My pages for Deann's album

Today I finished my pages for Deann's album. This has the theme of the months of the year and I choose August to do as this is the month of my birthday (on the 29th!). Her colours were cream, brown and one other colour. As usual I made a fabric collage first, using a lovely selection of napkins (or serviettes if you're in the U.K.!) which will also serve for my August Journal Quilt in due course, and then scanned the collage into my computer, printed it out on HP Transfer paper and ironed it onto a really lovely white cotton sateen fabric I bought recently in Cabbage Patch Fabrics (a wholesale fabric place about 30 minutes from home (very convenient!! and much too tempting!).

On the first page I used a large part of the transferred image on a background of cream coloured fabric with a leave pattern, mounted on wadding (batting in U.S.). I added an transparency image (from www.divasdeste.com Kirchner Women sheet), a very old vintage trim (Ebay) and charms of bumble bees, the sun and a rose. The original fabric collage has lots of rose images as August is the month when my old roses in the garden are at their very best! I added beading and the title Pleasures and Pastimes which comes from the selvedge of a fabric.

On the facing page I used a selected part of the transferred image collage only, with the view of a village and with a postmark in August. I layered this on top of red fabric, then the same cream leaved one and red again + wadding. Added hand stitching, vintage buttons, a gold, heavily machine quilted piece left over from a previous project and added lots, and lots of beads. I'm really happy with the pages, in fact I'm going to find it hard to part with them and might well end up making a small art piece for myself along the same lines. I've got the collage saved in my computer so can print it out again whenever I fancy it. I do this whenever I really love one of the collages I make so I can use it up and know I can also re-use it when the fancy takes me.

Abby's album went in the post to Lucinda today by Airsure (£20.50) , and Theresa's album arrived safely with Lucinda last Friday, so at the moment things are moving smoothly through the mail. I have removed Johoanna's pages from both Abby and Deann's albums and will mail these to her in Australia as soon as we hear from her again after her move. I've also copied the instructions and sign-in pages so she will know what to do for them too! I won't mail out Deann's album to Lucinda till I know Abby's has arrived safely. This way we only have to worry about one album at a time!

I think next album I will receive is Sanna's one which is themed Angels, so I'll be on the hunt for angel related images and fabrics!! This is almost more fun than can be legal!!