Quilting - aprons and coordinating potholders for the Gramma Link Africa fundraiser

I worked on these two aprons with coordinating potholders today!!  I've had the fabric for a while and since have found some navy fabric to coordinate with it so I could make the potholders.  

The aprons are adjustable with a long tie that goes through casings in the armholes which forms a loop that goes over your head and then ties around your waist.  I found the pattern and instructions on Instructables. This site is great and has a LOT of tutorials on a WIDE variety of subjects - cooking, outside projects, crafting, etc!! There is a search feature so go and check them out!!!  

The potholders were made with some of the same Budweiser fabric and scraps of navy blue and red.  I used the same GAYG technique that I have been using for some time.  Check it out here on You Tube.  So a few more projects ready to for the sale in June.  It was a very good day of sewing and I am happy to be finished these two.  I have enough scraps to make a few more potholders so I will cut those out this week and maybe get them stitched up next week.   Nice to have small projects in the wings when you have a bit of time to sew!!!  Therese

 

Slow Stitching - little fabric embellishments for handmade cards - stitching and Inktense watercolour

I have been working on some fabric embellishments for adding to my handmade cards over the last few weeks.  I made this flower one a while back.  I found ivory squares in my stash of precuts and have been working on finding elements I can stitch to or on them so they can be featured on my cards.  I have cut a few shapes and the little bird above is one of them.  It is pretty much a half a circle but once it is stitched in place and a beak, tail feathers, legs and a heart wing have been added it looks very much like a little bird.  I have stitched all of these to horsehair interfacing that has been trimmed and then raveled a bit to add texture.  I have added a square of iron on interfacing on the back to keep them all square.  I stitched my elements onto the front of my coordinating card fronts so they can be removed by the recipient and included in a small project.  

The butterfly was stitched and then coloured with  Inktense watercolours.  

The two above were stitched with little cup shapes which I turned into some fun flowers with some stitching.  They were stitched to the interfacing with coordinating thread. 

The two above were traced from die cuts (CB - star   SX- flower) and were coloured with Inktense 

watercolours after they were stitched!!!  I am learning a bit more about how to control the

bleeding on these though the bleed through on these have not been detrimental to the designs. 

I am happy with how these turned out and I have a few more in the works so will have something

to stitch when I go to Knit and Stitch at the library tomorrow.  

I am joining Kathy at Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching.  There is always some

great projects for inspiration in this group of stitchers!!  Check them out!!!  

I have also finished off my cats though I did come up with a much faster way of getting 

them done because it was becoming a challenge to stitch any more of these.

You can check them out here. 

I showed you the hand stitching on my jean journal covers a few weeks ago. 

You can check out the fronts here.  

Therese

 

All occasion cards with woven strips layered over a decorative paper background and heart and butterfly embellishments

 I continued the theme of  layering woven paper strips over decorative papers for these cards I made for my exchange partners!!  For the orange card I pieced the decorative paper by flanking the middle section with two strips of a different paper.  I dug scraps from my stash and wove them with distance in between so the background paper would show nicely.  I really like how well that worked out.  I used a die cut heart collage (Calico Collage) element and layered it onto a brown circle die cut (Nestibilities) and then onto a dark red scalloped circle (Nestibilities).  I paper pierced each scallop and then mounted this focal element to my card with 3D foam tape after I added my layered background to my large ivory card.  

The blue card followed the same path - large decorative background, woven strips layered over it and glued to a large green card.  I found the stamped butterfly image in my stash (SU).  I layered it onto a light blue, used a border punch on the bottom edge and then added a red fiber onto which I looped a short piece.  I layered this onto a dark blue rectangle of cardstock.  I mounted this focal element to my card using 3D foam tape.   These are off to my partners in the exchange in the next few days!!  Therese