Hearts Multiplying

I played a bit more with this, adding ragged edges, more silk fibres and introducing it to silk gauze and velvets: But then another heart insisted on nestling here:

And was joined by one more and a bit of silk organza ruffle on the edge. The silks are dry felted in, with a machine.

And here is the back of what has become a journal cover - my shibori rabbit moon.

Today I was finishing putting Easter decorations about and I saw this table runner I made two years ago but realized I had never quilted. So I echoed the flowers with pink and purple variegated thread and I like how the back, which is made from identical fabric, ended up with what remind me of stitched shadows, intersecting the flowers.

Double the Pleasure

In choosing a backing fabric for the tablerunner, I was challenged to find a coordinating fabric large enough amongst my stash, but I did. I considered piecing together a backing from a few chunks of various fabrics, but I decided that I wanted it to be reversible and a single fabric would be nice. I didn't put a middle layer in because I want the runner to be flat and not puffy. It's finished like a pillow case and top-stitched around the edge, which you can just make out in the close up photo.

Seasonal Shift

As the days get colder and darker, I find myself turning to simple sewing and a slower pace - a postcard is now complete and this table runner is in the making. I enjoyed arranging the squares of fabric, trying to vary the colours, values and prints while only having a limited amount of precut squares that I bought a few years ago at my quilt guild's garage sale. I've begun sewing them together.

What's Growing in My Creative Garden

Sometimes between larger projects, I find doing something simple and straight forward helps to tide me over and can respark my creative fire. A few days ago I decided to make a table runner after attending the Westshore Quilt Show and finding an Easter coloured fabric. I had seen some amazing quilts brought by Montana art quilter extraordinaire Barbara Olsen, who dropped into the show for a surprise visit after taping an instructional DVD here on Vancouver Island. Her colourful machine appliqued florals led to me imagining doing a collaged floral table runner (and a quilt), yet when I actually went to sew, I decided I liked the fabric as it is and I wondered why make it so complicated? So I kept it a simple oval shape and one fabric without further embellishment. Then, a day later, I decided I wanted to expand and improve my technical skills and with that end in mind, I headed to the studio with a paper piecing book in hand, planning to make one simple block. Somehow, enroute, my eye was caught by an old pink sweatshirt I had decided to one day make over into a jacket. I suddenly found myself auditioning fabrics to collage to the front of it - and I never even cracked open that book! I love how this seems to just 'happen' - some new creation is born when I listen and follow what wants to arrive. The seed was probably planted a few years ago when I first thought of making over this sweatshirt and with sun from the recent quilt show inspiration and a little fertilizer from the table runner, it began to grow. I've used two fabrics I cut into pieces and then free motion sewed onto the shirt. Bias tape, a fancy stitch and a frog completed it - and I laundered it to fray the raw edges. I did have some technical challenges when I came to overlapping the bias tape and there were suddenly multiple layers to get through while using a fancy stitch. I substituted a jeans needle, which I imagine helped somewhat, although there are still a few brief places that the stitch distorted. I noticed that when I would start sewing on a flatter piece next, the stitch would remain distorted for awhile, so next time I was going to stitch after a thicker part, I turned my Pfaff off and then on again and voila, the stitch had reset and came out as it's supposed to. I wonder what I'll make next?