G is for Garden

I met one of the readers of this blog today and she had wondered if I had been away as I had not blogged all week. I'm really sorry I haven't been here for such a long time as I have missed it too but I have been so busy teaching this week that I only had time to read my e-mails, reply to the urgent ones and then dive into bed so I would be fresh and ready for the next day. I had to pre-pack several of my courses too and John has been a knight in shining armour making me packed lunches.

One more teaching assignment tomorrow, a fabric ATC class in Purely Patchwork shop, Linlithgow and then I will be having a bit of a rest next week, just stitching and working on some swaps. I'm hoping my next Alphastamps assignment pack will also arrive as I'm so curious to see the goodies we get to work with.

Today I was judging the Journal Quilts made by Region 16 (Scotland) of the Quilters' Guild of the British Isles, which was both a frightening and delighful prospect. I've done my best and the winning quilts are stunning. They will be revealed at our area day in Livingston in April (by me) and will be on show at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show this year. Do go and see them if you can, they truely are little beauties.

I did manage to make one piece of work to show you today. It's for the Alphabetica Round Robin swap where every month we make 2 pages for another artist based on the letters of the Alphabet and they in turn make 2 pages for my album. My swap partner this month is Heather Robinson and her alphabet is based on definitions. Just look in a dictionary and find suitable words. My first page G just had to be on G is for Garden as finally the garden is beginning to show signs of life. I wanted to play with fabric as I've done so much mixed media collage work off late that fabric was calling out to me. For the background I used a green velvety fabric (Cabbage Patch fabrics) with patterns of leaves. I layered this up with a flower fabric (also Cabbage Patch fabrics). I added strips of a red fabric to partially frame the image I used, which is from the Quite Contrary #1 fabric collage sheet from Alphastamps. To this I added the word garden (from a discontinued fabric sheet by Artchix Studio) and I substituded the letter g for a G charm. I sewed on green ricrac underneath and I also added a basket shape (which I think I received as a gift for hosting a swap, if I remember rightly). This was attached with a green button and red thread. I also added faux postage from Artchix on which I rubbed gold paint. Finally a hat charm was sewn on in the top right corner.