Footloose in the Forest

Spend this afternoon at the Scottish Quilt Championships show (see my earlier blogpost here), organized by Grosvenor Shows. I'll post more about the colour - quilt- collage exhibition that was hanging there (very well displayed, I'm so happy with it) in the next few days, but I also entered the above quilt into the Championships. And I hardly need to say that I was completely delighted to find when I climbed the stairs that not only was my quilt displayed in a very prominent spot but there were also those gorgeous, yellow rozettes by it's side.

It turned out I was overall runner-up for the Championships and the quilt had also won the 2nd prize in the Theme section, the theme being A Walk in the Forest.

I made it specially for the theme as I like to support this show above all others as it is my local one. If you are a regular reader of this blog you just might recognize this image which I have previously used on a Journal Quilt (read about it here) and I have also posted in the past about my research into this particular image (here it is!).

One Great Secret

And it's up to you to guess what the secret is. As almost always I sort of wrote a story in my head when I made this collage but I like to leave the interpretation of the art up to each individual viewer! My brain can be a cesspool from time to time and the story I came up with was pretty rude!

We're already up to Lesson 2 in the Collage Coterie Class and this one was all about colour and contrast and our prompt was to be Inspired by Nature.

I took this perhaps a bit more literal than Mary Green, our teacher, meant it and for those of you of a tender disposition, a word of warning: yes, there is some nudity in this spread, although of a very subtle nature. I bought the engraving this figure was taken from on Ebay for no other reason than that I just had to have it. It's beautiful! Mary demonstrated to us how to use chalks and I knew I had some somewhere. I re-acquainted myself with the contents of my painting supply cupboard and there they were. These were pearl pastels and suited my image wonderfully well. Although this spread is for the Collage Coterie class , I actually made it in my Vintage Gluebook as everything on it is either true vintage or photocopied from true vintage material.

When I was finished layering and glueing everything in I had a look to see if it all worked together and to my intense astonishment discovered the word Peebles on the map underneath the semi-nude figure on the left (it's sort of underneath the fence). I live in Peeblesshire and only about 12 miles away from Peebles. It's where my quilt exhibition will be next year. What are the chances of this happening? I reckon it must be more than one million to one. The universe simply gifted me with this synchronicity and I am truely grateful. I then also spotted the word Milestone virtually under the feet of the same figure and I could only wonder at the great secret of it all! I think the vintage map is of North and South Dakota.

The nature inspiration can also be found in the proliferation of roses, both on the vintage wallpaper I used as background on both pages and in the roses on the Holy Card.

Vintage Nude ATC Swap

"I have danced naked"

As most of you know, I love vintage nudes and as it's difficult to find swaps I always join as soon as I spot one. This one is on the ATCsforAll site and could feature any medium.

I went for backgrounds of fabric/paper collages and selected transparencies (from Alphastamps Nudes #1, 2 and 3 sheets) to be stitched onto these backgrounds.

French seems to be the language par excellence to go with vintage nude images and that's what I used. The text on the one above translates as: "You are my well-beloved one"

"The little courtesane"

"Beautiful female shapes"

And finally here is the one I made to keep for myself with the text: "Yes, you love me"

Oh La La ATCs (contains vintage nudes, be warned!)

I finished my cards for the Oh La La ATC Swap I'm hosting on the ATCsforAll site last year (yesterday in actual fact!). This is a swap for anything which might bring those words to your lips so could be vintage nudes (as in my case) but also other things. Most cards I have received so far, do seem to favour the nudes, though!

These are the 3 I made for the swap. The background is gold lame fabric which was ironed onto Fast2Fuse and free machine quilted with gold thread. After this I cut out the ATC sized pieces and stamped them with the Corsets stamp from the Paris stamp sheet from Oxford Impressions. You can't see it all too clearly but the word corsets can be seen, depending how the light falls on the cards (a bit like a hologram). I used brown Versacraft ink for the stamping.

I then added fabric images from Alphastamps Nudes #2 collage sheet and covered the entire cards with red sparkly net, to give the ladies a bit of a covering. Another fabric (red in this case) was ironed onto the other side of the Fast2Fuse and the edges finished with gold satin stitching. Finally words were added and in the case of the Legs ATC images from Paris.

I also made one for my 100 ATC project, which is no. 98 and called Adieu. Again the fabric image is from Alphastamps Nudes #2 sheet. And yes, I have made no. 97 too but won't upload that one till later!

White and Sepia ATCs for ColourGroupies (warning Vintage Nude images)

First of all, for those of you worrying if I ever sleep, and following the article in the newspaper yesterday describing how bloggers are succumbing to heart attacks due to the stress of daily postings, I did not make these ATCs today! And this does definitely not stress me either for that matter, on the contrary I really enoy it!

In fact I made them over a month ago in a sudden moment of inspiration. These ATCs are for the participants in the ColourGroupies Yahoo group, which is a very select one of only 5 members and we aim to keep it that way. Every month we make an ATC for all the other members (and I also make one for myself) and once they are received by everyone we can put them on public show. The colour scheme for April is White and Sepia. All mine have safely landed so here they are:

The first one is for Debby but all the cards are made in much the same way which I arrived at after working on another piece of art (which I will show in a later post but that too is a surprise for someone!). I started with a lovely pre-quilted piece of white material and I just loaded this up with lots and lots of vintage lace, stitching one on top of another, until I arrived at a composition I was happy with. For Debby's card I added a fabric image of a severe looking boy (from Paperwhimsy), as she loves vintage children. I also added 3 vintage buttons, more lace and the text: Keep Control (he looks like he wants to do just that!). All the cards were straight stitched onto watercolour card, for once with unfinished edges as I was after that vintage look with loose threads!

Lenna's one has an image from Alphastamps Emotions sheet in transparency form which was stitched on. A large vintage button was added as well as a flower trim (I bought these in bulk on Ebay, and I simply adore them). I added the text: Fancy meeting you here, as she looks rather surprised.

Caryls' card is much the same, with an image from Alphastamps Tinted Beauties sheet this time, another of my Ebay flower trim finds and 3 vintage buttons, with the text She sighed again. I try to find text which suits the images and very often this is the part of the entire process which takes the most time (I tend to get lost once I open a book!).

Tristan shares my taste for vintage nudes so I try and give him one almost every month. This one is from Alphastamps Nudes#2 sheet and is a transparency. She was decorated with a large vintage flower to save her some blushes and was given the title: Lover (she looks like she is wearing, if that is the right word, a wedding dress).

Finally I also made one for me (ATC no. 88 of 100) and indulged myself too with a vintage nude image, also from AS Nudes#2sheet. She too received a large flower but this one covers up nothing. And as she looked like one , she received the text She was a Fool.

Altered by Design ATC Swap and Vintage Nudes Swap (don't look at these if you find the female nude offensive!)

I had an away day from my quilts today and concentrated on catching up with some of my outstanding swaps. I've been playing with my Embellisher (a Pfaff 350) a lot lately (although not as much as I would like) and made a background on purple felt, needling down loads and loads of knitting yarns. It turned out that this background was enough to make ATCs for 2 different swaps. The first one is organized by the wonderful and creative Lenna Andrews who runs her swaps from this site. The requirement for this particular swap named Angels, Fairies and Divas ATC Swap was to used images from collage sheets produced by Altered by Design. They can be obtained from Joggles.

I concentrated on the Divas bit of the swap and used images from the Altered by Design Gypsy sheet. The paper images were cut out with a very small margin around them, that I used for sewing them on the felted background. I then spend some time finding suitable quotations for them all (from Forest Lovers, one of my vintage books). On most of them I also added some pink German scrap. I ironed on a fabric backing to the felt using Bondaweb (Wonderunder in US) and finished the edges by buttonhole stitching by hand, using a beautiful variegated silk thread (an impulse Etsy buy which turned out to be fabulous). I also added pink beads to the scrap and purply ones around the other edges. The final touch was a self-adhesive purple heart for each card (from Paperchase). I'm seriously addicted to these hearts!

As has now become a tradition I made an extra one for my 100 ATC project. This one is no. 85 (nearing the end!) and called The Girl was a Beauty. Made just as described above but with black German Scrap at the top.

The other ATCs I made were for the Vintage Nudes Swap on the ATCsforAll site. As regular readers know I simply love vintage nude and embrace every opportunity that comes along to use my collection of images. Unfortunately it does not happen often but I enjoyed making these ATCs hugely.

All the images are from Alphastamps Nude # 2 fabric collage sheet. They were cut out, again with a narrow margin, and sewed on to the felted background. On most of the cards I added a large pink ricrac ribbon which I rubbed with purple and gold Rub-On metallics as it was just that bit too bright. On the remaining ATC I used a vintage lace at the top. I added French text (which seems to really suit the vintage nudes!) from a vintage book called Aphrodite, by Pierre Louys, a book which sparked one of the first court cases for indecency.

This is rather amazing in this day and age as the text and images are quite tame, although I have to say nude still seems to stir a lot of controversy. Just today I read on the QuiltArt mailing list a message where a High School student in the US had missed out on her art price, because her piece contained some nudity. Yahoo also take a dim view of vintage nudity on their groups.

The only thing I find annoying is that there are absolutely no male nudity images anywhere, not even vintage!! Apart from the Visa advert here in the U.K. which starts with a nude man running after a stag night stunt. He of course ends up fully clothed at his wedding thanks to his Visa card. What I can't quite figure out is where he kept that card??

The ATCs were again finished with buttonhole stitching and beading as described above. I did make an extra one for this swap too, to keep, but haven't made it part of my 100 ATC project as the background looks too much like No. 85 above. Instead it will go in my Alphastamps art folder. It's called Plus belle. The text as a whole translates as: I'm more beautiful than ever.

Black/Gold ATCs for ColourGroupies (contains some nudity!!)

All the black and gold cards I've made for our January exchange of the Colour Groupies ( a very select group of 5 artists) have now arrived at their various destinations which means I can reveal them here too. All images on these cards are from Alphastamps!

The Poor Folk one was for Caryl (image from the Roman goddesses transparency) The one on the right, Women's Tragedies was for Tristan and the image is from Nudes #1

This one is for Lenna. The image is from Alphastamps Beauty Queens sheet and the transparency from the AS Tracy Roos Tintypes sheet. The tranparency word is from Artchix.
And finally Debby's one which uses a transparency, again from the Tracy Roos Tintypes. Although I did not realize it while making the ATC and it can't be seen on the scan, once it was in position, the little girls' dress looks a shimmering red when you move the card in the light. I really like this additional effect! The white text on all the cards apart from Lenna's is from Alphastamps Clowns Valentine sheet.

Next month we will be doing ATCs in Hot Pink and Orange. I can barely wait but it will be February soon now!

Vintage Nude ATC (don't look if this offends you!)

Starting the New Year as I mean to go on, I decided to make a start on my To Do list immediately the year began. Top of the list were ATCs for a new venture (Colour Groupies) I'm undertaking with 3 other artists (Caryl, Debbie and Tristan) . We are making one ATC for each of the other participants each month based on a colour combination. For January 2008 this is Black and Gold. The ATCs I've made for everyone else will remain a secret till they actually arrive with their recipients so the card is a surprise to them (look out for them in future posts!) but as part of this I've added a further condition for myself in that I will also make an ATC just for me in the same colours. I'll make them part of my 100 ATC project and this is no. 79, called The Woman who did.

The background is black velvet with a gold pattern, which I layered up with black wadding (batting in US speak) and quilted in straight lines using gold thread. I layed a gold patterned ribbon on top by stitching it down. I added the fabric image of a naked woman (from Alphastamps Nudes 3 sheet), again by stitching, added the beads on her headdress and a beaded necklace.

I then started looking for some suitable text to accompany the image and yes, I know this text makes the card naughtier than it was but who could resist?? Not me, that's for sure. The text is also from an Alphastamps sheet, namely the Clown Valentine one and it just leaped up at me while I was browsing. I simply adore this happenstance from the bottom of my heart. It's like asking the universe a question and getting an answer immediately! Long may this continue in this New Year!!

I finished up the card by layering it with black cardstock and stitching satin stitch around the edges using gold thread.

One thing to cross of that list but still plenty left on it to get on with!

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.

Alphastamps (and copper and teal ATCs)

I had some really wonderful news today. I'm going to be an official member of the Alphastamps Design Team. I'm really looking forward to it as I love the Alphastamps fabric sheets. There is just so much choice with a variety of images, which means everyone's tastes are catered for. As for me, don't ask me for my favourite, I love them all. In fact I have yet to find anything on the Alphastamps site that I don't like! Making a selection is what will be a problem for me!

To celebrate I'm showing you first of all an ATC made using an Alphastamps image. This one is from one of the Shakespearean sheets and the ATC is actually for a Copper And Teal Colour Combination Swap on the MailartbyDesign Yahoo group. I've added a copper face pebble to her face. These pebbles are a new thing (at least, in colour) and I do like the effect. I won't be using it a lot as it's something that easily can become too much, but for this swap I seemed to suit.

Here are the 4 cards for the swap (including the nun). The background is a lovely damask blue fabric from Cabbage Patch Fabrics which I free-machined using a metallic multi-coloured thread. Apart from the nun, the images on the other cards are paper and are from a CD by Enchanted Mercantile which I bought on Ebay. I surrounded the images with copper metal mesh (from Texere Yarns) to make it look as if they were imprisoned. The text for all the cards comes from one of my vintage Gothic novels. It's the Forest Lovers book which I have used many times before. Published in the late 1800's and reprinted about 4 times in 4 years so it must have been a popular tome. Quite racy too, for its day!

As is my habit now, I made a card for my 100 ATC project and those among you who are really observant, I've missed out no. 73 and 74 which are made but which I haven't uploaded yet. Look out for them in the near future. This one is no. 75 and is called You're not safe here. The image is also from Enchanted Mercantile as above but a bit more daring. However the copper mesh obscures most of the view! All the cards were finished by mounting them on watercolour paper and machine stitching around the edges. I used a copper metallic thread to do this and it gave me so much problems that I was tempted to dump it in the bin. But you never know when I might need just this thread so it has been stored but I will remember how temperamental it was!! It took forever to do the edges with the thread breaking at least once on every side of every card!!

More Vintage Nude ATCs (be warned!)

I've really been letting my swaps slip as I'm so busy at the moment with my teaching but last night I finally caught up with the ATCs for this swap. I've hosted a Vintage Nude swap myself some time ago on the ATCard site as I really love this images and it's difficult to find likeminded people to swap with in such a way that tasteful cards are swapped. Blueskysunburn was one of the participants of that swap and as she, like me, loves them she has hosted another one on the same site. Of course I had to play in that one.

Once I got started I really enjoyed it. I used vellum images from the Fine Art Nude sheet from Lost Art Creations and one paper one from another LAC sheet. The background is a fabric paper collage left over from a Valentine swap which seemed to suit the images. I added French text as it has that certain je ne sais quoi that goes with nudes. I embroidered the heart shapes with gold thread and a running stitch.

Of course this meant I could catch up with my 100 ATC project as well and I made ATC no. 72, called Eclatante et Profonde. It uses the same background and again a vellum image from Lost Art Creations Fine Art Nudes. Once again I went for a French text. This one translates as: this hair so bright and full.

I though I had finished my cover for the Romance and Roses album (see previous post) but I think I want to add one more item to it so I will show you that in the next post, once I am completely happy with it.

Amazonian creature

This post has a vintage nude image so don't read any further if this offends you!!

I have been removing ever more paper from my foundation pieced quilt top (I'm not going to use this method for some time to come!) but it's now done. The floor of the studio is literally covered in paper bits, and so are my clothes. I'm spreading paper bits wherever I go. So pleased that is over and done with. Now I can start thinking about the border of the top. I've got a good idea, question is have I got enough fabric to do it?? More later!

I've finished putting together my talk for Saturday when I'm giving a slide lecture to the Scottish region of the British Quilters Guild. I have it in both slide form and on a CD as apparently the college has a digital projector. This will be a first for me so should be interesting. I'm talking about Journal Quilts, Fabric Postcards and Artist Trading Cards.

Then I finished ATC no. 53 in my 100 ATC project. This one has been knocking around the studio for quite some weeks as I could not decide if it needed any more or not. In the end not won! Sometimes less is more and all I did to finish is stitch it on a watercolour background using zigzag and beaded around the edges. The background is one of my fabric collages and the image is from Artchix (www.artchixstudio.com).

Vintage Nude Swap

So you've been warned about the images on this post!!

I've been away to the Ingliston Quilt Show today and was pleased that for once I managed to moderate my spending. Just green fabric to back a quilt and calico (or muslin in US speak!) to use for my fabric collages, some Stef Francis fine silk threads, some buttons and charms and only one book (by the Australian quilter Gloria Loughman). It looks lovely and I really bought it for the beautiful pictures of her quilts.

I haven't actually done any sewing today but finished my cards for the Vintage Nude Swap I'm hosting on www.atcards.com last night when I did the beading around the edges. I don't really know why but I've become increasingly fascinated by these images which all date around the early part of the 20th Century, 1900 - 1920. I've discovered a lovely website www.tallulahs.com where you can buy collage sheets and CDs or download images. This website also tells you a lot about the background of these images. Most of them were actually taken by only one photographer Jean Agelou and by one of those lovely coincidences which made life worthwhile, a new book about him and his work has just been published in France which of course I promply popped in my basket at the French Amazon site!

I think it is my love for beauty in all its many varieties, which make me appreciate these photographs so much. The women are always pretty (and French!) and the photographs are very artlike, looking at them from the distance of so many years. The swap promises to be a huge success as 42 people signed up already with still 3 more days to go for more sign-ups. I've ordered 2 CDs at www.tallulahs.com already and I have the feeling I will probably end up with all the CDs they have available.

Maybe it's just as well I did not go mad buying today, looking back I've already been quite a spendthrift in recent days!!!!!!!!! It's funny how soon you forget that you clicked that mouse!

All the images I used on the swap cards are from www.divasdeste.com and are available in paper, transparency or fabric from their site. There are not that many sites which do the collage sheets in fabric and their fabric is a superb quality! Artchix has stopped their fabric sheets but you can use their collage sheets to print the image on fabric yourself.

Finally I made a nude card, just for myself to keep as a part of the collaged background I used had a naughtly looking Eros in the background and it just made me put it together and add the text She seemed a thousand times more beautiful. As usually I've used a vintage book (The Broad Highway) for all the text on these cards. This book published in 1920 is a sort of Gothic romance, featuring Highway Men, a beautiful damsel in distress, an handsome hero and many adventures and a rocky path to love. It's quite racy (for its day!) and wherever I open it it always comes up with the most amazing and appropriate texts for all occasions.

More Vintage Nudes!

After making the LAC Nude card I was in the right mood to make some more, this time for a swap on the ATCartistsUK Yahoo Group. I don't know what it is but there do seem to be a lot of vintage nude swaps going on at the moment. Not that I'm complaining. I'm only too glad to be able to use some of my lovely images without offending anyone and John loves to have a look at these ones too!

All the images on these 3 are from www.divasdeste.com (see suppliers link) and are fabric on a fabric collage background.

The text on the Nobly Shaped and I always loved your Shoulders ATC comes from a Victorian romantic novel, called The Broad Highway, published in 1910. It seems wherever I open this book there always seems to be an appropriate quote. I work both ways, sometimes I find a text and then start looking for an image to go with this but mostly it works the other way around: I lay out the entire card and then go hunting for THE quote. Problem is, I can't help indulging myself and having a quick read of this extremely over the top book featuring highway men, a very feisty heroine and of course the decent narrator who gets the girl in the end!!

Defiant LAC art

I had some more fun playing with my Lost Art Creations collage sheets. I'm very keen on vintage nude images and this one really attracted me because of the lushious hair so I searched for a long time in an old book till I found just the right words to go with it. Defiant seemed to fit her very well!

Image is from the Unadorned collage sheet and the border is from one of LACs vintage trim packs.

It was lovely making art while outside a storm raged with wind and rain lashing down. Unfortunately I had to walk the dogs resulting in 2 pairs of very wet trousers (me) and a very unhappy greyhound who has more sense than to enjoy this weather unlike her brother who doesn't even seem to notice it's raining at all!