Exciting Mail! ATCs are here...

The envelope, please! These five ATCs arrived in the mail this weekend. They're the swaps from The Mixed Mania book study at mmartfriends group on Yahoo. I showed you the five cards I made to trade in this post.

What fun to see the variety of techniques and design concepts depicted in these small cards. About the size of a baseball card, the ATCs (artist trading cards) provide an opportunity for group members to try out painting, sewing, collage, beadmaking, stamping, embellishing, doodling... you name it.

My thanks to group leader and swap coordinator Belinda Spiwak. You can see her work on her blog, and in many issues of Quilting Arts and Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazines. And of course, many thanks to my swap partners. Just take a look at their work! I'm inspired to make more of these now that I've had a chance to study some new techniques for making them. Above- top, by Jennifer Elliott; above-bottom, by Sue in South Africa. Below left, by Jennifer Lyons; below right, by Elle Pukalo; bottom, by Joyce.

Fabric Jewelry?!?

Yes, indeed. While browsing the shelves at the local library, I came across this book- "Fabric Jewelry" by Teresa Searle (2007, St. Martin's Griffin, NY). What an intriguing concept! So I signed the book out, and found it's packed with more than 20 projects for making creative jewelry pieces from fabric. What fun.




I'm unsure as yet which of the jewelry pieces I'll make, but I had to at least try making a couple of the elements. The author's one-of-a-kind Filigree necklace is made using fabric flower motifs and machine embroidery sewn on dissolving film. When the film is washed away, the flowers and some lacey looking threads remain. My first two efforts are shown here. One has too little stitching, and the other has too much. I'm confident that next time I'll get it "just right." Also discovered that using variegated thread created a milky look that I would avoid next time.

Other simple elements are the twisted lengths of fabric that make up the Corded Necklace. I had some narrow (1"-wide) strips leftover from making the fabric-covered rope baskets. Twisting a strip while sewing with a zig-zag stitch results in a thin cord. Several together can be used in a bracelet, or other embellishment. I'm not sure what the ones above will become, but I like the raggedy look and the texture of the threads.

In a bit of serendipity, I picked up a copy of Country Living magazine, Feb. 2010 issue, from the "pass-it-on pile" at our sewing group. Look what I came across in the Fresh Picks column! Pretty fabric necklaces available from several designers. Timely!

Scenic Watercolors on Fabrics... a Class Act

Teacher Debra Johnston brought these class samples to inspire the 12 students in the recent One-Day Getaway: Watercolor on Fabric event. We gathered at The Crystal Ice House in Trenton, FL. It includes a classroom and is part of a complex known as The Suwannee Shops.




We began with color photos, post cards, or other scenic images. Snapshots of former homes that held fond memories were a popular subject. Students transferred elements of the images to paper and then to fabric. And, oh yes, that's a menu Betty is holding, below. We also began by placing our lunch orders!



Debra provided watercolor crayons, pencils, and markers and explained the different effects each would give to the work. Students then experimented on extra squares of muslin before beginning their masterpieces. They took to it quickly and their work was varied and lovely! Just take a look.






Our only problem was one student who lacked confidence and kept disappearing from the class. I found her hiding out in the ladies room, and finally got her to rejoin the group.

Watercolor on Fabrics..

This piece is my first effort from a class on watercolor paints on fabric. Quilting teacher Debra Johnston held a trial class at her home with just three students. Debra has an art background and she provided all the necessary items... watercolor crayons, markers, pencils, and paints. That meant we could try the various methods without buying lots of supplies.

We began with a landscape-style photo or picture and a piece of bleached muslin. Mine is a courtyard in St. Augustine. After creating a black-and-white photocopy version, we traced the major elements from the picture onto the muslin. Then we filled them in using watecolor paints, and added details with watercolor markers. After heat setting the image, it's now ready to incorporate in a crazy quilt block, or other project.

It was so much fun, that we decided to schedule a special event for our quilt guild, The Country Road Quilters. So next week, she and I will "hostess" a One-Day Get-Away at The Ice House, a beautiful new classroom at The Suwannee Valley Quilt Shop in Trenton, FL. We'll have the watercolor class and a luncheon at the cafe for 12 participants.



Debra is the brains and talent behind this event, so I'm helping out with the lunch arrangements, preparing the fabrics, and other details. I stitched these mini-notepads to put in the class packets along with a brush and muslin pieces. To make them, I cut dollar-store paper to size, and then added the fabric strips as toppers. It was a chance to try out a few of the fancy machine stitches and to use up some fabric scraps. These were strips cut from interfaced fabric leftover from the Jane Sassaman class and project.

Should be a fun day. I'll get pictures to share.

Pretty, Colorful Things...

After seeing a few examples of these fabric strip-covered rope bowls, I wanted to try making one. I found a good tutorial at Craft Stylish complete with photos to help. And I learned that making the bowls is quite easy to do. They're soft and pretty, and a great way to use up fabric scraps. Because they're machine sewn, they go along quite quickly.



I keep my fabric scraps sorted by color in large zip-top food bags. It often seems I'm unable to throw away even small bits of fabric, thinking that I'll surely find a use for them in one project or another. Well, it turns out I did. This bowl was made with the scraps from the yellow/orange bag and actually made a good dent in the contents of the bag. No worries though... I still have the reds, blues, greens, browns, and special brights bags to work my way through.







I learned a few things on this first bowl that I'll need to remember when making the next ones. One of my mistakes was related to being left-handed. When I began coiling the fabric-covered, cotton clothes rope to sew it with a wide zig-zag stitch, I coiled it counter-clockwise, as shown above. It seemed perfectly natural to me. In fact I didn't even give it a thought as I was manipulating the fabric strips and the rope with my left hand while sewing along the coil. However, when I began to angle the coil to create the sides of the bowl, I could see there was a problem. I had limited the height of the sides to whatever would fit in the space between the bed and the machine itself. It's like painting yourself into a corner. See what I mean? These are the "what not to do" photos.




If I'd sewn it clockwise, I would have had all the air space I needed to the left of the needle, and the bowl could have been larger. The tutorial shows it done correctly. It just didn't translate for me. Live and learn! I know it's going to take a bit of rethinking to get my brain re-tooled. It will feel awkward to work while sewing the coil clockwise. I'll have to practice.

Another thing I might try is to cut bias strips instead of straight ones. I like the "raggedy" look of the frayed edges on the straight strips, but I think bias ones might be easier to wrap. The strips are about 1" x 11". The next bowl will also have handles.

This is my quilting friend Kathy's bowl, one that made me want to try this project. I bet she sewed hers correctly. We both agreed these little bowls are pretty and useful for storing all those little things we have around the sewing room like beads, thread, charms, bobbins, and buttons.



And speaking of pretty things, our neighbor grows some beautiful roses. Here are the ones he brought by.

Small things.. ATCs

I'm a member of Mixed Mania, a book study group on Yahoo. It's a stretch for me, as sewing and quilting are my comfort zone, and mixed media is outside it. I'm intrigued by mixed media though. I have a toe in the water so to speak, and am trying out various projects as we go.

One swap I've joined is that of exchanging Artist Trading Cards, or ATCs as they're called. These little bits of art (they're 2 1/2" x 3 1/2") can be made from lots of different materials such as fabric, paper, or a combination. Mine are fabric, of course... remember, just a toe in the water so far. They're made on a base of Peltex which is a firm fusible interfacing. They're pieced from fabric strips and then surface stitched with a variety of machine stitches. Once that base was completed, I added different elements to each of them using fabric paints, stamps, small appliques, fabric paper pieces, buttons, and beads. The edges of some are finished with stitched on texture yarn, and others with twisted embroidery floss.

We're making these in sets of five, and can make up to five sets. "Toe in the water" dictates that I'm making just one set for now. But I enjoyed working in the small area, and eventually I'll make more.

Donation Quilts... A Comfort for Others, Part 1

Quilters as a group are such generous souls. They always respond with heartfelt enthusiasm to any number of charitable causes. One example is my Quilts of Valor donation quilt shown in this post. Here you can see how two members of our local Citra Crafty Quilters responded to the Downy Touch of Comfort program that has partnered with Quilts for Kids. In this program, volunteers make comfort quilts to be given to children with life-threatening illnesses, or who are victims of abuse. Each quilter received a package from Downy containing a pattern for a small quilt, fabric to piece it, a label, and backing fabric. In addition to sewing and quilting the quilt, each stitcher is asked to complete a second small donation quilt, and return both to the organization for distribution. Gwen (below, left) just received her package and has made good progress on her first quilt. Kathy has completed both of her quilts (below,right).





There are many organizations that accept donations of quilts and other personally sewn items. Our Country Road Quilters guild in Ocala has donated dozens of quilts to Kids' Central, a local human services agency. And we have donated blocks, fabrics, and quilts to Home of The Brave organization which honors fallen military heroes by presenting a commemorative quilt to family members. One of our members met and joined the guild after her family was presented a quilt in honor of her grandson.

And this little "Wags" quilt is one I made for a local animal shelter's auction. Even small projects like this, that don't take a lot of time or materials to sew, can go a long way to support and worthy cause.