| « | January 2016 | » | ||||
 |
||||||
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 | ||||||
The tops for the baby quilt project are not due until the 16th so I took scraps from the other ones I had made and cut up enough 3 1/2 inch squares to do another. The result is a 12 x 12 grid with a 2 1/2 inch border of navy blue.
This is number 22 for the project:
This will make a great quilt for a little boy.
Ddd
Sure enough, Tim Holtz returned with a monthly tag challenge for 2016. Each month he will reprise two old tag techniques he has done in past years and combine them into one tag. I am joining in again - right on the heels of finishing my last tag of 2015!
Here are the two tags Tim combined:
And here is the tag he made for January 2016:
Here is the process I used to create my version:
- Choose a stamp for the chalkboard center of the card (I chose a birthday message)
- Select a cardstock and apply metal foil tape to the top and the bottom edges (I used card-sized rather than a tag)
- Emboss just the metal areas with an industrial look folder (I used diamond plate)
- Use felt blending tool to apply black alcohol ink to metal areas (Tim did his with black Distress Paint)
- Use soft cloth or paper towel to wipe away excess ink to reveal metal
- Dry with a heat tool
- On black cardstock, ink stamp with Distress Embossing ink and cover with Frosted Crystal Embossing Powder and heat with heat tool (I did not have these products so I inked my stamp and made the impression with a glue stamp pad. Then I ground some white chalk and tapped it into the glue and dried it with a heat gun)
- Scribble over the image with white chalk including background
- Use fingers to rub in chalk
- Tear top and bottom edges
- Adhere chalk layer to metal layer using brads
- Trim sides of chalk image to fit on metal layer
- Adhere gear embellishments using brads
- Use strong adhesive to mount piece to a base card
Here is my finished card:
What a great card for a guy - all that industrial look. We're off to a good start.
Ddd
Despite my best intentions - making all of the 12 tags of 2015 by Tim Holtz - I got so wrapped up in the holidays that I didn't get December's done last year. But I decided to go ahead and make it anyway, even though it is a month late.
Here is the original tag created by Tim:
Once again, I chose to make a showpiece instead of a tag. Here is the process I used.
- Cut a piece of grasscloth wallpaper sample into the desired size.
- Place on paper towel
- Use Distress Stain to tint the piece
- Lay stencil over the piece and spritz with another color of Distress Stain
- Place a clean paper towel over the top and blot away extra ink
- Remove stencil and dry piece with a heat gun
- Run piece through Xyron to apply adhesive to the back
- Adhere to stiff backing and trim backing to size
- Ink edges of piece and backing
- Select various greens of kraft core cardstock and a red piece for other parts
- Diecut different greenery from each color of kraft core
- Sand surface with sanding block
- Lightly ink edges with Distress Ink
- On the base piece, trace a circle
- Gently crunch and crumple the diecut foliage
- Use glossy Accents to adhere greenery around the circle
- Create a dimensional bow from red kraft core cardstock
- Adhere bow to bottom of wreath using Glossy Accents
- Punch tiny dots from red kraft core cardstock. Adhere to wreath in twos and threes as holly berries
- Diecut greeting from red kraft core cardstock
- Sand surface with sanding block
- Cut a piece of sage green kraft core into a wide strip and ink edges with Distress
- Attach to main piece with small brads
- Adhere greeting to strip with Glossy Accents
And here is the final piece:
And, finally I am truly done with the 2015 'tags' series.
I do intend to give it a go for 2016 as well, so we'll see where that takes us.
Ddd
This is the final quilt I pieced on the November 2015 quilting cruise. The instructor was Kimberly Einmo.
We were sent an illustration ahead of time along with the yardages we would need and cutting instructions. We cut the fabrics as specified and packaged them with coding so we would be able to quickly access the right ones for each step.
The class was taught with step by step directions and the use of a special ruler that Kimberly designed (and I bought).
The illustrated quilt design had similar colors in solids and the center was an appliqued sunshine graphic, giving the quilt a southwestern feel. I chose similar colors but chose prints that featured fall flowers. then I created four maple leaves to applique on the center panel.
The quilt design stopped with the sunburst area but this left it too small for my taste. So I added a wide border in the background color to expand it.
The starburst areas end up looking like maple leaves, as well.
I quilted all the teal areas with vines and leaves and all of the starbursts with an echo line 3/8 inch inside them.
The finished size is about 48" square.
Ddd
The second class I took on the quilting cruise in November (2015) was a mystery quilt with instructor Kimberly Einmo.
Before I signed up for this class I took a mystery class on Craftsy with her as the instructor to see if I liked her style. Out of that came two lovely quilts from my stash.
For this class we were sent a set of direction on how to select fabrics, how much of each to buy and cutting instructions for each one. These were then labeled and packaged so we could easily pull out the right pieces to work with at each step.
Kimberly would have us pull out the specific fabrics cut to the right sizes and stitch them according to the current 'clue'. Then those pieces would be cut, if needed, and set aside. When we had worked through all the clues we had a sizeable stack of blocks which were then laid out according to her pattern and assembled into the mystery quilt.
We had even precut our two borders and binding!
I worked through all the available 'open sew' times and got my whole top done.
I did not take batting or the backing with me so I had to wait to assemble this at home. I quilted it with diagonal lines that go through all the large blocks and the purple small blocks - about 8 inches apart. A stitch in the ditch line runs on either side of the inner blue border as well.
The finished quilt is about 61 inches square and will be set aside to gift to someone special when the occasion arises.
Ddd
Yay and Hooray! I finished one of the three quilts I made on the quilting cruise in November.
The 11-day cruise, through Quilting Seminars At Sea, went from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas, Curacao, Aruba, Columbia, the Panama Canal, Panama and Costa Rica.
When we were in port we were free to go as we wished. Then on the days at sea we had classes from 8:30 am to 4 pm. We had pre-selected from one of 4 workshops to take from the 4 instructors who were with us.
I took 2 classes with Kimberly Einmo and one from Karen Combs and finished a quilt top in each one of them. Of course, we had 'open sew' time when we could go in to work on our projects on the machines that were provided by Janome.
The first class I took was the one with Karen so that is the quilt that I backed, quilted and bound first.
We used fabric designed by Karen that contains dark, medium and light across the fabric, providing all the shades needed to create her 3D effects. The pattern we worked on is called 'A Chip Out Of Every Block'.
We got to choose the colors we wanted to use from about 20 available. I chose to use all blues and greens to make a banner for my fireplace end wall.
By turning half the blocks upside-down they are changed from being a solid block with a corner missing to a room with a box in the corner.
I quilted with just a stitch in the ditch around the perimeter of each area of value.
I am really pleased with how this came out.
Ddd
I ran across a video tutorial ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KChUsEJPHqk ) on making a small boxed bag like would be used for cosmetics. The process looked so easy that I jotted a few notes to myself and went right to the studio to give it a try.
As it happened, I had the same fabrics that I had used for this duffel bag (black floral exterior and teal polkadot interior):
What I did not have was more of the teal zipper but I found a raspberry one in my stash so I was off to the races.
The project takes only a 14" zipper, two exterior fabric pieces (8 x 10), two interior fabric pieces (8 x 10), two fusible interfacing (8 x 10) and two tabs (2 x 3).
It uses straight and zigzag stitches throughout and also uses a standard and a zipper foot.
Total construction took less than one hour.
Here are a couple of exterior views
And one showing the interior:
The finished size is about 3 x 5 x 7. This will go in my duffel when I use it as a carryon bag so I can corral my phone, medications and other small items.
Ddd
I recently bought some things at an online store and one of the perks was to provide me with a coupon code for a FREE PERSONALIZED CALENDAR from Shutterfly. I only had to pay shipping which was very reasonable.
I want to be very clear, I have no affiliation with this company and did not receive any solicitation or compensation for this review. I am just a happy customer.
I just had to click on the link that came in my email to start the process. I got to select my desired 'theme' for the background of the pages, choose which photos (my own) to use on each month as well as on the cover, select layouts for the photos, add captions to the photos, and input my own family's birthdays and anniversaries.
I got to preview everything before it went 'to press' and they warned me when some of my photos were not high enough resolution to reproduce optimally.
The whole design process was clearly guided and took only about 1 1/2 hours. The most time consuming part was inputting all the personal dates.
I decided to make a calendar for the quilt studio out of it and included favorite quilts I made in 2015.
The finished calendar is produced on heavy glossy cardstock of 8 1/2 x 11 pages. It is spiral bound at the top.
Thank you, Shutterfly!
Ddd
Some time ago I created a dry-embossed card using the letterpress method - which colors the background and leaves the raised areas white. I particularly liked the way it turned out and pulled it out to copy when I needed multiple sympathy cards to send.
The original one used a stamped sentiment but for this version I used a gold peel-off sticker on the raised, bordered panel.
They have drop-shadows drawn in with a coordinating marker and little bits of Stickles along the top edges of the pattern.
Ddd
I'm really not as late as it appears in completing this Christmas quilt. I finished it up on December 23 but had already filled the blog postings up to today with the last of the Christmas cards.
I wanted the quilt to be in the seasonal colors but not to be so bright as traditionally used. So I dug in the stash and found burdundy, mottled green, taupe and greenish yellow.
These sat for a while waiting for inspiration until I saw the tutorial on the Missouri Star Quilt Company for the block called 'Colorado'. I played with the coloring in EQ7 and decided to make the center pinwheels with the yellow to represent the Star of Bethlehem.
The construction method makes a bazillion half-square triangles which are arranged into this 14-inch block:
Actually, the outer border showing is the sashing and cornerstones between the blocks.
The blocks are arranged so that all the greens come together around one cornerstone and all the reds around the next cornerstone. What this does is create a secondary pattern.
On the red sections I quilted a poinsettia:
I used verigated dark red thread and a 'sketch' style rather than a very controlled outline. Here you can see the stitching on the back:
Where the green blocks formed I quilted a bow in the center surrounded by a holly wreath:
I used green thread for this and here you can see the view from the back:
The 4-inch borders are quilted with bows and garland and the finish is a green and gold striped binding:
You can see the quilting pretty well on the photo above so the back view shows how I treated the corners:
I am delighted with how this came out! This will be a quilt for me to keep.
It is a very generous 70 x 84 inches.
Ddd
Over the past few years I have seen a number of people make 'bowl buddies' for friends and family. These are a shaped pot holder that goes into the microwave with the bowl so removal of hot foods can easily be removed without burning the hands.
I wanted to make these as a gift for Christmas so set about looking for instructions. The best I found were at http://www.lisalewiskoster.com/2013/12/microwave-bowl-potholders.html.
I purchased some microwave-safe batting - like that used for making 'potato bags' and selected two sets of complimentary fabrics. The recipient has two sizes of bowls for use in her microwave so I custom fit two sizes of bowl buddies.
I cut the batting 3/4 inch smaller than the fabric to keep the edges from being too bulky at the end. I did the quilting (the first step in the process) with a medium-sized meander.
The final products are reversible.
This is the smaller one 'in use':
and...
This is the larger one 'in use':
and...
I cut up the rest of the batting while I was at it and cut enough of these fabrics to make 3 more of each color combination. All of the quilting has been done on them and I set them aside so I can make them whatever size is needed on short notice.
Ddd
When I ran across this vinyl snowman sticker I knew he belonged on this background - looking like he is hanging around the Christmas tree lot.
I distressed the edges of the base card as well as the printed panel and added a text strip.
The stamped greeting provides a little ground for the snowman to stand upon.
And, you'll be happy to know, that is ALL of the Christmas cards. Tomorrow we'll be on to something else.
Ddd
One of the papers I was using had strips of prints covered in glitter. Love me some glitter!
I left one piece whole and cut some into separate strips for use.
On this first card I started with a paper that has a needlework print on it. I added ten vellum poinsettia stickers in two rows then placed a strip of the glitter paper between them.
I stamped a greeting at the top.
I used that same strip on this second card. The background started as a two-toned green with a shiny surface on the darker green. I added gold peel-off stickers of holly all over to liven it up.
Then the strip was applied and followed up with a vinyl text sticker.
For the third card I left the glittery striped paper whole. I added a floral text strip over one of the stripes and then hung a 3D ornament sticker over that.
The text on the ornament is a rub-on.
Ddd
From the big page of tags and journaling blocks I cut one that was a huge round element.
For the first card I selected a dark red paper with stripes of different prints. I overlaid one of the stripes with a strip of paper in brown with pinecones.
The circle element has a cream colored border so I used a cream base card to echo this.
I added a thick acrylic text sticker through the center.
I also used a striped paper for the second card. On this one the brown snowflake paper is the overlaid strip.
I added an oval nativity sticker to the center of the circle element on this one.
The colors blend perfectly, don't they?
Ddd
Well this is a mish-mash of elements!
The base paper came with the green, the wavy border and the leaping deer. I added the red be-ribboned strip.
I found the red ornament tag on a sheet of diecuts but it overlapped the deer. So I trimmed it skinnier and added some red twine before attaching it.
The black Ho Ho Ho is a rubon sentiment.
Ddd
This year, for the year-end wrapup, I decided to match the year with the number of projects to feature.
These are my favorite items I produced this year:
This is a display piece based on techniques taught by Tim Holtz in his 12 tags of 2015 series. This was the February project.
I had wanted to make a quilt of a bookcase for some time. I designed this one and constructed it using paper piecing. It is one of the banners I hang on the fireplace wall.
In March, I designed this quilt of cats in the window.
This was made in May from another of Tim Holtz's tag tutorials.
One of my favorite cards working from the OWH sketches.
This July creation came from the Tim Holtz tag tutorials.
This stamped card was going to be an entry for the fair but I ended up not entering anything.
A card using the September tutorial from Tim Holtz.
I love this duffel bag I made in September.
October's display piece made from Tim Holtz's tutorial.
A mystery quilt that ended up donated to the hospital.
Paper embroidery for a Christmas Card.
The November Tim Holtz tag tutorial turned into this.
A gift for friends based on a piece we saw in a shop window at the beach.
A watercolored Christmas card inspired by an online tutorial.
And that's it - 15 for '15.
Ddd
Some 12 x 12 papers are not so great when cut into smaller pieces for card fronts. I had a hard time coming up with a way to use these glittery, snow-covered pine branches.
I finally settled on a green band and drew a 'wire' to hang some shiny ornament stickers from.
Then I stamped a greeting at the bottom.
The camera has disguised the fact that those shiny ornament stickers are the sxact same color as the shimmery base card.
Ddd
The cards today are appearing together because they are both from parts of the same page. Though you would hardly know it from the elements that appear on them.
The first had a twig with swirls and little pinecones. I added a vellum sticker of mistletoe as well as layered paper strips down the left side.
Three clear text stickers finish it off.
The other end of the paper had three poinsettias on it (you can tell it is the same piece because of the bit of the twig and pinecones on the right).
I distressed the edges and added a strip printed with red snowflakes. Then I added some vinyl poinsettia stickers over those on the paper to add some dimension.
A silver peel-off sticker provides the greeting.
Ddd
This beautifully printed paper was layered with a green band and a piece from the tags and journaling blocks sheet.
It left a glaring blank space on the right so I filled that with a vinyl text sticker.
All the pieces were distressed with ink before assembly.
Ddd
My mom and I enjoyed seeing all the varieties of poinsettias in the stores this year. Her favorite was the pink with red around the outer edges of the petals. Mine was the white with pink streaks in the centers. We also saw about 5 shades of red from burgundy to fire-engine red, plus pinks and whites. The most awful was a dull light orange that make it look like the plant was half dead.
Anyway, what reminded me of this was this printed paper with a white poinsettia in the corner. I used a craft knife to slice along the top edge of the bloom so I could tuck in two strips of paper with vintage ornaments.
I distressed the edges to carry on the vintage feel and stamped the sentiment.
Ddd
