when friendship, art, work, and inspiration meet it all spills over.

it's good. 

all good.

-yesterday the susans and the ks met at sueb's studio and we had our second sketch-in.

-we are as much alike as we are different and it's fun to sit side by side with such talented gals and share.

-just to keep it from getting too serious i worked my sketch with my smencils.

-nope, that wasn't a typo. smencils are scented pencils.

-they are great, fun, # 2 pencils made of recycled paper.

love them!

-after that, i met up with a freind/client who i did some quilting for.

-our eyes nearly spilled over as she shared a story with me and i'll be thinking about her today.

-then i did some last minute work on the garden quilt.

-nature spilled over into the sketchbook and then onto fabric.

-with only a few thread deatails left this project will be finished.

-and then i got together with some more talented gals and the quilting inspiration was spilling over in all directions.

-all bring something different to the table and i love it all from those who can sew perfectly straight seams  to those that can match color like nobody's business. 

-love it and glad to be part of it.

-i messed around with an applique pattern i want to start.

-i used the magic mirror and sue's templates to work out some ideas.

-on the tips of the tree this morning i noticed the tiniest of buds.

-soon they will be spilling over with leaves

and

i. can't. wait.

-happy spring.

almost the final stage

The quilting and decorative stitching are complete on the garden quilt.

Below you can see the quilt being blocked.  I don't want the piece getting soaked, so instead I heavily steam it, pull it into submission, square up the sides and corners and pin it.  It stays pinned until completely dry.

It will get bound before the 3-d applique elements and beads are attached.  Once everything is in place, it will get blocked again.

don't judge a book by it's cover

because you never know what is inside

Today is  the Fiberactions Challenge Group reveal day.  Our theme word was impression.

This is a two sided quilt.  The front, meant to look like a weathered book of plants and flowers. The back  meant to look like a page from inside.

Again, I went with seed pods.  This time I created 3d seed pods which were lined with green silk.

The fabrics of the book were painted, over painted, distressed, inked and made to look like leather.  The label was was hand printed onto white fabric, distressed and the edges were burnt.

I took pictures of drawn flowers from my sketchbook and used them to hand paint white cloth. 

The flowers were stabilized prior to cutting and then stitched onto the background fabric.

I loved making this piece.  Out of all my Fiberactions pieces this is probably the most representational of  the type of work I love the most.

Head on over to the Fiberactions blog and see how the other talented artists interpreted the theme.

Thanks for looking!

spring break

I've added the thread detail.  Here is the Clematis, it will get attached when the quilting is finished.  The petals will remain loose, with minimal tacking on the tips.

More color and thread were added to shovel and gloves. 

They will be added at the end also.

Here is the front of my machine with quilt attached.  I stitched around the elements and then quilted the border.  Lastly, I went and added the fill behind the flowers. 

ed note:

*I know the pix are blurry, but if I'm messing with the photos- I'm not quilting......

and I have a lot of quilting to do....so I'm going with the blurry pix.

*Big kid comes home today on spring break and it will be good to have him back.

*Most of our snow is melted and we are all watching/waiting for spring.

*MLB opening day is soon (can't wait).

*Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

:)