Felting, Gifts

Here is a photo of a Hybiscus that I took when we were in Hawaii. I love flowers and take lots of pictures of them for inspiration.

I decided to felt a piece similar to it then add details in Machine Embroidery. This year my Bead Journal Project pieces will have a felted background with Machine Embroidery on them before they are beaded. This just didn't fit with the other two I've made, so into the drawer for now. I don't care for this, so that's part of it-too folksy for my taste.

Lynda http://www.purplemissus.blogspot.com/ sent me this as part of the http://calendargirls2008.blogspot.com/ exchange. I just love it. I'm no good at doing figures and can appreciate when one is done so well.

She also sent this ATC and post card. The ATC has the techniques used listed on the back. Thank you Lynda.

Thank you everyone who suggested a name for Monday's quilt. They were all good. I keep a list for the future and will add them: Come again, Envy, Come and Go, and Return to Center.  The piece did remind me of Boomerangs too. I've decided to call it Return. It was one of the projects I organized before surgery, so I would have plenty to do after. Little did I know-never having had any before-that you aren't up to a darn thing after!  It's so good to be back in creative mode. The blog and my followers spur me on.

Quilt, Postcard

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We spent most of Christmas on the phone with far flung family.

This is a small quilt I just finished. It is a design that is a variation on one I did years ago. The center is hand stitched in back stitch and seed stitch. My problem is that I can't think of a name for it. Ideas anyone?Look at the lovely postcard that came from Debbi for http://calendargirls2008.blogspot.com/

Block of the Month

Here is the next Block of the Month for http://threecreativestudios.com/  It's the site of a lot of interesting things. Be sure to visit it. This one really appealed with the half square triangles that could be done quickly.Terri posts the pattern in the middle of each month.

Thanks to all who visits and especially those who comment. I don't always get back to you like I'd like to. The computer seems to be slowing down, and I loose patience-rather be sewing.

Collage

I was fooling around in the studio one day and decided that using some paste paper to make a geometric collage would be a quick way to test out some quilt block ideas.

This is the results. The last one is the one that I think has the most possibilities.

Gifts

We went for a live Christmas tree yesterday that will be planted in the yard afterwards and look at what my husband bought me. It's a Phalanenopsis Orchid and very small.Each flower is about 1 inch across. It's on the dinner table where I can see it often.It was a good week for gifts. Here is my haul from quilt group. A silk scarf, a bookmark, a padfolio, a thread catcher, a basket with candy, and a shoe bag that will be used for a project-much to nice to put dirty shoes in.

Quilt

I did the quilt top for a challenge for an Art group years ago. It was a fun challenge of piecing odd pieces randomly and applying them. I decided they needed the circles on top and then yarn couched to the edges with a zigzag.

I finally quilted it heavily using colors to blend with each piece and leaving the circles unquilted, so they stand out. The binding method is a faced edge so that none of it shows on the front. Sorry that the flash washed out the detail shot.

Quilt

Here is the mushroom piece finished. It was a photo of mushrooms I took in our yard and printed on fabric. I added net, cheesecloth, and hand stitching to the center. Then the strip piecing was done and finally the quilting with a variegated rayon thread to echo the centers of the mushrooms.

Now I'm heading over to http://fiberactions.blogspot.com/ to tell about my second discarded attempt at making a quilt to represent Initiative.

Knitting

Marie at http://zquilts.blogspot.com/ has been making fingerless gloves. They look cool, so I decided to try a pair. She told me that the pattern is at http://www.knitty.com/  It was a fun one with the cables but easy to do.

Winners

Micki and Jacq, I need your addresses to mail you the postcards. My email is sjandik@tds.net

Gifts, Class

Here's my final piece from Susan Sorrell's Fiber Collage class. It was a lot of fun. I had never whipped stitched a binding before but like the effect. Beads and stitching I always like to do. Yesterday a group of us got together and a dear friend gave us the little book and the card which is her original watercolor. I just love them.

Winners, Gifts

And the winners are:.....1. Vicki W.
                                    2. Micki
                                    3. Jacq
If you ladies would send me your address, I'll get the cards off to you this week. Vicki gets first choice, Micki second.

I was a winner too on C & T's blog and received the filagree pieces which will be perfect for altered books, journals, and jewelry. A lady in Ohio sent me the stamp block of the vintage looking Santa. I can hardly wait to try him in a book.

Crazy Quilt

For a change of pace, this is a purse I just finished. One of the first jobs I had in fiber was making people's needlepoint into a useable object. There was a petit point piece done in roses that I attached to a purse frame. The work was exquisite; the frame also had roses. That started me on the trail of finding purse frames and collecting purses when I could afford them. While in California, I often went to one store owned by a special lady. She gave me this frame. We have been back in the NW for 13 years, but I finally did something with it.The lace was white, so I painted it to blend into the piece better. It is hand embroidery and beading. I always have a crazy quilt project going with a block, threads, needles, and a scissors in a bag for grabbing when I need to go somewhere.

Remember on Monday I will draw a name for the postcards. Thanks to everyone who commented.

Calendar Girls, Gift

This is the calendar page Neki picked for our December inspiration. It looks like outer space to me.I used the Embellisher to felt down some wool roving, then machine embroidered a spiral in metallic thread. The clear beads are added by hand.

Yesterday was such a pleasant day. The sun was shining, I shopped at Michael's and then met a friend at Fabric Depot-Portland's store that is an acre of fabrics. Of course, I bought a couple of books-my obsession. We had a nice lunch, and she gave me a gift "just because...". It's rovings and silk tops in our favorite colors. I think I will use them for a background for a Bead Journal Project next year.

Block of the Month

I forgot to say that I would draw for the Blog Giveaway next Monday, Dec. 7. For the new viewers, I try to blog on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, when we get up at 5am, so my "retired" husband can get to his job. This is the next Block of the Month for http://www.twocreativestudios.com/   It's fun to have a challenge and doing a traditional block really is one for me.

Blog Giveaway

Saturday marks 2 years that I have been blogging. Where has it gone? To celebrate I am giving away 3 postcards. Just leave a comment to get on the list. I hope people like them.The first one is stripped fabrics with applied circles and machine embroidery. The next is dark red wool with applied silk flowers, silk roving, and netting. The last is stripped fabrics with molding paste put through a stencil and the piece painted.

Painted Papers

A friend invited me to her house to paint paper for a book. Here are just a few of them.I was using up some of the small bottles of Jacquard fabric paint that I have, because they tend to dry out.                    The paper is Stonhenge-a nice paper to work on as it doesn't buckle when wet.

I tried to keep them in the same color range for the book, but my love of color made me branch out and do other colors.

Saturday is the second anniversary of my blog, so I need to find something to have as a giveaway. I'm open to suggestions.

Experiment, Sewing Show

I did try the felting on a piece of felt and then painted it. It's a rich surface but stiff and took forever to dry, because it is thicker.

Friday I went to the local Sewing Expo at Vancouver's Fairgrounds. I bought this printing block to add to my collection. I've not seen one like it before.

I also got this foil to use. They were in patterns I hadn't seen before. They are mostly silver with the iridescent look. It's always fun to see what is new, so I went to a talk on blue printing and making a silk screen.

Altered Book

I decided it was time to show more of my family Altered Book. This is my Dad and his big brother. I'm so glad to have some of these pictures. It's a good place to use some of the marbled fabric scraps I have.Here is Mom and her parents on the left-glamour shot. On the right is a photo I took in Hawaii from a helicopter. I loved riding in one.This is Angelina heated over a rubber stamp. The effect is very interesting. The stamp is one made by Sherrill Kahn at http://www.impressmenow.com/  Her stamps are unusual and cool, and hers is an angel company which means that you can use them in your work without the copywrite issue as long as you give her credit. She's a friend from my S. California years-a very creative woman. Lastly, is Dad's Mom which he always thought I looked like even though everyone else thinks I look like Mom. She was a quilter who loved animals and adopted all the strays. The heritage part is loose and held in place by two pages where the flowers are that are cut short to allow for adding  flaps. It's a paper towel.

Class

Linda of http://www.creative-textile-and-quilting-arts.com/ has a section she calls Free Lunch. You can take a free class each month.When you post a photo of a lesson, you are sent the next one. I think it's a great idea. This is from the Paper Quilt class.

It is tissue paper on batting Machine stitched and then painted. It's a great idea. Last night I decided that I could take the white roving that I got at a Weaver's sale, embellish it to make "fabric" maybe machine stitch it and then paint it. Now that I've posted the idea, I'll be sure to do it!

Class

I'm taking Fiber Collage from Susan Sorrell at http://www.creativechick.com/ Here are some doodles I did.

This is the piece so far. The colors are brighter than shows in the scan.

When we were in California, a lady in my quilt guild was interviewing people for the California Heritage Quilt Project that records the older quilter's stories, so they are not lost. She decided to interview younger ones and Wearable Artists(what I was doing at the time) and have them interviewed again in 20 years to see what had happened by that time. It was an interesting experience and made me really think about what I was doing. At the end she asked if I wanted to say anything else and out came the quote without any conscious thought. It has become my motto, as I really believe we are guardians of the earth-owe it respect and should be caring for it.

Trades

One of my friends wanted to buy some of my journals to use as Christmas gifts. I asked for some of her hand dyes instead, as I hadn't dyed fabric in a long time. Aren't they wonderful? Now I need the perfect project for them.

Cards, gifts

I went on a card making spree thinking that sets of them would make good gifts. When two of us marbled fabrics in S. California and sold the garments I made, I kept all the scraps of course. They really weren't big enough to do much with but were perfect for this. I used the envelopes I'd gotten at Goodwill and cut card stock in lots of colors to fit them. The fabrics are fused to the cardstock. Quick and easy. The directions are from SueB and are at www.twocreativestudios.com in the free projects section.

I'm trying to use up things that are around here and still come up with nice gifts. We all have so much that it seems like the best idea. To answer some of the comments on the totes, I, too, have been carrying my own to the stores to keep from using the plastic ones which I always did hate. They slide around the car, so you end up rebagging things when you get home and are a pain to store, tend to break, and are ugly.

Gifts

I seem to be in gift making mode. My DIL had sent me upholstery fabrics-hard to find something to do with the small pieces of heavier fabrics, but they do make good totes. I topstitch all the seams open and down and box the bottoms. The boxing then determines where the edge stitching goes to make a more structured tote.

Calendar Girls

Here is the calendar page that is the inspiration for this month's postcard at http://calendargirls2008.blogspot.com When I look at it, all I see are the trees, so I did autumn leaves-something I'm seeing a lot of right now. The background is silk paper I made. I didn't notice the fairies until it was mentioned in the group, but then I don't do figures.

Class Projects

I've folded some Lutradur to make a double page using the instructions from the extras Lynda Monk and Carol McFee included in the Simply Salt class they offered at www.fibre-in-form.com
It's easy to do and has lots of possibilities. I'm always fascinated by creating pockets in the pages for all the treasures we have.