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Saturday, February 28, 2015

Pink scrappy landscape

My intentions for my monthly scrap challenge block was to make another mariners compass but when I only had 3 days until the end of the month, well there was just no way. So I went to the RSC15 site to look at the rules and I was happy to find out - there are no rules! Just make something out of your scraps in the color of the month. I can do this! The color for February is pink.
Out came the pink scraps

Chop, chop, snip,snip - pressy, pressy
Quickly a simple landscape block is born

I quilted it with some variegated pink thread but there is to much white in it

Out came the orange and purple sharpies

Of course I had to fabric rocks, a shell, some driftwood


Painted a stretched canvas .......... Well pink of course
added a little mixed media action - one of my favorite quotes
Voila!
Go to the rainbow scrap challenge to see all the other pink blocks


Thursday, February 26, 2015

Bird on the rocks

Walking along a rocky beach in South Hero on Lake Champlain here in Vermont I came across this cairn that someone had put on a boulder. I knew I had to make it into a quilt someday so took a photo. So when I saw that the Vermont bird museum in Huntington was looking for fiber art I figured I could “kill two birds with one stone” (pun intended) ;-)

I added two birds that are common along the shores of the lake. The ring billed gull of course - they are everywhere. And the always entertaining spotted sandpiper who flitters about looking for food on the beaches.

Here's a close up of the sandpiper. I stitched the little spots by hand with thread. I think it's called seed stitching, very appropriate for a bird, don't you think?

And the gull looking out over the water

 

I need a good name for this quilt though and nothing is calling out.

Any suggestions?

 

 

Friday, February 20, 2015

Dyna flow review

I've had this product on the shelf for awhile and decided to try it. It says it's free flowing color that act like dye - hmmmmmm - I've been playing with a prayer flag with the word flow, so why not?

I had used a bleach pen to see what would happen in the word flow. I really like how that came out. Here it is after a day of drying. Two thumbs up on the bleach pen effect :-)

I have a jar of red,blue, yellow and white of the dyna flow - the basics from which I can really mix anything. First I applied white straight from the jar and it didn't even show up. Just melted into the fabric.

Maybe it's the white, so this is the red and yellow straight from the jar. Not liking it much.

 

So then I pumped a bit of aloe gel directly onto the painted area and it seemed to flow better. (Do I see a theme here?) Go with the flow I say!

 

Ok, time to get serious - took out my 4 jars, water and gel all safely on newspaper.

Playtime!

 

I found the best way to use this for painting anyway is to mix it with the aloe gel in a pallette type thing or in my case a peanut butter jar top. (We Vermonters feel the need to recycle and reuse everything)

So I put on a big glob of gel in the middle, red and blue on the side and mixed.

As you can see this way you can mix for different shades. Adding white to lighten the colors.

I'm liking this stuff. I just read the directions - typically after I dove in and screwed it up experimented first and it says it's good used with a resist which is something to try next.

Has anyone used dyna flow before?

How did you use it? Like it?

I'll be linking up to Nina's off the wall blog

 

Friday, February 13, 2015

Paisley feathers

Check out this cool background free motion quilting filler called paisley feathers.

 

I did some practicing and it's really easier than it looks.

 

I think this may become my February prayer flag - the word flow fits this design somehow

And what better background design for a bird? This hermit thrush is almost done, just need to hand sew the binding which will be today. I have the day off and with wind chills today being -20, I see a day of quilting and a big pot of soup in order:-)

 

 

Here's a bird in a bowl (or should I say nest) ready to be born ;-)

So try the paisley feather if you've never done it - you will love it

Stay warm!

Friday, February 6, 2015

Ecobundle to bird

 

You may remember my echo bundle adventure. Go here to see how I did this.

 

From trash to treasure

 

From trash to thrush (hermit that is) - the state bird of Vermont

Here he is after adding some brown dots using inktense pencils.

Now I just have to figure out where to put him and how to quilt him.

It's warmed up to 6 degrees right now (from -14 early this morning) so I may venture outside to grocery shop but the rest of the day will be hibernation and quilting. One good thing about living here, I have a good excuse to quilt all day :-)

Could be worse

 

 

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

eco bundle reveal



Remember this little bundle of joy?
go here if you want to know what it is.

Well I couldn't take the suspense any longer so opened it up, washed and dryed it.



Ta da!!!

Who would have thought a bunch of trash could look so good. I know you may be thinking that is does look like a bunch of trash but you wait and see what I do with this "eco fabric"

Stay tuned!
I have a plan
 :-)