Another week!

Another week and this week I feel I have done a bit more and been more productive, Even with some saddening family news this week.  I am glad I have been keeping busy, because I think it does help when life happens - having things to do.  Stops you reveling in your own sadness.
But anyhow,  Let's look at what I have gotten done this week.

This is my first bit of embroidery on my Sue Spargo sampler with craftsy.  It has taken me a while to get started, but hopefully I will get some done on Tuesdays at Quilt group which begins again this week.

This is a Thread painted moth I finished during the week.  Not sure what I am going to do with it yet, perhaps it will become a fabric page.

I finished unpicking this piece of printing on chiffon, which had some free motion I didn't like

Another of the fabric and paper collages I am making for Fabric books.

Getting along with my crochet!

Some thread lace leaves.

A teeny tiny embellishment - again for fabric pages.

A page in my doodle book I am working on.  The red leaves are a deli paper page that has been cut - over the top of the green and purple page.

This is a page from week two of Lisa Congdon's Sketchbook Explorations on creativebug.

If you have known me for a while, you might recognise this pile of fabric pages ready to embellish.  I have used my collage background challenges from last year.

And here is one of the pages, with a free motion sketch which has been painted.  Quite happy with this page, but still needs a little more work.

Another fabric page in process.

And finally another fabric page, a two page spread ready to free motion stitch.  It might seem that I am a bit obsessed with fabric books at present and I probably am.  I have been interested for a few years and never yet completed one!  So this year is the year.
My pinterest page has lots of inspiration if you want to look, but the main artists who are inspiring me are Frances Pickering, Ro Bruhn, Jill Taylor, and Annette Bolton and of course Cas Holmes. As usual quite a few UK artist in that group!

Happy Creating!

A miss and a hit

Yesterday was one of those awful days and I was so exhausted I forgot to blog, so today I have two things to show.

Another painted face .This one has hair painted in bronze which really shines.

And another leaf stitched on water soluble stabiliser.  This one is based on the leaf I drew in my sketchbook on sunday.

And here it is after the water soluble stabiliser is dissoved and it had dried.  Another great motif for my crazy quilt!

Happy creating!

Butterfly magic

A few weeks ago  I made a tiny little doily, by using free machine embroidery on water soluble stabiliser, here.
This week I have been working on a larger piece that is a butterfly and I have finally finished it.

This is it in the hoop, before I dissolved the solvy. You can see I just outlined the wings and didn't add any details with marker before I stitched it - you can also see that I changed my mind about the lines as I went along as well (The lilac is my stitching, the brown are my guide lines)

Here it is after I had rinsed away the plastic stabiliser and dried it.  i put my hand in to show how lacy it is and how big it is.

and here's a close up to show the wings more clearly.  You can see my stitching isn't perfect, but if you know me, you know that is not an issue.  I like my work to look hand made.

i am looking forward to putting this on my crazy quilt in the new year!  I may dye it or paint it, depending on where it goes.

Happy creating

water soluble stuff

As usual, I have been busy, but not blogging.  Mostly, I have been running classes at the community house and trying to look after my DH who is in a lot of pain and finding it hard to be idle.
I did, however find some time to make a few little motifs using soluble interfacing and free motion.

The butterfly is a bit tatty because I only went over it once, and I wasn't wearing my eye glasses!,  I used a metallic thread in the top and bottom, so that they would look the same on both sides, but overall I am happy with the effect.  The gold thread is from a large cone which I picked up at the recycle depot, but it sews really well and I love it.  A little bit of bling goes a long way!
I have also been working on my journal quilts.  I have been making journal quilts from random drawings and sketches.  Obviously, the drawing is quick - it takes a little longer to interpret them in thread, but it also gives me something to work on when the muse is not cooperating.

Some I like, some I don't, but it's just some playing, really.
I had my old flag book (or here) with some of my old journal quilts at the gallery on the weekend, and decided to make a new book to hold all of them.

It is quite a bit larger than my old book and I have made the accordions quite wide, so I have room to write what each quilt is about.