WIP - Iris

Last week, I posted about an iris applique quilt I had started working on.  All I had done was dye the fabric and choose the picture.  I am a bit further along with this now.

This is the unfinished pastel painting I am going to use.  It is about  30 inches square.

As you can see in this photo, It is covered in acetate, which is what I use for pastel WIPs so they can be stacked and not get smudged.  I traced the main lines of the picture onto the acetate with a marker.

Then used the acetate as a master to trace a pattern on wide format paper.

This is my background fabric, which I have darkened a little at the top with pastel and textile medium.

I traced off each part of the iris separately and cut out the centre so I could audition and fussy cut the fabric.

Using these reverse templates, it was easy to find just the right area on the fabric.

It's very hard to see in this picture, but I traced along the inside of the templates with an iron off pen.

And then rough cut out the pieces.

I free cut some leaves and stems.

I cut my pieces out more carefully and glued them down with a glue stick (I find when I am thread painting, that a glue stick allows me to add more thread than I could if I used fusible web).
And that is where I am at!  Next stop thread painting.

Memory book

Thursday is for Things to do.  Small projects which tend to serve as little breaks from work and keep the muse fresh.
If you know me, you know I am into just about everything. 
Toiday's project is a tiny memory book.

to begin with, here are a couple of little books I made recently.

As you can see, I do tend to use green a lot.
Both of the books are constructed using instructions from the new Cloth Paper Scissors Pages magazine.  This is so full of great stuff!  The one on the left (in the first picture, top in the second) uses a coptic binding to bind together acetate pages, into which I have placed pressed leaves.  There is an extra, white card attached with a ribbon to put under the page you are looking at since all the pages are transparent.
The other book (right in the first book and bottom in the second) is a paino hinge binding, which I find fascinating since all its needs is scissors and some bamboo skewers.  It is also flexible, because you can easily add more pages, so great for journals.
Of course, I can't show you these techniques, because they are published, but I put together a tiny memory book using acetate pages which is very cute.

I used acetate sheets which come in  A4/Letter size at office supplies.  For this book,  I cut the sheets into eight pieces, which I then folded into little leaflets.
One of the things that is neccesary in this book, is to secure the top and bottom of the leaflet so your memories don't fall out!

My first idea was to use double sided tape, but it shows a lot (top) even though it is supposed to be clear.  On the bottom, and this is what I did in my dried leaf book, I used clear tacky craft glue and pressed the pages until it was dry.  It worked quite well.
Here is what I used for this book.

Some covers cut from fabric paper and the acetate leaflets, and some ribbon for a tied binding.

First, I punched holes in the pages and the covers.

Next I used an awl to put sewing holes in the top and bottom of the leaflets.

I used some pearl cotton to sew the page edges.  In this book, I am leaving to tops open to allow addition of items as I wish.
I used pearl cotton, you can used stranded embroidery cotton, however it tends to be a bit less durable after a few pulls through paper or acetate.

Then I simply tied the book together loosely with the ribbon.

And your little book is ready to add memories or trinkets to.
As you can see, I have not finished the sewing.  This is an in front of TV job for tonight, lol.
For more ideas for dolling your book up with beads, ribbons, floss, etc, look at altered and fabric book sites and books, or just use your imagination!

today's inspiration

A couple of orchids which have just come out. I must remember next time to turn out the light in my studio.
Behind the top orchid, you can see some very old windows.  These are antique casement windows with cute little latch windows and they cover the outside wall and look out on all my special potted plants, like these orchids.

Be creatice
Vicki