Heart 2 Heart Postcards

These are the postcards that I have made so far for the Heart 2 Heart postcard project. The message on the back reads "thank you for your service to our country". The postcards will be sent to the wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC in time for Valentines Day. There is still time to participate as long as the postcards are received in Houston for distribution by February 7. For more information please visit Heart-2-Heart Postcard Project.

TAST Week 4

A few weeks ago when I was working on the white Aida I decided that the next time I would add some color to it. I got some new fabric dye and played with it just a little. The color was supposed to be burgundy so I didn't add too much hoping for a raspberry type color. When I added the dye to the water it was PURPLE and I mean purple. I may have rinsed a little too much because as you can see in the scan it almost looks gray. I had some trouble with the Cretan stitch. I think I am getting a little better at it now. The bottom row I stitched rather large with rayon thread, then added some detached chains which got cut off in the scan and some french knots on the other side. I liked it much better after adding the french knots. The yellow didn't go quite so well. I tried to make smaller stitches and they ended up all over the place. The top row I stitched larger again. I had a plan. First I stitched a row of orange cotton perle. Then I went back and stitched a second row in rayon between the spaces in the orange row, so really one row over the other. I think it is my favorite. On to the chevron stitch!

Page for Goddess Meandering Book

This is a page for a Goddess themed meandering book for a round robin. The fabric is an embroidered batik. I printed the image on a piece of ink jet fabric and used a satin stitch on my machine after ironing it on. The stitching around the edge of the page is just a small zig zag with a little more decorative machine stitching. I wanted to the little paper flowers but could not decide how to attach them. Just gluing was too plain and flat and I didn't like the way the brad looked on the fabric. I ended up attaching them with a french knot through the center of the flower. It is hard to tell in the scan, but that little french knot really adds some dimension to the flower. There are several more on the back of the page which I did not scan.

WIP

This is a piece I started for the Fiber Collage online class at Joggles.com. I got through the first 2 or 3 lessons, had to go out of town, and never got back on track. I think I am ready to work on it again. When I finish, most of the hand and the background will be filled in with embroider stitches. I did a similar fabric page a few months ago called "Heart in Hand" and machine stitched around the hand. I think I liked the hand stitching better and it was a great way to learn the blanket stitch. Now I just need to decide where to go from here. We'll see how far I get by next Wednesday. I do know there will be some cretan stitches in there somewhere.

TAST Week 3

This is as far as I got with my embroidery this week. I must say I like the bright pink and orange stitches much better than the white. They hide my mistakes much better!...lol Actually, even though a few of my lines look pretty crooked I followed the lines in the fabric which is why I chose this fabric to practice on. The Aida cloth I had just wasn't helping me much. I want to start a crazy quilt block for this next week and wanted to get a little practice in on some fabric vs the Aida cloth or Linen piece that I have. The scan really shows me how much I need to practice getting my stitches even but at least I accomplished 2x the amount of stitches in less than half the time of last week. I know, I know. Practice makes perfect and speed is not the way to go. I didn't rush, just accomplished more. I will practice much more this week.

Winter Quiltie

This is a fabric page I did for a swap on Fabric in Altered Art. We have a monthly page swap and our January theme is Winter. You probably guessed that. A few months ago I took a card making class and one of the cards we made paper similar to the snowflake and blue fabric. I decided I would recreate the card on fabric. Since I had a little more room I added an Artchix image. On the card the ribbon was attached with staples. I tried using eyelets instead on the fabric but they just weren't holding. I finally decided to just stitch the ribbon on with a zigzag stitch and actually liked that better than the eyelets. All in all I was rather pleased with how the page came out and will probably make one for myself.

TAST Week 2

Here is my meager attempt at the buttonhole stitch. I had a limited amount of time since I had too many deadlines at a very busy time of the month. The bottom row was done with a metallic thread. I love the look but what a pain to work with. There must be something I am missing on that one. I will have to give it another go later but it was just too time consuming. The next row up was with DMC variegated thread. Much easier but the counting was slowing me down. The next row up was fun. I worked a bead onto the bottom of the stitch. The top row was the easiest. It was done with #5 Perle. I had a limited choice of thread and fabric to get started with but new stuff is on the way! After a few more weeks I am going to do most of my stitching on the projects I am working on. Just need a little more practice first.

Printing on Ribbon and Twill

I forgot to add a note about the twill tape that my page title was printed on. It is really easy to print on ribbon or twill tape. You can use whatever program you use to create documents, photoshop, print shop pro, whatever you want to use to create your text. Print the text like you normally would on paper. Keep the size of your ribbon or twill in mind when you choose your font and font size. After printing on paper, use some repositionable tape or glue stick (I use glue stick) to adhere the ribbon or twill to the paper. Place it over the text and make sure both ends are flat on the paper with no loose threads hanging. You don't want the ribbon or twill to get hung up in the printer. Place the paper back in the printer and print again. When I print on fabric, twill, ribbon, etc., I change my printer properties and select "best" from the print quality. Your printer may give you that choice or you may have to choose between text, photo, etc. Choose whichever will give you the best quality. After printing I iron the twill or ribbon to set the ink since I am using an HP printer. My Epson is not that fond of the thickness of the twill but would probably be okay with ribbon. Give it a try. I think you will find it is an easy thing to do and adds a little something to fabric projects.

12x12 Challenge January

This is my January page for the 12x12 Challenge for Quilt Studio. My theme is "Faces From The Past". I wanted to do some hand embroidery on each page but I signed up for the challenge only a week or so before my page was due and did not have time to do all I wanted to on this one. I hope that each page for the next 11 months will have at least some hand embroidery on it. This is my maternal grandmother. I do not have any pictures of my grandfather (that I know of) so my next page will probably be one of my parents. I am looking forward to seeing how each page developes.

Libby & Zoe

I had to add a picture of Libby and Zoe, my two miniature dachshunds. Libby was 5 in July and born on the 4th of July. Her real name is Liberty, Libby for short. She has already had to have back surgery and it is still hard to keep her still. She has soooo much energy! Zoe will be 5 in March and is a little more laid back. Lazy is more like it. While Libby runs around acting crazy Zoe grabs a toy and stands there watching. They are quite a pair. Both so sweet and so entertaining!

Paris Page in RR Fabric Book

This is a page that I did in a fabric altered book for a round robin in my yahoo group. I scanned the page before I added it to the book because my scanner does not scan bulky items well. I am buying a new digital camera and hoping that will help out some. The Eiffel Tower was made from buttons that I collected for a few months. I love the polka dot ones! And the fabric as well. I did not add any images or embellishments to the right hand side. I did a lot of machine stitiching to add some dimension which is hard to see in the scan. I stitched around the waiter, the awning, a table, and added some little dogs that are close to the top of the awning and just to the right of it. I love travel, especially Paris, as a theme for altered books.

Meander Book

This is the first page in my Meander Book for ClothPaperStudio Yahoo group. I chose an Asian theme and covered my book with oragami folded fabric. This is the first page in my book. It has a fabric background with a transfer image. The tranfer was created on a piece of sheer fabric using liquid polymer clay. The fabric tranfers are tricky sometimes but well worth the trouble when they turn out well. The last tranfer I tried did not turn out well. I think it had something to do with the printer I used. Black and white copies from a toner copier turn out very well. I can't remember if this one was from my HP or Epson with the durabrite ink. Must try again and find out.

Last Wild West for tonight

This is one of my favorite Wild West pages. The scan is not very good because there was a lot of bulk in the book and my scanner is not a fan of anything thicker than a dime on the page. I know I have some others I will add tomorrow.

Wild Wild West Continued

Blogger was not happy with me posting all of my wild west scans with one post so I will have to do 2 or 3. Each set will be the front and back of a page in one book.

The Wild Wild West

These are some of the pages I have made for a Wild Wild West Fabric Book RR in my Fabrics in Altered Art Yahoo group. I love the old west stuff - fabric, images, embellishments, buttons, trim - all of it. We are close to finishing the RR and these are just some of the pages that I have completed.

Latest Project

My latest project is a log cabin wall hanging. I saw Wendy Etzel "build" a log cabin on Simply Quilts several weeks ago and just had to try it. I found her book Log by Log and starting gather fabric for my logs and chinking. I have the strips sewn together to use for the walls and the roof is ready to go. I am not thrilled with my "logs" but I keep telling myself that this is my log cabin and it doesn't have to look exactly like the ones in the book. I will post a scan of the wall portion later. I think it is the yellowish orange strip that bothers me most but I think by the time the windows and porch go on it will really not be an issue. At least that's what I keep telling myself. We'll see how that turns out.

Fabric Postcards

These are fabric postcards that I have made for my Yahoo group, Fabrics in Altered Art. I have been using fast2fuse for the "batting". It is not easy to find but it works well for the postcards. They seem to be going through the mail without any problem. It does add a little thickness to them. The clerk at the post office put the Christmas one through a little slot to see if it would fit and actually charged me extra because it "just barely fit". I do like the thickness when binding the front and back. It works well with a satin stitch.

Egyptian Quilties

These are the first quilites that I made. I took an online min art quilt book class and chose an Egyptian theme. I was not happy with the zig zag stitch binding but it was the only thing I knew to do at the time. By the time the 5 week class was over I had a few more options.

Playing Catch Up

I had the great idea to start a blog, posted once and let things slide. It is time to play catch up. Although the next several posts will have the same date I will try to post things in the order that I created them. I guess I could change the date but since I have already confessed to letting things get behind I will leave the date alone. Here goes.