Five Shadows

Crafting has been slow in my life lately. Seems most of my time is taken up in the life of my teens – new school year and all. Volleyball games and such, all fun! I did work on this canvas bag with the theme of Raggedy Ann and Andy. (Sorry the picture is not very good – it is a scan not a photo.) I added the yo-yo hearts, wool yarn vine, couched over stamping and fabric painting.  I’m new to yo-yo hearts and I found them easy and fun to make using Clover’s heart shaped quick yo-yo maker! I tacked them down with red embroidery floss. (Have you seen Calamity Kim’s amazing yo-yos?) I stamped the background with Fabrico craft ink in Cerulean Blue using side B of Stampendous! Texture Cube. Once dry, I color washed over the stamping with Lumiere Pearl Blue. Next I couched the yarn in place using the zig zag stitch on  my sewing machine and then added the yo-yos.

I’m also working on the binding for the quilts for my parents (two twin size his and her quilts.) And having been inspired by Kim, I’m going to do more work on the yo-yos I’m sewing on to my mother’s quilt. I’m just stitching them in place now along with leaves around an appliqued vine. But I plan on going back and stitching them around the edges with floss. Don’t think I’ll add beads as it is a bed quilt intended for daily use. Thanks Kim for the inspiration!

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.)

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….