Five Shadows

I’ve been quiet for a long time! No posting, but I have been enjoying everyone else’s blog! Thanks for all the inspiration & beauty I enjoy when visiting your blogs!

My time this Spring and Summer has in a large part, been consumed by helping my eldest daughter with preparations for her upcoming July 30th wedding. Janelle is a DIY-er and that means thrift store shopping and fabric shopping, and and and lots of running around town and out of town looking for just the right items! Plus she has found many things she wants on Etsy made by other DIY crafty gals. Some of which she bought and then further altered! (And she decided to open up her own Etsy account, which will be empty until after the wedding and honeymoon!)

Some photos for you:

Top photo of table setting at the shower. Bridesmaids set tables with gathered antique linens, luncheon plates and cups, antique cake stands and two or three tier dessert stands for the homemade food. Photo#2 Janelle and me. Photo#3 &4 bridal party.

I signed up for Julie Fei-Fan Balzer online class It’s Sew Easy. She is such a fun gal and I’m thoroughly enjoying her classes, watching her videos and hopping around looking at how the other students are interpreting the lessons. But, I’m way behind in doing the actual sewing. Here are my first little bits. I skipped the painting part and just grabbed some scrap booking papers.

This is a streamer made of punched out butterfly and scalloped circle shapes.

I used the streamer to decorate a baby gift for a friend. The gift is a baby blanket with an appliqued butterfly, purchased, not crafted by me. The butterflies decorating the outside coordinate with the blanket inside!

Next I made a gift tag using more butterflies and a little paper ribbon technique I saw on a blog. It took me a while to locate the source of the ribbon. It’s Every Life Has A Story! blog’s post: {Make It} Paper Bag Ribbon.

Gift with streamer and tag:

Julie does lots of painting on her papers, tags, fabrics before sewing. I do plan on experimenting, following her instructions, but for now, I’m happy with my scrap paper results. I hope Becky and baby Rachel will be pleased too!

Here are three of my most recent creations.  I have been a fan of Jan Patek for a long time! Here is one of her wallhanging made with Lilac Hill Moda Fabric.

And for all the dog lovers in the world – isn’t this a cute quilt?! Go Fetch! is the pattern using Basic Grey Moda Max and Whiskers fabric line.

And how about some Sherbet Pips? I love this retro fabric and snowball pattern! Sherbet Pips by Aneela Hoey for Moda. Hmmmm. I’m seeing a Moda theme here.

to have grandchildren visiting! I have not entered the wonderful world of grandmother-hood yet. But this past Tuesday I had the delight to have two little girls visiting while their mother ran a few errands. The first order of the day when these little ones visit is to play with  my cat. He soon scooted off to my studio and the “grand chase” was under way. Note that this is all normal behavior at our house! My cat loves to be chased and will keep the game going much longer than I care to play! The girls can stay interested in this activity about as long as the cat is willing to play! On this particular day, once in the studio, this little doll caught the eye of my 5 year old guest.

I took her down from her perch, and my little friend asked how she was made, which I explained, and then she asked if I’d teach her. For the next two hours, I kid you not! we three had fun rooting through my fabric, ribbons, bows, lace, beads, and other goodies and the girls each made their own doll, with just a bit of help from me (sewing) and my son (who bent the wire for us.)

We wrapped fabric strips around wire  bodies, sewed up dresses, and embellished them with all the goodies the girls selected for their new dollies.

Wrapping wire body with fabric strips:

The finished dolls:

(photo above missing one camera shy little girl, and not the best photo, but oh well)

For the rest of their visit, the sweetie pictured played with the three art dolls, her older sister moved on to a doll house. And I watched them play while reading my new Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. These two very creative girls come by it naturally as their momma, Lisa Ransom Smith,  is a Pastels Artist.

Chocolate Cheese Cake with a Brownie bottom and whipped cream topping. Yum! Made by little ol’ me for my daughter’s 19th birthday.

I read somewhere that some gals like to see projects in progress, not just a photo  of the completed project. That sounded like a good idea to me. I must admit, I do like seeing the progress on blogs myself, and at least some explanation of the process. That said, here is a photo of a few items I’ll be playing with this coming week. I’m thrilled to get to try out  Leaves Galore quilting rulers created by Sue Pelland Designs. I’ll be making up some models for Fabric and Friends Quilt Shoppe, Roanoke, IN. And I love the Mistyfuse stabilizer! Have you ever used it? You need to use a teflon sheet with the Mistyfuse – oops forgot to put that in the photo!

I’ll try to show an in progress photo next. I have many ideas using these rulers swirling around in my head for quilts and also for paper crafting.

A little girl just might love this bright and happy bug quilt. Dancing Bug Fabric, Me & My sister Designs – Easy as 7 pattern.

This is a Ricky Timms pattern and fabric, line is Oodles of Doodles. 3D Flying Geese. This was a fast and easy quilt using the one-seam method to make the geese.

Sidelights Pattern, Orientals. I think this pattern would work great in a fussy cut kids print.

A soft Shannon fabric quilt (like Minky fabric) sewn with the sew and flip method.

And Purses! This orange print with black cats is a friend’s favorite fabric. She loves it! I call it the scary cat fabric. The pattern is called “Multi Tasker Tote.”

This next purse uses the “Peace Bag” pattern. But I did not put the peace symbol on the purse. Front, showing off the lady fabric:

Back of bag.

That’s all folks! Till next time!

I’ve been oooh-ing and aaah-ing over several blogs this past year that are all about art journaling. The journals all look so lovely. There are so many types and techniques shared in blog land, that I finally decided to just take a deep breath and jump in! First, I bought Dawn DeVries Sokol’s DVD Art Journaling, Pages in Stages. I bought watercolor paper and have painted a book full of background pages. I really like her DVD, easy to listen to and follow her directions.

Other ladies I’m watching are  Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and the group she has going called Art Journal Every Day, Mary Ann Moss, Diana Trout, Kelli Perkins, Lenna Andrews. Each have their own personal style and all share ‘how to-s’ on their blogs. And since I like sewing, I keep an eye on the fabric journals too. Gals like Sue Bleiweiss, Terri Stegmiller, & Rebecca Sower.

With so much inspiration, I’m trying my hand at several techniques, playing around, and hopefully finding what will be ‘me,’ what I’ll be comfortable with to make art journaling a part of my everyday life.

Here’s what I’ve been playing with so far.

Two pages, in their various stages from the DVD Pages in Stages, coming along just fine I think.

Another Pages in Stages, layering just beginning -

Playing with sewing on to the page -

The next two are from ideas shared on Art Journaling Every Day. Creating a background on watercolor paper. I used watercolor pencils.

And the last two pages are my attempt at sewing shapes along the edges of watercolor paper. I will add watercolor pencil in or around the sewn shapes. The first page also has a fabric strip sewn down the edge. I really like the shapes on the second page.

So you see, this is just a beginning. I’ve got lots to learn and more to try.

Alas, my running record of 21 years without a rotary cutter mishap has just ended.   I was busily working away on a quilt, when Yikes! I shaved off the side of my finger with the rotary cutter. There are way too many capillaries  in one’s finger tips, I think.

Here are some quilt tops that might make you smile.  Hope so!

This quilt is made with Dilly Dally Fabric by Me and My Sister, the pattern is Got a Feeling by Abbey Lane. I like the large rick rack used as flower stems. Rick rack is making a come-back in the sewing world.

This fun quilt is made with Love My Dog fabric from the Playful Pups line by Benartex. The top is similar to a pattern found in the Fall 2010 Fons and Porter’s Magazine by Debby Kratovil. I just changed it up a bit.

And this quilt is made with Peek-a-Zoo fabric by Henry Glass Fabrics.

These three quilts are shop models for Fabric and Friends Quilt Shop, Roanoke, IN. 260-676-2149.

I’ve signed up for Mary Ann Moss’ Remains of the Day on-line class and am loving it! Here are several pictures of my first cover for the journal.

Front of cover. I used scraps left over from other projects. And I added a loop on the front flap to lace my long tie through as a way to secure the journal when closed.

View with the front flap opened. I love the little fairy who blends into her background. Can you find her? She is just peeking out  to the left of the striped fabric. (Click on pix to enlarge)

Back of closed cover.

Cover opened.

Creating this cover was so much fun! Now to watch more class videos and start preparing the inside pages!