it on one of the sites that FFFC linked to for the challenge "under the microscope". I couldn't do it the weekend of the challenge, as too busy with work and choir commitments, but I got it done in time for this weekend.

I had some scrunched-up florist's woven raffia canvas stuff that had come round a bouquet at some time. Horrible prickly stuff that was impossible to store tidily. I ironed it and then painted it with setacolour cherry red. I used colour catchers underneath, which now have a red blobby grid on them (for some future....). When you rubbed the paint it came off, even after heat setting with the iron, so I knew I wouldn't be able to stitch it much without losing colour.

I tried purple polka dots as in the photo, but they didn't work. Decided to simplify the design. I didn't have any green fabric the right shade, but went with the citrus parfait dyed one I made a few months ago. I used Romeo, stitched on the green fabric, then couched some yellow thread. I made a cut up the fabric, since on the photo you could see the red grid in its centre. I made some very thin angelina sheet with opal colour, then stitched some needle lace fibres with a 30 wt Valdani thread. Then put it all to soak while I went to the movies to see The Time Traveller's Wife.

This morning I ironed the threads, being careful not to touch the angelina. I felt the regular grid was a bit too regular, so I added some corners to the grid with the angles changed, and cut small notches and holes in it, to add some chaos. I attached it to some purple batik with black Mistyfuse. Finally I couched some more threads over the fabric strip and free motioned the thread lace to the grid. Trimmed and glued to a prepared black canvas square.

Although I initially thought it rather lacking in detail, looking at it on the wall, I find it quite successful and striking.