Foot Book and Button Fairies

Here are some pictures of the things I have been working on lately - and its been mostly work and no play...

Button Fairires - for a FAT swap - definitely play and a great creative outlet - not to mention using up some of the STUFF that is in my resource center... (No dent made - ha ha)

FOOT BOOK

Work and alittle play - but fun work - This is a store sample for a class I am teaching at the Bernina Store here in Dallas - it feetures - a hands on class to teach you the many different things you can do with all the presser feet Bernina has for their machines...

This is the cover...

Page 1 - Couching

Page 2 - Free Motion CouchingPage 3 - Circular Embroidery Attachment

This is a 6 month class feeturing a new technique each month - My pages are completed through March - more to come..

Snap Happy - My Way

Have you seen the pattern from Stitchin' Sisters for Snap Happy Bags - they are so fun to make - I found the pattern last fall on a shop hop and have made several since. Of course I had to re-interpret the pattern - mainly because I wanted them to be fun and funky - here are pic's of some I have made...

The first bag I made - using a trash collage piece I had laying around - added flower brads - buttons and other embellishment... Front/Back

This is another bag I made recently - originally stated as a bookcover - but decided it would be fun as a bag - and it is!! Trash collage, decorative stitching, couched yarn, decorative paperclips and flower brads. Front/Back

This bag is made texture magic for the body of the bag - it worked great for this bag and gave the bag a whole new feel in surface texture.

I am teaching this bag as a class at the local Bernina Store - it's been fun for me as well as the students...

Stuff I've Been Working On

Fiber Art Cards

I actually made 2 different series - the first one represents "Junk Mail" and I used the printed designs from security envelopes that come with credit cards - etc in the mail. The second is "Quilt Trash" and I used the trimmings from art quilt pieces and stitched them to cards. There are 6 in each set and they were donated to the retirement facility my fiber arts group uses for their meetings each month.

Book Covers

My fascination with book covers continues and there are 2 variety here. One very elegant with an embroidery and one fun n funky... I love them both equally - I have actually made 6 of these and will be teaching a class on these next spring at my local Bernina dealer. These covers are for composition books.

Head Hat Bottle Cap Pincushions

And more bottle cap pincushions - a custom order for a gal I know that wanted them as Christmas gifts for her red hat group - all in shades of purple and red - and lots of different embellishments... The more I make - the more addicted I am to making them - each one is darling in it's own way...

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)

Just in the Nick of Time

Tomorrow is my AQWS class - and I finished up my class sample just in time.. This month we are working on Art Quilts inspired by Jeanne Williamson's "The UnCommon Quilter". She is wonderfully creative in using common elements in her art quilts...

My UnCommon object was netting and onion bags - and I decided on a "LEAF" theme. My sample is actually 3 mini quilts - approximately 12 x12 - which i made into a book...

Here are the pic's:

Page one - also the cover - features Ivy felt leaves, thread painted in place and onion bag background - closeup detail below:

page two (above)- is a grid designed to showcase a collection of leaf embellishments - the background has netting, with the same plastic canvas yarn couched with a zig zag stitch. Before the yarn was couched - I thread painted an allover leaf design to secure the netting to the fabric background. Close-up detail below...

Page three is another version of felted leaves. I used a leaf from the magnolia tree in my yard as a pattern - then I fused the dark green dot fabric to some green craft felt. I used a freezer paper pattern to layout the leaves on the fused fabric and machine stitched around them - then cut them out and thread painted them to the background - the dividers are stretched and rolled onion bag strips. Closeup detail picture below:

Hindsight n Other details...

I used a fused binding technique I picked up from Laura Wasilowski who spoke last week at the Quilters Guild of Plano. I found this to be a wonderful finish to the pages of my book...

I love page one - the felted leaves were easy and fun. I love the contrast of textures between the onion bag, plastic canvas yarn and the felt..

Page 2 was a challenge - I love the idea of the grid to showcase my leaf embellishments - it reminds me of a shadowbox somewhat... Originally I had all the little leaves laid out in lines of 3's within each section - it looked to restricted and un-natural - so I decided to let the leaves blow in the breeze somewhat for a more natural look.. This is just OK to me -but ok enough to leave as is.

Page 3 I love the technique of fusing the commercial cotton to the felt - it gives great dimension and texture to the leaves - I see lots of possibilities with this idea and will experiment further with it...The dividers on the page are weak but do showcase the leaves nicely. I would have preferred to use the onion bag as a background similar to page one - but since this is an experiment - it's OK too.

The book binding - is commercial cotton fused to felt and stitched in place to secure - this worked wonderfully. my only regret is that I did not rotate my design so the book binding was at the top of the page rather than the traditional side. More experiments on my fabric art books to come as well...

Class SAmple - Finally

Finally completed - the class sample for May's AQWS - yes it was completed after the class... I am a firm believer that a piece will tell you when it's finished and I really struggled with this one. The outcome is OK - not my favorite -but not horrible...

The class was on fabric collage techniques. I used a variety of interesting textural fabrics and coordinated the piece with a wonder batik FQ from my stash. The fabrics included - denim from DH's old jeans, a piece of a sweater the dog chewed a hole in years ago, a piece of rip stop from a favorite pair of pants that 'ripped' on vacation last year. I used these to frame other pieces of fabric - a piece of an original Hoffman Print, a piece of my first (and only) attempt @ needle felting. there is lots of thread painting, hand stitching and embellishment (of course).Each section is outlined with a different fun yarn. To complete the piece - I did a machine binding and added pearl cotton to the edge for a nice finished look.

Denim and Batik - Detail.

The denim is thread painted with a pebble stitch and embellished with some beads - resurrected from fringe - set on washers from the hardware store. the batik is grid quilted and has decorative paper clips attached for texture and dimension.

Hoffman original swatch -set on Rip Stop

The piece is machine blanket stitched in place and embellished with hand-stitches in pearl cotton, buttons from my friend Karen and scrapbook brads.

Batik and Binding Detail

Again grid stitched and embellished w shell discs form my guild secret sister. Variegated thread was used on the linear stitch detail across the geometric triangle pattern.

Quilt Pink n Class Samples

The Frisco Quilt Guild has participated in the American Patchwork and Quilting Quilt Pink initiative for the past two years - this year I coordinated the event for the guild. We started making our signature friendship star blocks at our fall retreat in whites with bright pink. Then I decided to set the stars in the BQ pattern from Maple Island Quilts and our Dancing with the stars quilts were born. Our guild made 4 quilts this year - 2 which were shipped off this week to Quilt Pink and 2 which were donated to the local Susan G Komen chapter as fund raisers. The quilts (2 are pictured below) turned out great - and I consider this a successful effort.

This is a detail of the quilting - done by our guild member - Kim Proctor who is a breast cancer survivor. Also the label I made using my embroidery machine - quite an accomplishment I might add - using the free embroidery design for the pink ribbon from the Bernina Web site

Next are new class samples - just finished up this week - the first is for my AQWS - Art Quilt Workshop - the class for March is called 'Wild Flowers' and is based on a technique inspired by Henri Matisse - drawing with scissors. My little quilt is a whimsical view of the the daffodils blooming in my yard right now. I also made little samples of a daisy and sunflower. I taught the first session yesterday on Whole Cloth Stitch collage to 9 students - and it was great.

Last but not least - another sample for my book cover art class - which is in 2 weeks - I am not sure this class will make - but if not - I have some great samples to use for myself. This one features simple machine quilting and embroidery designs.

More Book Cover Art

This weekend I finished up another book cover - it's made from a funky batik and a piece of hand-dyed purple from my friend Kim... It puts a professional finish on a simple composition notebook. The cording is actually plastic canvas yarn - one of my new embellishement obsessions.... I used it with eyelash yarn to outline the purple wave also and a Laural Burch kitty button secures the ties... The pattern is a freebee which I made some modifications to. I am pleased with the outcome - this one is for me!!!

So what do you do with the scraps??? Some people just toss the trimming into the trash and think nothing further of it... Not me - i have trouble throwing things away that might be usable later - so i whipped up these postcards I will be sending off to family memebers this week for valentine's day and the 3rd is a birthday postcard for a dear friend whose special day is later in the month...

catching up....

WOW - no post for almost a month - but I have been alittle busy getting class samples ready for the classes I am teaching this spring - along with my 'real job'...

I finally finished my 'Whole Cloth Stitch Collage" and the finished piece is wonderful.

I took off all those silly flower sequins and replaced them with some cool square sequins I found at Quilt Country (see the link on the side-bar). And I added some beads to the couched designs. The buttons in the audition did not make the grade either...

I have 8 people registered in my class for this project the end of this month!!!

Next is 'Lemonade" - why you might ask - is it the color?? No not really - the store gave me this stitched landscape to do a book cover with - it was not possible but I did take it and add some thread painting and some creatively pieced borders and made alittle wall hanging. I really like the outcome and hopefully when the store is done with it - I will send it to my grandmother to hang on her door at the assited living center where she lives...

Next is the official sample for my "Book Cover Art" class - in early March - it's a fabric covered notebook that I designed and embellished.

Above is the entire notebook - I am getting really good at using the binder attachment for my machine - now to just figure out mitered corners - Below is some of the thread painting detail.

More thread painting detail...

Now I am on to my next class sample - 'Wild Flowers' - stay tuned for a picture shortly...