Sunday 11 November 2012

Anything But A Card Challenge #6 - A Stitch In Time

The new challenge at Anything But A Card goes live today (I'm a little early with post) and I absolutely love this one! The theme is 'A Stitch In Time' and this can be taken so many ways. You can take the time aspect and use clocks, dates, postage stamps, calendars, and watch parts or gears etc. You could take the stitching route and get your sewing basket out to do some real stitching or use faux stitching of some kind perhaps with a stamp or pen.

On the other hand you could do what I've done and combine the two. I seem to be in a sewing mood at the moment and decided to make a cover for a little address book I bought in a charity shop. I've used my machine, some stamping, some embellishments and some ink just to grunge it up a little!

We're really having a great time at Anything But A Card looking at all your wonderful creations so why not give this challenge a try if you haven't entered yet or please do join in again if you're one of our 'regulars'. Please do go over to the blog and see what the other DT members have made this week too - I'm sure you'll be in for a treat!

Here's my DT piece for this challenge:

The front view of the cover which was made from some vintage linen I've had for a very long time, some white cotton fabric and some twine. Some watch parts and wooden beads were used to finish the look.
The back view of the cover complete with inky finish to provide an aged look.
All the stamping was done using coffee archival ink and a Paper Artsy stamp set. Many edges and certain areas were inked with distress walnut stain ink mainly because I love the look it achieves.
The top and bottom hems of the cover were stitched with two parallel rows for a quality finish. (I also did this inside the front and back of the cover but forgot to take a photo!).
Nylon thread was used to hand sew real watch parts to various areas of the design. A combination of straight stitch and zig-zag stitch was used to attach the stamped pieces.
Two ties were made from linen - all raw edges were encased for a neater look and each tie was top stitched around all edges. To ensure the chunky ties don't slip open, some jute twine has been added with wooden beads as both weights and embellishments.
I really like jute twine and it's natural appearance matches really well with the linen fabric.
Although ziz-zag is a modern stitch, I felt it was appropriate to use it here to ensure that the raw edges were properly encased.

Hope this isn't too grungy looking for you! I've been producing stitched items in my career which had to be as perfect as possible and it's good to do something which is less restricited and a more arty feel. Not sure what my pupils would have made of 'Miss' doing work like this though!!


22 comments:

  1. Julia this as absolutely adorable, I love it. The detail and mood you have captured with this piece is superb.
    Huge hugs x x x x

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  2. Julia this is gorgeous and given your previous "life" just perfect for you! I love the detail and all the individual pieces - but especially the blending of all the colours. Just wonderful!

    Thinking cap on now!

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  3. Well I think your pupils would love it, just as I do. Your sewing is superbly done, neat but arty and your stamping onto the fabric is fabulous. Love the colours you have used and how they match so well with the linen and twine. A truly beautiful piece! Crafty hugs, Anne x

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  4. Beautiful what you can do with stamps and not make cards :) Love your detail & design. Happy Sunday, Shirleyx

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  5. OMgoodness Julia, this is awesome! I wish I had a machine...well, wish I knew how to sew this well! Fabulous project, I just LOVE it! waving hi from the hills of North Carolina :)

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  6. This is a fabulous project and the stitching is so neat but still giving an overall arty feel to the piece. Love it

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  7. Phew for a minute there I thought it was all sewing, which I am allergic to! But love this, you've put so much interest in it.

    Cassidy xx

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  8. So this challenge was right up your street eh?!! A superb mix of your brilliant stitching and some beautiful stamping, combined into a wonderful project. And not too grungy at all!! Love it. Hugs, Buttons x

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  9. Wow, that's a breathtaking piece of art.

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  10. WAUWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW Julia this is really really a great piece of Art,
    Love it.
    Greetings Janny

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  11. Wow! Julia. This is beautiful. Love the natural materials and fibres and the neutral colours work so well with all of your stamping. Fabulous! Cheers, Di

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  12. Oh my goodness, Julia - this is absolutely beautiful! Such extraordinarily subtle detailing in the stamping and amazing stitching, and utterly lovely texture from your antique linen. Completely wonderful in design and execution - I love it!
    Alison x

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  13. Hi Julia, this is lovely and I think, given your previous career, you must have got a lot of pleasure out of making it. I love the combination of textures and stamping and if I could stitch anything like as neat and straight as you do I'd be only too happy. As it is, I have a love/hate relationship with my sewing machine, which seems to just want to take off without me much of the time :)) Elizabeth xx

    PS: don't you just love Janny's zigzag stitching in her comment - clever or what? :))

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  14. Is there any material you cannot work with Julia? Oh my...again great!
    The stampic looks so nice on the fabric and the stitching looks so professional.
    I've pinned it right away!

    greetings, Alie :-)

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  15. This is fantastic!!! I love the grungy feel wish I could sew!!!! A wonderful make sorry nit been by been poorly! Hugs trace x

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  16. Julia there really is something about old fabrics that makes them distinguished! I love the linen you have used. I particularly like how your stampsed details appear to meld into the fabric and yet are still very defined. I would say the kids would be cheering "Go Miss Go!"

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  17. What a stunning stitched project Julia! I adore your calendar pages too. Just noticed I can follow you by email, yippee, I won't miss a thing now!
    Alison xx

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  18. This is wonderful!Love the linen,stitching,gears,and twine together!Quite the fabulous combination! Amazing job on the challenge!!

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  19. I think I am going to have to get the sewing machine out and learn how to use it properly. I only got the vintage machine this summer to make some bunting and I am not very good at using it yet! If I can ever get results anywhere near as good as this it will be worth learning! Thanks so much for sharing a wonderful piece of work. Laura x

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  20. This is a lovely piece. love the stitching with the time pieces, Fabulous
    Avril x

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. Juliax