12 Days of Christmas

I've been missing from blog posts for nearly a month, but even though the gift opening for the Byhand Artists 12 Days of Christmas is long past I want to show you some of the cuff bracelets that I made for my Day 9 gifts. I showed the wrapped packages is my last post and so now here are the gifts that were inside.This is a selection of some of the cuff bracelets that I stitched up from fabric samples, hand knit pieces and fabric binding. Some have beading and rubber stamped pieces stitched on.
This group shows some more of the cuff bracelets including one that has a needle felted heart and beads.Close-up of one of the bracelets with a fabric mesh and buttons added.
This one is a fabric sample with a knit lace edging and flower added to the front along with some fun beads.
And the rubber stamped back, all rubber stamps from Quietfire Design.

ATCs For June "All Stitched Up"

ATCs For June "All Stitched Up"
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

One of the themes for the Byhand ATC monthly swap is stitched.These all have a layer of craft felt cut with the Sizzex ATC die and fabrics from sample books purchase at Ruby Dog's Art House back when they were still on Maine Street. Some have several pieces of fabric and all are finished with buttons.

Some ATCs

I've been working on some ATCs today. The first one has some of the torn phonebook paper from the magnet phonebooks and rubber stamps from Crafty Secrets Altered Arts small set and from Quietfire Design. I added some beads a button and a piece of lace edging

One of the themes for the Vancouver ATC group this month is Apples, so I started this one with an embossed felt, placed some floral mesh torn watercolour paper and the apple sticker over this and hand stitched it all down.

52 Quilts Journal Week 11

52 Quilts Journal Week 11
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

The background on this page is Silk Jacquard fabric sample. The center square is a small sample and the middle layer is off white cotton, again from my stash of fabric samples. I used bits of silk flower left over from other projects, some are cut apart and then all are stitched in place with odd bits of beads.

52 Quilts Journal Week 10

52 Quilts Journal Week 10
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I used a small velvet sample for the center of this quilt and sewed other fabric samples around Log Cabin style. The cross in the middle is another found object that I discovered several months ago while walking on the sidewalk along the Lougheed Highway in Port Coquitlam.

Sewn Illusions Journal Page 3

Sewn Illusions Journal Page 3
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

For this page I used a green background from a bulk supplies store. It looks similar to dryer sheet but coloured. I stitched various scraps of fabric to the background then attached a leftover sample of the dragonfly paper-cloth. This was glued to the album page with sepia Decoupage Finish. I rubber stamped some clear stamp images with black and purple dye inks.

52 Quilts Journal Week 6

52 Quilts Journal Week 6
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

The embellishment on the page has a bit of a story. Shortly after we moved in, my daughter was by the stove and we heard a clink. She said a spoon had fallen between the stove and counter. Well we retrieved the spoon, not one of ours and obviously already there and just finished falling. While we were getting the spoon out this pendant was also found under the stove. I used two sample fabrics and added the found pendant. This page was edged with gold gel paint after it was glued to the back of week 5 page.

52 Quilts Journal Week 5

52 Quilts Day 5
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I was playing with dripping acrylic ink on to a used dryer sheet a while back, didn't turn out quite the way I wanted, most of the colour went right through to the baby wipe I had underneath. Of course it can't be wasted, so it went into the box of stuff for my 52 Quilts Journal project. I spread matt medium on the dryer sheet then placed scraps of paper napkin over the gel medium. I coated the whole thing with more gel medium and allowed to dry. I used a very pale purple craft felt under the dryer sheet and stitched with white and black thread, stitching on the ribbon as well. The leaves from the napkin image are roughly outlined with straight stitching with the black thread. I am pleased with the results.

52 Quilts Journal Week 4

52 Quilts Journal Week 4
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I have again used fabric from my collection of fabric sample books and added rusty washers, a button, a flattened pop bottle lid and "antiqued" safety pins. The safety pins came from a dollar store, the washers were found around the property shortly after we moved in and the fattened bottle cap was found in the Coquitlam Center parking lot. The button was found on the street,obviously run over by a vehicle. I sure hope nobody was wearing the garment at the time.

Beeswax Collage

Beeswax Collage
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Here are more Bee Tags for my Bee Tag Book. The tag on the left is regular collage with some flowers and the bee added with foam tape for extra dimension. The tag on the right is my first beeswax collage project. I used beeswax to add the background and then added extra layers of flowers and a leaf. This tag was then added to a black cardstock for extra strength. I thought it might make a nice cover, but I think I'll try again and improve my beeswax collage technique. Both tags are made from gift bag paper.

March Swap at the Grind

Yesterday was the regular monthly swap at the Grind and the first time I went to the new later start time, and I was still late. I stepped out of the house to a heavy, wet downpour of snow, not what one would expect this time of year. I had to stop and buy a new umbrella and the transit was a little slow and of course I just had to stop and check out the dollar store since I don't get into Vancouver very often. Being late I still received more wonderful ATCs to add to my collection. These are the new ones I made for the swap and took along with some previous ATC.



This set is the first needle felt ATCs I made for swapping and are numbers 6, 7 and 8 of the group of 8 I made and they are titled "Nature "FELT". They are all done on craft felt with leftover wool yarn, except for the yellow which is from wool roving.

These are Series 2 Pink Plus Size Inchies made from small pieces of fabric stitched together on craft felt, decorative stitches added then cut into 1.5 inch squares stitched onto gift bag paper which has been embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.


This last set is Green Plus Size Inchies on green embossed gift bag paper.

52 Quilts Journal Week 2

Since I was on a role I started the week 2 quilt on Sun. For this one I chose a dark blue and gold print from my sample stash and recycled a crochet sample motif. This is the first try at crochet since I broke my wrist and the sample turned out a little large for an ATC, so here it is on my mini quilt. I stitched it on with assorted brown and cream beads and then joined it to the back of quilt 1 to make a page for my journal. Later I will join this to 2 more quilts to make a signature and eventually decide how I will bind the journal.

52 Quilts Journal Week 1

I have decided to take the challenge of creating a 52 Quilts Journal, one a week for a year. I sure hope I can keep it up so here goes. The idea comes from the Feb/March 2008 issue of Quilting Arts magazine and the challenge is to use something recycled or found in each quilt. Since most of the fabric I will use is rescued from fabric sample books that were destined for the landfill, I have that covered, but I will try to incorporate something more is each quilt. I have chosen to make my quilts 6 in. X 6 in. My first quilt for the week ending July 12, 2008 is from my fabric sample stash and the recycled item I've used is a mesh vegetable bag stitched down with 2 sizes of blue and greenish yellow porcelain beads. I think I'm off to a good start and will likely try out different techniques I'd like to explore for future projects.