Not Having a Clue

I have been a bit in the doldrums lately and am between projects - well, I am really supposed to working on one but it is just not doing it for me.

I have been having vague ideas about playing around with making some interesting fabric backgrounds that might then be used to stitch, collage and/or layer.
(Notice the vagueness of the outcome?? - hence the title, Not Having a Clue (What I Am Trying to Achieve.)

I went to a friend's house the other day and played with some different ideas.

 Some bits and pieces for rubbing. I used some water-soluble oil pastels. The name water-soluble makes me doubt that they will be colourfast but I tried it anyway.

An old Softcut stamp I made. The rubbing was done with the same oil pastels. 

 These two were done using a white crayon, rubbed over bits and pieces. Then ink was applied. One was left dry, the other (bottom) one was sprayed with water to see the different effects.

 Shiva stick oil paint rubbed over the stamp, on dampened fabric.

 Acrylic paint (very cheap) painted on, applied over some stencils and left to dry.

 Ordinary drawing pastels drawn onto the fabric. One piece had textile medium painted on before the pastel was applied, the bottom one after.

I have no idea what will be colourfast and what won't. The pieces are currently lying around being given time to embed into the fabric. I will iron them to see if that heat sets them. The I will wash them and see what worked and what didn't. Eventually.

All a bit hit and miss really.

But doing something, even if it isn't the tapestry I am supposedly working on.

The day wasn't a complete loss, I did actually play - and I had a lovely social day with my friends, one of whom provided a delicious lunch!

My Own Unfinished Business Finished!

Feeling inspired by the Unfinished Business ... Finished exhibition, I dragged out a quilt that I had started many years ago.
It is a kaleidoscope quilt, using some rather bright floral fabric. I know the book  (Magic Stack-n-Whack Quilts) was published in 1998, and I think I may have started the quilt around about then, maybe a few years later.
I got as far as putting it all together and even started quilting it. Then, who knows why, I put it in a quilting bag and have not taken it out since.

I found that I had started some rather tight stippling all over the blank parts of the fabric (that may be why I put it away, there was a lot of stippling to do). It is now finished off with much looser stippling.

I also found that the fabric pencil marks I had made were, mostly, still there and was able to use them to do some patterning amongst the stippling.

All that was left to do after that was to put on the binding - which I have now done. Very satisfying.
I even have a good  home for it to go to.
I tried to do a random, asymmetrical back, using the fabrics from the front. I rather like that, might try that again - if I ever do a another quilt.

Now I have the quilting bag available too, ready to take bits and pieces to various classes and groups.