Hi everyone, today I am excited to share a fabric book I created for the most recent StencilGirl® collaboration hosted by Tina Walker. The concept behind this challenge was fairly simple: each artist would: "Create a fabric journal/book that uses StencilGirl® number stencils. It is preferred that the stencils are the highlight of your book, but if you also use them to create wonderful backgrounds, that is a-ok! The preference is that your stencil use is limited to numbers only. Feel free to use fabric paint, sprays, acrylic paint, markers, etc. Your journal/book can be any number of pages - no limit or min."
When I began to consider this project, I could not stop thinking about embroidering the numbers as focal points on the fabric pages...of course, I've never embroidered a day in my life... which seems to be par for the course when I take on one of Tina's SG challenges, yet, I always appreciate stepping out of my comfort zone. I find myself pushing beyond my "normal" creative boundaries and I am never disappointed in what I can achieve.
My project, "count to ten" is a handmade fabric book. The intention behind this creation was that, so often there are things happening around us or in our day to day that seem overwhelming or upsetting; stepping back and taking a moment to "count to ten" can make a world of difference. Whether those ten counts are simply deep breaths, or ten positive thoughts or maybe even counting ten personal blessings, they can be just what we need to give us a different perspective.
Each page background consists of a painted number stencil repeated randomly. Each page also contains a pocket featuring the same stenciled number, in a larger size, that has been hand embroidered. An integrated bookmark, with an attached Milagro, can be moved from page to page and inserted into the pocket as one counts.
When creating each of the pages, I randomly stenciled a number in various directions to create a background pattern. The Vintage Typewriter Stencil (L591) has two different sizes of numbers. For the backgrounds I used the smaller sized numbers. I covered each page with stenciled numbers using acrylic paint and allowed to dry before moving onto the next page.
The next step was the most time consuming. Since I wanted the book to be somewhat monotone, I decided to dye some thin cotton yarn with Paynes grey ink. I loved the variation of color that I achieved by doing this. Next, using a piece of lightweight muslin as a base, I traced the outline of a larger sized number with an extra fine Micron pen. I hooped the piece and then filled the outline with stitches. I did this same process for each of the ten large numbers.
The stitched pieces were cut into rectangles and then fused onto a larger piece of indigo handmade paper. I fused each embroidered piece along three edges its respective background page creating a pocket. Since the pockets may be used to hold things, I reinforced each of the four corners using French knots.
The cover was made using a recycled piece of denim. After cutting the denim to size, I sewed the signature into the cover. Next, I stamped "one to ten" with a Payne's grey acrylic paint mixture. There are ten Milagros attached to the bottom edge of the book with French knots.
There are a number of artists that created beautiful projects for this challenge. Tina is sharing the inspiration behind the challenge as well as her amazing project and links to each of the participating artists on the
StencilGirl Talk blog today.
You can find pictures, details and links to each specific artists creation on the StencilGirl® Talk Blog
here.
I hope you can take a minute to hop over and check it out.
I loved making this book and maybe it has inspired you to make one something similar.
Thanks so much for stopping by today, I truly appreciate it.
~Ann
xxx
