Birthday card featuring a collaged background, fabric lace and ribbon and a long row of watercoloured candles

 Another card for July birthdays!!  I started with a large coral rose card and created a collaged strips background that coordinated.  The strips were gleaned from my little stash of decorative papers which were sitting on my desk from a previous cardmaking session.  I tore the paper into strips and adhered them side by side on a piece of 5.5" x 8.5" of scrap bond.  Once it was dry, I trimmed it to size.  To give some soft texture I handstitched two lengths of off white lace to each other on their straight edges and adhered them to my background securing the ends on the back using double sided tape then added a shimmery ribbon across the stitching also securing the ends to the back with double sided. tape.  I had chosen this length of stamped candles as my focal point so I watercoloured them to coordinate and finished off the flames with some clear glitter.  I added a row of paper piercing on the top and bottom of this layer and then adhered it to my card using double sided tape and glue.  I did tuck the little font greeting (laser printed) in before pressing the card.  It has a row of paper piercing too.    Therese

Thread holder using a pegboard

I have repurposed a pegboard that I used for my craft sale set up into a thread holder.  I ordered 6" peg board hooks from online - they are twice the price locally - and was able to put up all of my large spools.  There is evern room for more than one on a peg in some cases when the spools are different sizes and also room for bobbins on the end so they can live together.  I have not yet decided to add the regular and small spools as it would be more difficult to see the colours of them.  I have them in trays in drawers now and it is really easy to find the colour I am looking for when I have a project I am working on.  Brian was able to make the modifications required and attach it to the wall just above my sewing desk.  As you can see there are several other items that have found their way to the bottom hooks which were scavenged from my craft sale display box.   Therese 

My "tree" quilt is finally finished

I have finally finished the hand stitching of the leaves on this quilt top (51" x 39.5").  I like how it came out but stitching in the middle of the quilt was harder than I had expected due to the weight of the fbric and backing.  I pinned the leaves in place one at at time and used green embrodery thread and running stitch to secure them to the quilt next to the "trees".  I placed the next one over it once I had finished the first one and repeated 18 more times.  I really like how the quilt feels so now I have to find a backing to sandwich my polyester batting into the quilt. 

I found a dark green cotton polyester piece that was the right size for the back and there was enough from the other scraps to make a binding in the same colour.  Perfect!!  I added some vertical stitched lines using an off white thread on the front and dark green on the back once I got the backing pinned into place.  After that I stitched on some outline leaves with the same thread placing them next to the lines on the front to simulate a forest in the background.  I had one leftover leaf and so I traced it with a pencil where I thought leaves would look appropriate then roughly followed the line to create the outline leaves.  I really like how that looks.  I cut 3" strips for my binding and stitched them together.  I decided to use a wavy decorative stitch to stitch it into place because I usually miss the back portion when I use a straight line and have to go back and finish all those places by hand.  I had folded the edges of the 3" strip into the center and then in half so I would be assured that as long as I caught the back with stitching it would be secure.  I am pretty happy with how it worked out.  The wavy line does not distract from the quilt and it certainly ensured that I did not have to do any handwork once I was done.  I washed the quilt after I finished it to wash out the pencil lines and to see that it all held together.  The hand stitched leaves are now a little fuzzy but that is fine.  All good!!!!!  I have a special purpose for this quilt which I will share later.    I have several possibilities for the next quilt - will have to see which one calls to me.  I have also started on another hand stitching project which features stitching decorative fabric elements to solid coloured 6" squares.  I will blog those once I have started the first one.     Therese