It's a Creative World

An ace project

My son requested a set of cushions for his birthday present this year. He wanted Aces in the four suites. He also specified that he wanted black not white as the background. 

I must admit, I did fight a bit with my sewing machine... 

Sewing around the A was the hardest part. 

I used iron on fusible facing to adhere the shapes before sewing. It helps hold it all in place nicely.


The back closes with a couple of buttons. I made these with the aid of a sharpie pen to draw the symbols and some of those metal buttons that you can cover yourself. 

His birthday is on Sunday. I just hope he likes them!!!

 

A quiet fabric book

Hello, Eleanor here again.

I've been stitching away on a small scale project, for a swap I'm involved in. It's called the quiet fabric book, inspired by a project in this book. Nine of us are making small (ATC sized, which is 2.5 by 3.5) felt books, with a theme of quietness, and each of us contribute 9 fabric pages. Mine are all the same, and will be sent to the host for distribution, so that we each end up with nine different, unique pages to bind into a beautiful soft little book.

I chose "the silence of a seed" as my page title, and stitched a botanical type illustration of the germination of a bean.

Here's one:

and here are all nine!

The very background is white felt, overlaid with woollen plaid from a sample swatch, for the soil, and cream damask from an old curtain above. I have used this curtaining for a dozen different projects, it has been so useful.

The bean itself started out as black shrink plastic cut in 2 inch bean shapes. Once heated and shrunk to less than an inch, I added coppery brown embossing powder, and heated until several layers made a thick finish.

A short length of white paper string cut at an angle makes the radicle.

As the hypocotyl grows, the seed coat (from a vinyl handbag strap, heated rather daringly, careless of fumes!) begins to rip and shrivel, 

and the first few roots emerge.

Appearing above the surface of the ground, the cotyledon has the beginnings of a leaf poking out.

Finally, the felt cotyledon has hardened and is wrinkling (with the aid of blonde moments embossing powder)

and the twin leaves have unravelled themselves and bounce gently on strong (wired) stalks.

The page title is printed onto my good old standby, cotton curtain lining, trimmed and secured with simple stitches.

It was amazing fun, planning and executing the pages, although by the ninth I was seeing wonky roots and wired stems in my dreams. I'm hoping the other girls don't mind that the page is a little bit dimensional.

It's a while until the swap is officially over, but as soon as I have pages back from the other 8 girls, I will post them here if they agree. Meanwhile I will be deciding how to bind them all, or maybe making a little quiet box to keep them in.

Finally, all the prizes from the Spring Blog Hop have now been drawn, the winners were:

Dolly's voucher - shellyj 

Gabrielle's Altered Book - Michaela

Mandy's Crazy Chick - Helen Winnicott

Laura's candy - Angelfish

Ifa's prize - Mole

Erika's candy - Kirsti

Eleanor's feltie thing - Catriona

Tracey's goodie bag - Jimjams

Kerry's flowers - Lisa

Leanne's shrine - Gabrielle.

See you next time,

Cheerio!

 

BALLOONS

Back in July, I had been so inspired by our new DT member, Katherine's balloons, that I made a card for my grandson, (scroll down a little) as part of Claire's stamping challenge for a weekend workout.

I love the effect of the circles, and decided to use the technique in fabric, to liven up a plain (yes, predictable, I know!) charity shop linen skirt.

I bought a pack of 10 inch fabric squares, in reds and pinks, by Kaffe Fassett, from Cotton Patch , and cut lots (and lots) of circles. I layered them in threes, and stitched them down fairly randomly, with raw edges to allow fraying, stitching the base one around its edge, and the upper pair vertically through the centre.

Here's the 'before':

The 'after':

and here I am:

Now I need to make a scrapbook layout! Thanks for the inspiration Katherine, I just love these balloons.

I wonder where I can put them next - on the Christmas tree perhaps?

Bye for now.

 

Weekend Workout 16 - Russian Doll Inspired

Hiya Jayne here. 

One of my favourite possessions is my Russian Doll collection. I have old ones, new ones, dolls on bags, key chains & necklaces. My daughter has to put up with me, and has them on clothes anytime I see one. I am going to Prague soon so hopefully I will get another one for my collection.

Your Weekend Workout ...is to create a piece of craft inspired by Russian Dolls ...it could be something nesting in something, Perhaps just the folk style painting inspires you or the primary colours, or perhaps you too have a Russian Doll obsession :)

Today I have made a Scrapbook page (below) with a photo of some of my Dolls. I haven't got a huge collection but it's slowly growing. I have cut a Doll shape out of paper & the flowers have inspired me for embellishments, though these are very simple.

 

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Hello, Eleanor here.

I've made a set of 5 notebooks from small to large (7x7 inches), decorated with paper pieced Russian dolls on mount-board.

I drew the faces with fineliners and gave them rosy cheeks of Promarker, plus a little something in their hair. The inner pages are of assorted patterned scrapbook papers in a toning colour,

bound with the Bind It All .

These were fun to make, and are a little gift for a special someone.

Then again, I might just keep them as, like Jayne, I've had a thing about Russian dolls for years; you may remember my drawing a couple of years ago for the A to Z project:

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 Hi Debbie here with a fabric version of Russian Dolls.

One of my friends recently had a very important birthday, suffice to say it was a little over 21. I decided to make a bag and a pin cushion as she has just started sewing!

 

The fabric was printed using a normal printer. I just stuck the fabric to some card using re positionable adhesive spray and ironed the image to fix the image.

I hope she will find the matching pin-cushion useful.

Debbie

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Hi Claireliz here.

I had a tiny scrap of russian doll fabric that I wanted to use, but didn't know what I could use it on, then in a flash of inspiration I decided to cover a little notebook (ok, I'm lying about the flash of inspiration, the fabric was on my table, next to a small notebook  when I realised the fabric was the perfect size to cover the notebook lol)

 

I used Gel Medium to glue the fabric to the front of the book & a couple of post it notes to protect the pages as I have a tendency to get carried away when using Gel Medium...

 

I then spent an hour trying to find my book binding tape so I could cover the frayed edge at the top of the notebook, but I couldn't find the tape & its whereabouts is still a mystery so I used some self adhesive ribbon instead...

 

I stitched a little glittery button onto the the elastic closure & now I have a cute little notebook.

C xx

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BUSTLE & SEW

 

Today it's our pleasure to welcome a guest, Helen from Bustle & Sew:

"Hi, I'm Helen and I live in an old farmhouse by the sea in the beautiful South Hams area of Devon, with my beautiful Newfoundland dog, Ben. My husband commutes weekly from Portsmouth, so is here to help walk him at weekends!

I work part-time for a local charity, supporting elderly people to stay in their own homes, and also have my own, very tiny, business, Bustle & Sew, selling my patterns online.

These are just a few of my designs:

I don't have any formal textile training, but come from a long line of skilled needlewomen, learning from my mother and grandmother from a very young age. I love to create with fabric and thread - embroidery and applique are my favourite techniques. I love sharing my ideas for designs with others, not just experienced stitchers, but also, hopefully, those new to the pleasure and satisfaction of making something yourself.

I was thrilled when Eleanor suggested I might like to contribute a guest post to IACW, and thought long and hard about suitable ideas - I hope you like the projects I've chosen.

Hand embroidery is my main passion - I love the feeling that I am part of a long line of embroiderers stretching back through the ages, and also the portability anbd low cost of materials and equipment - hoop, needle, scissors, floss and fabric - embroidery really is a hobby accessible to everyone. So I thought for my first gift to you (I was always told as a youngster that visitors should bring a gift with them), I'd offer you one of my hand embroidery patterns. This one is a little bunny who doesn't seem at all sure what to make of the bunch of brightly coloured balloons he finds himself holding!

Please just CLICK HERE to download my Bunny and Balloons pattern absolutely free.

One of my most popular series of hand embroidery designs has been my "Rosie & Bear" series, based on my memories of my own Rosie's childhood days (a long time ago now!) and the naughty Bear she adored and took everywhere with her - he's waiting for her next visit now, perched on her bed just as always.

It's fun mixing real memories with imagination - below is my Rosie & Bear Royal Wedding pattern. Here Rosie is peeping through the railings at Buckingham Palace, hoping for a last glimpse of the beautiful princess, whilst Bear, who couldn't care less about rose petals and lace, is tugging at her hand - he wants to go and march with the soldiers in the parade!

Of course, you don't always have the time to spend hand stitching - it can take a while, and I also enjoy machine applique - a look that's become very popular recently, that can be very expensive to purchase.
So my second gift to you is another pattern - this time four cheerful marching elephants inspired by a 1950s children's colouring book...

Free pattern here.

If you like these patterns, then please do visit my shop, Bustle & Sew, where I have lots more listed. And, as the final part of my gift to you, just enter the code
“PaperMountains”
at checkout and you will receive 20% off your first purchase.
Come and visit me soon at my blog … – I’d love to meet you there!
Best wishes, and thank you again to Eleanor for inviting me."
Helen xx

It's been delightful, thank you Helen.

Don't forget to check out the lovely free patterns Helen is so kindly giving away.

xox