Art Quiltie with a locket and key with hidden quotes

I am participating in an Art Quiltie swap on my fabric postcard group!!  I have really enjoyed creating these little works of art and this one was no exception!!
I started with the folded fabric points which I found in my fabric stash after I moved a few years ago. I do not recall exactly which project I was working on at the time of their creation but I have a little baggie of them.
I chose 8 of them - 4 blue, 4 red and then found a 4" x 4" precut floral square in a coordinating yellow which I used for the front of my quiltie.  I positioned the points around the edge and stitched them in place with a line of machine stitching very close to the outside edge.  I thought I was being very careful in laying them out but I see that they are all off a bit at the points which I did not notice until much later in the process.  I could not undo at that point so it is how it is. I cut a piece of batting and stitch it to the front by folding back the points and stitching as close to the first seam as I could.  On hindsight it might have been better to do that seam first but I did not have that vision before I started.  I hand lettered some quotes onto fusible fabric label tape and adhered them below the points.  I stitched one of  my fabric collage into the center, finished adding the quote in fabric label and stitched on a small locket and key charms.  Next, I chose a yellow tiny gingham fabric square (4.5") for the back of my quiltie.  I added fusible webbing to the edges, positioned my quiltie to the wrong side, folded the edges over the front and fused them in place.  That finished off the edges very neatly.  Wanting to add a bit of hand stitching I did blanket stitch all the way around using dark blue crochet thread.  Once finished I thought a few beads would be nice as well so I added yellow, red and blue beads (seed & longer ones) all the way around using light weight yellow crochet thread.  That finished it off nicely and gives it a handmade look!!  It is off to my partner as we speak!!  I hope my partner will find the quotes on the inside front below the petals!!  A bit of creative fun!!

Art Quiltie - make it a great day!

I created this quiltie for a swap on one of my groups for July!!  I am happy to have the chance to make a few more of these!!
I started with an experiment in free motion stitching that I made up a while back. I took small pieces of fabric and used small pieces of fusible webbing to tack them in place on my substrate fabric. I just kept laying on pieces overlapping until all the surface was covered.  I started free motion sewing and I found that the tension was off so the fabric wrinkled up a lot. I had set it aside as an unfortunate experiment and when I found it the other day it looked better than I remembered. So I decided to trim it up (4" x 4") and use it as the front of my little quiltie.  A while back I had my sister print off some sayings for me onto printable fusible fabric because it requires an inkjet printer which I no longer have.  I chose this little saying from the sheet and cut a strip of green fabric which coordinated with my front.  I trimmed out the saying, fused it to the strip and then stitched all the way around. Next, I stitched the strip to my front.  I went looking into my fabric embellishments and found this flower and leaf combo that worked well with it.  I stitched them into place with embroidery floss in the right colour and then added sequins and a seed bead to the middle of the flower.  To add a bit more texture I decided to embroider some flowers on the green strip as well.  I used seven french knots to create the flowers and added green leaves using several chain stitches.  I was happy with that!!  I used several scraps to create a little quilt for the back and stitched it to a layer of thick flannel using one line of stitching that spirialed from the outside edge to the inside.  I backed the two pieces and stitched all the way around the edge and then did blanket stitch all the way around with brown embroidery floss!!  Pretty happy with my little creation!!  Half way through my border stitching I remembered that I had wanted to try couching yarn into the edge when I did blanket stitch the next time.  Needless to say that will have to wait until next time!!!

Therese

Art Quiltie with stamped fabric

On my Fabric Postcard group we are having an art quiltie swap.  There was one in June and I missed it!!!!!  Fortunately, I am blessed to have a member of the group that volunteered to swap one for one with me so I made her this cute little quiltie!!
I started with a square of stamped fabric which I received in a swap a while back.  I love the quote so I cut the fabric piece down to 4" x 4" for the front of my quiltie.  I found and installed my free motion foot for my sewing machine.  It was not working properly so I found a YOUTube video that gave me a visual of the process and a few hints on how to best proceed with free motion stitiching.  Once reinstalled and the adjustments made it was working much better.  I layered my square over a piece of batting and started stitching.  You can see from the photo that my free motion skills are only in the beginner stages but I did manage to go around the petals on the flowers that were stamped on the fabric.  I will keep practicing!!

Next I stitched my backing fabric (4"x 4") to a scrap piece of fabric and used the same technique to embellish the swirls on it.  Next, I found some coordinating pink embroidery floss and added double sequins (iridescent white and fuchsia) to the center of the flowers and secured them in place using a ivory seed bead.  I added three more stitched flowers in the same floss and added fuchsia sequins and ivory beads to their centers. as well.  Then, I laid my front on my back and trimmed them to the same size and added a few more loops of free motion stitching to secure these two piece together.  With that much complete, I changed my foot back to the one for regular stitching and zigzagged all the way around very close to the edge to create a nice neat edge.

I have been playing with the idea of making fabric tape using fusible webbing for a while.   So, today, I decided to play and made some fabric tape to bind the edges of my quiltie.
I positioned a strip of fusible webbing (sold to fix a hem without sewing) on the edge of a coordinating solid, enclosed it in resist paper and ironed it.  The fusible webbing very nicely adhered to the edge of the fabric.  I trimmed away the piece with fusible webbing on it and I had created a length of fabric tape!  I cut a four inch length and positioned it neatly on one side of my quiltie with half the tape on the quiltie and the other half hanging off.

I place resist paper over and above and ironed it in place.  It fused very nicely to the front portion of my quiltie. Next, I turned the quiltie over and ironed the remainder to the back which very neatly bound that side of the quiltie. I cut another 4" strip and positioned it on the opposite side and repeated the steps to bind that edge.
To finish it off, I cut another two strips but made sure they were long enough to cover the strips I had already put in place, trimmed the corners into a point so that the corners would look mitered and adhered them in the same fashion as I had done the other two sides.

You can see how the binding looked in position before I ironed down the final edge to the back of my quiltie.  It worked very well and created some very nice corners on my little quiltie.   I decided to add a row of straight stitching very close to the inside edge and the outside edge of my binding to help secure it and to give the binding some texture and definition!! I am very happy with how well this technique worked and will certainly be using it again when I am making quilties!!
So my quiltie is ready to go and will be off to my partner this week!!

Therese

Fall Fabric postcard

Have been working on this postcard for the last few days.  I started with strip piecing three rectangles - a blue one, a green one and a brown one - using fabric scraps.  It is a new technique to me though it is not complicated and worked well for this project.  I trimmed the top edge of the blue one nice and straight and overlaid the green one which I had trimmed with some gentle curves to simulate a treed horizon line.  I machine stitched the green one to the blue one using a zig zag stitch and green thread.  I then trimmed the edge of the brown one, overlaid it onto the green one and stitched in into place using zig zag then trimmed the whole thing to 4" x 6".  On hindsight, the background seems quite busy.  It might have been better to use plains, fabrics with less colour contrast or smaller designs though the brown one works the best.  I added an interfacing backer and stitched lines in each layer in the coordinating colour of thread to stiffen up my creation.  Next, I cut my trees - three circles in different sizes and some brown triangles for trunks.  Again, my trunks are too close in colour to the bottom layer and do not give quite enough contrast.  Lesson learned.  I positioned my trunks first and stitched them into place then positioned the circles and stitched them into place.  I really like how they turned out.  I wanted a simple embellishment so went looking through my sequins to see what I could find.  I found these white iridescent leaves that were pretty close to the right size so I simply modified their colour using Sharpie markers.  Really like how well that worked out.  I positioned them on the trees and the ground then hand stitched them into place.  I cut a white backer that was just a bit larger than my postcard and fused it to the back of my postcard using a light weight fusible webbing.  I folded the edges over to the front and found that the white was much to bright so I watercoloured the edges in autumnal colours, ironed it dry and then pressed the edges over to the front.  That was much better.  I hand stitched the edge using various colours of embroidery floss and a button hole stitch.  Love the way that turned out!!!  Added the postcard details to the back using a fine tip black Sharpie and my postcard is ready to go to my partner at the end of the month.  

Therese

Mixed Media fabric wall hanging with a quote

I have finally finished my wall hanging.  It has taken longer than I expected but there were several times in the creative process that I had to wait for inspiration to come.  That is as it should be!!
I started by sewing blue, pink and patterned fabric scraps together to create a panel in a bit of a log cabin style layout.  Next, I played with a variety of elements to see how and what I would use to create my piece.  I eventually decided to add my quote to a non running fabric (Windex wipes) using a fine tip Sharpie.  I printed rhw quote onto paper and was able to see it well enough thriough the fabric to trace it.  I trimmed the edges of the fabric, stitched it to my panel and then used the overcast stitch with black embroidery thread to secure a larger fiber over the machine stitching.  Two squares seemed quite jarring - they were pretty much too light for the rest of the piece so I watercoloured them in blue, masked them off and added stippling in navy ink.  That toned them down considerably.  I started auditioning trims and eventually chose the two pieces of cotton eyelet lace and the pink fabric trim.  The pink was not quite the right colour so I added a red acrylic paint colour wash.  That was better.  I sewed on all the trim using white thread in my sewing machine.  To add yet more texture I added some white hand stitching over the pink trim adding pink and white glass seed beads as I went.  That worked out very well.  Knowing that I wanted to add some floral elements I auditioned some silk flowers and really liked these blue ones.  I added blue flower sequins to their centers, some silk leaves in behind and added a tiny yellow seed bead to the center as I stitched them into 3D embellishments.  Next I played with placement of my flowers until I was happy with the layout.  Two of the smaller ones were used to disguise the two squares that had been toned down as they still contrasted too much with the rest of the piece.  That worked out well.  Before sewing on my flowers I played around with how I would finish off the edges of my hanging.  I finally decided to lay the front face down on the back and stitched around the edge leaving a gap to turn the whole thing inside out.  I did remember to add two white bias tape loop hangers to the top before I stitched it up. Very happy with how that worked out!!  I stitched up the gap, pressed everything very well and added a row of machine stitching all the way around the edge which stabilized it very nicely.  As I was getting ready to add my flowers I decided that the quote needed to have some flowers on it.  I dug through my stamps and found this doubled ended flower stamp (SU).  I coloured the areas with markers, huffed on it and stamped them in place - one on the left and the other on the right.  To add texture, I added french knots to the flower centers.  Very happy with that!! Next, I thought maybe the back and the front needed to be attached more closely than only on the edges so I added hand stitching (not all the way through) to all the pieces generally adding thread in the same colour as the fabric was printed so that the only effect I created was texture on the fabric.  I added pink french knots to the little roses on the fabric on the left hand side.  I like the way that turned out!  Finally it was time to sew on my flowers!!  I stitched them on by hand using yellow embroidery thread.  The result did not please me as much as I had hoped it would.  It still needed a bit of something!!!  I auditioned a wide variety of options and finally settled on leafy green cardstock die cuts.  I watercoloured them with yet more green, dried them and moved them around my flower until I was happy with the layout.  I took a photo with my camera to use as reference before I stitched them around my flowers.  That was much better!!!
Here is a photo of the first one I made where I used much more of a collage technique.

Here is the back of my wall hanging.  It features hand painted fabric which I made myself.  I started with a piece of white cotton to which I applied several colour washes of acrylic paint in pink and blue. Once dry,  I added a layer of batting which I stitched into place using blue thread in a diagonal grid pattern.  I added white dots to each space using acrylic paint and a little round foamie dot.  I added four blue loops at every other intersection and pink french knots in between.  I had made it large enough so I could  just fold over the edge and stitch it in place had I decided to finish it off that way.
 I am happy with my wall hanging!!!!  I will be writing my credits on white cotton, stitching it to the back then packaging it up and it will be off to my swap partner on Monday!!

Therese

A bright Art Quiltie for June

For my June art quiltie exchange I decided I would try a quilting technique that I have heard my Mom and sisters discuss - the faux Cathedral window.  I did a bit of searching on line to see how it was done and then headed to my craft room. I found this bright and linear print in my stash of 4"x 4"squares and thought it would be very appropriate for this technique.  I chose a solid yellow for my backer and after a bit of designing in Corel Draw I established that I needed a 5.75" circle to encompass the 4" square.  I checked the plates and bowls in the kitchen until I found one that was the right size and traced around it in pencil and cut it out the circle by hand.  Next, I added a piece of batting to my square, pinned to the middle of my yellow circle and stitched all the black lines in the design using black thread for the top and yellow in the bobbin.  I like that it made the design a bit puffy!!  Next, I folded what was left of the circle on the four sides over the square and pressed them down.  I stitched all the way around the edge and then stitched the rounded pieces into place over the square.  Thinking it needed a "bit of something" I decided to doodle inside the space I had created with the stitching using a permanent fine tip Sharpie marker.  That looked better!!  Wanting to add a bit of beading to my quiltie I decided to add black seed beads to each space I had doodled. That looked better!!  The inner section needed a bit of a focal point so I added three black sequins stitched on with black thread and black seed beads.  That was much better!!  Finished!!  It will be off to my partner later this week.

Therese

Art Quiltie - felt flowers and a little butterfly charm

Another month and therefore another Art Quiltie exchange!!  I am loving making these and have been getting back some really great quilties!!
I started with some floral fabric paper I made a while back.  I die cut two leaves (TH) from green cotton fabric, a flower (TH) from red felt and a center (SX) from yellow felt.  I watercoloured the leaves so they would coordinate more closely with my paper, dried them and then stitched them to my 4"  x 4" piece of fabric paper using green thread in my sewing machine.  I positioned my red flower over the leaves and stitched it into place using red thread.  I added the yellow center, stitched it into place with yellow and added some french knots by hand using yellow embroidery thread.  I cut a piece of yellow fabric for the back and stitched it to my batting using straight lines in a plaid design and then stitched the front and back together using a wide zig zag stitch using yellow thread.  It was my first time trying this on art quilties and I expect I could have had my stitches just a bit tighter but I am happy with how it looks.  On final examination I thought it needed a bit of a 3D embellishment so I stitched on a small butterfly charm!!

Therese

Art Quiltie - a butterfly for April

Just finished my butterfly art quiltie for our April swap!!
 


I started with a white on white piece of cotton (4" x 4") and added two layers of die cut fabric.  I cut the main butterfly (SX) from some bright fabric backed with heat & bond and the outline from white iron on muslin. The muslin was very bright in contrast to the fabric so I used watercolours (SU) to dye it  - blue, purple and pink.  I used a black sharpie to colour the body.  After removing the release paper from the back of the large butterfly I ironed it to the white fabric and then positioned the lacy wings and the body over it and ironed them into place.  Love how it worked out!! Next I added batting and layered both of them over a larger turquoise square of cotton.  I double folded the edge of the turquoise over the white and stitched it with a running stitch all the way around with white embroidery floss.  I outlined the butterfly with purple floss and added antenna with black floss.  To add texture to the white background I used scattered running stitches in white floss and added a few pearly seed beads as I went.  Finally, I added two turquoise sequins held in place using pearly seed beads.  Love the feel of the textured areas!!

Therese

Green Art quiltie for March

Time for another quiltie!!  This one is for March and the theme was open so I decided to include some green as a nod to St. Patrick's Day!!
I started by sewing three strips of fabric together - a floral and a green linen with a white one in between. I trimmed this element down to 4.5" square with my rotary cutter and quilting ruler.  For the back, I cut another green patterned fabric to the same size and used my sewing machine to stitch the batting to it following the lines of the patterns.  I stamped "BE CREATIVE" on the white strip using green permanent ink and a small alphabet stamp set.  I then placed the back and the top facing each other and stitched around the edge leaving a gap which I used to turn it inside out.  Having sewn the batting to the back really helped to keep it in place during this process.  I pressed it  my quiltie flat and stitched closed the gap.  I started my hand stitching on the front by adding pink french knots to the round petaled flowers, then I added yellow french knots to the center of the pointy flowers and used a pencil eraser with blue ink to colour the swirly flowers.  I used a running stitch to highlight both edges of the white strip and added a blue stitched flower.  I made a row of green briar stitching on the lower strip added pink seed bead flowers with yellow centers.
One of the other girls in the swap has used her ink jet printer to print words on white fabric which I would dearly love to do but unfortunately I do not have an inkjet printer so I am researching other ways of getting laser printed text onto fabric.  In the meantime, stamping is working out very well.
This little quiltie will be on its way to my partner in the next couple of days!!

Therese

Heart Art Quiltie for February

I am hosting another Art Quilitie mingle!! The theme for February is Heart - you just need to include a heart in your design any way you wish - fabric, stitching or embellishment.
I started by cutting a 5"x 5" piece of white on white quilting fabric and stamping words on it with my magnetic Making Memories alphabet stamps in "Soft Stone" Memories ink.  The words are the qualities of love - kind, patient, polite, joyous, calm, forgiving, etc. After that I stamped a beautiful LOVE (QF) in red after making a heart outline in pencil to ensure good placement.  I stitched pearl seed beads all along the heart outline, added a 4" batting to the back and sewed on all of my white and pearl buttons starting

with the one at the bottom and adding as I went.  When I got to the middle I added the little red heart button and kept going.   Once, I was finished, I added a five inch square of red fabric over the front, stitched around the edge with my sewing machine leaving a gap to allow me to turn it inside out.  Once it was right side out, I stitched up the gap and added blanket stitch all the way around the edge using white embroidery floss. Traditionally, the line of the blanket stitch is left on the outside edge, instead I stitched mine leaving the line about a quarter inch inside the outside edge giving it a different look.
I love the way it turned out!!  I added my credits to the back using iron on fabric labeling tape, hand lettered a quote with a fine tip sharpie and embellished the whote back area with white french knots.
It will be on its way to my partner by the end of the week.  You can check out the other art quilties I have made  - October, November and January.  I am hoping to continue to get participation so we will all have a good number of pages to sew up into a project.

Therese

Art Quiltie for January

I am hosting another art quiltie swap for January!!  You can check out these links for November & December.   I have always loved the look of crazy quilts because of their randomness and their beautiful embroidery so I decided to go for it and made my January quiltie using that technique. I started with my back (on the right) so I could practice and start again if it didn't work out.

I started with a small dark piece and sewed a light one to it.  Pressed them open and trimmed evenly the edge perpendicular to the seam and sewed another piece on that side.  Repeated until I had a piece large enough to trim to 5" x 5". I was pretty happy with it so I chose the fabrics for my front and repeated the same procedure to create another crazy quilted square for the front of my art quiltie. I decided to machine stitch the outside edge so I put them right sides together and stitched almost all the way around leaving one side open so I could turn it over.  Once I had my right sides out, I cut a 4" x 4" of batting, inserted it between the two layers and hand stitched the opening.  Once it was pressed, I ran a line of stitching all the way around to properly anchor the batting to both sides.
Then, I started hand stitching.  I had to download some stitching patterns off the internet to expand my repertoire of options for embroidery stitches.  Once again, I started with the back, stitching in a variety of colourful embroidery floss over all the seams and in some cases adding beads as I went.  I added a few flower sequins as well in a couple of the areas.  It was fun to try new stitches and some didn't turn out quite like I thought they would but still looked good so I left them in place.  Once I had finished the back, I started on the front.  Again, I added stitching to all the seams and a variety of other stitching in the open areas. I added beads here and there as well!!  I wanted to add at least one 3D embellishment so I went digging into my stash to see what I could find that would work. Quite happy with this little metal tag with "dream big.." on it.  I stitched it on with embroidery floss.  I am very happy with how it turned out though having added beads to both sides meant it required additional postage to get to my swap partner.  No problem, it is still a reasonable cost for participating in international swaps. I added my credits using "iron on fabric label" by simply writing on the fabric label with a fine tip Sharpie and sponging on a bit of ink to tone it down before I ironed it onto the back of my quiltie.  Details of the swap I added to a tag which I pinned on.

Therese

Christmas Art Quiltie

I am hosting a Winter/Christmas themed Art Quiltie Swap in November on By Hand and finished my quiltie last night!! I received some fabric scraps from my daughter a while back and found some wonderful Christmas fabrics among them.  One of them is an all over pattern of this nativity scene.  I love that it is bright and includes the animals, stable and the star.  Unfortunately, because we are doing 4"x4" I had to sacrifice the star so I could keep the manger scene. To keep as much of the image as possible I also chose to construct the quiltie with my sewing machine.  I used an off white fabric with gold stars for the back and sandwiched some batting in between.  After turning it over I sewed a seam close to the edge to give the quiltie some definition.  I added seed beads to the stars on the back and added french knots in yellow in between to create a beautiful starry sky and stamped NOEL(Quietfire) in red which makes it really stand out near the bottom edge.
I started outlining the details on the front in running stitch with embroidery thread.  It gives the individual elements more definition and creates some texture.  I wanted to add a 3D element but was reticent to cover up too much of the image.  After auditioning a wide variety of options from my stash I decided to create a little shrink plastic charm that I could sew on.  I stamped JOY (Quietfire) in red on an oval of rough and ready shrink plastic, punched a couple of holes on either sides and heated it until flat.  I love the way it turned out though I should have used a larger punch for my holes because I ended up having to drill them out to a larger size so I could get my needle through them.  I sewed my little charm on the lower right hand side just by the sheep.  I created a little shrink plastic charm with my swap info as well and sewed it on the back over my starry night.
I am very happy with my little quiltie!!  It will be packaged and sent off to my partner in the next day or so.

Therese