Silk Fusion Wall Hanging - Whispers From the Deep

I started this silk fusion piece in July so that I would have a "work in progress" to work on while I was volunteering at the Festival of the Arts . . . and I immediately realized that it was going to be one of my favourites! It has been on my design wall and I have worked on it occasionally in between other projects and I have thoroughly enjoyed every stitch that has gone into it.  Let me tell you a bit about it . . .

I created the silk fusion using silk hankies and throwsters silk in shades of smokey blue and lavender through magenta.  The piece was formed into a softly curved crescent with lots of feathery edges as well as added texture in the interior of the piece.

After it was dry, the silk fusion was then free motion stitched to a background of royal purple dupioni silk and the background was further enhanced with free motion quilting. I left two areas without the dense machine quilting and later added seed stitches by hand, stitching only into the batting and not all the way through to the backing, so those areas are a bit puffy. I added layered hand embroidery on top of the silk fusion before stitching the gorgeous silk carrier rod in place and then funneling beads into the top and out of the bottom end of the rod.

This is a wall hanging that measures 9.5" x 24.5" (24 x 62 cm) and can be hung by a concealed dowel through the sleeve on the back. The backing is a beautiful batik that has the same colours as the top. It will eventually be for sale through my Etsy shop, but for now I would like to hang onto it and enter it in a couple of shows.


The dyed silk that I used in this silk fusion is some that I purchased through the Etsy seller, Nunoco, in England. The silk carrier rod that is stitched to the surface was the inspiration for the piece.

Fibre Art Journal #2

Here are the photos of the fibre art journal that I showed you pictures of when it was in progress a few weeks ago.  I have had most of the finishing touches done for some time but, you know, there is always something else that I can add . . . this is a project where you can keep adding finishing touches because it is an item that will be viewed up close for the details that you have created!

This particular fibre art journal showcases techniques that I will teach in an upcoming workshop and I think that the participants will have a great time deciding which of their favourite techniques to include in their journal. If you click on the images, you can zoom in for a closer look.

The accordion journal is double sided so, at this size, there are ten spaces to be filled.
Here is the second side . . .

For this journal I chose to use a black cotton background fabric and my samples are primarily in the green and gold colourway, with little accents of purple.

Some of the techniques include several edge finishes, altered cloth, hand beading, funky hand embroidery, covered sticks and cords, thread painted leaves and organza leaves, fibre art beads, couching threads and cords, hand stamped fabric ... and, of course, I had to include some of the samples on my hand painted and hand dyed fabric.

Sockeye Salmon Spawning in Scotch Creek

It is the first of September and today we took a drive down the north shore of Shuswap Lake ... had a wonderful walk in the woods at Roderick Haig Brown Park ... a delicious ice cream cone ... and then we stopped at Scotch Creek bridge to see if the salmon were running yet.

This is a one-lane bridge and when traffic approaches from both directions, the west-bound cars get to cross the wooden bridge first. As we crossed the bridge the first time, hubby spotted the red salmon from the moving car. Scotch Creek is a pretty shallow creek so when the sockeye salmon are returning here to spawn it is very easy to see them.  The salmon have bright red bodies and green heads by the time they reach their home river to spawn.

Here are a couple of photos taken of the salmon in the river .. zoom in for a closer look

 I am sure there is an art quilt in here somewhere, just waiting to emerge . . .