fast & finished

I'm trying to work freer, faster & funkier. No measuring, no matching just fun. Start with a favourite fabric - Kaffe Fassett - cut out a hole, back with water soluble stablizer & stitch back & form, change threads. as long as all the threads intersect they will still be there when the stablizer is washed away.
PS how do you spell stablizer? stabalizer?

gathering swirls

a small page (6x6")
the gathering swirls represent our habits, beliefs both negative and positive that make us who we are.
wonderful little bits of foil under tulle & machine stitched

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

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!!

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.

fabric book part 1

I participated in a round robin fabric book with some lovely women from a group called Fabric-olics. I'm so glad I have photos of the pages I made & sent along.
The first one I received was from Lenna. Lenna has a wonderful website full of art & personal stories. The theme of her book was My Secret Lake in the shape of the lake where she & her husband now make their home. Lenna hosts and participates in many round robins & exchanges. She is making a quiltie a week for this entire year for herself and her husband.
My page for Lenna's book has a cover of vellum through which you can see the fish in the lake. Rainbow trout of course because I have one of my Dad's mounted fish watching over me everyday in my sewing room.

The rainbow trout fish are embellished with metallic thread sewn on from the bobbin and the back is some more funky fish.

shades of green continued

a finished page for a fabric book - the best part of using a positive & negative image is I get the leftovers for an almost identical quilt for myself and it is journal size to fulfill another obligation!