Wednesday, August 25, 2010

GO Nicole!


My younger daughter lives a couple of thousand miles away from me, and her roommate is the best EVER! She is so kind, considerate, thoughtful, and generous with her time, her clever sewing fingers, and her CAR! So, for her birthday I made her a chisel quilt on the GO, using a variety of batiks. Happy Birthday, Nicole, which much gratitude!

Flowers to GO!


As you know, I'm in love with my AccuQuilt GO! As an experienced quilter and quilting teacher, I think it's a wonderfully essential new tool for beginning quilters, math challenged quilters, the "mature" quilter" who might be having vision and hand strength challenges, and everyone in between. Here's a new wall quilt I'm beginning to design using shapes cut on the GO, with machine applique'. The borders and quilting are yet to come, and you can expect to see a bit of embroidery, too. It's a bouquet of flowers - can you imagine the stems, tendrils, and a bow tying them together at the base?

Sunday, February 7, 2010

GO!


I've been having a lot of fun with my new AccuQuilt GO! It's like a Sizzix, but bigger, and made primarily for quilters to cut fabrics for quilts. The dies are made for both applique' and patchwork use, and sure save a lot of time and effort. First I cut some blocks with the dies that cut the shape and cut the fringe on the edges - perfect for raggedy flannel. I cut a large block to feature on one side, added two flannel pine trees, and then I assembled them to make this small tote.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Sizzix!


Having lots of fun with my Sizzix, I decided to make a fused art quilt - that's right, fused, with NO sewing. I wanted the project to be kid friendly, and ready to make for those with no sewing machines. I ironed a fusible web like Wonder Under or Heat n Bond to the back of my fabrics. Then I trimmed the fabrics to squares that would fit into the Sizzix machines. Next I just ran them through as you would paper. Nifty!

For the basket I fused the web to the back of the fabric and cut a "bowl" shape. I clipped it from the top edge toward the bottom to make rows of warp for my weaving, cutting almost to the edge but leaving a space so the pieces would stay together. With a second fabric I fused, and then cut strips for my weaving, over under on the first row, and under over on the next. Of course I had peeled the backing paper off after cutting. After weaving I trimmed up the edges and fused the basket to the background, following manufacturer's directions.
Then I removed the backing paper from my Sizzixed flowers and placed them on the background. Again following the manufacturer's directions for heat and timing I fused the flowers onto the quilt. Flower arranging was never so easy!
Finally I cut strips for my binding, from fabric with the fusible web ironed on the back. To cut I used a decorative blade on my rotary cutter. Then I folded the strips over the edges and ironed in place. Art Quilt, finished!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Friends!

Celebrate FRIENDS - and family. My girls are the best! Alison and Jenny helped me with the basics, putting paper and ink on this new chipboard album from Accent Scrapbooking. Then I got to play with the toys. I used a variety of stamps, Tim Holtz inks, a Big Shot Sizzix, K & Co. stickers, Stickles glitter, Ranger embossing powder, some old buttons and lots of yarn and ribbon. Now all it needs is the addition of some photos. My grandaughter, Jade, was the technical advisor.































































Monday, May 4, 2009

April in Boston, and then July!











Waiting for a new baby, my son and his family called on me for help! My daughter-in-law was put on bed rest, and when there's a three year old to care for that's a challenge. So I took an unexpected trip to the East coast, got to spend time with my family, a special birthday with my younger daughter and see gorgeous flowers. Oh yes, there was a lot of seafood and shopping, too. What fun!


When I saw this month's LOVE album from Accent Scrapbooking my thoughts immediately went to a theme of "Brotherly Love" and so I prepped this little book for pix of my two grandsons. Here's the first photo of the big bro and little bro, and the book-in-progress. Each page of this chipboard book has an acrylic top piece in the shape of the letter - look closely.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

March in Florida!






Thanks to a great home swap through http://www.homeexchange.com/ I spent March in Florida! Did you see the movie, The Holiday? Then you know what I'm talking about Take my word for it - coming from snowy mountains to the Treasure Coast is a real treat at this time of year. I was also lucky to find a great scrapbooking store in Lake Worth that had a couple of fun classes, and a very friendly and welcoming staff. Don't miss it if you visit that area! http://www.everythingscrapbook.com/

Using acrylic products and paper flowers from Accent Scrapbooking, I combined alcohol inks, embossing paste with a stencil, stamping and Stickles. Inside the heart I featured an embossed sheet of irridescent material, combined with Angelina fibers. Isn't it fun to learn new tricks?