Linda's 4 x 4

Every month I make a small collage (4 x 4") for another artist in the (closed!) OhMyGothic Yahoo group and in return I receive one from someone too (my theme is flowers). We have worked our way through Gothic Arches (hence the name of the group), houses as well as skinny pages and I for one am quite content with the 4 x 4 size.

For October I made the 4 x 4 for Linda who had set a theme of joy for her 4 x 4s. I started with a piece of the required size of a fabric paper collage in pink and green colours. The text on it reads: When the heart speaks, you must stop and listen. I then added a Victorian scrap lady to this as well as the word JOY. I stitched the letters with red thread and also used that to outline the two large heart images which were part of the original collage. One of the hearts was also beaded with size 11 gold seed beads. I layered the collage with felt and decorative paper and stitched around the edges with a green satin stitch, using my sewing machine. Finally I added the layered paper flowers in the bottom left corner.