A Birthday Card

I wanted to make a special card for a friend who is going to be celebrating her 83rd birthday this week, an avid sewer and quilter, I thought she might like a card using one of my doodle/embroidery designs.

I simply took the embroidered design, backed it with thick, stiff interfacing and did some free motion quilting all around. (it really made the design "pop")

Regular card stock was used as the card "base". I trimmed the quilted embroidery design and then with a zig-zag stitch, I sewed it to the front of the folded cardstock.

A message for the inside of the card was printed on a pretty parchment looking paper and attached  by stitching along the fold on the inside.

This is such a fun and easy way to make cards for family & friends.

A "Blog-versary" and Hand Dyed Threads

I can hardly believe it... I began this blog 5 years ago.....well, actually....5 years plus a week ( kinda let the "blog-versary" slip by)

In my very first post I said:  "Blogging is a new concept for me. I have absolutely no clue as to what I am doing just yet but I have never let that stop me before. I have found many blogs to be intriguing and inspiring. What will I bring to this forum?....I do not know. I will just have to see where this leads."

Over the past 5 years, I have stitched, stamped, carved, drawn, painted, stenciled, beaded, dyed, printed, discharged, inked, doodled, designed, batiked and papercut, in addition to cotton and wool, I have used leaves, rocks, dryer sheets, paper, metal and other "found" objects. It has been 5 years of experimentation and exploration, I am loving playing with everything I can get my hands on.

This past weekend, I spent time dyeing threads, I decided to see what results could be obtained using just 3 colours of dye.

After creating several skeins with plain, off-white mercerized cotton.....about 15 yards in each, I soaked them in a soda ash solution, then, mixed up a yellow, an orange and a cherry red dye.

I saturated the cotton with dye in a variety of ways, each giving different effects.....I think my favourites came from applying dye to specific areas using an eye dropper. Here is a closer look at a few of them

Pattern Testing for Terri Stegmiller

Paws in the Garden by Terri Stegmiller

I have long been a fan of Terri Stegmiller's work, Terri is a fabulous artist, author, designer, and quilter with a very distinctive style. Recently she put out a call looking for several quilters willing to "test" one of her new patterns. I waved my hand in the air yelling pick me...pick ME!!! and she did.
By having several different people make up her design/pattern, Terri is hoping that quilters will be able to see just how varied these designs can look depending upon the technique(s) used.
The quilt pictured on the right is Terri's version of her design.

I think this is wonderful, you can purchase the file from her Etsy shop, download and print it. There are registration marks on each page so that you know where to trim and how it all fits. Tape the trimmed, printed pages together and you have a full size pattern ready to work with.

Now, this is the fun part....YOU decide how you want to create your quilt. There are no "instructions"....you are not being told what to do step by step...it is your quilt and you are making all the decisions from this point on.
You can do the marvelous stitch and paint technique that Terri is known for, or anything else you prefer.....you work in the style, method and colours you want. I decided to use a fast fusible applique method in a very graphic combination of blacks, whites, and greys with lime green for a little punch

Most of you are likely aware that I do not generally work with patterns, I don't tend to do another artists designs, but I was thrilled to be a part of this exercise and it was such a fun challenge for myself.  I hope you enjoy seeing these photos of this quilt from start to completion.

The PDF file fresh from my printer  (I did number each page to be sure I wouldn't get mixed up)

here it is all taped together

Since, I planned to use a fused, raw edge applique technique, I needed to work from the reverse side, I simply flipped the pattern over and traced the lines onto the back of the paper

I identified, numbered, and traced each piece onto paperbacked fusible web, selected my fabrics, fused the shapes and cut them out, here, all of the design elements are assembled

Next I laid the background fabric on top of the pattern and began fusing the pieces in place, starting with the pieces that would appear farthest back and moving to the foreground    (recognize that green polka dot fabric?)

everything is fused and I am ready to move on to the next step. I batted and backed this piece and then had fun with the quilting

...oh....and I DID have fun with the quilting.......a kitty with feathers?

Ta da! the finished quilt....Paws in the Garden.....a Terri Stegmiller design,...the "Quilt Rat" version.

what about you? how would you use this design? What technique would you use? what colours?

I am so looking forward to seeing what the others will do with this whimsical design. Be sure to pop over to Terri's blog and see all the amazing things that oh so talented and clever girl has on the go.

Linking up to Nina-Marie's  Off the Wall Fridays......grab a cuppa and join the fun...wonderful things are happening all over  blog-land

Transforming Fabric

Sometimes you know exactly the look of fabric you want....but what if it isn't readily available? I often get what I need by working a little transformation on my fabrics with simple techniques.

For my current project, I took a polka dotted tone on tone (whites) and began by circling each "dot" with a Micron pen.....and there are a lot of dots.

Then I simply brushed on diluted fabric paint....in this case, the paint is a transparent Setacolor by Pebeo........heat set with an iron once dried. I love the way the dots act as a resist.

come back next week if you are curious to see what I am using this for.
a quick look at what the fabric looked like when I painted a section without inking

 Linking up to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Fridays

Creating Illustrations

This week I wanted to make illustrations of the embroidery stitches used on the embellished wool piece I showed recently.
Since I know how to create each stitch with needle and thread, I thought it would be easy enough to draw them........trying to draw them from my mind's "eye" did not really work very well....they just did not look right. 
So, here is what I did, as I made each stitch, I drew what I was seeing, one step at a time.

a bullion stitch in progress

was the visual for my drawing

here, all of the steps for that stitch are rendered in pencil.

I did this for each of the different stitches, then scanned my drawings and added text.....voila!....my own illustrations fresh from my printer

 I am linking up to Nina Marie's Off The Wall Fridays

Whole Cloth Evolution

Whenever I have a chance, I love to create designs. I have a number of them that I would like to turn into whole cloth pieces.
Here is a peek into the process of one I am currently working on.

Mirrors placed on 1/8th of the design shows how it might look

The design enlarged and transferred onto fabric

Then, I began filling in areas using fabric paint

Getting close

Once the painting is done, it all needs to be heat set

I really need to carve out some time to dedicate to the quilting, I have not yet decided what I will stitch in the negative space.....but I do plan to have fun!

Still Playing with Wool.

I have been spending time layering stitches on wool. Feels like I am doodling, but with thread.

  

 

Wool

Wool............first I dyed some,

Then the embellishing began.

 

Easy Batik Method

I have always wanted to try Batik, but space is limited, I don't have a spot to play with wax and dyes, no where to really get "messy"
Recently, a reader and I were emailing back and forth, talking about various classes, workshops, techniques. She described a batik method where instead dye baths, the dyes are simply painted on.  well this really got me thinking....I wanted to try it so badly....but had no supplies on hand.
Those who follow me regularly KNOW that was not about to stop me....Like Clark Griswold...."I was on a QUEST"   :-)

So here is what I did

I have one of those little wax burners....you know the ones, you put a small cube of scented wax and melt it with a tea light candle placed underneath.  Okay....I now had hot wax.

I took a piece of muslin, lightly drew a design and then placed this in an embroidery hoop.

Next I traced the outlines using nothing more than a cheap paint brush dipped into the hot wax. It is going to take a little practice to get smooth lines but for my first time I am really quite pleased.
I checked to be sure the wax was going right through the fabric,

to give you an idea of size.....that hoop measures 12" across

then it was time to paint.....and that is what I did, I used textile paints diluted with water so that they flowed. I also used a little bit of acrylic ink (just to see how it would work)

I removed it from the hoop and continued placing more paint, I don't like to waste anything, so I threw some of the leftover colours into the blue background.  This was now very wet so I could test how well the wax would work as a resist.  You can tell that the work was good and wet by the reaction to the handful of salt I tossed onto the whole works before leaving  it to dry

Once it was dry, I placed the piece inside layers of newsprint (clean, unprinted) paper and set my iron to a low heat.....the heat from the iron melted the wax...the paper absorbed it.

now, of course, you know I HAD to add some doodling

This was such an interesting experiment, I can hardly wait to try it using some paraffin ( I have no idea what that scented wax is)  Next time I want to try doing several layers of wax and colour. 

Wool and Cotton

In a post a couple of months ago, I showed some quilting I was doing using wool batt.

2 looks in one......this is the back view

What I did not share, was that this was part of a project I was doing while preparing an article for the Canadian Quilter.   It is a quarterly publication, this is the 9th article/design that I have created in my role as Artist in Residence for the Canadian Quilters' Association

In the Autumn issue, which is now out, I provide directions for working with cotton and wool to create a cushion that could be made from leftovers to co-ordinate with a quilt

It started with charm squares

                           

I cut lots of circles from wool and stitched a variety of  "pennies" that could be added to the cotton.

Pretty simple, easy and fun way to use charm squares and leftover bits.

this is the front view

I am currently preparing the article for the Winter issue........summer is going by far, FAR too quickly