Painting fabric

I bought some textile inks in spray bottles at the Textile Fair last year - the brand is Moon Glow. These iridescent inks are in powdered form and are mixed with hot water.                                             I bought several bottles, not knowing quite what I'd do with them. I bought 2 Starburst Sprays: Cathedral Pine Green and Red Hot Poker Orange.  When sprayed, they leave a starburst, as seen left and below.  I really liked these effect, especially as they dried very glittery.                                          Anotherer type I bought was Moon Shadow Mist: Moonlit Mulberry.  I was disappointed in this brown colour.

I also tried using the spray inks on a quilt top I had made from a birthday block swap.  I was bored with the quilt top and wanted to see if I could jazz it up.  Here is the quilt top before any colour went on.

You can see some of the starburst colour on a block below, but overall I wasn't fussed with the result.

Next I'm going to use some of my iridescent PaintStiks on the quilt top as well as the other fabric piece, to see if that will be more interesting.

The fabric and quilt top got caught in a heavy downpour and some of the colour came out.  Then the ultimate disgrace - one of my daughter's puppies decided that pulling the quilt top off the clothes line would be a fantastic game.  So now one border has got chew holes in it.......

Business card holder

I subscribe to the Quilting Daily email from   http://www.quiltingarts.com/ . One recent email had a link to a free downloadable ebook "Five small quilting projects".  
One of the projects is a business card holder which slides out your business cards when you pull on a ribbon or cord. The cord/ribbon loops under the business cards.

I've made one with some fab geometric fabric and put a few interesting beads and square sequins on it.  I also couched over blue glitter cord around the outside with brown thread.  Fun! 

I'm thinking of making a whole bunch of these to give away.  This business card holder is very easy to make.

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L is for...

You know how an idea can swirl around in your head for a long period... and then you can see part of it clearly... then it swirls around again while you need some more inspiration?

Several months ago, I read an article (in Quilting Arts, I think) about making fabric book pages with a Letter as the theme. I thought about using this idea to make something for my sister and brothers for Christmas. The ideas certainly didn't gel enough in time for Christmas, but an idea stuck in my head for my sister, Lee.

Lee is our family historian, who has done an enormous amount of genealogy research. The image that kept popping into my head was of a glittery letter L that had an old tree growing around it. (Possibly fueled by a wonderful photo we have at work of a Moreton Bay Fig tree growing around a park bench in New Farm Park, Brisbane.)

It got to the point where I had to sketch the design to get it out of my head. I used to draw a lot when I was a teenager and have not done a lot since. But it was wonderful to pull out a sketch pad and pencil and get the design to a more concrete state.

In my vision, a person is standing at the top of a cliff and can see into a distant valley. This symbolises looking into our past, particularly to the green rolling hills of Britain, where most of our family line is from. The old tree is in the foreground, with a large L firmly entwined.

And a poem also emerged... a bit basic, but emerge it did.

L is for leaf

L is for Lee

They both fill the branches

Of our family tree

And then the sketch sat on my cutting table. I pulled fabrics - a great sky fabric with clouds, several woodgrain fabrics, lots of greens, some earthy fabrics and a dark purple fabric for branches in deep shade.

Last week, I started putting it together - cutting the background freehand - it didn't really matter if the mountains were a bit different. The tree I traced onto tracing paper and then pinned to the woodgrain fabric, cutting loosely around. I cut chunks for the cabin.

The Letter L is a piece of yellow fabric with gold foiling. My first try of the foiling technique.

The leaves and grass are all free-motion embroidered with wonderful variegated thread.

The branches are also emphasised or darkened with free-motion embroidery. Highlights were added with white Inktense pencil.

The person is drawn on with permanent pen, but the river in the background is sewn.

I've also used Inktense pencils for some shadowing, particularly the mountains.

sudoku quilt

I've finished the bright floral sudoku quilt top.
Nine different fabrics in a sudoku format -
nine in each square and across and down.











This quilt will be reversible - bright florals one side; black & white the other.
Here is the mix of black & white prints in a test block: