March TIF Finished - "Remember to Stop and Smell the Flowers"

Hope you had a wonderful Easter. I finished my March TIF challenge as you can see above. I've called it "Remember to stop and smell the flowers".

I love observing the small details in the garden and how things grow and change from day to day. Time often feels like it is flying away and I sometimes don't make the time to go out into the garden. This is a reminder to go outside and not to let the small details going on in the garden pass me by.

I have made the flower oversized to emphasise its beauty and to create the impression of being enveloped in its perfume. Also a walk in the garden wouldn't be the same without the company of my beautiful cat "Jazzie".

I used a knitted sari silk background that I showed in a previous post. I had to put some batting and a cotton backing onto the back to make it abit more rigid so it would lie flat when hanging up.

I've Been Playing!!

Yesterday I played around with some things that I have been wanting to try.

On this one, I started out with a piece of green silk material, I thought some of this would be showing through, but not much did. Next time I would use something plainer. Then I piled on small pieces of green fabric, lots of embroidery thread offcuts and various fibres. I then finished it off by laying a piece of cold water soluble Romeo on top. I then did lots of machine stitching all over it. The romeo stuck abit when sewing so I did the sewing on the material side with the romeo on the bottom and this worked well. I did lots of stitching making sure that it all overlapped. Then I swirled it around in cold water and the romeo dissolved really easily. This was the first time I have used romeo and I think its great and easy to use. I think this is a really great way to make a luscious background.

For this one I used the same silk fabric, embroidery threads and fibres and topped it off with a piece of green organza. I pinned it all around the edges and then did lots of machine stitching all over it like the first one. I then took it outside, wearing a mask thing over my nose and mouth, I used my embossing heat tool to burn holes in the organza so the other layers and fibres showed through. The material on the edges burnt away easily but the organza in the stitched area didn't burn as easily. When I've read about this technique I think they use a different heat tool, not sure if it might be a soldering iron. The heat tool I used is like a mini hairdryer so you don't have as much control over the areas that will burn. But it was a good experiment and I quite like the 2 pieces I came up with. I would like to use these in some garden pieces but haven't thought any further than that yet.

Sick of Being Sick!!!!

I'm just feeling sad and sorry for myself as I've only been sick since yesterday. I've just got a cold, runny nose, sore throat and sore head. My husband has had it all week and then wanted to share it with me. Anyway I'm supposed to work today, but had to have the day off. Which isn't good when your job is casual - no work no pay. I'm supposed to work Sunday and Monday too, so hoping that I'm quite abit better by tomorrow. It's definately not good to be sneezing on customers!!!

No more work at the moment to show. I did get some goodies in the mail this week from Joggles and should be getting some things from The Thread Studio this week, so when I'm feeling better I'll show some photos.

Off to blow my nose, get a hot drink and head for bed.

Small Quilt Class - Week 1 finished

I've finished week 1 of the Small Quilt Class that I'm doing on Joggles.

March TIF Challenge

March is starting to run away so I better get onto the March TIF Challenge. This month it is:

"Do you ever notice the little things, the small moments, the details in life? This months challenge is to do just that, pay attention to the tiny details. Sometimes the small things become emblematic for something larger. That is it! I am going to keep it brief."


The colour scheme is:

I like this colour scheme but I don't know if I will do it or not, I'll be using some of the colours.

The very first thing that came to mind when I read this challenge was the saying, making the time to stop to smell the roses. Then my thoughts went to my own garden. I really enjoy, especially in Spring and Summer, exploring my garden. Taking the time to walk around and notice the subtle changes, the leaves that have grown, the buds that have opened, watching the ladybugs and bees, taking in the smells, the colours, feeling the breeze on my face and inhaling all the beautiful fragrances, watching fruits and vegetables developing, seeing the Willie Wagtails (small black birds that wiggle their tails) jump around the lawn, seeing the butterflies fluttering around the flowers, picking herbs, fruits and vegetables to use in my cooking. This summer we have had so much rain that I haven't done this as much as I would have liked. Also I know that when I get busy, I miss out on seeing these small details.

I was going to do an upclose look at some of the details from my garden but instead I decided to do a piece called "Making the time to smell the flowers". This is a reminder to me to take the time to be in the 'NOW' and experience the little details in life. Sometimes we have to remember to look at the world through our inner child's eyes and experience the excitement and wonder of our beautiful world.

The Small Art Quilt Online Class with Jane LaFazio

I can hear you saying "Not another class". Yes, I just couldn't help myself. I did Jane's Mini Quilt Class last year and I couldn't help enrolling in this next class of her's. It's a shame that the classes I wanted to do were all on at the same time. But I'm not going to stress about it, I'm going to enjoy reading the class notes, starting the projects, interacting with the group and will get the projects done as I can. I'm then going to have a break from classes so I can catch up on doing all these wonderful projects. (Although I am hanging out to do Sharon's Personal Library of Stitches class - hoping it might be later in the year).

Anyway, this class of Jane's is very inspirational. I've started on week 1 which is Fabric Collage. It involves weaving fabric and using it as a background or cutting it to use for the main subjects. It also involves using a repetative subject. I'm using hearts. I've woven a background of purple fabrics that I need to sew (in the photo some of the fabrics look redish). I will probably play around with the hearts abit before I finish and add some embellishments. Its a really fun class. Lesson 2 looks like lots of fun too. I better get cracking!!!!

Fertile Earth Embroidery Class

This week I started the Fertile Earth Embroidery class that Susan Sorrell is running through Joggles. It's a new class that Susan is running and I couldn't help enrolling even though I'm currently enrolled in another 2 online classes. I have to admit I'm a Susan Sorrell-aholic.

Anyway this class looks excellent. Week 1 focusses on fruits and vegetables. I decided to do kiwi fruit. I think I will be using the above photo to base my embroidery on but following are some of the other effects from photoshop.

Photo Transfer

I had a comment on my last post from Sharon Baggon, saying how well my photo transfer turned out. Its probably because it isn't a photo transfer on the finished quilt. Here is a picture of how one of the transfers turned out. It didn't turn out very well at all and it didn't scan very well either.

For the transfer I enlarged and printed the photo out onto matt photo paper. I cut the car out and applied gel medium to the fabric surface I was using and the photo side of the paper. I then stuck them together. I then used a paddle pop stick to smooth down the paper and wiped away any excess gel medium from the edges. This was when the fun began!!! After leaving it for awhile I then rubbed the back of the paper with a paddle pop stick to help the transfer to happen. This took me many attempts as alot of them ripped through. Then when I finally got some to the stage of lifting the edge and peeling it back, I would think it was going really well and then a bit of the picture would pull off. It was very frustrating. I think if the quality of the photo had of been better I would have got an image that I could have used. Anyway, atleast I know how to do it now and I'll be able to use it again.

I played with the idea of using one of the photo transfers as it went with the idea of fading memories, but it made the quilt look very drab. So instead I used fotoflexer to colour the car red and then I printed it out from the computer onto a sheet of canvas. I then cut the car out and fused it onto the quilt. Not the same as doing a photo transfer, but at least I got it to look the way I wanted it to.