wildfire

This is a wallhanging that I finished this weekend. I took a class through Quilt University with Linda Schmidt called Elements in Fabric. It was a super class. I worked on water & fire. It includes lots of things I've never used before- Angelina, Tinzl, tulle, foil all to give wonderful light & heat of the wildfire.
The branches in the foreground have lots of thread painting & my new free motion quilting skills got a workout!

fabric charm swap

Ruth Rae hosted a fabric charm swap through the Fabric-olics group. These are the charms I sent her. She has put the charms on bracelets and they are gorgeous.
I'm not getting a bracelet as I think it would be awkward to wear at work. I'm going to put mine on a kilt pin or two. can't wait to get them. Ruth is also featured in an article in the next issue of cloth, paper scissors magazine coming out soon!

more pages in my fabric book

Chris tried some new techniques on this page. There is silk fibers punched down & hand stitched with little fly stitches in wonderful autumn colours. the tree is a combo of hand and machine stitching & little seed beads.
The other side of the page has Angelina flower petals - they look like hydrangeas to me - and wonderful leaves from Tyvek. two techniques I want to try too.
Thanks Chris

please play again

please play again, please play again that's all I ever get from Tim. you know that java guy that calls you from every corner in Southern Ontario.
please play again..........until today..............drum roll................

WIN/COFFEE............ so yes I'll be playing AGAIN.

paper inchies

I've finished my paper floral inchies for a swap. I started with a napkin in my favourite green colour with gold damask highlights. I made this more durable by adding a layer of cheesecloth with glue using Beryl Taylor's instructions in
Mixed Media Explorations.
added a backing then cut it into inch square pieces. the edges are done with a gold krylon pen. silk flower petal glued down and the centre done with micro beads in gold & copper. 40 of these will be off in the mail. It will be fun to see what I get back.

fabric inchies continued

what a great surprise. My fabric inchies were selected on a group to be the homepage picture for a week. Its a fun, creative group that holds an Artfest every weekend. You enter a picture and the previous weeks winner selects from the current weeks entries. cool eh? Anita picked my fuzzy little pieces. Anita's piece selected for Artfest was a journal quilt of one of her many animals -Mona. Her blog has lots of photos from her farm. I still think it is the best place to raise a family.

fabric inchies

I need to make some inchies to trade--some in paper & some in fabric. I don't mind making them because you can start with 1 larger piece then cut it up. This is the same wool and yarns I used for the charms. The free motion embroidery is granite stitch. It is easy to do, effective for texture. I can see why it is so popular.
I left the little tails of yarn used to trim the inchies. I quite like them that way. I've made 28 of these little guys. now off to make the paper ones.

fabric book continued

This is the page Sandi made for my book. I love the hand stitched leaves & the flower is from vintage ribbon. The real dandielions will be showing up here any day now!!

business cards

For me there will always be things that say I am a grown-up. The first was keys- maybe it was growing up in a house that didn't even have a lock - but having my own set of keys was a very big deal. Then it was business cards- I still think its cool when I give out my business card & I do it many times each day. Now I have these!!!


Business cards sounds too formal and stuffy for these lovely new cards I had made recently. They are called Moo cards and are about half the size of a regular business card. about the size of a piece of gum, Juicy fruit gum. Juicy cards? fun cards? play cards? contact cards? PLEASE VISIT MY BLOG CARDS?!!
The photos are from various projects I've done - you pick the photos you want printed from your Flickr album and the back has up to 6 lines for printed information.
Next thing you know I will be sitting in a coffee shop working on my laptop!!

update on sunset

10 days away from the sewing room and I did about 2 hours of hand sewing on this sunset. I didn't have enough variety in the yarns I took. I am happy with how it is looking especially the bottom part. still needs lots of work. Here is the inspirational piece.

update on convergence

I made some progress on my convergence quilt. The focus fabric is a lovely floral print of zinnias designed by Valori Wells. I have 2 of the books she has written with her mother - Jean Wells. I like them because they have delightful pictures of gardens & flowers as well as quilts and descriptions of their design process.
One of their quilts features paper pieced arcs by Karen Stone's New York Beauties joined to represent flowers. I used just one quarter circle as the sun in the corner on my quilt. The batik has a good mix of the colours in the convergence as well as some brown for the earth. The green is repeated in the opposite corner. The next step will be a combination of fussy cut zinnias from the fabric as well as some silk flower petals under tulle. Just need to decide on foliage.

I've been published!!!

Yup you heard right. I've been published or rather my ATC's in Quilting Arts newest book 1000 ATC's. I'm waiting on my copy from Chapters. Its here!! My ATc's are #'s 452 & 455. It was originally a machine embroidered design that came with my Husky D1. It was just hanging around so I hacked it up for the ATC's. They are much brighter in colour IRL. Like others I am disappointed in the quality of the colour reproductions in the book but it is still cool to see my name & stuff in a book!

I think this is my 100th post too. I started just over a year ago and want to post every single day!

I *heart* zine

I've decided to join a zine swap organized by Alma Stoller. The topic has to be about a craft or art - shall I pick quilting or quilting?! But I really need to narrow it so it has a focused theme. I'm thinking of creating texture with thread for journal quilts. I've never made a zine before but I always have words swirling in my head when I'm working on something so this will give me an opportunity to get them out into the world!!

half way there

I settled on 2 fabrics for sashing & setting blocks for this quilt and a third reddish fabric for the narrow border. I'm quite pleased with how it is looking.

fabric book part 3

These are the pages Lenna made for my fabric book. I like the dark page - a garden at night.

my fabric book

The theme I choose for my fabric book was 'In my Garden'. I used tea towels I had embroidered as a kid for the covers. I've had these for decades and wanted to use them for something. The front cover is carrots & the back inside is peppers.
My first page was made to represent gardens I had visited in Paris. Wonderful flower beds surrounded by grass paths. When I stepped into the bed to see some flowers close up I was quickly told not to step in the flower beds by a local guard. welcome to Paris!! but I quickly got over it and on other visits we found a park where we could actually sit on the grass!

fabric book part 2

Chris had a theme of Japan for her fabric book. I took photos of some beautiful bonsai we saw in a garden next to Villa Carlotta on Lake Como in Italy last year. I transferred a photocopy of the photo onto contact paper and used some free machine embroidery designs to finish the pages.

inside the garden gates fabric page

Chris's theme for her fabric book was inside the garden gate. The gate is machine stitched on gray organza and is supported by stone walls.
behind the gate is a formal garden with the urn stamped & embossed on paper. some thread painting on the topiary for dimension.
the back page is silk flower petals attached to resemble hydrangea.