All Square

Hurrah, I'm back as a Guest Designer for Stencilgirl Products and at the same time I can show you the very last spread in my large Dylusions art journal that I used in 2015. The journal is now completely full and it's a very satisfying feeling to see it bulging at the seams. It's also great to be able to tell you that I will be back regularly this year as a Stencilgirl Guest Designer. What fun!

 You can find an exact step-by-step tutorial for this page on Stencilgirl Talk!

The spread uses a set of stencil grids in a variety of sizes designed by the owner of Stencilgirl: MaryBeth Shaw and needless to say I love them. Grids remain oh so satisfying for the quilter in me. This could very easily be converted into fabric.

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!!!

Alphastamps Circus Collage

I had such fun making this collage as it reminded me of childhood visits to the circus and also of carnaval, which was celebrated in style in the South of The Netherlands. I can still remember all the colours and the wildly moving shapes of all the attractions. I've tried to capture all this in the collage.

To start I made a fabric/paper collage for which I first of all stamped the muslin (calico in UK) background with a diamond shaped stamp as well as various star stamps. There is not much sign of these, they just add to the multi-layered effect. I added a variety of wildly patterned napkins (serviettes in U.K.) to the mix in all kinds of colours. Somehow yellow got the upper hand, probably because I love it and it makes everything look so warm and summery.

From the collage I cut an 8 x 8" piece which I layered up with white felt by stitching around the outside edges.

First of all I found 4 lovely clowns performing tricks on a transparency from Alphastamps Circus Clowns #6 sheet and stitched them on by machine using orange thread.

The next addition was the picture of the clown and his lover (from Alphastamps Art Deco Valentine fabric sheet). Just above their heads a heart was added (from Paperchase). I went to the Borders Bookshop yesterday as they have a Paperchase franchise in store, to stock up with these hearts (and other shapes too!). I wanted to have more figures as my subconscious mind told me it used to overflow with funny and strange people and other creatures when the circus was in town. I found two fun animals playing the fiddle (from Alphastamps Circus Animals #1 paper sheet) . I added beads for their buttons and rubbed-on some gold to integrate them better into the background. To balance them and following on from their diagonal line I added another small fiddler from Alphastamps Circus Clowns #6 transparency. Following the patterns in the background I added star and round sequins with seed beads in a mix of colours. The text The circus has come to town was made using my Dymo writer and stitched on and further text A good time was added at bottom right.

The bottom edge was finished with a (Mostly) Metallic Jacquard ribbon from Alphastamps which went so well with all the colours in the collage. The other edges were finished by layering the piece with watercolour paper and zigzag stitching the edges while at the same time couching down a crinkly yarn with lots of colours picking up those from the collage.

Warning!! Vintage Nude 4x4

We've made it through an entire year of 4 x 4" mingles on the MailArtbyDesign Yahoo group and the group will be winding up at the end of this year. The last theme for the mingles was Vintage Nude and I've been looking forward all year to this one. It's getting ever harder to have this as a swap theme so whenever the opportunity presents itself I dive right in.

The title of this one is: Wine and wenches, and I can't tell you how pleased I was to come up with this one from my Book of Quotations. The background is a fabric/paper collage (originally made for my September Journal Quilt this year) and I choose an image from Alphastamps Kisses sheet. This is one of their Tahlulahs sheets which are just so stunning, I have a feeling I made end up having to get all of them. I added a Rub-On Love Heart in the shape of a postage stamp in the top left corner and overstamped this with an Alphastamps envelope with radiating rays, using Staz-on red ink.

This piece is really quite naughty, just read all the text hidden in the background and honestly, I did not realize till the piece was made, how these sayings could be interpreted. Or maybe it's just me!! Enough said, have a look if you like but if you are easily offended, I would give it a miss!!

I only hope Sue S, who will receive this 4 x 4 will like it but as she signed up for the theme, I hope she will.

A Jolly Christmas Quiltie for Alphastamps

I 've made another Xmas piece in my capacity as member of the Alphastamps Design Team. I was not sure if I wanted to go down the Red/Green Xmas road but in the end I compromised by using a green frame for a mainly red/gold piece.

The background was made first by using an 8.5 x 8.5" piece of green velvet and layering it with wadding (batting in US speak) and a green backing fabric. This was then machine stitched using one of the decorative stitches on my Bernina sewing machine. I then cut it to an 8 x 8" finished size. Put this apart and work on the centre piece.

This was cut from one of my fabric/paper collages, where I collage on a background of calico (muslin in US) with a variety of vintage paper text and images, tissue paper and paper serviettes (napkins in US), mixed together with watered down PVA glue. As a finishing touch I added Art Glitter in green while the collage was still wet. I cut out a 6 x6 piece which I really liked and layered it with white craft felt by stitching around the edges. Onto this I added an image from Alphastamps Santa's Workshop vellum sheet from which I cut the Santa figure on his horse with his gift bag. I stitched it on using gold metallic thread on my machine. I added a lovely child with dog image from Alphastamps Snug in their beds paper sheet. Finally I added the vellum text A Jolly Christmas and hand stitched (using backstitch) the capital letters in red and blue.

I added this to the centre of the green background piece by satin stitching around the edges with gold metallic thread. I added gold beads around the edge of the centerpiece by hand.

Finally the edges of the green background were finished with a red transparent ribbon and machine stitching and a green star sequin was added to all the corners, held down with a gold bead.

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.

I can't believe it's a no sew!!

My very first piece of art which absolutely includes no sewing, no thread, no buttons, in short nothing remotely sewing related. I made this collage on a bought 8 x 8 canvas and then started to pley with my Golden Acrylics paints and mixes. I added Alphastamps star stamp, vintage text and images into the mix till I came up with something I liked and then added the Alphastamps images, all from the Snow collage sheet. I added some more paint to make the pictures melt into the background. All this in my capacity as member of the Alphastamps Design Team. It was a challenge but that was what the Design Team was meant to be all about.

I'm not mad about the typical Christmas colour combination of green and red so instead I played with reddish and gold on this one and it ended up looking like an antique Victorian painting. I finished off by added gold to the edges so it would form a frame around the collage. I did enjoy playing with my paints, my gel and polymer media but I miss the stitched line in this piece. Nevertheless I do actually like it which is something!

Caryl's Album and a very artful day

First of all the partners were announced today for the 4x4 Mingle on the MailartbyDesign Yahoo group so I can now show you the piece I made for this. It has been finished for a while and was this month on the theme of Oriental Express. This will be going in the mail to Jan W asap. I made the fabric/paper collage for this 4 x 4 specially red so I can also use it for more of the Circle Swap pages but these have not been made yet. The image was given to me in a gift package when I was hosting a swap, and the transparency is from Artchix. The lanterns are from a napkin used in the collage.

I have also been working over the past few days on Caryl's album in our Round Robin journal exchange. Caryls' album is dedicated to the colours Green and Purple but the theme was left up to us. I decided to go with Love conquers everything and I therefore used pages from Wuthering Heights (vintage paper pack from LostArtCreations) in the fabric/paper collage I made for this album. I added music sheets, romantic vintage picture and other bits and pieces as well as flowery napkins with green and purple flower and garden themes. On the first page (see above) I added the vellum gentleman (also from LostArtCreations) who is looking longingly at the facing page where his love is coming towards him, accompanied by a chaperone, of course!I mounted the collage on both the pages on a piece of wool tartan like fabric. It's not an actual clan tartan but more like a novelty one which I bought more than 15 years ago during a visit to Inverary. I treat it a bit like a treasure and am only using it in small increments as I'm not sure I'll ever be able to get it again. But it went so well with Caryl's colour scheme and my collage that I simply felt it had to be the background. I further added buttons and beads to both pages as well as a Love charm which I coloured purple using an Adirondack dabber.

Caryl also wanted us to make a signing-in tag for her album and I really liked what I came up with using the last remnants of the collage. Needless to say the picture is of me (as requested by Caryl) but quite a few years have gone by since this picture was taken. I think I was about 17 at the time!! Finally I also found time to finish the Green ATCs for a swap on the ATcards website which had been waiting for their finishing touches for quite some time. The background was also used for some pages in the Circle Swap. They look more yellow than green on the scan but they are in reality that lime green I mentioned on an earlier blog and which delights me so. The insect transparencies are from an Artchix sheet. As I had not made any ATCs for my 100 ATC project for quite some time (when I'm finishing a large quilt I really seem to drop everything else!), I used the same background for ATC no. 66 which received the title Pond Life. Here it is:

Joining the Circus

Today was the day our partners were announced for the June 4 x 4 Mingle on the Mailartbydesign group. The theme was Circus and my piece will be mailed to Jan W. on Monday. Here is the picture. The background is one of my fabric collages, made with among others a napkin with a lovely circular design which seemed to suit the Circus athmosphere as it made me think of juggling balls in the air.

Over the collage I sewed a vellum image of a circus poster from Altered Pages. This was beaded around the edges with gold beads. In the right hand corner went the clown (from a transparency sheet from Alphastamps). Finally I glued down some shiny crystals in keeping with the balls in the air theme and bordered it with sticky tape covered in sparkly bits.

I'm still hard at work on my Journal Quilt for Houston and enjoying it hugely, specially as the weather outside is atrogeous, windy, wet and horrible. Such a shame as all the tall oxeye daisies and other plants are leaning over precariously and the laburnum tree is fast loosing all its blossom. John went around like a whirling dervish trying to put netting around it all before he went to work! A bit like my juggler, in fact!

Somerset Studio Gallery Summer 2007

I pre-ordered this issue months ago and today not one but two copies actually arrived. This could only mean one thing: they had used one of my pieces! And yes, indeed on page no. 13, there was my La Bella Vita 10.5" square piece!

I originally made it back in November 2006 on the theme of blue and here is my description:

I’ve always associated blue with Italy, its immense blue skies, azure seas and Renaissance paintings of the Madonna, usually dressed in blue. I’ve tried to convey some of this in La Bella Vita. There is also symbolism in the piece which alludes to the transience of life as can be found in many of these paintings, such as the clock, butterflies and birds.

The instructions for the piece are:

Make a collage on a background of muslin using watered down PVA glue to hold it all together. Use torn magazine images to suit the theme such as Italian words, large Madonna image and other blue pictures suitable to the theme, as well as torn blue tissue paper. Let it dry, trim to 10 ½” square size, layer with cotton batting and sew around the edge with blue thread to hold layers together. Cut out gypsy girl scrap (Mamelok Press Ltd.) and glue into position. Attach turquoise rose (Artchix) with a bead. Stamp gentleman image (Hero Arts) on a piece of torn blue fabric with Fabrico black ink, layer on torn piece of green/blue fabric and stitch into position on the collaged background. Stitch magazine cutting of renaissance faces into position to cover his head. . Sew fabric blue flower on the corner as shown. Add flower sequins and yellow beads on gentleman’s coat as shown. Stitch Absinthine transparency (Altered Pages) in position. Glue down 3 blue bird postage stamps and sew around the edges. Glue down clock charm (Collage Stuff). Sewn on with beads the 3 bird and 3 butterfly sequins (source unknown). Layer the piece with 10.1/2” square of watercolour paper and zigzag machine stitch around the edges to attach. Add the white and blue flower trim around the edges with straight stitching and finally add a blue size 11 seed bead to the flower centres of the trim.

I definitely did a happy dance as it's still so lovely to be published in a non-fabric magazine as I feel it means my mixed media pieces are worthy of standing by themselves, without being associated with me as a quilter.

Catching up at home

I managed to get everything unpacked after the Loch Lomond Quilt Show and stowed away in the appropriate places. The quilts are back on their table and I'm getting ready to pack other ones up and mail them out to various exhibitions.

I also realized the draw was done for the 4 x 4 Mingle on the MailartbyDesign Yahoo group. The theme for May was Play and my contribution is called Childs' Play. It's going in the mail to Linda E tomorrow who is my partner this month. I used a fabric collage, in fact the same one as I made for Theresa's album if you can still remember that far back! I added this lovely transparency of a girl with a bird in a cage ( from www.divasdeste.com) and the words are done with the Dymo label machine. Beaded around the edges with beads in the colours found in the collage.

I thought I had no detail of the ATC I swapped yesterday during my ATC class at the Loch Lomond Show but have discovered I've been more organized than I gave myself credit for so here it is! The words are stamped on a pale space-dyed background, pieces of vintage lace were sewn around the 4 corners. Then I added seed stitching around the words with a space-dyed thread, and finally beaded the edges of the lace. The lady who received it in the swap has already e-mailed me to say how much she enjoyed the class, which is really lovely!

Finally I did a bit of hand quilting on the large quilt I'm working on at the moment and it's really gorgeous to do a bit of pieceful stitching. I really miss it when I'm away as it enables me to just dream away and reach a place where I can simply concentrate on the joy of working on the big quilts. It will always remain my favourite part of being a quilter however lovely it is to have occasional away days such as the Loch Lomond Show this week. All the enthousiasm for my work does really spur me on to get on with this next one!!

Paris in the Springtime

On the Mailartbydesign Yahoo group the theme for this month's 4 x 4 Mingle is Paris. Always an irresistable subject for me. So I made a special fabric collage to honour this city, using a napkin with Paris cafes on it as well as a napkin with Paris ladies and their shopping such as hats and shoes. I made it mainly turquiose as the napkin with the cafes had this as its predominant tint. I selecssted a 4 x 4 area and added (by sewing machine) a transparency of the Eiffel Tower (Artchix), a paper quotation (European Papers) and finally a turquoise flower with beading in the centre. I was really taken with it but this one is going to Rosalie as she is my swap partner this month.

So to have one to keep I started again with the remaining bit of the collage and selected another 4 x 4 bit. This time I added a very small postcard of the Arc de Triomphe and the quotation "I love Paris every moment" (again from European Papers) . The strolling couple is a transparency, not sure where it came from anymore. AgainI added the turquoise flower + beads.

The trim on the bottom of both pieces is from a vintage trim which I really love. My mother gave it to me and there is lots left. Sometimes trims are difficult to sew on but this one really works like a dream!

I was going to change the daily quotation on this blog today but in the light of the tragic events at the college in Virginia it seemed appropriate to leave it for the moment. If words can ever come close to expressing feelings at such a moment this quotation does so for me!

Project 10

Today my Project 10, book 1 arrived. This was a joint project on the AlteredArtSwap Yahoo group made specially for the 10th anniversary of Somerset Studio Issue Jan/Feb 2007 issue. Pictures of some of the pages were published in the magazine after Theresa Martin send them to them. Afterwards it was decided to sell the 3 books on Ebay to raise money for Bernie Berlin's A Place to Bark animal rescue centre (see her blogspot link on the right!). I bought book 1 which contained a piece of my art.The book was put together by Theresa and holding it in my hand it just looks beautiful and it's fantastic to see all that art in real life. It has pieces from Paula Dion, Alessia Cowee, Lynnette April Cooper, Cat Doth-Ellis, Caryl Hoobler, me, Barbara Burkard, Sandee Hyde, Heather Rowley and Julie Molina. I've uploaded a picture of the actual book and also one of my own page. This will be a book to treasure for many years to come!!

Red and Black ATCs, Springtime in Paris ATCs and more art!

I did not make all these ATCs today but I did finish them this evening. It started with the April ATC swap on the MailArtbyDesign Yahoo group which had to be black and red. So I started off making a background with a red/black fabric, layered it up with Timtex and free machined it with a swirly pattern. I then looked around for either red or black images to use and found an Artchix Studio sheet full of very glamorous ladies all in black and white. So I added those and immediately the cards took on that je ne sais quoi quality I associate with all things French. I added french lettering from Altered Pages, Divasdeste and a quote from a French book (toi que etais la plus belle = you, who are the most beautiful one). I finished the cards off by machine zigzagging them onto a watercolour background and adding black beads around the edges.

As I had loads of the background left, I looked to see what other swaps were on my list and on the CChix Yahoo group the upcoming theme was Springtime in Paris. So I made my next set (only 3 for this swap!) adding images from both the Eiffel Tower and the Moulin Rouge together with more text: Paris (Altered Pages), We'll always have Paris (www.europeanpapers.com) and "la vie est une bonne chose" ( life is a good thing). I painted the ladies' lips bright red with watercolour pencils and also added this on the other cards I had made above.

Still enough left to make my 54th ATC in my 100 ATC project, called Au Revoir (Altered Pages) and an Eiffel Tower charm.

Finally we heard who we have to mail our 4 x 4 Square art piece to on the MailArtbyDesign site this month. The theme was wings and this is my contribution called Ivory Gleam. The background is one of my fabric collages. The lady comes from a shop (Blackberry Designs) on Ebay who sell images for decoupage. I layered it with gel medium, stuck it on and then added gel medium on top. It looks as if it is waxed and I'm very pleased with these sheets. Added a pink German Scrap at the top (also bought on Ebay) and added a quote from an old book. The pink wings are from Artchixstudio. Finally layered up the piece with watercolour paper using zigzag stitching and added beading around the edge.

More Lost Art Creations Art

It has been awhile since I mailed my last Lost Art Creations piece so before I started to remove more paper from a foundation pieced quilt (so BORING!!) I indulged myself making this piece, called Hope to be Happy. Used a fabric collage background made for my March Journal Quilt, added a lady image from LAC Femme et Flora inkjet vellum sheet, a butterfly transparency (www.divasdeste.com) and used a transparent ribbon (www.threadart.com) as the border. The quotation comes from an old book I bought yesterday!

Tea Dance with Flowers

I do a mingle every month on the MailArtbyDesign Yahoo group, where a theme is set and then we each make a 4 x 4" piece of art on that theme. Once the date is due we're given our partner for that month and exchange the art pieces. My partner this month is Debby H, who is one of my fellow Artistic Journey artists, and above is my 4X4. The theme was music and dance. The background is a fabric collage using a napkin with teacup images and the image is from www.alteredpages.com

On the left is my contribution for a swap on www.atcards.com entitled Flower Fabric and Bead Swap. I stamped a flower image on calico (muslin in US speak) and then beaded it. The beads are more pink than can be seen on this scan! I really enjoyed doing these over several evenings, very relaxing.

I'm also reading my Kaleidoscope book, it's wonderful. Full of thoughts about being yourself, being an artist and loads of ideas about zines, altered art and mixed media. It consists of lots of small articles which makes it ideal bedtime reading! Lots of really lovely images, too. Quite amazing for a very reasonably priced book and in full colour!

No Man's Command

My wonderful Artchix orders arrived safely today. Funnily enough, I had just e-mailed Jackie from Artchix as I was a wee bit worried and she said jokingly: "They will probably arrive tomorrow now" and lo and behold, they did!!!

I LOVE the new pink german scrap, it's simply to die for!! Of course I had to use it immediately and conveniently Artchix have a contest, called Get Pink, so I made a 5 x 5" collage just for this. I had such fun with this one, I can't even describe it. I always think of stories behind my pieces but am leaving it to the viewer to come up with their own interpretation.

This collage uses images from Artchix collage sheets C211 Loveliness, M145 Square heads and transparency from T440 Bon Voyage. Artchix art bits include the mask, the round frame and the pink ribbon rose. And of course there is the pink wing and the pink flower trim.

I could not scan this piece as the mask is quite 3-D as well as the rose and the scanner does not take to that at all, so I photographed it using macro-mode on my digital camera. It has lost a bit of the sparkle it has in abundance but this was the best I could do!