ATCs from fabric paper/paper fabric

Oh, what fun I've had with the arty farty group. We made fabric paper - or is it paper fabric? Then we turned them into artist trading cards.

The beginnings of my edition called 'Spring'. There will be 12 in this edition.

I made this by separating the 3-ply layers of pretty serviettes and glueing the top layer to fabric. I also added bits of text torn out of an old book, music or bits of old patterns or tissue. Then I painted it all with a thin wash of purple, added some Angelina fibres, couched some perle cotton, a bit of stencilling with sequin waste and added some washi tape.

I've got lots of them!

The next stage is to stitch it to felt and stiffener and then add the embellishments. My embellishment box has grown! I said I wasn't going to get into scrapbooking as my craft hoarding was enough of a problem already. These ATCs have let all that scrapbooking stuff sneak in by the back door! But it's fun and aren't those resin flowers cute?

Guild BOM

Counties Manukau block of the month was really cute last month. I hadn't even started it by the meeting date so no chance of me winning them! I really liked it so I made one anyway.

My friend Raewyn won them. Here's the rest. It's going to be a fabby quilt!

Amigurumi gecko

The first week of the school holidays has been a wash-out for me. I bruised my leg falling out of the bath about four weeks ago and the bruise turned nasty. It turned out to be cellulitis and I've had to sit with my leg elevated for a whole week - plus a couple of doses of intravenous antibiotics. Not fun but at least I had a chance to try a new hobby. Here is my first amigurumi toy, a gecko.

And here is a shot before he got his sequins.

 I think I need to work on my tension and also I read somewhere that you can do invisible increase/decrease stitches so you don't get holes and bumps. This is 8-ply acrylic on a 4.5mm hook. Mark II will be an improvement!

Silk painting with Lois

June was a busy month but no finishes!

I took a silk painting class with Lois from the Quilt Shop in Papamoa. Lois provides everything, including the design and also took our silk paintings away with her and steam set them for us. A great class if you want to try out a silk painting.

This was my first painting.

And then I got a little bolder. I prefer this one.

I'm going to put them on interfacing and quilt them. Then I don't know what I'm going to do with them! Start an Etsy shop maybe!!

UFO day at guild

There were five Saturdays in June so we had an extra guild day, our UFO day, but some of us played instead. I took in all my crayons, pens and fabric paint and we did rubbings, stencils and stamps. Look at the wonderful work we all produced!


Shona made her own stencil using freezer paper. We had some stencils I had made, some commercial Christmas and bug stencils and Helen brought in stencils she had bought from Lisa Walton. They are lovely, such delicate detail!

Suzanne, do you recognise your stamps?

Some us made a second piece with a wash of fabric paint over the wax crayon. I didn't get a photo of them but they looked great too. Their challenge is to chop up their fabrics and piece them into something. My challenge is to finish the tablecloth that I started almost a year ago!

Melted wax crayon art

Our arty farty group experimented with melting wax crayons.

I tried a fairly conventional one to start with. I glued crayons to each end and then melted them, tipping it to one side then the other. What I was aiming for was a sunset. What I got was a mess! I had also added dribbles of hot glue and I didn't think about the effect that would have. It meant that the wax was restricted to the channels formed by the glue. I also didn't think what would happen when the orange and turquoise wax mixed. It made muddy brown. I fixed it by using a small iron to add more turquoise to make a sea.

The spots of orange on the sea that look like goldfish are meant to be the sun shimmering on the sea! I've also added surf using acrylic paint and a silhouette of a yacht and palm tree using a black sharpie. This is about 8" by 16".


This photo with the crayons cropped out looks not bad!


I like this one on the black canvas better. Again, I've used white acrylic to add detail. 4" x 12"

And finally, I made this little 4" x 4" painting just by holding the crayon in front of the canvas to make the tree trunk. The leaves and bird were made by heating the crayon and dabbing it on. The apples didn't really work. I heated the end and tried stamping a circle.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

This is my entry for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival run by Amy of Amy's Creative Side. I'm entering this quilt into the wallhanging category. 

I'm in good company in the wallhanging category. Rhianon from Nifty Stitcher got in early. Rhianon does the most amazing work! It was less than 2 years ago she was complimenting me on my quilting and saying that she was starting free-motion quilting. Now it's me trying to emulate her quilting. I wanted the nice buttery quality that Rhianon manages to get in her feathers. Getting there.

I've also quilted a motto on this quilt. Maybe I should tell the story behind it.

Our local quilt guild put out a challenge to make a quilt representing your favourite charity. I didn't need to think twice. I am so impressed with the work that the hospice do. My Dad died of cancer almost 5 years ago. He never stayed at the hospice but the nurses came out to him. So I didn't actually see the inside of the hospice until after he died when we were invited to be part of a fund-raising project at Mercy Hospice in Auckland. Mum and I were given a tour. I always thought that hospices were places where people died. Their motto is 'Living every moment' and that's what we found out on our tour. It's all about living, even those last moments. We saw their very clever bath where patients can be helped into with the greatest of ease and then sat up with a beautiful view out the window to the gardens. At hospice, having a bath isn't about bathing but an opportunity to enjoy a moment of life. We were also told about the amazing work that volunteers do, coming in for beauty sessions etc.

The logo for the hospice group is the yellow kowhai flower, a native tree in New Zealand. I've made it by drawing up a large paper foundation pattern on freezer paper. The middle section is just over 18", the width of freezer paper, then I added the yellow and green borders. All the green fabrics are from a batik pack I bought at fabric-a-brac, a fundraising event run by the hospice every year. I'm going to give the quilt to the hospice. It's funny to think they're going to get their fabric back!

I've very pleased with this quilt. I love the batiks. I couldn't find a variety of yellow batiks but the prints and yellow solid go well with the batiks. The paper foundation method is easy and very versatile. This is definitely a technique I will use again. And finally I like the way the feathers all fit into each other. I've made this so it can be used as a lap quilt so I haven't done any dense quilting with stippling between the feathers so they had to cover the entire quilt. That turned out to be easier than I expected. I'm not sure what the hospice will do with the quilt, sell it, use it or display it. I don't mind. I made it for them as a thank you for the care they showed to my Dad.