My idea journal

This is a new cover for my idea journal. I actually use this book just about daily. I decided to cover it after getting this cool Asian fabric. I also wanted to experiment with image transfers so I picked these leaves, dried and pressed them, scanned them then transfered the image to the rust colored fabric. I also like the twill tape and attached bead book mark. My friend Donna gave me a gift tried with that tape. Also catch "Walk with Maggie" below. Check out all the images in large format on the flicker slideshow.

Walk with Maggie

This is a new 8X10 quilt I made after being inspired by walking with Maggie, Betsy's dog. I was walking her around the block and I found a man's leather glove probably from last winter that had been run over and absolutely flattened. I took it home and thought I'd incorporate it into a quilt about walking Maggie. When push came to shove, I found no way of including such a large three dimensional object so I kept it as a Muse.
I asked Betsy for a photo of Maggie and she gave me her "graduation picture". If Maggie had on pearls it wouldn't have looked more appropriate. I scanned the photo, re-sized it and used that image to make a hand carved rubber stamp of Maggie's head. I also hand carved two leaf designs. I also added a commercial stamp of a dog foot print and various paints to stamp these images onto the fabric. I free motion quilted around each stamp design and added a 1969 Maine dog tag which I colored orange and a handmade ceramic disc with d o g imprinted on it which I had done a few years ago. It suited perfectly. Lastly I fussy cut some printed leaves out of organza and singed with a candle til they curled up then stitched them around the boarder of the quilt. I'm pretty happy with the results. You can see a larger picture of the quilt by clicking on the flicker photostream to the right.

My favorite magazine

I should probably call this post, my favorite company. I just remembered how I found this magazine in the first place. My local PBS station had this lame quilting show on so I stopped watching it. Sometime later that year I noticed another quilting show on and checked it out. From the first show, I was in love. I remember my remark as the show ended. HOLY COW! It has single handedly opened up a whole new world of fiber and mixed media art to me.

I checked out the shows website and started to order the magazine, “Quilting Arts”. It is so much more than quilting though. I found like minded people with a real passion for creating not only with fabric but metal, paper, plastic, paint, dyes and so much more using color, shape, placement and texture in a way I’d rarely seen. I feel like I’ve found my peeps.

I put a link to the magazine on the front of my blog just under the photos. I would recommend a look at the website http://quiltingarts.com/ . You can check out the various blogs and get some free eBooks. Maybe it will spark that creative muse hiding was down inside you.

Craft on…