Love makes the world go round!

It's a gloriously sunny day despite the fact that we have clouds of volcanic ash swirling about in the higher areas of the sky. We are sometimes (depending on the wind direction) under the flight path for Edinburgh Airport and although it's not very busy I realized how quiet it was while walking the dogs this morning.

Troi seems to be back to her usual boisterous self which can only be good news and I have also managed to make a small quiltie (size 12" square) despite it dropping off my to-do list somewhere along the way. No idea how that happened, I must have overlooked it while transferring the To-Do list from one week to the next! Must try harder!!!

I was reminded of it again by the Loch Lomond visit some days ago as this quiltie is for a joint project of all Quilters' Guild members located in Scotland.

We're all meant to make a 12" block finished in black binding for a Wall of Friendship that will be on display during the Loch Lomond Quilt Show in May. After that all the blocks will be put together to form larger quilts which will be donated to various good causes yet to be determined.

My quiltie was made using a background from a long ago discarded quilt top, which I layered with wadding (batting) and backing fabric (featuring butterflies in my case) and machine quilted. As you can see some of the seams are on the outside and have been quilted in different directions. I added a vintage fabric of a loving couple (from VintageImageMadness) that I printed out onto self-adhesive cotten sheet (from Crafty Computer Paper). This was layered with a batik heart fabric and sewn down as shown. I then used Bondaweb (or Wonder-Under) to cut out separate hearts from the heart fabric and sewed these on in a diagonal direction leading to the text: Love makes the world go round! that was printed directly onto calico (muslin) using my Epson printer.

I added size 11 seed beads around the image, the text, the hearts and also around the black binding. as you can see on this detailed picture above.

Vintage Image Madness calendar now available

Just like the previous 2 years I once more was invited by Casie to make a page for the Vintage Image Madness calendar 2010. You can read about the piece I made on an earlier blogpost. It has landed on the May spot as you can see above.

I've just heard that the calendar is now available for sale (with half the proceeds going to Bernie Berlin's animal rescue centre A Place to Bark) and you can obtain your own copy here.

I love the layout this year and here is a little pre-taster of the beautiful work on show all through 2010 and to top it all the cover was made by Lenna!! She's written about it on her blog here. I actually had the same image she used in my hands to make my own piece but after some thought decided to use the equally romantic one framed by the window instead.

Vintage Image Madness calendar

Once again, Casie from Vintage Image Madness did me the honour of asking me to participate in the Vintage Image Madness calendar for next year. This is my 3rd year of working on the calendar and it's a lot of fun. The calendar itself remains an inspiration throughout the year as the art is simply magical.

It suddenly dawned on me that the 1st November (the date my art has to be with Casie) is less than a month away and with a dawning mail strike coming up here in the U.K. it was definitely time to get my skates on. Rather than waiting for my ordered images I decided to choose one that I had downloaded last year and almost used then as I really love it. It's full of romance and also of a beautiful window frame and the longer I looked at it the more it reminded me of Paris. Not sure why but I went with this flow and created a paper-fabric collage using a paper napkin with images of the Eiffel Tower as well as roses. What could be more romantic?

I placed the couple in their frame next to the Tower (I could just see them in my mind, exchanging caresses in their artist garret) and added a lace heart for good measure. A flower was placed in the centre of that and beads were stitched on. More stitching by machine seemed to be needed around the window frame. The text "A summer romance" was also stitched on and the metal embellishment which says "memories" was glued on with Diamond Glaze. The corner gold Dresden scrap formed the finishing touch together with the edge stitching in zig-zag stitch and variegated thread.

This will be winding its way to the States on Monday and I'm so looking forward to seeing what everyone else will be coming up with. You will be able to order this calendar yourself in due course and I will make sure to alert you on this blog as soon as it is available from the Vintage Image Madness site.

2009 Vintage Image Madness Calendar

I showed you the art I made for this calendar in detail on an earlier post but I just wanted to mention that the calendars are now ready to order on the Vintage Image Madness website here. As you can see my art is featured during March.

The art is really amazing, with the same artists as worked on the 2008 calendar. I've really enjoyed the calendar this year and I know it's going to be a real pleasure to turn over to the next month again next year!

Tea and Cake

Last year I participated with other artists to make art for the VintageImageMadness 2008 calendar and this year I'm enjoying looking at the different art each month. I love calendars and this is a particularly lovely one!

I was therefore really honoured when Casie from VintageImageMadness asked me to make another piece of art, this time for the 2009 calendar which will be available later on this year on her site. Don't worry about remembering this, I will keep you updated as soon as it is available for purchase.

I'm getting a bit obsessive about tea, chocolate and cake lately, which is strange as I'm not really a dedicated tea drinker. Too continental still and a coffee addict! However, I do have a genuine weakness for tea related items, such as teacups, teapots, teaspoons and yes, also the delectable goodies which are served with tea, such as bonbons, cakes, and last but not least strawberry jam, clotted cream and scones!!

For this piece I used a fabric/paper collage specially made with this in mind and added a lovely vintage lady as well as an advert for spoons (both VintageImageMadness naturally) which were printed out onto self-adhesive cotton sheet (from Crafty Computer Paper). I added the text with my Dymo writer. I wanted this 4x4 piece to look like a giant chocolate bonbon and therefore added pink and brown size 11 seed beads around the edges. This colour combination has really grapped my attention and makes me think of those wonderful milk chocolates, filled with strawberry flavoured cream. Yummy!!!

Vintage Image Madness calendar

What better subject to start the New Year with than calendars. And here is an honest admission for you. I'm sort of obsessed with calendars. Every year more of them invade the house and at the start of every month it takes ages to bring all of the calendars up to date. I've got an eclectic taste and there are calendars of chickens, Linda Nelson homesteads, Haunted Houses, William Blake, Doors and Portals and Art Deco this year. There is also one on Collage Art (from AmberLotus), a Paperwhimsy calendar (June is done by me) and the Arte ed Anima (also collage) calendar. Then there is my very own calendar (very limited edition of 3!!) featuring my 2007 Journal Quilts.

And there is also the Vintage Image Madness calendar. I was so afraid my copies might have been lost in the post but finally, they did arrive safely! Once again I made the June page for this one (more about it can be seen on an earlier post!). They are still available and you can order a copy here.

I'm also planning a visit to the Borders Bookshop in the very near future as after the New Year their calendars go on sale and I feel the strong urge to add even more to my collection. I love hanging things on the wall that change every month, so much more fun that a static image. It seems a relatively harmless obsession so I just go with the flow and have accepted it as part of my collecting nature (or less flattering my magpie tendencies!)

Vintageimagemadness Calendar

I made a little 4 x 4 collage for Casie's Vintageimagemadness Calendar Project for next year. I used images downloaded from her site. Both images are from the Postcard section. I just fell in love with that cat the minute I laid eyes on him. As you can see, he's smoking a pipe and that made me think of smoke and smelling things and it did not take long to come up with the title Smelling of Roses .

Very conveniently (as this was a rush job!) I had a fabric/paper collage on the theme of Roses at the ready and I combined the cat image with another one featuring roses. Another firm favourite as soon as I saw it.

I printed the images in the size I wanted them onto a self-adhesive cotton sheet from Crafty Computer Paper.

This one went together like a dream. Sometimes having limited time seems to make my art better (not always though!!). Less time to think and more to just go with my gut instinct.