Snow Gothic Arch

It's unbelievably cold at the moment (apparently record low temperatures for November here in the Scottish Borders!) but at the same time beautiful outside. Frost and snow have come very early this year and to walk the dogs I am wrapped up in multiple layers of clothing, a large coat, a woolly hat, gloves and an extra pair of socks in my wellie boots.

The views are amazing and every day I'm spotting the same group of deer, a mother and her 2 young ones. Fortunately Troi is on her lead and Rueben is extremely well behaved and a firm no keeps him in check so that I can have a good look before they catch my smell and hop away into the forest. Needless to say a lot of winter pictures get taken even though it's hard and cold to take my gloves off to do so. More pics tomorrow but above is one which formed the inspiration for my Gothic Arch this week, for which the theme on the Gothic Arches Challenge site was SNOW.

To make the arch itself as shown I printed out the picture onto glossy photo paper and layered it with white felt by stitching around the edges. I layered a transparency on top (from PaperWhimsy) as the girls' eyes were just as blue as the sky. I added vintage blue trim (LostArtCreations) on the bottom and added blue snowflake shaped sequins with a white seed bead.

I then added the backing watercolour paper and satin stitched around the 3 remaining edges and stitched on size 10 seed beads in a white transparent colour. The text Peace on Earth was added at the bottom of the image.

Finally I added the silver moon at the top, which is a left over from a pair of earrings (no idea where the other one ended up!).

White Gothic Arch

Finally there is some time to participate again in the Gothic Arches Challenge where the theme this week is white. I also made this arch for Heather R in our OhmyGothic Yahoo swap group as she loves vintage children. She also gets the arch I made for the Cat challenge several weeks ago.

The arch has a background of vintage white damask fabric onto which I have stitched white lace. The fabric image is from PaperWhimsy and was also stitched on. More white lace was added to the bottom and a vintage white flower to the top. A large bead was stitched onto the flower and smaller white beads to the bottom lace. I also added white sequins with white beads all over the surface as well as white beads along the satin stitched edges.

Gothic Arches for Caryl

By coincidence, Caryl and I are also paired up for the monthly Gothic Arches exchange in the OhMyGothic Yahoo Group. Caryl had no theme so I just went with images that sort of grapped my attention as I was leafing through my collage sheet collection, and this is what I came up with.

The first arch, called She was loved! is made on a background of brown velvet which I machine quilted with one of the decorative stitches on my machine. I added a lovely picture of the Madonna, not because I'm in the least bit religious (I'm not!) but because I love the painting this came from. The image is a fabrik paper one from Bmuse. This was stitched on with gold thread. I added a lovely vintage blue trim and a vintage blue velvet flower (both from LostArtCreations). The star charm at the top is also from LAC. I then mounted the whole arch onto watercolour paper and stitched everything together with a zigzag stitch and turquoise tread. I added gold beads around the edges. I realized when the arch was finished that the colour combination is brown and blue which is also the next one for the Colour Groupies ATC exchange next month. I've made these ATCs already (pictures at a later stage!) and that must have influenced this arch subconsciously.

For the next arch I came across a rather severe looking woman on one of my Paperwhimsy fabric sheets. She looked so serious that I just had to have some fun with her. I added the top hat and the shoes which both come from a Paperwhimsy transparency and found the text La Valse excentrique ( which translated means The eccentric waltz). It came from a paper text sheet from European Papers. I'm sure she is definitely not amused by her arch but I hope Caryl will be! This arch was finished like the one above and I also added a Swarowski crystal at her neck (from Austria like the waltz) and a flower on her head. That bit of orange was just what the arch needed to make it look complete.

Paperwhimsy Gothic Arches

Caryl is organizing this swap for Gothic Arches on the Paperwhimsy site. The size of these is slightly smaller than on the Gothic Arches site and of course we need to use Paperwhimsy images at least once on the front of every one. This will be a 3 for 3 swap. It's not due till way in the New Year, but yesterday, while wrestling with the largest quilt I've ever made (why???) I found myself getting out my collaged backgrounds and the folder with my Paperwhimsy goodies. I tentatively cut out the first arch shape, layered it up with white felt, found an image which went with it well and before I knew it I made my 3 arches. They're all called Summer Woods and use the same collaged background although they are all subtly different. Apart from the vintage girls PW images I also used PW transparencies on all of them.

This is a clear case of avoiding what I should be doing but feeling virtuous about doing something else useful. Displacement therapy is how I refer to it and I do consciously know that I'm doing it. If I'm really not happy with what I'm working on, I even go so far as doing some actual housework to get the feeling that honestly, I'm not idling!! However, I never manage to fool myself for long, and today I was back to the quilting grindstone. I'm handstitching and yes, I do love it, just not all the time. My self appointed task is to finish this monster quilt by Christmas at the latest and I should do it if I stop prevaricating!

The other thing that I ofter wonder about, is why my mixed media work is so different from my large quilts. They, the large quilts, tend to be colourful abstracts, inspired by modern art and playing with colour contrasts. They can be traced back to the influence of the Blue Rider Group in Germany (beginning 20th C.), Paul Klee, the Bauhaus, Gustav Klimt etc.

On the other hand my mixed media work is firmly rooted in vintage, nostalgia and a longing for the "Good Old Days". A rather strange juxtaposition in one person and yet one, that has been present in me, for a long time. Even when I was a student I was drawn both to the Early Abstractionists and also to vintage postcards and Agatha Christie novels. Nothing I can do about it but accept that's how I seem to be put together. I love both and am really happy I have found an outlet for both these strains inside!

PaperWhimsy Quiltie Competition Winner

We've come to the end of the Paperwhimsy Quiltie Competion and I spend a lot of time selecting the ultimate winner. I made a checklist for myself, featuring such things as Design, Colour, Use of Paperwhimsy Images, Embellishments, Stitching and gave each quiltie marks for these elements.

I also spend time just looking at each individual quiltie, trying to describe to myself what I really liked about it. You can see all the quilties entered on the Paperwhimsyquilties blog.

It was a very hard decision as the quilties were all little gems in their own right but yet, the actual winner really stood out in many respects.

With her permission, here is the winning quiltie made by Linda Eustace.

This was a mingle for these participants who wanted to do that and darling Linda actually send her winning quiltie to me and seeing it in real life merely confirmed that it was such a worthy winner as you can see above. I just love the mix of different fabrics she has used, the echoing arch shape, the diagonal design line going from bottom left to top right, the heavy stitching and use of suitable embellishment.

Congratulations again, Linda, and many thanks for your quiltie which will go into my little art gallery in my studio!

PaperWhimsy Quiltie Competition

Here is the quiltie I've made for the Competition shortly opening on the PaperWhimsy Yahoo Group. I'm the official judge for this competition which is a great honour but I have no doubt will also be a very difficult job indeed. The winner will receive this quiltie as part of her prize. I can't wait to see what everyone is going to come up with and you too can have a look on a new blogsite which will feature all the quilties which will eventually form part of this contest. Here is the address:

PaperWhimsyQuilties Blog
I'll add the link on the right hand side too so you can always make your way from this blog to that one. I'm really excited about this one, I hope that a few people will take the plunge and try their hand at a bit of sewing. It gives me such joy and peace of mind that I would like the whole world to take it up! I get quite stressed if I have to spend even a day without a needle in my hand and the great thing is that you can hand sew everywhere, at any time! Of course I also love my sewing machine (a Bernina) but do that only at home.

This quiltie is a combination of both hand and machine sewing. Needless to say all images used are from Paperwhimsy.

Read all about it on the PaperWhimsyQuilties blogsite!

June Journal Quilt and June Calendar Page

I almost forgot to upload this month's Journal Quilt for the Contemporary Group of the British Quilting Guild but I remembered just in time. This quilt was actually made early and was finished in May which was why I sort of lost sight of it. I made my usual fabric collage with June as the theme, using text from an old book of days about the origin of the name of the month and its significant events. I also added vintage images which to me seemed to fit the month well. I overlaid all this with blue and white Toile de Jouy napkins, again suitable to June with its Summer Solstice. By the way there is actual snow in the Scottish Highlands today so maybe the book of days did not have Scotland in mind!!

I scanned the resulting fabric collage into my computer and printed it out again on a cotton fabric sheet. I selected rectangles out of this that I particularly liked and appliqued these (using satin stitch) onto a blue velvet background which I had quilted with a decorative machine stitch.

The Journal Quilt was bordered with dark blue silk. I beaded around the rectangles and the binding and added an actual piece with June written on it in the centre of the piece and beaded this as well.

By a happy coincidence I had signed up to make a calendar page for the 2008 Paperwhimsy calenday, organized by Peggy Gatto. I was assigned June by her so I now set to and used the actual fabric collage for this purpose. I made the background from a blue/cream checked fabric (from Cabbage Patch fabrics down the road), layered it with batting (wadding) and quilted it along the lines and then added the fabric collage on top with zigzag stitching. I added the girl (a fabric image from Paperwhimsy and also the transparency sun (also Paperwhimsy) by straight stitching. I added seed stitching by hand in a variegated blue thread, added heishis and beads around the sun and also a butterfly (Top Hat Design) as shown. I beaded around the June collage with yellow/cream size 11 seed beads.

Finally I layered the entire piece on a watercolour backgrond and zigzag stitched with gold thread around all the edges.

ATC no. 61

I did finish one final sample ATC for my ATC class this coming Saturday at the Loch Lomond Show, using a surprise package I received from a fellow CChixxie, PattiB.

The background is a white already quilted feeling vintage fabric on which I glued and stitched an fabric girl image from Paperwhimsy. I surrounded it with different vintage laces on both top and bottom and added beads and bugle beads to these. I added a Swarowski crystal bead to her necklace and I choose the text She blushed, to go with the image as she really looks like she is blushing, and then stitched the ATC onto a watercolour paper background. This is ATC no. 61 in my 100 ATC project.

I'll try and keep you up to date with my exhibition at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show, hopefully with some pictures of my solo show but the next few days promise to be very busy indeed!!

Red and White ATCs and ATC no. 60

I did some more sample ATCs for the class I'm teaching next Saturday at the Loch Lomond Show. These are also for the Red + White ATC Swap on the MailartbyDesign Yahoo Group.

While I was working on them I made an extra one for my 100 ATC project.

I started with a red and white batik fabric I bought on Ebay ages ago and ironed this onto Fast2Fuse and free machined quilted around the flower shapes on the fabric. I then used a stamp (free with the Craft Stamper Magazine) about Love to stamp on a piece of frayed white fabric and stitched this onto the background with red thread. I added the face transparency (from Paperwhimsy) on top of this, again with stitching and beaded around the face with red seed beads. I finally added a red button. A white fabric was ironed onto the other side of the Fast2Fuse and I machine zigzagged around the edges with red thread.

Love this face image from Paperwhimsy but I only had 2 so for the 4 Red + White ATCs I had to use 3 flower transparencies from Altered Pages instead to make up the number. Also pretty nice but not half as great as the face in my opinion!

I'm hoping to upload some pictures of the quilts which will be at my solo exhibition at the Loch Lomond show next week and hopefully also some of the exhibition as it looks once we've hung it at the West Kirk in Dumbarton. If you're passing, come in and say hello!

I'm still making more samples and also getting together everything I'll need for the class without having to use a van to transport it all!! Specially as I'm also collecting my large quilts on that day as well as 2 quilts by the Belgian quilter Monique Gilbert which are in the Log Cabin competition. I can't wait to see those myself! More about the show later!

Fabric ATCs

Today I concentrated on making more samples of ATCs for the Purely Patchwork class. I made two of each as I'm teaching at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show in May first and the samples for Purely Patchwork would be in the shop at that time so making 2 made sense. In order not to get too bored with them, they are all slightly different.

For the first two I used as the background a fabric with houses on it. I bought it ages ago at a quilt show somewhere from a New Zealand trader. Not sure if this fabric was actually made there but I have never come across it anywhere since. It comes in white as well but I used the brown colourway for these. The fabric images of the girls are from www.paperwhimsy.com They really suited the image. There is hand embroidery and the binding is a transparent brown ribbon from www.threadart.com. I recently bought these in every colour they do and I simply adore them. They fray very little and look stunning.

For the other two I used images from a fabric inspired by the New England Quilt Museum which had to be used for their ATC exhibition at the Lowell Quilt Show last year. I bought 1 yard so there was plenty left and I've found it a very useful fabric indeed for ATCs. It features a lovely collection of Victorian Scraps printed on the fabric in a variety of sizes. I used the cat for one ATC, on a stamped background of Klimt patterns, added a paper Victorian scrap bird, beading on the collar, and the Mon Minet (my kitty) text from www.artchixstudio.com. The other one also has a stamped background, this time of buttons which I have used before for various other ATCs, as I love the look. The girl and dog are from the same fabric as the cat and I added hand embroidery (French knots), a butterfly charm and a blue heart.

My art now in Theresa's album and more LAC art!

I've spend today amalgamating Theresa's 2 albums and sewing in my pages. They look great now that they are on facing pages and here is the picture:

Then I decided to stop beaded that flipping quilt for today and make some more LAC art.(LostArtCreations, see link on the right!).

Rather than make another ATC I made a Squared Art piece (5" sq.) using as the background another collage which I sprayed with Adirondacks acrylics after it had dried. Wonderful stuff, just have to watch I don't cover the entire kitchen in it!

It featured an Italian landscape in the background, music notes, and flowers and somehow made me think of weddings.

So I added a couple (from the My Love inkjet vellum sheet) using stitching to attach them to the background, found a really appropriate quotation in a vintage book ("It seems wonderful to think that you are my wife. I can scarcely believe it - even yet!") . To emphasize the theme of eternal love I added the circle (from LAC transparency sheet Ironwork) and added a clock face (from 7Gypsies) and a heart brad (from Artchix Studio) It made sense to add 3 more heart brads in the centre of the piece and a peach coloured flower brad (from www.TheHappyHammer.com) to finish off the piece. I then mounted it on watercolour paper and zigzagged stitch with gold thread around the edges. Hope Terrie (from LAC) likes it, it's one of my pieces as her guest artist.

I was definitely on a roll by now and decided to tackle a swap I had signed up for on the www.atcards.com list themed: Altered Postcards. The idea was to cut an ATC sized piece out of a commercial postcard and alter it in some way. I bought my postcards from Paperchase and here is one of them: the original postcards was of (Altered?) VW Beetles, so I added a transparency from www.divasdeste.com and added the text: Is that my getaway car? I've made some more, look out for these tomorrow as I want to do some beading around the edges of those.

A great day, artwise, and the weather helped by being wonderfully sunny, in fact it felt like spring!

My spreads in Theresa's album

The theme for Theresa's album is Manuscript and Letters, which made me think about where letters start, and for most people this is in school. I made a fabric collage background using letters in as much languages as I could find, such as Chinese, Polish, Hebrew, German Gothic etc. Theresa's first album used a lot of green so I wanted to go with that too and added a napkin, featuring the alphabet in various languages. to the mix. I had an old class book and used that in the centre. I found both a suitable school mistress and an unhappy looking pupil at www.paperwhimsy.com and discovered I had some old pages from a school book which seemed really appropriate such as: I can write my name, We learn to read and The teacher will praise your work. Finally I added a strip of alphabet letters, mounted the whole on a fabric, printed with writing and beaded around the edges.

For the facing page I decided to produce a page from the notebook of our naughtly pupil. She is beginning to master the writing process but can't help spilling the odd ink blot here and there. Fortunately she can repair her quote using stitch! For the background I used another commercial fabric printed with writing mounted on cotton batting. On top I added a transparent fabric again with lettering which was stain dyed. A piece of smaller green fabric, the same as on the facing page to create unity, and finally the text was added using both hand and machine stitching in all these layers. I thought of the text (so really it's my quotation!) and printed it out on adhesive cotton inkjet fabric. It was really white and this gave me the idea of the ink blots! I added buttons and a strip of numbers (the selvedge of the green fabric). The quotation reads:

Letters are the forms

that shape the words,

which make the sentence

and tell the story of our lives.

I'm really pleased with how the pages turned out, just hope Theresa likes them too and that her album will arrive shortly. We have more or less given up on her first one but the second one should be here any day now!