Ready, Steady, Go ...1,2, 3

It's that time of the year again when I participate in the global art challenge #the100dayproject .... I have done this for the last five years and I love doing it. Sometimes, the idea of creating something for 100 consecutive days just seems ridiculous, but I've learnt over the years not to do something too ambitious, and to have an idea or theme which is entirely achievable. Today it all seems easy - it is only Day 3.

This year, 2024, I have decided to follow colour prompts curated by artist, EsteMacLeod. - Este publishes these colour palettes each week, and I thought using these means that half the work is already done. My 100 day project will be then to make responses to these prompts and work on each palette for a week for the duration.

1/ #100daysofcolourcombo - Bubblegum Cat

Day 1 Bubblegum Cat .... a Laurel Burch print , overstitched in bubblegum coloured thread. This particular technique follows these steps:

- stitch around the shape ( two pieces of fabric together)

- make a slit in the back of the figure, through the one layer of fabric only

- stuff the figure being careful to fill the extreme points

(I use wool stuffing, but polyfill is fine)

- cut carefully leaving a small seam around the edge of the figure

- paint the border of fabric beyond the stitched outline - front and back). (I painted the lighter colour first, and then painted stripes in black paint) . Acrylic paint is fine.

2/ #100daysofcolourcombo : Bubblegum Landscape Dreams

Day 2 : Bubblegum Landscape Dreams is a collage using recycled paper and postage stamps ... Apologies to all the philatelists - I was given a set of 4 Van Gogh [postage stamps and have kept them in my stash for years until yhesterday - I found a use.... the burnt orange and egg yolk colours were irresistible. The theme of people looking through windows is common in my work.... that's an interesting observation in itself - I wonder if this can be interpreted to have a deeper meaning, as in dream analysis. The background fantasy forest is a stitched magazine cover.

Day 3 : Bubblegum Celebration is an explosive circle of colour comprising more circles.... they are raw edge appliqued and reverse appliqued in the colours of the palette. As I was teaching a friend to free motion machine stitch, I extended my demonstration of the technique to make this sample. I have mounted it into a square greeting card and think it would be suitable for an happy occasion or wild event! All these fabrics were in my scrap tin, so they have been rescued from landfill. There is no special meaning here, just a celebration of colour!

What have I learnt over the last 3 days :

1. Setting some time aside each day is still a challenge

2. Working with set colours can be very restricting

3. Working outside my comfort zone of colours was quite a lot of fun.

4. Process not perfection counts!

Please follow my 100 day artful journey with me - here on this blog, or for a daily fix on my Instagram page.

Bilby Infatuation

Wrapped wire and fabric bilby sculpture : Wilma Simmons 2016 Over the years I have been fascinated with the plight of the bilby and it has inspired quite a few of my cloth creations... With long pinkish-coloured ears and silky, blue-grey fur, the Bilby has become Australia’s version of the Easter Bunny. Unlike the rabbit, bilby numbers are falling rapidly. There were originally two species but the Greater Bilby is now commonly referred to simply as ‘the Bilby’ as the Lesser Bilby (Macrotis leucura) is thought to have become extinct in the early 1950s... Bilbies are nocturnal, emerging after dark to forage for food. Using their long snouts, they dig out bulbs, tubers, spiders, termites, witchetty grubs and fungi. They use their tongues to lick up grass seeds. Bilbies have poor sight and rely on good hearing and a keen sense of smell. To minimise threats from predators they’ll mostly stay within 250m of their burrows, but sometimes roam further afield depending on the food...

"Temari Or Not Temari?" Tutorial

Background Information: Temari (literally translated “hand ball”) is a Japanese folk craft that is alleged to have originated in China and was introduced to Japan five or six hundred years ago. Traditionally, the balls were constructed from wrapped kimono fabric remnants and silk threads. They were made by mothers and grandmothers for children to play with. Nowadays, decorative embroidered temari represent a highly valued and cherished gift symbolizing friendship and loyalty. Recently I've wondered if your don't use traditional techniques whether you should call what you create "temari". That is an ongoing debate but today I share what I do to make a "non-traditional temari".... 1.I start with a polystrene ball ( traditionally the balls were wound silk scraps or other organic materials) and begin to wrap with approx 4 ply wool, turning the ball as I wrap. 2. I then wrap another layer of wool in a similar fashion , this time a 3 or 2 ...

Non-Committal Collage Anything Goes

Have you heard of non-committal collage? I hadn't until one of the other participants of the 100 Day Project started doing this each day and showing the results.... Here are Peggy's rules : 1. S elect 9 scraps of paper from collage box/stash 2. Make three different compositions using each scrap at least once. (some pieces can be used more than once) 3. Do not alter the scraps of paper in any way. 4.Do not use glue. 5.Take photo, disassemble and return scraps to box. I thought this would be a fun and quick exercise to do for Tag Tuesday's theme , Anything Goes... so here are my "non-committal collage" tags.... Did you spot the nine pieces? Would you like to suggest some titles? And I repeated the exercise before putting back the 9 scraps of paper, so these are different items. Hope you will try this exercise - it is lots of...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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