Well, that didn't work!

I have had a fairly unsuccessful attempt at doing the Maggie Grey-inspired work.  I made the (not so) simple image using displacement mapping.
I printed one image onto cotton.

I made my lacy cotton fabric using machine sewing and soluble fabric.

After rinsing the soluble fabric away, I stretched it out to close to the proportions I wanted - the first sign that things might not work out how I planned. (You can see it under the printed cotton.)

I reversed my image and printed it out onto t-shirt transfer stuff (note: I didn't really think about the fact that it was a plastic sheet!).

I ironed my t-shirt image onto the lacy fabric.  It was a complete image on plastic, with my lacy fabric on the back. Definitely not what I had envisaged.

The instructions said to use Glad Bake, which I confused with baking paper.  Once again, I have ironed paper onto my work and it didn't want to come off.

I eventually pulled the lacy cotton away and have some slightly dirty cotton - NOT the effect I was after.

I also have a piece of paper with a distressed image on it.  Not sure what to do with that, I don't think I will throw it away just yet.  Maybe I can use it with the embellishing machine - if the plastic won't be too bothered by that.  That idea is for another day.

Oh well, back to the drawing board.  I will have to think about what I can do with the image that DID work, the one that is printed onto the cotton.

Missing My Teachers

Well, it's time to try something new.  I got out my book from Image to Stitch, by Maggie Grey and she had this simple-sounding thing to try.
It is using a photo-imaging program to produce an interesting layered textile work.  The description sounded ok, so I found a couple of images to play around with and set out to give it a go.

Path along the Yarra at Warburton

Lights reflecting on the Yarra in the city.

Well ...
It isn't as easy as she says!  You have to actually know something about what you are doing.  This is when I realised that I am going to have to read the books, the online tutorials, etc and not be able to take it to class and ask the teacher for help.
Out came the book I bought years ago (Photoshop for Right-Brainers by Al Ward), thinking I would be able to use it.  It is for people with some knowledge of Photoshop.  I had some knowledge, I thought when I bought it.  Not enough though.  It got put on the shelf and browsed through rather wistfully on occasion. But today I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could actually do one of the examples in Chapter 1 (well, I think I have done it properly).  I didn't use the provided disk, I wanted to use my own photos.  This complicated things.  I wasn't sure what I was doing but I persevered.

So now I have several images.

Tomorrow seems soon enough to think about how to get one onto fabric and then what to do with it. I am feeling good about having made some progress and the images are interesting, I think.
There are several ideas in from Image to Stitch that I can try.  That's for another day.