Jesters Galore

Well, I don't know quite what this is but I had fun making it.  I had the idea to mount one of these jester faces on a stick but I found I couldn't stop at one so ended up making seven and then I needed somewhere to display them.  The masks are an Elusive Images stamp and a Judikins cube stamp.  The base is 3 empty ribbon reels painted and stencilled and an empty cotton reel. Fun, but I don't know what I'll do with it now!

Apple Quilt

I've made my first quilt! Or rather mini quilt as it's approx 24 inches square.  I say approx as I have real problems getting things straight, measuring, finishing neatly etc. but despite the wonkiness it has actually come out better than I ever thought it would.  I used a Moda Chocolat fabric charm pack, and a Spellbinders die to cut the apples in my Cuttlebug - I got a very clean cut. I used bondaweb to stick the apples on and then handstitched round them, alternating stab stitch and cross stitch.  I just tied the front to the backing fabric at the intersections.  I'm pleased to have done it (especially as it's taken me months on and off) but I don't think I'll ever become a quilter!

Cockerel fabric piece

I like reading Sew Somerset magazine and admire the fabric pieces in there and the way people seem to be able to build up a pleasing design from scraps.  I've tried it a few times but have not been pleased with the results but finally this is more the look I've been going for.
I bought some DeColourant cream which removes colour from paper and fabric and last weekend I played around with it trying it on all sorts of different materials and using stamps and stencils.  The cockerel (a wooden stamp from the Indian Block Company) was stamped with DeColourant on a piece of kitchen paper that had been used to mop up left over dyes from a tie-dye session. Quite colourful!

Stitched Bowl

This is a little bowl I made using fabric scraps and a pattern from Stitch Magazine Dec 2011, a project by Helen Howes.  My sewing skills are limited so I'm quite pleased with the way this turned out.

Sari Ribbon sampler

This is a wall hanging I made using sari ribbon.  I used the embellisher to fix the ribbon strips to the background and then did some hand stitching and added some beads and a length of chain at the top. The circle is a washer covered with sari ribbon and wound with beads on silver wire. Love the bright colours of the ribbon.

Octopode and Stampotique stamps

This is my daughter's 21st birthday card - not an obvious choice for a 21st and certainly not girly or pretty but the stamps I used (Octopode on the cover and Stampotique inside) are actually her stamps and she loved the finished card!
It's a much bigger card than I usually make, I cut an A4 piece of kraft card in half and stitched the two pieces together to make a card, then added the Tim Holtz bingo card to the front to make an extra flap, I liked the extra space it gave me.

(And yes, how can I possibly have a daughter who's 21?)

Inspired by Sarah Lawrence

Last week I got a copy of Sarah Lawrence's new (and sadly last) book, 'Stitch, Cloth, Shimmer & Shine'.  As a librarian I like to start a book at the beginning and read through to the end but with this one as I flipped through the pages I was immediately inspired by so many of the pictures that I jumped right in in the middle and made this fabric postcard using the ideas in the book. I punched and embossed the metal, coloured it with promarkers and made the red beads with wire all as described in the book.  I used sprays and stencils to colour the black background and then added hand stitching. The book is wonderful and I highly recommend it.