Unstitched a used quilt top for incorporating into other projects

I gained this quilt top last year at the sorting for Fabric Sale.  I washed it and put it away to create a quilt for Linus project.  Recently, I took a good look at it and found that there were many squares where the loose woven fabric had let go and created a gap in the quilt.  Several squares had holes in them as well.  When I considered what time and energy it would take to repair it was not worth the effort so I inside unstitched it.  I will use the squares as substrates for quilt as you go and to add padding for potholders.  It will not be wasted and will live again on the inside of new projects.  Therese

 

Slow Stitching - mushrooms embroidered and coloured with Inktense Watercolours and aloe vera gel

I have been working on these cute little mushroom embroideries for a while now.   I downloaded the pattern from The Art of Home by Jacquelynne Steves.  She has a lot of beautiful embroidery patterns and quite a few are free downloads.  Check them out!! I traced the pattern on two ivory cotton squares ( 7.5") using a Crayola Ultra Clean Washable marker in gray. I may have sized the image to suit the squares - don't remember for sure.  I worked the cap in red, the underneath in light beige, the stem in beige, the dots in variegated brown, the stems in green and the leaves in white.  After they were done I hand washed them with soap, rinsed them and dried them. The colour marker came completely out.  It has to be almost 6 months since I traced them so that is pretty good for these inexpensive markers.  I bought the set of 12 when they were on sale last year.  

After they were dry, I used my Derwent Inktense Watercolours to colour them in.  My sister gave me some aloe vera gel which works well with them and is less runny than water.  I found the gel a little thick so in a few places I used some water as well to get good coverage and I did have the red bleed some on the one on the right.  Once they were dry I ironed them to heat set the watercolour. I am glad I coloured them - it really makes a huge difference to how they look.  I should have taken a before photo.  Next time!!

Therese