I’m sure you’re all feeling Christmas just rushing toward you – where on earth has the year gone? For me it’s time to think of Christmas gifts so I can get them in mail and send them home to Australia and I’ve been making some journals because they make lovely gifts and never go out of style.
I like to use fabric paper for my journal covers because it always has lovely texture and color and makes a strong usable cover, and this month we’ve been making fabric paper over at the Free Lunch Cafe so I used a piece of the fabric paper I made as a sample for this class. The fabric paper itself is kind of ordinary but is a great piece to demonstrate just how you can make something beautiful and extraordinary out of something fairly plain and ordinary.
Please enjoy this short video on the making of “The Fairy Tale Journal”.
Well the answer to that would be … well of course! A few weekends ago I got busy with the sewing machine and whipped up a cute new purse, just big enough to fit the necessities, as well as a great big tote to cart around some quilts.
The purse is a super quick modular pattern I designed some time ago that goes together really quickly and I’ve made a number of these purses over the years in different colors with different inset panels and closures. This one is made using a lovely batik fabric in shades of blue and black; casual and smart.
Transient art such as that created by environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy, and even the beautiful and mysterious sand mandalas made by the Tibetan Lamas of Drepung Loseling Monastery is often quite controversial and certainly leave us feeling awed, mostly by the concept that art can be impermanent.
Recently I discovered another type of transient art, animated sand art.
This video is of Kseniya Simonova, a Ukrainian artist who recently won Ukraine’s version of “America’s Got Talent.” She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and “sand painting” skills to interpret Germany’s invasion and occupation of the Ukraine during WWII. Simply stunning.
If you haven’t visited the Free Lunch Cafe recently then take a few minutes to check out the terrific samples and projects being submitted by students from the Fabric Paper class that’s currently underway. The photo gallery below shows you the hundreds of photos of the “homework” that has been submitted so far. You can also see the photos in the photo gallery on the main page of the Free Lunch Cafe, or you can browse through the dedicated fabric paper photo gallery.
Please excuse my mess as I do a little housecleaning on the blog.
If you’ve visited here within the last couple of days you’ll notice that I have a brand new home page and a brand new main menu system which I hope will make it easier for you find stuff because … I’ve just relocated all the old posts at Inspire! and included them here at the Creative Textile & Quilting Arts blog.
This means that there are now hundreds of new posts containing a huge range of information from tutorials to free stuff to beautiful images for inspiration … all in one place for your convenience.
It also means that there are a few broken links so please bear with me as I clean house and fix it all up for you.
In the meantime please use the new menu system located on the top green panel of this page, and begin your explorations. Have fun!
I posted the other day about this little art quilt and after living with it for only a day, I decided it needed some changes.
First of all I chopped off an inch on the bottom and rearranged things to give it a little better balance. Then I added a traditional binding rather than the wrap-around binding. And finally found the perfect embellishment. I’m liking it a lot better now.
Yes, I’m still playing with Digital Grounds – it really is too much fun because the printing results are soooo good, particularly when printing on organza.
This is a little art quilt I just finished using some of Laura Murray’s beautiful overdyed kimono silks. I save every scrap and use them up one way or another; I simply can’t bear to throw even the smallest piece away. I like the simplicity of the quilt but I think I might add a little embellishment; maybe some beads.
I love playing with the flower stitch foot. If you’ve never used this foot, I can guarantee it is way too much fun. But did you know that you can use this foot with water soluble stabilizer to create all sorts of decorative effects?
The Flower Stitch Foot is only available for machines with a low shank and as you can see from the photo, the foot is bulky so attachments that are already fitted to your machine such as an inbuilt even feed foot, may cause problems when trying to attach the foot.
Although traditionally used for creating small circles on fabric for decorative use, the Flower Stitch Foot can also be used with water soluble stabilizer to create great fringes and dangly things.
In between the upcoming barrage of photos and techniques I’ll be posting soon as I continue with my Digital Grounds experiments, I thought I’d share some of the fun new blogs I’ve been introduced to by some of my lovely students at the Free Lunch Cafe.
Today I’ll start with Priscilla Kibbee who has got just one of the most fascinating blogs I’ve come across. Priscilla shares lots of beautiful photos and details of her textiles, travels and friends, as well as her wry humor.
Some time ago I made this piece of embroidered fabric paper and just haven’t had a chance up till now to do anything with it. So this weekend I took a little downtime, added some more free motion stitching to the surface of the fabric paper …
and then cut it up to make this beautiful little treasure chest.
I'm Linda Matthews and welcome to the "Creative Textile & Quilting Arts" website where you'll find my online and downloadable classes, as well as my instructions dvds. Also make sure you visit my website and current blog at www.Linda-Matthews.com. More ...
I love playing with the flower stitch foot. If you’ve never used this foot, I can guarantee it is way too much fun. But did you know that you can use this foot with water soluble stabilizer to create all sorts of decorative effects?
