allium in the garden

the inspiration - wonderful allium in the garden. I wanted to capture them in fabric. was hoping for a loose sketchy rendition. wasn't to be!

Work in progess - a mottled green background, lovely matte woven hand-dyed Italian linen with lovely blobs of mauve that told me where the flowers should go. and the stem is there too. what I didn't see until I cut the linen away was the 'S' in the darker green around the central flower. serendipity or unconscious design decision?!
I added a tiny bit more thread painting to highlight the darker & lighter sides of the flowers.

This is a scan of the final quilted piece. I can see better in the picture a bit of airiness in the center of the flower.

finished piece on the garden table!




back to the garden. the weeds are growing, the grass needs cutting. the poppies are in bloom now.........hmmmmmm!!

playing with stamps

the latest issue of cloth, paper scissors has a great article on embossing velvet with paint. I've tried this before with cotton velvets and it didn't work. I bought a second hand shirt because the colour was mottly muddy green & golds. It embossed really well with acrylic stamps.

punched organza

I love this star. layers of organza punched over cotton. the organza starts to look like angelina and colours mix almost like watercolour. They don't show on the photo but there are tiny flecks of foil on the felt. the spiral was done with the fancy yarn in the bobbin

work fast

I'm trying to work faster. taking less time to mull over decisions. also reduces the chances of abandoning a project in favour of the next great thing!! This was from a book called Quilted Projects from scraps and stash
spend a good portion of the time I had looking for that darn box with the watercolour squares. Can't remember if it was taken away in the great purge! Into the scrap heap, cut 2" squares. wanted to use foil adhesive for the swirls but it takes too long to dry. used 3D fabric paint.

another one finished

in cleaning up my studio specifically UFO's using the mantra- finish with it or finish it - this one was a keeper. The block had the tree and leaves done, from eons ago, I don't even remember where I was living when I started this!! added a cute little bird, wavy border, binding & it is FINISHED!!

1" square pieces of art

I got a fun little parcel in the mail today. 35 little pieces of art. so cute. They are fun to arrange. I'll think I will attach them to a piece of paper or fabric. My pieces are here.

more punching

I love sheer organzas. I've quite a collection now in orange, burgundy, reds. bought 2 large panels of red sheers & one of large satin stripes in orange & burgundy alternating with sheer. all 3 for $2! I tore some into about 2 & 1/2 " strips & punched them onto stretchy denim. I think it needs some free motion stitching now

beach tide

I finished another project using Linda Schmidt's wonderful guidance. This was in Quilting Arts Magazine winter 2006. The shore is puff paint, real shells & sea glass, painted. the waves are different colours of organza & dyed cheesecloth punched with the Embellisher front & back. may add a few teeny beads at the edge of the wave.

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

fabulous mail

I got my fabric charms in the mail yesterday. Beautiful little pieces of fabric art on a bracelet. Ruth did a beautiful job making the bracelets and packaging them.
The bracelet is on a lovely piece of felt wtih embellishments on the front and that was sewn inside a little envelop of waxed paper.

storm at sea wallhanging

This is a wallhanging I made at a workshop years ago with a quilter from Hamilton I think. Its been that long. Traditional pattern but unusual method putting it together. again memory is sketchy on the details. The leaf fabric was bought in Florida and reminds me of cabbage leaves. Free motion quilting - lots of it.

ribbon weaving

This is a 6" square little page made one choice at a time. Ribbons in various colour, texture & width are woven over a piece of thick fusible interfacing - Timtex I think. I didn't take pictures in progress like I usually do. After the ribbons were woven & firmly attached I used fancy stitches & variegated thread to break up some of the larger ribbons. Then yarns for texture. There was one ribbon I had only one of and it is a rather 'electric blue'. It doesn't seem to work in there on it own so I added 2 smaller yarns in the same colour.Let's play - Can you spot the differences!! Let me know what you think. The dark doesn't stand out as much in real life as it does in the scans & photos & it is evenly balanced on two corners so I am finished tweaking. or maybe not, dark on the other two corners would finish acting like a frame. Mmmmm?

Quilt U show

Quilt University has a wonderful virtual show of quilts made from the classes. My Wildfire is in the applique section.
There are some wonderful quilts especially the portraits.

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.