the man clutch . . .

. . . so the 'ole man turned 51 yesterday. And I do say that endearlingly as I'm not far behind on the mark.

I custom made him a man clutch for his new iPad.

I fused a piece of black wool felt to a scrap of muslin and used all sorts of paints to add color to the felt.

I used foil, Angelina fibers, embossing powder and layered black Misty Fuse over the top.

The buckle is a vintage buckle upcycled from a bag of buckles I picked up at a consignment shop, dirt cheap.

(see honey? i do use that junk I bring in)

The iPad fits in nicely.

Below, is the back of the clutch and you don't see the gold blobs on the fabric. The gold blobs are covering a mistake.  I accidently grabbed a piece of tracing paper instead of parchment when I went to press over the flap... I had made this mistake before so I knew immediately what I had done. 

Misty Fuse fuses to tracing paper and releases from parchment.

Below you can see how the tracing paper looked when I pealed it off.

  I was almost finished and didn't want to have to start over by making more fabric. . .

. . . so I put some of this gold leaf stuff over the areas where I couldn't pick off the fused tracing paper and then added some more embossing powder.

I didn't have enough black Misty Fuse to do the back so that is the original fabric.

A one of a kind - man clutch.

waiting for paint to dry . . .

It's been so humid here in New England; the gesso and paint I'm using in my sketchbook does not want to dry.  I put scraps of parchament paper between the pages so the pages don't stick to one another.

And I wait.

My book is part of the Sketchbook Project. 

Click the link and you can find out the details if you haven't heard about it. 

It's been fun watching artists get started with their book, so I thought I'd show you a little about mine. 

I went through the book and glued the pages together two by two.  I have 20 pages to work with now.  A few may end up having to be removed if the book gets too fat. 

I painted each page, front and back with gesso.  Then added a different water color to each facing page and gessoed over that.  You can see why my book is taking so long to dry.

I've never done this type of work before -  I'm kind of making it up as I go. 

Below you can see one of the painted pages.  The pages are pretty sturdy now and once they are completely dry I think I can put a weight on the book to get the crinkles out.

This gives you a clue about how I will turn my book into a 'sketchbook'. 

Right now I'm using a water soluable stabilizer... 

I think I've heard of an iron out or steam out stabilizer...  Has anyone ever heard of this or used it? 

It might be a better option for this project.

a routineless summer spent . . .

playing with wire

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making and wearing flip flops

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hanging out with the dragonflies

and

waiting for the water lillies to bloom

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planning for the batiks purchased on St. Kitts

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working on the Fiberactions piece

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and doodling

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thanks for visiting and I hope you are well

in the pink

Memory Lane. . .

Today is the Fiberactions quilt reveal day. 

Every other month we are given a new word and we have two months to complete a 16 x 20 quilt representing the theme word.  This past theme word was Memories.

Check out the Fiberactions site where you can see all of the quilts posted.

A few years ago a group of quilting friends (the sistahs) started a practical joke on me.  It revolved around a cow theme.  Since, I have recieved countless cow themed items; sent and given to me in sometimes the most unusual ways.  The joke started anonymously and sort of snowballed out of control. 

I have an entire box of cow related items and fabric....

Some how I acquired the cow face pattern named 'Cow' by Malec Designs.

The pattern is of the cow face only. I customized her and added the background.

I named her Memory and the quilt is named

Memory Lane.

A tribute to my silly quilting sistahs, who inspire me more than they know.

I started Memory Lane just the other day and finished her today.  I would have posted earlier but I couldn't get to the store until tonight...

Memory needed her eyelashes before posting.

I played around with some different methods of fusing and stitching while making Memory Lane.

It was a good learning exercise. I will post later about  some of the methods I used. 

I think I need to darken the side of Memory's face and nose... she kind of looks like a pig in the photo. 

(No, I don't collect cow themed items...!)

a trip to the rainforest . . .

. . .  and some things I saw there

 very little light

 natural textures

 massive sized foliage

great color combinations

cool root systems

shades of green

stitch patterns

and lots of moisture

custom backpacks. . .

I'll be visiting the rain forest in Dominica later this summer. I will need a bag to put my camera and other items in to keep them away from moisture.

This bag uses raincoat fabric and I think it will out work fine.

I used flat straps as opposed to the string cording regularly seen on this type of back pack.

By threading the straps through an attached tab on the bottom sides of the bag....

... allows the bag to be flipped and used as a tote. 

Now the inside is waterproof.

----

Terri gave me some of her custom fabric.

I painted it....

...and made a backpack.

This one is slightly oversized.

It uses fusible batting to give it some support and has cording for the strap closure.

The straps are knotted and can easily be adjusted in length.

These back packs are so easy and fun to make.

Home for Christmas. . .

. . . is my friend Shari's quilt.

She is a master at Log Cabin design and piecing.

For my non quilting readers - a Log Cabin style block begins with a center square and the 'logs' are narrow strips of fabric sewn in rotation around the square. 

Typically Log Cabin designs create a basic stripe, diamond or a zig zag of darks and lights.  Shari's design, however, creates a center medallion star with side stars and swags set diagonally. 

Quite intricate and beautiful with a huge selection of Christmas fabrics.

Because of all the piecing on the front it is difficult to see the quilting.

But the back adds a secondary design you can see when the light hits it in just the right way.

I used a variety of stippling, feathers, and motifs to add texture.

The quilt has a Hobbs 80/20 batt and weighs a ton. 

It will be a great quilt to snuggle under when everyone is

Home for Christmas.

oh, and I have to mention - I used my friend Sue's Chalk line to mark my straight registration lines.  Because there were no distinct borders or blocks on this quilt, using the chalk line worked perfectly to give me a straight line guide. 

 Check it out here.