On Day 25

On day 25 of March, another single flower appeared for my art journal.  Sheila of  

Orange Esmeralda is hosting the theme of a single flower at Art Journal Journey for the entire month of March.  

I had one more single flower idea so I got my page ready to receive the flower.  I do like how the page prep came out.  I hoped I wouldn’t ruin it.  I kinda just wanted to stop here.  

My original flower idea just looked blah.  So I moved on.

I have been inspired by the white flowers in the other entries that were cut from music paper or had text and other markings added to them.

No more drawing for me....

I traced the outside of the flower die onto fabric that I backed with paper so that I’d be able to glue it to my page.  I stitched around it twice then cut outside the stitching.  I also die cut the flower from black paper to add interest and somewhat disguise my poor choice of fabric.  I added a paper punched center and a large brad.

I glued the flower to the page only around the center so that the petals are loose.

I haven’t played with stamps like this for awhile and had a fun day with this page.

I'm making my own fabric.

I love text fabric, especially if it's collaged, but it seems I can't really find what I'd like or it doesn't say what I would like it to or it doesn't look the way I would like it to.  I don't know why that is.  I see works of others with text and love what I see ... no matter what the words say.  But when I try to choose it for myself, I get hung up on what the words say.

So I'm trying out making my own text fabrics.  I'm using Miracle Fabric Sheets.

and scrapbook paper.

I found this 5X7 packet of paper, cut up the more interesting sections of the sheets...

...taped them together as a collage then copied them to the Miracle Fabric Sheets.

My printer copies a tad lighter than the original...next time I'll set it a notch darker for the copy. 

I know I should be able to do this with cotton fabric and freezer paper, but I just cannot get my ink to set well with that method.  It still runs/smeers in places when the fabric gets wet.  It isn't worth the trouble for me to worry about whether that will happen or not, so I'm sticking with the pro stuff.  I get much better color results with this method as well.   

Then I started chopping it up and stitching it up.  I'll show the results in a near future post...it's not quite ready yet.

Happy stitching!
Annie

Man-Quilt

It Was Ugly!

Ok, individually the pieces in this charm pack weren't "all" ugly (I do like a lot of the batiks that are available now)...but together and as a charm pack, I would not have chosen it ... and I didn't. 

I received it as an extra in a swap.  See, I'm not the only one wanted to make it go away.  And I have to admit my first thought was to send it off again to someone else in a swap as an extra.  Well, I couldn't do that.

So it's been kicking around here and it's been in the back of my mind since late last Spring.  I've never considered making a quilt for my husband...it's just not something that would ever make his list of wants.  BUT, I've decided that it could make up into a nice man-quilt.  Even if he doesn't end up being the man that gets it.  We'll see.

So I've chosen a couple of fabrics to sew with the charm pack and I've decided on a design, and that's what I've been working on between Christmas projects.

And I'm thinking it's not so ugly anymore.  The blocks are going together quickly and I'm rather excited about how it's all coming together and how it's starting to look.  I have a ways to go yet.  This is about a third of the blocks that I need.

I'm happy to be working on another throw quilt again (this will be only #5 for me) rather than just small projects.  It makes for a happy mix of stitching therapy!  More progress to come later. 

I hope you are all accomplishing all the Christmas sewing projects you have on your list.  I'm finished with my Christmas sewing list ... unless I see something inspiring on some of the holiday blog hops or on your blog that I think I just have to stitch up right away!

Doing my best to make the season jolly!

Annie

To Prewash or Not

Is it personal preference to prewash fabric prior to use in a project, or is it necessary?

This question has been a topic of discussion and debate forever.  From what I've read, the answer is more personal preference.  More times than not I read so many answers informing us that quality fabrics purchased at quality quilt shops will not have a problem with fabric dyes bleeding when laundered.  If you choose to believe that, well, that is your choice.

This is a quality cut of fabric purchased at a long established quality quilt shop.  It's also the reason why I always prewash my fabrics.

I had already drained the basin a couple of times before I thought to take a photograph.  I have serious doubts that color catcher sheets would be able to save all my hard work in a project from this piece of gorgeous red fabric.  It took me half a day and over night until the dye stopped bleeding.  (Dark blues can be as much a problem as reds can be.)

It doesn't happen to every red fabric but how are you going to know when it will bleed and when it won't.  There's only two ways to find out...the hard way (washing your already completed project) or by prewashing.

I just don't think the risk is worth not prewashing fabric. So, for me, I see prewashing as necessary.

I'm off to wash some more new fabric pieces.

Happy stitching to you!

Annie