All About MeltedRachel

Hi! I'm MeltedRachel, or just Rachel, if you prefer.

I am a textiles artist, craftsperson, writer and soon-to-be mum from South-West England.

I love making all sorts of stuff from fabric and mixed media and writing about it on the web. At the moment I'm mainly making a lot of stuff for babies and young children as I'm expecting my first child Summer 2011.

I'm currently working on a Young Adult fantasy novel. I also love reading and reviewing books.

Find out more about me and what I do below.

A big part of my life is textiles, craft, stitch and surface decoration.

I first started sewing at around age 14 and became a lot more interested in textiles after completing my Costume degree in 2003.

Since then I've been working on making all sorts of wall hangings and bags. You can see some of my favourite pieces in the slideshow below. There is sound - so check your speakers if you're in the library!

Rachel's Melted Fabrics
The main website to see all my textiles work.

MeltedRachel on Squidoo
Find out a lot more about me on Squidoo.

Textiles on Squidoo
A collection of all my textiles pages on Squidoo.

Melted Fabrics Bookstore
My Lulu e-book store, featuring all my e-books available for download.

I'm a huge fan of recycling what I already have and I've been really blessed with people giving me old clothes, curtains etc to use in my textiles work.

The majority of my textiles work is made from recycled scraps of fabric all layered up together although I must admit that I buy a lot of wadding and organza!

Image opposite: Some of my recycled fabrics piled up and ready to go.

I made these fabrics into a thick textile wrap (or shawl, if you prefer). These fabrics are a combination of old tops, dresses and curtains. The dusky pink fabric right at the bottom of the pile has appeared in a lot of my projects - this is because the fabric was from two pairs of enormous curtains.

Recycling Fabric
Find out more about some of my textiles pieces and what I used to create them.

Recycling for Textiles
This page is all about my recycling e-book which details how I've used recycling to create textiles, bags, figurines etc.

Recycling a Shirt into a Shabby-Chic Waistcoat
This is a step by step look at how I made a shabby chic waistcoat from an old shirt.

I love playing around with photo editing software. I won't say I'm great at it because I've taught myself so I don't know if I'm doing it right, but I love the results I'm getting.

The slideshow below is a collection of self-portraits that I made in July 2010. I made one a day for a month. You can check them all out and what inspired them on this Squidoo lens too.

The self-portrait opposite is from July 22nd. The texture layered over the top of my face is from an unfinished textiles piece which was based on one of Frida Kahlo's paintings.

Following on from my digital self-portraits, I've also been making book covers for the novels I've been working on. I'm finding it helpful to make a cover so I can visualise the finished story.

The story opposite doesn't currently have a title.

I've been trying to write a novel since I left university and I started taking it much moe seriously in 2006 when I took part in National Novel Writing Month for the first time.

So far I've completed one novel but I realised that it really wasn't what I wanted so it's been shelved - that was a painful experience to learn from!

Now I'm wondering how long it will take to write my current story with a new baby!

Rachel Writing
Find out more about my writing, how I started, what I'm working on, writing books I love and creative things I do to conquer writer's block.

I love researching all sorts of things so when I found out I was pregnant I started researching all aspects of pregnancy and looking after babies.

I love the idea of having a natural homebirth so that's where most of my research has been leading me.

I've got a huge collection of cloth nappies (or diapers if you prefer!) and I've even made a few of my own!

Check out the pregnancy and baby pages I've made below.

Image Opposite: Template for Rita's Rump Pocket - one of my favourite patterns for making fitted cloth diapers.

MeltedRachel's Baby and Pregnancy Lensography
You'll find most of my articles about babies and pregnancy on this page. There's a lot of emphasis on sewing stuff for babies.

I would say I was a Christian but there are so many traditional Christian ideas that I don't believe in. I don't believe in celebrating Easter and Christmas, for example, but I don't want to get into an argument with anyone who does!

I'm currently trying to read the whole Bible in a year as I haven't read the whole book before.

I also believe there's a Biblical explanation for everything paranormal. Find out more below!

Reading the Bible in a Year
This is my challenge for 2011 - to read the whole Bible.

Know Thine Enemy
A guide to intelligent deception and Christian answers to paranormal phenomena like UFOs, aliens, ghosts, angels etc

I've already mentioned the Portrait-a-Day challenge and my Bible reading challenge but I've also challenged myself to finish unfinished projects, read through all the books I own and to declutter my home, keeping note of how I'm doing as I go along.

Check out how I'm doing on the pages listed below!

The image opposite is a blanket that needs finishing - some sort of backing and edging is required.

Unfinished Textiles Projects
A catalogue of my unfinished projects.

Books I Own and Have Never Read
My first book-reading challenge. I managed to clear so much book clutter during this project - I had shelves full of books i knew I would never read or read again so I gave them away.

Books Read in 2011
This is a collection of reviews of the books I read in 2011. I'm still trying to be good about keeping on top of everything!

MeltedRachel's 2011 Resolutions and Goals
A list of things I wanted to achieve this year.

Melted Fabrics Yahoo Group
At one point I was writing a new craft challenge a week for this group. I've slowed down quite a bit recently.

Declutter Diary
This is the decluttering diary I kept last year. Now we've moved home and I can see that we're still going to have to throw out half the stuff in my mother-in-law's garage!

This is my first page on Wizzley and I hope to make many more.