Stewart Gill pasifika collection

I had a lovely surprise last week and found myself in the vicinity of Rainbow Silks.  I've bought from their website before but had long wanted to actually visit the shop so I enjoyed a lovely browse and had to buy a few items to make it worthwhile!  I wish I lived closer so I could visit regularly and I would love to attend some of their classes. But the journey up the M3 and the M25 is enough to put anybody off!
I had already purchased the new Stewart Gill pasifika stencils but took the opportunity to buy the Oceania set of True Colours paints (of course now I wish I'd bought the Tribal tapa set as well as they are equally gorgeous).
So this afternoon I had a little play with the stencils and paints on some brown wrapping paper courtesy of Amazon and the result is above. I haven't decided what I will use it for yet but I love the result!

More fabric painting

I've started working on a thread holder to house all my DMC threads. It will be the same as the Anchor one posted earlier but I've used red/orange/yellow this time. Here's the material painted and stencilled with Stewart Gill paints. It's much brighter in real life but useless photography is to blame again! The back of the folder is made up ready but the front is waiting on me stitching the band sampler which I'm doing bit by bit in the evenings watching tv.

I went to Newbury Stamp show yesterday and spent far too much money as always. I bought some Glimmer Mists and screens which I have been coveting for some time so I'm looking forward to having a play with those - much more rewarding than cleaning the bathroom which is what I should be doing!

Thread holder

It just goes to show how good a long weekend is for me - I can actually get something started and finished all in one go instead of having it hanging around for days, weeks, months... Though I have to admit that this is something I have had in mind to do for years!

A long time ago I bought 2 LoRan folders to hold all my embroidery threads and I like the way the threads are held on the cards and ready to use but have never cared for the plastic brown cover so I thought I could make a new one. Well, eventually, here it is, so much smarter than the original shown above:

I used the fabric that I painted and stencilled with Stewart Gill paints (see previous post) and the band sampler that I finished stitching a couple of weeks ago. It holds all my Anchor threads so now I just have to make another one for all my DMC threads. Look out for that post in a few years from now!

Stewart Gill Sampler book

Back in Sept I went on a 6 week course with Becca from Becca's Quilt Emporium. It was all about exploring Stewart Gill products: paints, stencils, stamps etc, and at the end we were to produce a fabric book of samples. Needless to say, at the end of the 6 weeks I had lots of samples but nothing resembling a book! However, I did start work on it and had produced a cover and about 8 pages when preparations for Xmas intervened and I put it to one side. I even took some photos of the completed pages ready to post here but never did. The last couple of weeks I have managed to get back to it and have done another 4 pages (which I haven't photographed yet), so I thought I would put up what I've done so far. I hope to make at least another 4 pages before declaring it finished.

So here is my cover:

Black cotton has been stencilled and then strips and shapes of painted tissue have been ironed on with bondaweb. And the pages: