Quilt

This is a photograph of some mushrooms I took on our road and printed on fabric. I hand stitched them heavily and have now strip pieced them into a small hanging. Now to decide on the quilting. Do I use curves to echo the outsides of the mushrooms or do I use groups of radiating straight stitch to echo the centers? Opinions?

Class

Albie Smith taught a Paste Paper class at Art and Soul that I took. We used thickened paint and did things to the painted surface to create pattern. This one had that textured comb you can get at a hardware store drawn through the paint.This one has layers of paint with sequin waste used on the surface with a sponge to lift off paint.
Rubber Stamps work well to add a layer and interest to the piece.

Sequin waste is great to use as a stencil. Rubber stamps were used under that layer and over the original paint.We made a small book with the papers which I have shown on it's side. It's one of those mornings.Here is the inside with more of the painted papers used to wrap the signatures. It was a great class.

Quiltie

This month's theme for Unlimited Textiles is Africa. I had African fabrics and thought the spear head charm fit the theme. Then I added the wooden beads.

I'm posting today, because for the next two I will be at Fabric Depot for a class by Eileen Roche on using the Embroidery unit of my sewing machine. I don't use it much and then mostly for baby quilts, so I'm hoping this will inspire me.

Thanks for everyone who visits and especially those who comment.

Calendar Girls

This is the calendar page for inspiration this month. I don't do people but knew I could do something with the circle in the background. The background is needle felted with the embellisher. The small sequins are held on with seed beads. The hand stitching is done with a matte silk thread.

Classes

http://dorisarndt.com/ is the website of Doris Arndt-another wonderful teacher. Last year I enjoyed my class so much that I knew I needed another one from her. The class was a book with windows and inserts put together with a double coptic binding. I used a feather from one of my chickens on the front. It's a window so you can see through it.
Keys just seemed right for the back. The paper behind them is some paste paper I made years ago with construction paper and acrylic paint. The keys are put in with wire in two metals and the ends twisted in coils. The color is better in person.

http://www.fun-easy-art.com/ is the site of John Vandebrooke who taught the Encaustic class. He has lots of short videos showing the techniques.

Class Projects, Calendar Girls

One of the Classes I took was European Encaustic. I thought I'd like to try "painting" with wax but never liked the idea of cans of melted wax and paint brushes, especially since I'm such a klutz. This method is done with a hot iron. The wax is put on the iron in one technique and applied to the card. The card can also be warmed on the iron, and the wax used to draw on it. The teacher matted the one we thought was the best. The lower right one is done on texture paper.

I've grouped the cards, so you wouldn't have to read forever. The part of the iron and the motion you use determines how the wax is laid down. I kept trying different color schemes and motions to see what would happpen.

I'm not displeased with my first attempts, actually surprised that the landscapes turned out to be recognizable.

Jenny http://calendargirls2008.blogspot.com sent this lovely card for September. It's very pettable, so I keep touching it. It is done on the embellisher.

Book

Look what arrived while I was at Art and Soul. Sue Bleiweiss and Terri Stegmiller have produced a book full of color with great projects and easy to follow directions. I can hardly wait to get into some experimenting with it.

I'm also full of ideas from Art and Soul and will be posting things as I get them finished. It was a great conference where I met lovely people. It's amazing to see what comes out of a class. We all have the same instructions but have products that are so different. The classes I took involved painting papers and making books plus one on encaustic with an iron. Stay tuned for peeks of what I did.