Birthday cards

At the end of last year I made bookmarks as gifts for my school librarians.

I cut up too much of the printed watercolour paper into strips but that led to fun bases on gift cards - this is what I had at the end of my session in December with more work needed on some.

This week I had cause to finish off a few more for birthday cards. I just love torn serviettes and butterflies are a favourite motif of mine. This is how my 'in process' cards finished up : 

Can't quite decide which one is my favourite. 

Having another crazy busy week and feeling like I'm not getting much done. Reminding myself that everything has a season and that as long as I still feel happy I have the balance right. I know there is room for improvement and I am glad I am paying enough attention to notice that. Hope your week has some room for creative fun ♥

Inspired by Toni Burt and more FREE online inspiration

I joined the recent Sketchbook Revival free online workshop with limited time and my intention was to at least watch and try the lesson from Toni Burt. I am just a bit in love with her mixed media faces at present with their combination of messy colour, collage and found words. This was her sample lesson :

I wanted to try out a piece of watercolour paper as well as a page in my journal since she prepped her paper with matte gel medium. The page in my journal already had paint used up from a previous project. Not everything goes well first time and I couldn't make a large brush work like Toni did. However - this was my second attempt and I was much more hopeful that I could finish these and like them.

I decided to concentrate on my watercolour page first, and added some Twinkling H2O watercolours. Amongst my gatherings found the perfect piece in the sheet music (3 bars rest) and the words on the large print sheet "Take your time". Took it as a message from the universe ♥

Love using serviettes and I had a lovely butterfly one with a watercolour look, plus some pretty new washi and punched some daisies from lovely paper coloured in a long-ago project. 

Very happy to finish her up and be able to include stitch before gluing this page into my journal.

She's messy, and imperfect, and a reminder of the beauty of that.

The facing page needed lightening up before I went much further so I began with some stencils and collaged gelli prints

...and some found words of course. She needed more contrast of dark and light

 and a butterfly ♥ 

So good to have another full spread done in my art journal at last. 

If you're interested in exploring Toni's work further, she has a couple of free lessons on her site HERE : 

videos HERE and a selection of paid classes HERE. 

And although access to Sketchbook Revival 2019 finishes this weekend, Tam has released her Happy Houses lesson FREE on Youtube HERE.

Quilt show inspirations

Our local quilt club had its annual Tote & Gloat show on Saturday so this post contains a lot of photos of quilts that inspire me. It's a full day with a huge show and tell to start - quilts are shown on stage and then later hung for further enjoyment. 

After show and tell we can wander to look at all the gorgeous quilts - this includes the challenges and other displays from invited groups - and to shop of course. 
In the afternoon we have a speaker. This year we were very lucky to have Rachel Daisy speak to us - find her blog HERE. These are some of the quilts she brought to show. 

Ticket holders are able to show any quilts completed over the last 12 months since the previous show. I didn't have enough time to attach a hanging sleeve to this one (completed in January)

But I was able to show my quilted face (completed in December)

These were the quilts that especially took my eye this year : (click on any photo to see it larger) 

I love quilts with a special NZ flavour : above is "Tiki love" by Wilma Minnee. Won 2nd prize for the "Heart" challenge. "Hearts of Nature" by Kay McDonnell below won viewers' choice for the "Heart" challenge, including my vote : 

This next one was made by my good friend Debbie Jacques, and took first place in the "Heart" challenge : "Pieces of the heart"

Another good friend, Marion Ashley, took first place as a First Time Entry for the fabric challenge : 

If you are interested in seeing the other challenge winners from the day, please pop over HERE to our Rose City Quilters blog.
Debbie Jacques also created this amazing cow from a pattern by Laura Heine :

and another good friend, Rhonda Ellery, created this giraffe by the same designer : 

The quilts that follow were hung without labels and I'm sorry I don't know the makers. If you know and tell me, I will credit. Simple piecing made special with great colour choices : 

Simple but effective setting : 

Simply stunning : 

I have a great love of applique. Whilst talking on stage, the maker of the quilt below mentioned Laundry Basket Quilts - see their website with patterns HERE. Not sure if an actual pattern of theirs or inspired by.

And last - this one made me smile

Hope you've enjoyed all the recent quilt inspiration. Please click on the labels below for other Quilt posts.