Thursday 28 August 2014

TIme to clean and make a mess.

Quote: The caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.


I do not know where time goes but I do know that it is racing by and I will soon be back in Uni. I realised I'd not blogged for a while and wondered what on earth I've been doing. Well I did manage to finish my apron quilt for Harrogate which in itself was an achievement. I started to make a wool rabbit from a kit I bought at FOQ but she is taking forever as it is mainly sewn by hand. I have recently spent several days having a big flat clean. Doing housework jobs that I've put off for weeks, like cleaning the oven, the windows, pulling all the furniture out to clean under. I was doing so well until I got to the sewing room and away went the cleaning products and out came the paints. I bought a little note book in Asda a couple of days ago, it only cost £2 and I thought it would make a nice handbag size journal. The paper in the book is not the best so I began by gluing two sheets together, once dried I added a layer of gesso. I had a great day yesterday being totally creative and these are the three pages I achieved. I burnt the midnight oil with the last one so you will see it has today's date on.

Tuesday 12 August 2014

FOQ 2014

Indian birds by Gillian Travis

Kyra by Gillian Travis
I have recently returned from three days at the Festival of Quilts in the NEC Birmingham. As always I had a ball. I met up with friends that I have made during the years I have been attending FOQ (hello Linda, Laura and Adriane Kemshall) as well as making some new ones (hello David and Haley, Husqvarna). I have to confess that I took very little photos as my camera has a mark on the lense which is quite off putting and for that reason I am not going to post the photos I did take. As always I came home overloaded with ideas and an impenitence to get straight into the sewing room. Yesterday, once I had loaded the washing machine and put away the goodies I had treated myself to at the show, I jumped straight on to my beloved Bernie and made the three Indian Birds. This was a kit I purchased from Gillian Travis. You may remember that I purchased a kit from her stand last year and from it I fell in love with her work.  This year I bought two and once I had mastered the birds I moved on to Kyra. In the kit you where provided with the background, a wooden stamp, the bondaweb and the instructions. I did not mind as it then gave me the perfect excuse to visit the Silk Route stand where I purchased several pieces of silk fabric to make Kyras beautiful sari. I had a fab Monday sewing to my hearts content whilst loading and unloading the washing machine and tumble dryer of course. After dinner I sat and sewed the binding on to my Kyra wall hanging whilst catching up with a bit of TV.  Today my plan is to crack on with the Harrogate quilt as time is of the essence for it to be finished but you know what happens to best laid plans?!X:)

Sunday 3 August 2014

Addiction.

Latest fabric journal postcard.

This will be the example for the online "how to make a fabric journal postcard" coming soon.

Oh dear! I am addicted to making fabric journal postcards. The thing about them is that they are quick and fun to make. I love being creatively messy making the fabric back grounds and deciding what image and quote will look at home on the finished piece. However, I did have a mini break and went back to making some more ATC's. I have been watching lots of you tube videos and I really like Teesha Moores style of journaling. I tried to purchase a digital collage from her blog but it was having none of it. I decided to make my own by googling images from silent movies and fish. Here is what I came up with.  These four cards where made by layering bits of paper and then adding the images on top. I think they are quite quirky, something completely different from anything I've done before. I now have quite a few ATC's with no one to swap with, so I have decided to use them as very posh business cards.