Recycled ATC's - I Found Flowers

FAT - is hosting a swap for Fabric ATC's using found objects.... Well this is right up my alley... I love using things that others would pitch in the trash and making something unexpected from them... When this swap popped up on the Yahoo Group earlier this week I went thru the trash bucket in my studio and pulled out these wonderful plastic remnants from button faries -I pulled the leaves off some silk poinsettia for the wings on my fairies and tossed them (shame on me) when I started pulling things out to make the ATC's for this swap the little plastic star shapes caught my eye and whispered flowers... I found a fun and funky batik for the background - did a quick stipple quilt and couched some rescued yarn ( the batting and backing are leftovers from a recent quilt back) and then added the plastic stems with a zig zag stitch... The button centers and yarn are also rescued from boxes of things that were going in the trash @ my previous job @ County Seat Stores.. These little qulities are fun and hopefully will delight my swap partners - too bad I have to wait until March to swap... but I am glad I have them done..

Delighted!!!!

The exchange is completed - I received this wonderful little mini in the FAT SA Quiltie Trade from Carol B -its 2 sided and wonderfully thread painted... I think I was the lucky one in this trade.... Aren't the little houses darling????

Memories of Destin - Fabric PC

Hubby and I get to Destin annually (or at least we try to) and spend a few days sitting on the beach relaxing and regenerating from our busy life here in Dallas... The sand is white and feels like you are walking on sugar. The ocean is a beautiful blue green color (hence the nick name Emerald Cost) and the dolphins swim up and down the channel line all day long. This post card is my fiber art interpretation of the beaches there...

Made up 4 of these yesterday - one for a BD card for a friend , the other 3 for a FAT swap - Wish you were here - post cards... I wish I was there right now....

Inspriation....

Here's my mini quilt for an upcoming FAT trade - a gal in the group recently spent some time in South America - and took lots of wonderful pictures - for the trade we were to pick a picture to reinterpret or be inspired by... Here's the link to Gabriela's Blog with the inspiration photos....

So here's a run down on the techniques I used...
The background was created using my trash collage technique - where i take several different fabrics in similar color story and collage them together to make one piece of fabric. Then I thread painted a leafy design and filled in the open spaces with a pebble stitch. I choose a variegated green thread for this - which helps to blend the collaged fabric even more - giving it a consistent factor.
for the blooms I fused strips of fabric together and cut the bud shapes - then fused the buds in place. Next I twisted and wrapped yarns and embroidery floss together and couched it down the center of the buds.
The buds are echo stitched in place with a shiny orange thread. The final touch is hand beading in the center of each bud.
Quick and Fun - and big thanks to Gabriela for sharing her vacation with us and inspiring Fiber ART.

FAT 3-Day Challenge

So I flip open FAT tonight when I get home from work - b/c I am home much earlier than usual being as most of the office is on Spring Break this week and I see this challenge... I love a good challenge - late to the party but ready to play the game. I started with a piece of something similar to cotton duck - but loosely woven.... Added text w my new favorite notion - the Pentel Gel Pen for Fabric - I just found it this weekend @ the Dallas Quilt Show - and LOVE it so much that I think I need to by in bulk... The words are just a random babble about the challenge and my new toy - the pen and my original thoughts and inspiration for DAY 1 of the challenge

Then I get out my fabric paints and dyes and add some color - green (wonder why??) I used a water diluted version of Fantastix spring green and Luminere Metallic olive - let it dry a couple hours while I ate supper and watched IDOL... Then encouraged it to dry more with some electric heat from my iron and Teflon press cloth... and fused a back to the piece. It's a funky lime green commercial cotton that I had in my fused fabric box - works nicely with my color theme...

Next up was the FOIL - I had a stray piece of fusible that had lost it's backing so I fused it to my Teflon press sheet with a piece of release paper on top and peeled it off and stretched it in hopes of a lace effect - so so - there is a little more coverage in some places than desired but over all still OK...

Finally added stitching - I decided to keep it simple, but symbolic to the theme... I used the edge of the foil as my starting point and used a slightly elongated straight stitch, then echo stitched from that original guide. Originally I intended to use one of my favorite YLI variegated threads MEADOW but decided that - it might be too much green (???)... So I used a close 2nd favorite variegated from Isacord #9916 in hopes of an abstract rainbow effect...

Anxiously waiting for part 2 tomorrow - hope I can play... Tonight was completely off the cuff and a lot of fun just working from the simple guidelines established - playing is good...

Leaves n Collages

Leaves....

The International Fiber Collaborative - put out a call to fiber artists for leaves for their tree project . I had one leaf left from my FAT trade so I was ready to go -but I asked members of my local fiber arts group to participate as well - My leaf is the first one - you can read about it here. The other 2 are from group members Karen and Jo. Karen's leaf is Paper stitched on Linen and is her first ever sewing experience. Jo has been working thru her black n white stash and I love they way the yellow pops on her leaf. There is still time to participate if you are interested - the deadline is March 15th.

More Cast Off Collages

February 1, 2009

Collage #4: Trees – This collage was inspired by the protective seal from a bottle of wine – the tree on the end was too cool to toss. So I scoured the newspaper for words and images that related to trees. The background of the tree shape was actually a light bulb image – but to me it looked like a tree. I doodled leaves on the painted background with a marker and added tree images with a rubber stamp. It’s not my favorite collage, but it’s alright.

February 28, 2009

Collage #5: Purple Dreams – When I painted the background a drop of water hit this one – unplanned but the shape was interesting so I did not ‘fix’ it. This collage is inspired by Native American Indian Dream Catchers. I added doodles to my water shape with a marker and then added a scrap of ribbon from my niece’s birthday gift – to hold the dreams in place. I used some yarn scraps on the raw edges of the ribbon – which picked up some thread strays in my ‘trash’ box… The circles are from a set of alphabet rubber stamps – actually the letter O – but more of a geometric element here. Oh and if you look closely there is a little bead dangle in the top left hand corner of the ribbon - had to do something with the wire poking out....

Dottees and Class Sample for Aug AQWS

I was on vacation last week w DH and my parents in Bull Shoals Arkansas - a great little get-away. While there I made some Dottee Dolls for a trade on FAT. I call them my cha cha dottees because I think the frilly stuff on the sides - makes them look like cha cha dancers...

This morning I finished my class sample for my 'Art Quilt Workshop Class' that I teach monthly. There is no class in July, so I am ahead for once... In August the class will feature the book Fusing Fun - by Laura Wasilowski

My piece features leaves again

I started by making 4 small leaf quilts - finished size is 5"x5". Each is rough cut from fabric w fusible on the back and then machine stitched in place. The backgrounds are echo quilted.

Then I took an artists framed canvas and covered it with fabric. Once the glue was dry - I hand stitched the 4 little quilts to the canvas with a running stitch. I love the finished piece and the finishing technique - I always struggle with how to hang my art quilts and this seems to be a great solution.

The back.... (before the label)

Button Fairies

My friends were here for a sew day today - but I made button fairies instead - I just could not resist making some of these little cuties for a trade on yahoo group FAT

Close up of Audrey

Close up of Velma
- I think she looks like the girl from Scooby Doo -
this is the one I am keeping for myself!

Closeup of Beatrice

Close-up of Louise