fractured flower

Yesterday I started working on the first section of the fractured flower project: the lower right. First step was to make a master map which I did using a Sharpie and a plastic sheet protector. The lines of the flower and leaves I copied onto the sheet protector. I placed the picture part on top of the fabric I had chosen for the background and carefully outlined the part and basted it. This way I am certain the piece will be the exact required size. Next step was to copy all the separate parts to freezer paper. As I am using the raw edge technique I could copy it to the paper side of the freezer paper using a lightbox. Maybe a bit difficult to see, but this is the sheet of paper with my templates

I had auditioned for suitable fabrics. My stash is rather large so I did not have to dye especially for this project. Although my supply of greens is going down. All the separate templates were ironed onto fabric. Before I cut them out I ironed the other side to Bondaweb. This part will be combined with parts made by others so it is very important that the pieces are placed exactly on the spot where they should be. If not the flower and the leaves will not match. And this is how it looks now:

All the pieces are fused to the background fabric. Normally I prepare the complete sandwich before I start stitching and quilting, but that is no option now. I intend to place some interfacing under this top before I start stitching. Stay tuned for the next step.

journal quilt

I realised today that I had not yet shown my journal quilt for June. The garden is my inspiration source for the whole year and for this month I decided on butterflies. The fabric for the butterflies is a handpainted one. The shapes of the black lines are cut out of a piece of black Kona. This all is fused to the background - a left over handdyed piece of cotton. Covered with black netting and free motion quilted. Size is 6"x12"(15x30 cm)

handmade stamps

With my dyeing group we had a stamping challenge. For this challenge I made the following stamps:
The stamp at the left is a lino cut which I made some time ago. Although I intended to use it yesterday, it did not happen. I was having too much fun with the other stamps :-). The stamp in the middle is made from a styrofoam pizza tray. I cut out a couple of shapes and glued these to a piece of timber. The stamp at the right is made by glueing rubber bands to a piece of wood. This is the second time that I used this piece of wood. The black lines you see on it are made during a previous stamping session. Here are some results of my stamping:

I used Lumiere textile paint. The picture above is a hand dyed t-shirt. It got a lot of dye spots on it. Too many to wear this shirt to work. I had the option to overdye it, or cover the dye spots by adding other colors on it, like stamping :-)

Alphabet

I blogged about the M in June but I was told that the picture could not be seen. Therefore I have uploaded it again in this post. To read how I made the M go the post of June 24.



There are not many techniques or materials which start with an N. I settled for using netting as a template This netting I placed on a light blue hand dyed piece of fabric. With a foam brush I added lightly some halo gold Lumiere textile paint. Okay on some places I got too much paint :-). After this I lifted the netting and let the fabric dry. Next step was to iron some fusible webbing to the back of the fabric before I cut out the shape of the N. The fabric was ironed to the background fabric and stitched. As you can see my cats like to sleep on my fabric and yes they shed their hair on it.

Zebra's butt

For the Dutch Challenge Group De Uitdaging the theme was 'an element of an animal'. The moment I read this theme I knew which animal I would pick - I love black and whites so the zebra was the obvious choice. Okay I could have settles for just the striped pattern, but when I was googling for further inspiration I found gorgeous pictures of zebra's butts :-). Making the quilt was actually rather simple. The white fabric is raw silk, the black a lightly patterned black commercial fabric. Creating the butt was done in one day. The next step was a bit more time consuming. I wanted real hair to be part of the tail. Finding zebra hair was not possible, but a friend of a friend keeps horses. And I am glad to say that Thunder was graciously enough to donate some hair from his tail for this zebra's tail.

The tail of the horse is made from some extra layer of fluffy batting rolled into the fabric. Details of the tail can be seen on this picture:

Fractured flower project

With my dye group we have started a new project. This picture you see here is cut diagonally into 4 parts. These parts are the templates of 4 little quilts. Any technique or any type of material is allowed. As you can guess 4 independent tops will be made. Next step is to mail them to the swap hostess Gena, who will send us one of our own parts and 3 made by other participants. Those 4 tops will then be made into one quilt. This is in short how this project will run. Gena has more detailed information on the whole process on her blog.

Elected!

I heard today that one of my quilts (Gold) has been elected for 2 exhibitions in the Netherlands - 3 months in total. These shows are for art quilts only. There are not many (art) quilt shows here, so I am very happy with this. The other good news is that the quilt also passed the first round for the exhibition organised by the European Art Quilt Foundation in Birmingham. A definate answer to that will follow in August.