Five Shadows

The theme for this bag is ‘travel.’ Mary included photos  and tickets printed on fabric of trips she has taken since childhood. I picked the photo of the cruise ship and had fun layering it with  fabrics and ribbon. I used fusible web and did some free motion stitching to hold the piece together. I outlined the ship with a Pigma pen and also did some stitching in a dark grey thread to add detail. This is what the piece looks like before adding it to the canvas bag. I have a tag that says ‘enjoy the journey’ that I hope to fit into the piece. It might have to be sewn on to another place on the bag as it is getting crowded!

Since my last Altered Bag post I have received 2 bags to work on! The theme of this bag is “herbs.” I had purchased fabric with floral prints of sage, basil, thyme, etc. But the gal who worked on the bag before me used a companion print to it! So I dreamed up something else to add to the bag. While digging for fusible web, I found several pieces of flower pounding I made three or four years ago. Light bulb moment! I searched the web for herb quotes and found this one:

“What is Paradise? But a Garden, an Orchard of  Trees and Herbs, full of pleasures, and nothing there but delights.”  Wm. Lawson, 1618

I wrote the quote on the flower pounding fabric, added a frog in the corner with a yoyo and leaves. I think this fits the ticket! (The buttons were added by another participant.)

Two Creative Studios are offering a summer giveaway over at their website. Go check them out and sign up for their newsletter! They have a list of great class offerings that one sweet day I hope to sign up for! But alas, money will not allow such a thing right now. But I enjoy their blogs and newsletter and the inspiration I glean. Sue has a photo up on her blog of what they are giving away and also two journal covers she is making out of foil and ink. Here is a link to Terri’s blog. She has been doing some amazing fabric dying lately.

Another giveaway happening is over at Leah’s Art Girl blog. She hosts a Scrap Saturday Giveaway and has a huge one running this month with a link to Art Now for Autism. Check out Leah’s post and see if perhaps you would like to donate to this worthy cause. The Art Now for Autism is a reverse auction with proceeds going toward autism awareness and research. Go check it out! If not creating art to donate, you could buy an item to help support autism research.

PS  I wanted to add that there is a great company here in my hometown that runs an online store and store front creating items to help those with Autism. Go check out Sensory Critters!

This little quiltie will be added to a butterfly theme canvas bag as a pocket. I used Lumiere paint by Jacquard in turquoise and plum. This is for a friend who loves purples and all things glitter. So I decided to try the Lumiere paint as a base, then stenciled the butterfly and leaves, coloring them in with fabric markers. I added a turquoise selvage edge, several ribbons and a button. In the upper left corner, can you read the word ‘charmed’ on the selvage? That word suits my friend!

This Altered Canvas bag swap should be winding down about now – bags are due back to their owners in September. But I have not seen the 11 bags I’m to work on! Looking over my past posts, I think I have only received and worked on 8 bags! Yikes! I wonder who is holding them up? I have three more bags to work on….