Some new work

My new playmate, Rosalita, and I got together a few weeks ago and she challenged me with a small quilt project. The challenge was to make a small quilt with a certain fabric and a certain technique. The fabric was browns and greens and had butterflies, flowers and bees all over it. The technique was fusing. It was amazing to see how different our quilts came out. I fused a chunk of fabric that had no butterflies or bees on it and then cut thin strips and fused them on while I  curved the fabric under the iron. The strips fused on curvy. I then cut out parts of butterfly wings and made eyes out of them. I used the bees wings to make a tiny butterfly perched atop a grass frond. I called it "Spirits of the grass"

I have been working on a journal cover for my friend Nan. I wanted to use the theme of new beginnings or journey. While doing some research on symbols I found the Chinese characters that said "A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step". I copied and pasted the symbols into a word document and printed it out. I then used Avery Note tabs to make a stencil of the words and stenciled it onto a two toned book cover I had sewn in Nan's favorite colors. The lighter fabric also had the symbol for journey in it and I also stenciled the spiral "journey" symbol onto the journal cover in two tones of gold metallic paint. I free motion quilted the dark fabric in gold metallic thread with the spiral in the center and the spokes of the sun radiating out from it. Lastly I attached some amber, gold metallic and orange beaded dangles (I couldn't help myself) to the front cover . I LOVE it and think Nan will too.

Some time this next week I will be making my second tutorial using "Avery Note Tabs" to make small stencils.