Quilted Face

In November, I did a class on quilted faces with the very talented Jacqui Karl

This photo shows 3 happy friends nearing the end of our weekend. We all enjoyed the experience of taking the lesson and making it our own. I loved the experience from beginning to end, and now have so many new ideas bouncing around in my head I'm sure you'll be seeing more mixed media quilts from me in the future. My base fabric was a white pattern on white, so when I painted it I got a lovely resist effect. It was lovely to dry our work outside for a while too 

Next we traced on the eyes, lips, hair outline - painted the eyes and lips. I altered my eye and lip shapes a little to look more like my own art journal faces

then used thick black Spagetti thread for the outline and face detail

Filling in the hair piece with our own designs

By the end of Day 1 she looked like this

Started filling in the face with a subtle variegated thread - I really enjoyed defining areas with my free-motion stitching instead of the stippling which was in the sample

Switching threads to a pink variegated for her cheek and out into the background 

and then a pink/blue for the background = End of Day 2. 

Click on any photo to see the stitching detail.
I took a photo of the back which shows I did have a bit of trouble with the black thread knotting on occasion, but it does look quite striking

Then I was home and following my #arteveryday idea to try and stitch a little and often 

- using different threads as I go through colour-changes in the background

Ready to trim and add binding : 

Back view just for fun  - I do love colour but this is inspiring for a maybe-future piece

In the end I decided a flat binding that you didn't see on the front was best. I cut my normal 2" wide binding, ironed it in half and stitched it on as usual.

Then overstitched the seam into the binding.

Folded around and hand stitched to the back.

I had to attach the hanging sleeve by hand-stitching beneath the top binding. It is too much bulk to include in that seam as is my usual practice. The finished quilt size is 18" x 22". I am so VERY happy with how she turned out ♥

Bookmarks and Creative Cards

I work as a librarian in a school and every year I make bookmarks to gift to my student helpers. Here's what I did this year - sprays and stencils are my favourite base

Printed on the both sides of pieces of heavy watercolour paper

I seemed to have even less time than other years so at this point I just cut the paper to size, punched a hole in the end and added fibres

And below are the other sides - I was interested to see what appealed to the children - I didn't predict what they would love and my favourite was chosen last.

I wished I'd thought ahead before I cut the paper to size, but then my mind turned to other possible uses for the leftovers

I also have this pack of Tim Holtz Botanical Layer pieces gifted to me by a friend last year - they are cardstock 

You can just use glue to attach them of course

But very cool that the butterfly wings can stick out a bit if you just stitch the bodies

I always love stitching on a bit of sari ribbon

Great to have card bases prepared for future use ♥

All can have words and extra imagery added when I know who's going to receive them. I love how they've turned out so far and I'm never very good at leaving white space but really loving how these look....maybe some will just have some found words and be done.

FREE inspirations for December

I wasn't going to do a post like this but couldn't resist when I saw these new offerings. I know it's crazy busy at this time of year, and you have to be in quick for the first option, but the rest can continue to inspire you into 2019.
If you've got free time this weekend (5 days from Fri 7th Dec-Tues 11th Dec) you can access the FREE interviews and activities from the Life Book Summit event in October - check out all the speakers HERE. I was going to list my Top 5 favourites but my list was too long....definitely work checking out if you have the time.

Effy has released her To See Us Through : A Cosy Winter Workshop again. 

Still fun for us Southern Hemisphere people - I created this Summer Spread last year

There's a new lesson she's added this year as well which I think I might try : 

Andrea Shroeder also has a free online course - she'll be live Dec 14 at 11 am Central. But you don't have to be there live, the recording will be available until Jan 11.

Get all the details including how to sign up for access HERE.
And although I've decided I can't manage any more stamp carving this year, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer always inspires with her Carve December challenge. This year she is working to prompts :

See all her posts HERE.
Other free class inspiration lives on my blog HERE - please let me know if you have any additions.