Quilting Arts Challenge

Last October a reader challenge for Quilting Arts was due. I rarely participate in challenges, but this one, "My Favorite Things" stuck in my head. So the day before pictures of the finished piece were due to be emailed in, I decided to go for it. I walk everyday and it was during one of my walks that the idea had popped into my head. My favorite things are; walking, leaves, circles, hand stitching and simple surface design. I took a piece of white on white fabric that had circles on it as the printed white part, stenciled on some leaves with paintstiks, masked them off and stenciled in a circle for the sun, masked it and stenciled in the sky and grass.

Then it came into the sewing studio and got layered with batting and I stitched everything. I drew a figure on freezer paper and cut it out to stitch around to represent me walking. Finished it late that afternoon, took pictures and got them sent in well before the deadline.

The current issue, February/March of Quilting Arts Magazine arrived at my door today and there I am, walking across the bottom of page 47.

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

Continuing On

I've been working on a variety of things this past week but have little to show you. I finished knitting a sweater and it is in the blocking stage, hopefully I'll have it ready to wear by the end of the week. I've also got the backing on Line dance and the facings pinned but not yet stitched. So I just have my weekly and dailies to share.

The Weekly Leaf Year two

Several years ago I printed some autumn leaves onto fabric that is printer ready, I had vague plans for them and nothing ever gelled. I got the prints out and found that I had already put a fusible on the back

Chose the bottom left leaf.

Very carefully cut it out , that white fabric really shows up if it's not trimmed very close.

Pressed it onto my fabric and started to stitch.

Week #2

Daily Stitching updates

Silky Fragments #7-#12

The Daily Paper #300-#305

New Projects

I knew at about half way through last year that I was so in love with my Weekly Leaf that I would be continuing on with it this year. There will be a few small changes, like color scheme and possibly some mixed media included, but overall the size will be the same 6 inch square with surface design and stitching. Here are a few of the fabrics in the pile for this year.

You will note that some are already printed and ready to go, I did a lot of extras last year. The difference in color will be some darker, stronger colors instead of the fairly light neutral and pale green from last year. (A few of last years lighter ones may slip in.)

This week I used the dark green and gold blueprinted one you can see above. This is one of the pieces of colored fabric treated with cyanotype chemicals that I purchased from Blueprints on Fabric. I did this print last fall, the leaves are from a plant I found near the waters edge at the local pond. I think they are from a noxious weed, but I was attracted to how very delicate they looked.

The above picture shows them on the fabric, under glass out in the sun printing. It took about twelve minutes in the sun. It was quite late in the fall so it is propped up to get the direct sunlight.

The print before stitching.

The Weekly Leaf week #1, year #2

Daily Stitching updates.

All of my daily stitching projects use something that I have on hand in my stash of stuff. This year I'm using four very light weight hand dyed shibori stitched silk scarves. These scarves and about ten others were given to me at least twenty years ago by the woman who dyed them. She had spent many years living in the Philippines and took various art class while there. She gave them to me because she knew I would find a way to use them. It has taken me a very long time to do so, but there's no turning back now.

These are the scarves, each one is about 34"sq. and very light weight. I got 64 4" squares from each one and have added the three hand dyed solid color pieces hanging on the bottom left and some plain black silk to get enough for the year. I fused flannel to the back of each scarf to give it some weight and body.

Then did a lot of cutting.

In the plastic container ready for the coming year. All I have to do now is add stitching.

#1- #6

I'm not sure what to call this one yet, Silky Geometry was one option, but I'm open to suggestions.

The Daily Paper #294- #299

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"