Quilt Routes

Seaside Home

2012-03-07T09:31:00.001Z

Seaside Home, a photo by C&T Publishing on Flickr.

Carrying on from yesterday's Seaside theme (it wasn't planned) I have just discovered that this book is now available.
It seems like an age since I was contacted by C&T publishing to submit my Pebble Stack design for inclusion.
Well, it is now available, and today there is a giveaway going on over on the Stash Books blog ...where you can see a piciture of my design...with my name......on a C&T publishing blog...I am so thrilled!
Stay tuned because I will be having a giveaway here soon!

Scenes from a Seaside Home

2012-03-06T11:49:00.005Z

In an earlier post I said I would share some info on fabric paper. Here it is at it's most basic.

A copy of a photo, and some white fabric.

Some PVA glue mixed with a minimum of water, and a plastic tray.

Cover the fabric in glue.

Lay the paper on top and also cover in glue.

Now there are a few points to remember. The ink will run (this is a print from an ink jet printer), but you can keep it to a minimum by not too much water in your glue and not over brushing. You will have a few wrinkles and a bit of blurring but I am happy with that.

A simple fast way to get an image onto a piece.

This is what I did with mine.

I put it onto some wadding, added a few strips, and then added stitch.

Now I have a great "random zig zag" stitch on my sewing machine that I like to edge things with sometimes. Like me, you probably end up with something like this when you zig zag an edge.

After trimming this is what I do.

I add a touch of paint (or sometimes glue or acrylic gel medium) all along the edge, to neaten everything up.

It works a treat!

If you want to learn more about the delights of fabric paper I can highly recommend this book.

Stitch Alchemy by Kelli Perkins is like a comic for grown ups, and I mean that in the best sense. It is so full of colour, it is a real feast for the eyes and packed with ideas for making and using fabric paper. I love browsing through my copy.

Cymru Am Byth

2012-03-02T10:02:00.000Z

I haven't done one of these for a while, but I was thrilled to find that one of my kits was included in a St David's Day Treasury on Etsy yesterday. Thanks to Cat Thomas at Baban Cat. If you pop on over she has a recipe for Welsh Cakes (or bakestones as they were known in my house) which were a staple of my childhood. She has even done a post on Ogmore where I live!

fabric friday

2012-02-24T17:38:00.000Z

Moody. Just like the weather here today!
Have a good weekend!

Dreaming of Borneo

2012-02-23T09:10:00.000Z

I first showed you this piece back in October here. I also discussed how I made the stamps here.

It is long overdue but I have finally got around to finishing it. I am not going to lie to you, I was looking to finish quickly as I had long lost any inspiration regarding the piece, but as I mentioned before it is a piece I use to demonstrate stamping, and as some people seem to turn up at more than one group, I felt I needed to get it off the UFO list.

With that frame of mind I decided to print off some scanned images and put them onto fabric and just slap them on. I was doing a test print in paper first to check the alignment, when I decided to just skip printing it onto fabric and make some fabric paper instead. As you can see I stitched the images down with monofilament thread and I was done.

It won't be hanging in any art galleries or on a wall in my home for that matter, but for a sample it does just fine.

Stay tuned for info on fabric paper in case you don't know what I am talking about (and if you can't wait visit Leslies blog, she uses it a lot). Plus I also want to share with you the method I used for the edging on this piece.

fabric friday (kind of...)

2012-02-17T12:46:00.000Z

Ever since I began painting fabric I have been saving the selvedges.

Sometimes they are painted in situ and then removed. Sometimes they are removed before painting and then I keep them to mop up any bits of paint that have are left over. (I know, I need to get a life!)

I have already made a diary cover with them, but you only ever need one of those, and I did attempt making a pencil case, but zips are really not my thing and I don't want to have to repeat that experience too often!

I can maybe see a string quilt in my future but before I commit to that I am looking for suggestions. Any ideas?

A Miss Havisham Heart

2012-02-14T15:00:00.000Z

There is so much going on at the moment about the birth of Charles Dickens 200 years ago, I thought I would get in on the act.

I have named this 'Miss Havisham's Heart'.

HAPPY VALENTINES!

fabric friday

2012-02-10T13:01:00.000Z

Tree bark anyone?

Available in my Etsy shop

Using scraps....

2012-02-09T12:03:00.000Z

I have long been an admirer of the work of Terri Stegmiller, and have particularly liked the mosaic technique that she uses on some pieces. She recently posted a tutorial for this heart quilt, and I wanted to have a go.

A special friend has a big birthday on Valentines day, so I have started to put together my own heart.

The colours have been chosen to co-ordinate with a lovely grey felted cowl scarf that I bought from this Etsy shop

I plan to add some french knots and maybe some beads and turn it into a hanging heart ornament.

Stay tuned!

I like this.

2012-02-07T16:45:00.000Z

I thought I would start what will hopefully turn out to be a regular feature by highlighting books and other art quilting resources that I have found particularly useful to my learning. Things that I genuinely own and use.

Back in October, over on my other blog, I shared with you Laurie Wisbrun's book The Complete Guide to Designing and Printing Fabric to give it it's UK title/ Mastering the Art of Fabric Printing and Design to give it it's US title.

My fabric is in this chapter!

Back then I said I would go into a bit more detail of what was between the covers and better late than never, here is a closer look.

I initially bought this book for obvious reasons, and did not know what to expect. Having owned it now for a couple of months I would recommend it, even if my fabric wasn't in it.

Anyone, who has any interest in dyeing, painting, printing or digitally designing their own fabric can benefit. It is a complete resource on all things creative, regarding fabric, and many of the tutorials could easily be applied to other crafts.

Apart from the chapter headings that I have shown, there are also informative chapters on Understanding Patterns, Sourcing Inspiration and Designing patterns. There are interviews with leaders in the field such as the girls from Ink and Spindle and tutorials from Malka Dubrawsky (dyeing) and Jesse Breytenbach (block printing) to name but a few.

There are useful sections on using photoshop, scanning and digital designing, plus much more.

This book has already proved itself useful in a number of areas I and see it as an invaluable addition to my bookshelf.
,

fabric friday

2012-02-03T13:19:00.000Z

Playing, with doodles and freezer paper...

...positive and negative...

...stamping and stencilling...

...black and white...

Not the neatest of results (.. in a bit of a hurry) but I did have fun.

It started with this.....

2012-01-28T20:32:00.000Z

..... mini art quilt that I made back in 2010 as a result of winning Marjorie's giveaway of some lovely batiks.

This came about because I wanted to use up the scraps that came about from putting together this....

There were a lot of bunting quilts around at the time but all the ones I saw were applique. I decided that there had to be a way of doing a pieced bunting quilt that would appeal to people who knew that the quilt would be in and out of the wash a lot, as one would expect with a quilt made for a child. (I know we all love bunting but in my head this design is for babies and children).

I wanted to keep the movement of the applique quilt so I designed a left and right facing block, and as you can see in the above photo. I took the bottom point to the edge of the block and then added a strip along the bottom.

The addition of some blank blocks and some stitched string makes this a wall quilt.

But how to make it into a bed quilt?

For my next attempt I adjusted the block to not need a separate strip between rows, although I did put a vertical sashing between blocks, because I found the kona cotton that I used for this slightly thicker than other cottons, and I was afraid that I would have problems matching up the points.

I hand quilted around and between the pennants with cotton perle, and machine quilted the background.

I still was not happy though I wanted something that would be a lot quicker to put together.

So finally I did this.

A baby size quilt that was very easy, and quick to piece and machine quilt.

So why have I spent so long on this project?

Well I did have a plan to make a pattern for this and sell it in my Etsy shop, but for some reason I just could not motivate myself to get it finished, but knowing it was there was stopping me from getting on with anything else.

Well last week I had a light bulb moment and I realised that the reason for not getting on with it is because although I personally love making the odd quilt and enjoy seeing all the other wonderful quilts that are out there, producing patterns that have to be exact and precise are not really my thing and it is not really what I am trying to do here, with my fabric painting and art quilts.

However, having said all of that I couldn't let all that work be for nothing, so you can download a copy of the block here (left facing) and here (right facing).
It is a 6 x 9 inch block ( the size I used in the baby quilt) but feel free to reduce or enlarge it to suit.
There are no fabric requirements but if people are keen I can work out a few different sizes using my EQ7 and post them here.

It is a very simple block to construct, only three simple seams. It is foundation piecing to make it as accurate as possible.
Don't be put off if you haven't done any foundation piecing before. Whenever I am making a traditional block I will always try to do it by foundation piecing as it helps me to get the accuracy that somehow eludes my otherwise!

There are different ways of foundation piecing and I now almost always use the freezer paper method since watching Judy Mathieson demonstrate it on The Quilt Show (Episode 707).
I also always use this 1/4 " ruler when doing foundation piecing.

Please let me know if you make anything with this block. I would love to see.
Happy Stitching!

fabric friday

2012-01-27T14:48:00.000Z

The sun is poking it's head out of the clouds today, so I have been painting some skies.

Painting a summer sky would seem to be a relatively easy thing to do, but because there is a larger water to paint ratio (to get the pale blues needed) they don't always turn out as well as I would like. The water can "travel" and not always in the direction you want. Fine if it is a hot day and the paint dries quickly, but in January......

Not to worry. It is easy to go back and add more paint.

That's better!

fabric friday

2012-01-20T17:24:00.000Z

Which do you prefer?

Getting Organised

2012-01-18T17:00:00.000Z

These fabric rolls have been languishing in my loft since before Christmas. It's time to get organised.

All cut (or rather torn) up ready to for painting.

Maybe like this.
Until next time!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T18:00:00.000Z

Guess where I was at midnight.
Still don't know? Take a look here. Best fireworks EVER!!!!
Happy New Year to everyone.

And the winner this time is......

2011-12-28T17:35:00.000Z

Hope you are all having a lovely Holiday and that Santa brought you something nice.
I got a Needle Felting/Embellisher which I have been having great fun with.
No pics as I have been restricting myself to book marks and tree decorations that have been given away to family and friends.

Poppies for Emilia

Anyhow I am here now to announce that I have re-drawn for the Blog Hop Party giveaway as I was unable to contact the last winner and she hasn't contacted me.
Thanks to Nina for pointing out how to capture this image, although I still had to call on my 16 year old, who looked at me with disdain for not knowing how to do this

No 112 is Emilia.

Congrats to her. I am off to e-mail.

Post 100, which is actually this one...not the one where I announced the giveaway!

2011-12-24T11:03:00.000Z

Happy Christmas Eve.

I am here to announce that the winner of my 100 post giveaway is number 14 gill. Congratulations Gill!

No time to mess about with random generator images today, busy busy....

And because I know how busy things get at this time of year I will give Marie who won my Blog Hop Party giveaway until the 28th to get in touch, after which I will choose a new winner.

If you are wondering what that is on on my tree go take a look here.

I am wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Creative New Year.

See you on the other side:)

And the Winner is......

2011-12-18T10:53:00.001Z

I am running a little late with this so apolpogies, but the winner of the Quilting Gallery Blog Hop Party is.......

Number 62 Maria Kievit, who gets to pick a kit.
UPDATE. As a no reply blogger I cannot contact you Maria, so please email me with your address or I will have to choose a new winner.

The winner of the Sew Mama Sew giveaway is........

Number 75 Needled Mom who gets a selection of fabric packs.

Congratulations! I will be emailing you for your addresses.

The winners were chosen using the Random Generator thingy which I have just spent the last hour trying to show you here. I could spend the rest of Sunday trying but in the interest of speed and my sanity you will just have to take my word for it. (What is really annoying is that I have done it before, so any instructions would be greatly appreciated!)

Don't forget that there is still time to enter my third giveaway here which closes on Christmas Eve

POST 100! Giveaway No. 3.

2011-12-14T10:31:00.000Z

Earlier on this year I had the exciting news that my hand painted fabric had been included in a book written by Laurie Wisbrun.

Laurie had asked me to send her a piece of "Layers" fabric, which I duly did, and as you can see it was featured on page 103!

There was a little hiccough, as the date for the photography was drawing closer, and my fabric hadn't arrived. So I quickly prepared another piece to send, then the original turned up.

Now as I am writing this I realise that you might be thinking that I am about to offer a copy this book. Sadly I only have the one copy and that is MINE!

What I do have, however is the second 1/2 yard of fabric which I am offering as my Giveaway today.

Because it is Christmas, if you win this I will also custom paint you another 1/2 yard in the colour of your choice.

I will leave this giveaway open until the 23rd December, and will let the winner know on the 24th, which will hopefully be a nice Christmas surprise!
So leave a comment and tell me what your colour choice would be (don't worry, if you win, I will double check in case you change your mind).
* If you are a follower there will be something extra in your prize!
Open to all as I will post worldwide.

There is still time to enter my two other giveaways here and here.

P.S. More about the rest of the book soon!

Sew Mama Sew Christmas Giveaway No 2.

2011-12-12T09:58:00.001Z

Hello to those of you who have come here from the Sew Mama Sew Christmas Giveaway.

If you are reading this because you chose to become a follower after visiting from this giveaway, then thank you so much for joining. It is very much appreciated.

Today I am offering this selection of hand painted fabric packs which are perfect for any quilting, sewing and crafting projects.
Pack one has a fat 1/8th of summer sky,sunset sky and night sky fabric.
Pack two has a selection of blues, perfect for seas and skies in postcard or mini landscapes.
Pack three has a selection of greens that can be used for applique leaves or hillsides.
Pack 4 has a selection of coordinating pinks, perfect for hearts and flowers or to make a pieced background.
Closes on the 16th December.

All of the above are just suggestions, and if you still don't know what you would do with them there are more ideas over in my flickr gallery.

If you haven't tried Art Quilting before this would be a perfect opportunity to dip your toe in the water.
If you visit my previous post you can enter to win one of my kits.

So leave a comment, worldwide welcome. Tell me if you fancy trying art quilting-or not, and Good Luck!
More to fabric giveaway here to celebrate hitting 100 posts.

Blog Hop Party Giveaway (No.1)

2011-12-09T09:47:00.001Z

Hello and Welcome!

This is the first of the three Giveaways that I am having here. This one is linked to the Blog Hop Party hosted by Quilting Gallery.

If that is what has brought you here thanks for visiting. I hope you will stay a while and check out my tutorials on fabric painting and more.

If you haven't been there, I suggest you follow the link in my side bar to see what else you can win.

This giveaway is for one of my mini art quilts, each containing hand painted fabric. A selection of which are shown here and more of which can be found over in my Etsy shop.

There will be a couple more new kits added in the next few days, and I hope you will see something you like.

So please leave a comment, wherever you are in the world.

The winner can choose the kit they wish to recieve. Good Luck!

Giveaway closes on the 17th December when I will use the Random Generator to pick a winner.

Giveaway! Giveaway!

2011-12-07T14:07:00.001Z

I know things have been quiet around here lately, but those of you who read my personal Blue Hare blog will know why that is. Suffice to say that things are starting to get back to normal around here, and to celebrate that fact I am giving you a heads up on the fact that I am going to have not one but three giveaways here in the next few days.

Firstly is the Quilting Gallery Blog Hop Party starting on the 9th/10th of December.

Then on the 12th I will be linking up with the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway, follow the link for details.

And some time amongst all of that it will be my 100th post over here at Quilt Routes and I will be giving away on that day too!

So if you fancy getting your hands on one of my kits or some hand painted fabric then I hope you will join in.

11.11.11

2011-11-11T11:09:00.001Z

For all who have fallen.

fabric friday

2011-11-04T14:04:00.000Z

A couple of weeks ago I showed you this.

This is how it looks now.

The tree was added with one big stencil that I cut out of freezer paper.

To be honest it has been looking like this for a while as I have kind of hit a brick wall with it. I can't decide if it needs something else, or whether the tree is enough of a focal point. What do you think?

I am the featured seller on the Etsians on facebook forum today. If any fellow Etsians are reading this I would love it if you popped over to say hello!

fabric friday

2011-10-21T09:45:00.000+01:00

I thought you wouldn't mind me sharing this with you for this fabric friday.

Iban Longhouse

2011-10-20T15:11:00.000+01:00

Carrying on from last week's post about pizza base stamps.

This, called "Iban Longhouse" at the moment, has now had an image of said longhouse added to it.

I used a freezer paper stencil and some Stewart Gill paint. These are not the paints that I use for my everyday painting of fabric but they are very good for adding details with stamps and stencils and have a very comprehensive range of textures and colours.

fabric friday

2011-10-14T11:05:00.001+01:00

hand painted fabric, a photo by Quilt Routes on Flickr.

This is an old one, but I don't think I have shown it here before.

Pizza base stamps.

2011-10-13T13:52:00.000+01:00

Last week I showed you this.

It is a piece that I show in my talk and because in the next few months I will be talking to some groups who have members that I know have heard me before in other venues, I thought it would be a good idea to get it finished.

Before I do anything else to it I wanted to share with you how I made the stamps from the styrofoam pizza bases. There always seems to be a lot of them around here.

I got the designs from a book I brought back from Brunei called 'Hornbills and Dragons' by Bernard Sellato. It looks at the designs found in Kalimantan, Sarawak, Brunei and Sabah which are the countries that make up the island of Borneo.

The designs have very convieniently been displayed in clear black and white graphics.

I scanned the images into the printer, resized them, and printed them out. Using the printout as a guide I used a sharp pointed pencil to engrave an outline of the image onto a piece of pizza base.

I then carved out the stencil using a soldering iron. You have to be quick or you end up with a big hole and you HAVE to work in a well ventilated area because of the fumes given off by the styrofoam.

I glued the designs onto another piece for stability and strength.

This method allowed me to get some very intricate designs made into a stamp, quickly and easily. If a mistake was made it was no bother to just start again on an inexpensive pizza base.

As with any culture the designs have a lot of history and meaning for the indigenous tribes of Borneo, many of who still live in the traditional long house.

The designs can be seen in all sorts of crafts such as carvings, paintings, textiles and basket weaving,

even tattoos.

Stay tuned to see what I do next with this piece.

fabric friday

2011-10-07T13:03:00.000+01:00

Not ready to give up on those blue Summer skies just yet.

Available here.

Busy,busy

2011-10-05T13:42:00.000+01:00

I have begun to put some new kits together and here is a sneak peek.

Things have been a bit slow, as those of you who read my blue hare blog will know, because a kitchen fire this summer has slowed the creativity a bit.

However, in an effort to get things moving again I have joined the Blogtoberfest, commiting myself to blog every day of October. You can join in at any time if you fancy the challlenge.

On the Quilt Routes front I have decided it is about time I got around to stitching this piece.

I use it to demonstrate stamping when I give my talk, which involves looking at different ways of painting and printing on fabric. I made the stamps for this using pizza bases (details to come later) and when I say bases I don't mean the dough base but the packaging base. I have to clarify this because I was once asked how I stopped the paint from breaking up the dough!

Stay tuned.

Scrappy Journal Part 2

2011-09-20T10:58:00.000+01:00

Yesterdays post showed you how I use the paper cloths/towels that I clean up with to create pages from which I made this Scrappy Journal.

The quick and easy cover was made with a mop up cloth folded over some batting, that was stitched around the open edges and then decorated with stamps.

I made six mini books (signatures) and stitched them into the cover.

Each section had been stamped and stitched.....

....with added pockets and inserts, using up any bits that I had to hand.

I finished off by adding torn strips of fabric to the spine. My daughter thinks I over did it this, but once I had started I couldn't leave any bald spots!

This was very easy and a lot of fun to do.

Lots more photos here.

Scrappy Journal Part 1

2011-09-19T13:58:00.000+01:00

NOTHING gets wasted when I do fabric painting. I even save the paper cloths that I mop up with.

I just can't throw away anything that colourful!

I think I first saw this technique in this book by Traci Bautista.

It is so simple and a great way to re-cycle paper cloths that would otherwise end up in the rubbish bin.

It's like creating your own art supplies for free.

This is a quick over view of what I do.

Separate the two layers of tissue that you usually get, and lay them onto a non stick surface. I am using an old plastic tray here.

Using an old wide brush and a mixture of approx. 3 parts water to 1 part PVA glue, flatten the tissue down onto the surface.

I iron the tissue flat first because it is easier to work with. (I avoid ironing my family's clothes if possible, but I am happy to iron used paper towels!!)

Keep adding layer upon layer of tissue until you are happy. You can put down blocks of colour or tear up strips to add more interest. You can also cut out shapes or trap things between the layers.

Three to four layers are usually enough, maybe less if you buy the posh stuff!!

Wait for it all to dry thoroughly and then it can be folded and cut up to make pages like these.

They can also be cut into shapes to make a paper quilt.

These pages have gone into a Scrappy Journal that I will share with you next time.

Autumn Leaves

2011-09-13T12:04:00.000+01:00

Summer has given way to Autumn in one fell swoop around here.

With that in mind, here are some ways to produce painted fabrics with an Autumnal feel.

From the top: Positive and negative stencilling. Sun printing. Leaf printing.

Some good strong colours for making appliques.

Scrappy Sea Scene

2011-08-27T10:52:00.000+01:00

I know things have been quiet around here lately, but it has all been going on over on my blue hare blog, some good, some not so good.

Things are starting to settle down around here and I have lots of things planed for Quilt Routes, but I am
sure you know how hard it can be to get back into the rythmn after a break.

I find that just diving in and doing anything creative helps even if it is not something you should be doing. It is just nice to do a fun activity and get the creative juices flowing.
When I saw this post from Alisa Burke I knew it was something I wanted to try.

So using strips of painted fabric and an old canvas not needed any more I did this.

I covered the canvas in gesso, sticking the strips on whilst the paint was still wet. When dry I made sure everything was secured into place with a couple of coats of artists varnish.
It was so easy to do and very satisfying.
Why don't you give it a try?

fabric friday

2011-08-05T14:23:00.001+01:00

sun printing, a photo by Quilt Routes on Flickr.

Thinking of Sunflowers

2011-08-04T18:46:00.000+01:00

Snuggled in the far corner at the back of the house away from the sea winds I have managed to grow a sunflower. No mean feat I can tell you.

I have also been thinking of sunflowers in my stitching.

Using one of my Solitary Sunflower kits I have put together a little wall hanging using up some scraps.

Here is the original with simple straight line stitching around the edge of the applique shapes, but I wanted to try something different.

Beginning with the leaves....

I have dropped the feed dogs and put on my darning foot to do some free motion stitching, but I have set the machine to a narrow open zig zag. This is a great stitch to practise free motion because the needle is going from side to side which means it is not running away from you gives you more control.

I have used a variegated thread and gone around the edges twice.

Same for the petals.....

Here are some more sunflower that have been intensively stitched.

Sunflower applique template available soon.

Happy Stitching

Is it too soon........

2011-08-01T15:03:00.000+01:00

....to be thinking of Falling Leaves?

Not in if you want to be ahead of the game in craftland.

PDF Templates available in my Folksy and Etsy shops now!

This is what I did with some of them last year.

Happy Stitching

Deborah

fabric fabric

2011-07-29T13:56:00.001+01:00

hand painted fabric, a photo by Quilt Routes on Flickr.

One from the archives today.

Fabric Friday

2011-07-22T18:04:00.001+01:00

Stamping, a photo by Quilt Routes on Flickr.

Stamping

Beach Huts Tutorial Part 2

2011-07-21T12:20:00.000+01:00

I think the photos speak for themselves at this stage. Using a fusible of your choice cut out the pieces of the Beach Huts and fuse to the back of your chosen fabrics. You can download a pattern template here

A lot of stitching has gone into this piece and so keep everything smooth I like to stitch the details onto appliques before attaching them to the quilt. Fuse them onto a stabiliser as shown below.

I also like to get all the lines stitched onto the background before adding the huts as this saves having to twist and turn around the added pieces. I use mono filament thread foe this.

I have added some birds with fabric pen.

Now I add the huts and straight stitch them into place. They are stiff enough for this to be done easily. Just add a few pins to keep them in place.

Here is the finished piecing using an envolope facing. Below is the original one which was pieced with an added border and appliqued first before adding minimal quilting and a traditional binding pieced from left over pieces.

I added 5 huts to this one and let them sit over onto the border for variety.

There we are. I hope you have a go and if you make one I would love to see it.

Beach Huts Mini Art Quilt Tutorial

2011-07-20T15:22:00.000+01:00

Need some sunshine in your life?
How about making this Beach Hut mini art quilt.

This tutorial will show you how to do a diagonally pieced sky using two different fabrics and looks at some different stitching options. It is not a definitive lesson on what you must do to create this quilt but rather something that will help you set you off and give you different options to follow.

Requirement

Naturally I have used had painted fabric, but any fabric can be used.
I am not going to give sizes. Make it any size you wish.
The only thing to remember is that you need two pieces of sky fabric exactly the same size.
Also
one strip of sea fabric
one strip of sand fabric
a selection of scraps for the beach huts

Piecing the background

Right sides of fabric both facing up, place them one on top of the other.

Using a ruler and rotary cutter, slice diagonally through the two layers of fabric.

Move your cuts out from the inner corner to the outer corner in increments just remembering to make them wide enough to allow for the seam allowances which will come later.

Now alternate the pieces of fabric like shown.

When stitched together it will look like this.

But can then be trimmed to look like this.

Those observant amongst you will notice that this one is the sister of the previous one as you get two for the price of one with this method.

Now add your sea and sand strips, in whichever order you like.

Here the sea is behind the huts,

and here it is in front of them.

Next time stitching and applique of the huts!

fabric friday

2011-07-15T07:50:00.000+01:00

It feels so good to be playing with paint again!

Back in the Saddle

2011-07-13T15:32:00.000+01:00

Today I have been planning and painting and thinking and generally enjoying the fact that my In the Spotlight quilt is finished. That means that normal blogging can resume. I just want to say thank you to all the new followers that I gained after the Sew Mama Sew giveaway for being so patient. Sorry that I have been off the radar for so long.

These poppies are inspiring me at the moment. They are self seeding and spring up all over the place this time of year.

I just love the way in which they give you the bud, the flower and the seedhead all at the same time.

Hope you are finding inspiration in your garden.

fabric friday with a difference

2011-06-24T09:07:00.000+01:00

Still working away on my Festival of Quilts piece, (nearly there!) and thought I would show you a pebble stack with a difference.

And in other news... I have been featured on Diannajessie's blog in her Folksy Friday post today, Folksy being our U.K. equivalent of Etsy for you non U.K. readers.

Happy Friday everyone.

Colour Punch

2011-06-14T07:59:00.000+01:00

A punch of colour to brighten up your day.

Teaching at Tredegar

2011-06-12T10:21:00.000+01:00

I was here yesterday,

or more precisely here, teaching this.....

..my Hawaiian in a Hurry technique.

A quilt shop set in the grounds of a beautiful country house. What a joy!

I had a lovely day and met some lovely people and I want to thank them and the staff at Busy Bees for making me feel so welcome.

If you are ever in the South Wales area you must stop here.

Things.....

2011-06-07T18:09:00.000+01:00

........are a bit quiet around here at the moment and I want to apologise for that, especially to all my new lovely followers.
Above is the reason why.

I am working on my piece for this years Festival of Quilts, progress of which can be found on my other blog if you are in any way curious and would like to take a look. Just take a look at all the "In the Spotlight" tags.

I am almost there so I will soon be back with new fabric, new kits and new tutorials.

fabric friday

2011-06-03T17:10:00.000+01:00

Sun printed, stencilled and stamped.

Flour paste resist

2011-06-01T19:48:00.000+01:00

A friend wanted a "crackled" piece of fabric which is why I experimented with the piece shown in "fabric friday."

This is how it is done. There are no photos for the first few steps as frankly they are pretty boring to look at and honestly I forgot to take any!

Mix flour and water in a ratio of 1:1.
Stir it up, removing as many lumps as possible. Leave it to sit for a while so that it becomes nice and gloopy.
Spread it over fabric as evenly as possible. This is easier if you tape the fabric down on a board first.
I used an old credit card as a spreader.
Leave to dry.

Okay here comes the first photo.

The fabric curls up as it dries and looks like animal hide. This is now the time to put in the crackles, (more of which below).

Now you add the UNDILUTED paint. This is one of those occasions when you don't want to be watering down the colour, as all that will serve to do is dissolve the flour.

Cover the surface of your fabric and allow to dry completely again.

Once dry, sit your fabric in water for about 20 minutes or so to allow the resist to come away from the fabric.

It is then a bit of a messy process while you rub the resist away from the fabric under a running tap. Dry and press.

The way in which you crackle the fabric makes a difference.

From the left, the first one I forgot to crackle so got a very fine line,

Middle piece was crushed up in my fist,

Third one was kind of rolled up in the one direction.

I used Pebeo Setacolor paint as usual, which states that it has to be fixed by heat, but I couldn't do that before I had washed out the flour, so I was half expecting all the colour to wash away as well, but as you can see it was okay.

The kind of paint you use will have some bearing as you can see from my first blue piece, the section on the right was a different paint and that dissolved a bit into the fabric.

I like this effect, but you do wash alot of the paint down the sink! At times though it might be just the effect that you want, and I already have an idea in mind. If you have a go I would love to see the results.

Fading Light

2011-05-29T15:35:00.000+01:00

After the brilliant sunshine of April, it has been a bit of a grey May. There is beauty in grey though.

fabric friday

2011-05-27T14:33:00.000+01:00

I have been experimenting with flour paste resists. I will show you how next week.

Giveaway Winner

2011-05-26T17:03:00.000+01:00

Wow!!!
First can I say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone that took the time to comment.
I have been completely blown away by the amount of comments left, and about all the lovely things said. Way, way beyond anything that I expected. You have all made me very happy!
But there can only be one winner.

Counting through the list of comments and adding a few numbers for those who said they are following in Google reader came to 296.

Number 278 is RobynK in Australia who I will be contacting as soon as this is posted. Congratulations Robyn.

I want to say thank you to SewMamaSew for organising this. It has been such fun and I will definately be doing another one (this was my first time!).

An extra Thank You to those who decided to follow me. I look forward to getting to know you all over the coming weeks.

I'll leave you with this pic from my blue hare blog yesterday (link in side bar) as it feels strange to post without a photo.

Giveaway Day

2011-05-23T11:57:00.000+01:00

NOW CLOSED

I am participating in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day today.

This is new territory for me so I hope you like what I have on offer and that you leave a comment on this post to be in with a chance.

What is that saying? "You have to be in it to win it!".

If you are a first time visitor to the site, I hope that you can take the time to look around to see what I get up to and that you like it enough to make a return visit.

My giveaway includes one fat quarter each of Night Sky, Summer Sky and Sunset Sky hand painted fabrics.

Also these sample packs of greens and blues, along with a "Pebbles Pack" which contains a variety of stone and pebble fabrics. Included is a pack of painted and dyed scrim to use as embellishment on your creations.

I will also throw in a "Beach Bundle" shown below.

And finally, you can chose one of any of my kits.

More details about all of these giveaways can be found at my Etsy or Folksy shop, where you can get to chose which kit you would like!

For those who are already into Art and Landscape Quilting I am sure you could put these supplies to good use. For those of you who are not, then this is a great chance to dip your toe in the water.

You can see how I use these fabrics on this blog, here and over at my flickr gallery.

Thanks for visiting and hope you come back soon.

Now off you go into blogland and try and win some more goodies.

Nearly forgot! I will post these goodies to anywhere in the world.

UPDATE: I thought it was against the rules but everyone else seems to be doing it, so if you become a follower as well, you get an extra chance to win. The winner will be contacted by email..... you know the rest.

fabric friday

2011-05-20T13:17:00.000+01:00

The Painted Quilt Experiment

2011-05-16T18:00:00.000+01:00

Now the making of this quilt was a bit of an experiment from the start. I had won the 4 inch color wheel blocks in a give away, and to be quite be honest was at a bit of a loss to know what to do with them as I rarely use commercial print, but I decided to to put them with a hand painted chocolate brown because all the colours reminded me of the brightly coloured wrappers you get on some chocolates.

Now I could have been more precise in my painting and get a more even coverage but I actually thought that it would be more interesting not to. After all, you might as well just buy a solid as do that.

Anyway, as you can see it wasn't one of my better plans, although I have to say that it doesn't actually look as bad as it does in the photograph!

However, this is not the experiment I talk of in the title, because although I have and do make quilts with painted fabrics, as you can see here and here for example, I always have had a bit of a niggle in the back of my mind about how well a quilt, that is in proper use, would last, if the fabrics are painted.

I used to think that it would be a no no, but after recently reassigning the family lap quilt to the dog's bed, (because it was looking so tatty after only a couple of years use and the fabrics were from a very, and I mean very, well known fabric designer) I thought that my painted fabrics can do no worse and the only way to find out is to make a quilt and put it through it's paces.

So, I know this will take a bit of time but I will be doing a before and after analysis, and will let you know what the results are.

This quilt even has hand dyed pieces in the binding so we will see how they stand up to repeated washing also.
Hope you can stick around to see the results.
AQQEEPEMBBVG

Blogger's Quilt Festival Rocks!

2011-05-13T20:14:00.000+01:00

I first blogged about this quilt on my other blog here.
It was one of the first quilts that I made with painted (not dyed) fabrics.

Random rotary cut. Machine pieced and machine quilted. I call it Circles Rock!

Thanks to Amy for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival.

fabric friday

2011-05-13T19:46:00.000+01:00

Beach Fence

2011-05-08T16:50:00.000+01:00

A bit of self promotion on a Sunday afternoon.
If you purchase a Beach Fabric Bundle from Etsy or Folksy, I will throw in a free Beach Fence pattern.

Each bundle has a fat quarter of hand painted sand fabric which is graduated from light to dark, a piece of sky and a piece of sand with a co-ordinating bit of scrim thrown in for good measure.

You might also like the blue sample packs that I have put together. Great for fabric postcards and ATC's, with a selection of skies and seas to play with.

fabric friday

2011-05-06T08:11:00.000+01:00

Today, I want to do things a little differently.
I want you to follow this link and see the wonderful piece done by my blog friend Kit Lang.
It does contain a bit of my hand painted scrim, so this still counts as a fabric friday post, but I want you to visit because it is so beautiful.

Wood Witch Kit Lang, Fiber Art

New Tutorials

2011-05-05T14:10:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I am asked about the methods used to create my kits, so I have put together some simple tutorials which can be found on the header bar of this blog.
I would love it if you took a look and told me what you think.

Thank Very Berry Much

2011-05-04T13:04:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post to say a big thank you to Ali Burdon of Very Berry Handmade who featured my shop on the Folksy blog recently. Read all about it here.

It is always nice to be recognised by another creative person and I feel very grateful for the mention.

And..as I can't do a post without some eye candy here is some stuff that is for sale in my Folksy shop right now.

You gotta love green.

2011-05-03T08:25:00.000+01:00

fabric 'flag waving' friday

2011-04-29T14:45:00.000+01:00

No time for painting today! Off to a Street Party now.

Colourful Etsy Treasury

2011-04-26T07:04:00.000+01:00

A bit of colour to brighten up your day.

I do like it when someone features my stuff in one of there treasuries.

Happy Easter

2011-04-23T09:54:00.000+01:00

I could have gone on and on with this!
Thanks to Carol for the heads up about Dumpr

Happy Easter Everyone.

fabric friday

2011-04-22T10:37:00.001+01:00

Art Cloth, a photo by Quilt Routes on Flickr.

Sunny days.......

2011-04-20T16:38:00.000+01:00

....means a lot of painting can get done.

Been busy preparing some fabric for one of my kits.

You can see the line of sun moving across bringing it's quick drying times. Love it!

Pink and Blue

2011-04-19T08:06:00.000+01:00

I love this colour combination and as this treasury shows, I am not the only one.

Sunny Sunday

2011-04-17T13:40:00.000+01:00

Time to enjoy the sky here in sunny South Wales.

Bunting stitched onto painted summer sky.

Batik scraps for the pennants.

fabric friday

2011-04-15T12:44:00.001+01:00

Spotty Dotty, a photo by Quilt Routes on Flickr.

I know, I know another one.....

2011-04-11T12:55:00.000+01:00

....but it amused me to be included in a Made in Scotland Treasury when I am in Wales, but also the colour is gorgeous, and my husband is Scottish so I guess it's okay.

Sunflower

2011-04-11T04:58:00.000+01:00

I seem to be doing quite well with Etsy Treasuries lately!

This one is so fresh and bright.

Fat Quarters

2011-04-10T18:02:00.001+01:00

Fat Quarters, a photo by Quilt Routes on Flickr.

More stripes (and some dots)

fabric friday

2011-04-08T12:51:00.000+01:00

New Stripey fabric. Available in my Etsy shop here.

My work has also been included in the Folksy Friday blog here.

Etsy Treasury- Hives

2011-04-07T20:32:00.000+01:00

This fabric reminded me of a Bee Hive and now it has been included in a "Hive" Treasury

fabric friday

2011-04-01T11:06:00.000+01:00

Available here.

Moon Gazing Hare

2011-03-31T13:40:00.000+01:00

I have been working on upgrading the packaging on my Art Quilt Kits. The first one to get the treatment is the Moon Gazing Hare.

I am now using a brown card envelope which is much sturdier than the plastic I was using before, which means that the contents is better protected, and also means that they are now very suitable to give as gifts.

I also now provide each kit with just about everything you need to complete it (apart from thread). This means that as well as the hand painted fabric, template patterns and instructions, I also provide the iron on fusible, wadding, and backing fabric, which means that even those people who don't have a cupboard full of supplies can complete the kit.

Having done this I do hope that others can take my kits and put in their own spin, because I am all about people making things their own, and with that in mind here is one more photo for you.

Moon Gazing Hare kits now available here and here.

Etsy Treasury Quilted Landscapes

2011-03-26T08:27:00.000Z

'Quilted Landscapes' by connectthedotscrafts

sailboat mini quilt- &#... moonspiritstud... $27.00	Grasses Forcomfort $110.00	Sky Burst Landscape Qui... SewUpscale $11.00	Tranquility sunflowerquilt... $130.00
PDF PATTERN Strip Lands... quiltroutes $3.00	Landscape - Quilted Wal... CarsonConverse $220.00	LANDSCAPE WITH TREES emmaklee $	Landscape Fabric Postca... zizzybob $7.00
Quilted Trees Wall Hang... Mirael $45.00	The English Landscape -... lizplummer $20.00	Venetian Highway Origin... lenorehcrawfor... $495.00	Long Lake ACEO Print jeanbaardsen $2.75
Landscape Batik Art Qui... LyndiArt $16.00	Plum Orchard - mini art... cherylzmillerA... $24.00	Quilt -- Song for a Win... nhquiltarts $100.00	Art Quilt - Zebra Grass... TMRey $25.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

Feast your eyes on this lovely Quilted Landscape Etsy Treasury created by connectthedotscrafts.

My Strip Pieced Landscape pattern has been included.

fabric friday

2011-03-25T14:35:00.000Z

Weeping Willow

R.I.P. Kath.

Away Days

2011-03-22T12:51:00.000Z

Here is the proof that I have been teaching "overseas". A picture out of the car window whilst on the ferry.

I visited the lovely ladies of Vectis Quilters on the Isle of Wight, some of who you can see above.

I talked to them all about my work and the following day gave my Play With Paint workshop.

We tried out of lots of techniques for getting interesting effects on fabric using textile paint.

It was more of the same with North Somerset Quilters.

Thank you to both groups for inviting me, for making me feel so welcome, and for all your lovely messages since.

Happy St Davids Day

2011-03-01T11:23:00.000Z

Hand painted fabric with Bubble Jet image.

This is my interpretation of the Welsh Babe challenge I set to co-incide with St Davids Day.

Details of it's construction are on my Blue Hare blog.

This is.......

2011-02-20T14:12:00.000Z

.........what I was doing yesterday.

Giving a 'Play with Paint' workshop to the lovely ladies of Swansea Quilters.

I always enjoy visiting this group as they are a happy friendly bunch.

I have never been kept so well supplied with tea and coffee!

As you can see we were a bit short on space, but everyone mucked in and we got lots done.

Thanks for inviting me ladies

Tag Along

2011-02-14T17:39:00.000Z

I have been TAGGED!

Thank you to Heather whose work I love, for tagging this blog.

I was unaware of this blogging phenomenon but the rules are as follows

1. Tell who tagged you. (DONE)

2. Add a link to their blog.(DONE)

3. Award 3-5 bloggers who you think deserve this award.

My choices are Anne, whose work always makes me feel nostalgic because I used to live in Borneo too!

Sandra, who is a very well known and accomplished art quilter, but I love her work so much and I have two of her books, and her blog is so very informative.

And Marianne, because I have completely fallen in love with her "Quilt As You Go" quilts.

Inform them & post directions to your blogspot. (Will do)

The goal of this award is get more publicity to blogs that are good, but not so well known.

I can't say that the blogs I have chosen are not well known, but I like them and I hope you do too!

The pics are of the back of the work from my previous post. I think I would like to do something in black and white.

Finish

2011-02-13T13:00:00.000Z

This was supposed to be a quick project to get back into the swing of things.

It has taken rather longer than I had planned, guess it was all those filler stitches (note to self: not good for a quick project).

I love the texture that lots of stitching gives a piece though, so I am glad I did it, and I now have a new cushion.

I even put a zipper in using a tutorial from House on the Hill

When I started this piece, I chose the dark stitching to add contract to the pieces of fabric that were very similar in value.

Progress

2011-01-31T11:16:00.000Z

First the flowers

Then the filler stitches.

Gettng back into things

2011-01-19T15:10:00.000Z

Whenever I teach a fabric painting workshop, because of our climate, it is rarely warm enough for the fabric to dry by the end of the class.

What happens is that I usually end up wrapping everything up in plastic, which inevitably ends up in the colours becoming a bit muddied, as happened with these samples. (I have to confess that these spent rather a long time wrapped up in the plastic and as the paints I use really like light in order to perform well, they didn't get the best chance.)

I don't dislike the colours but it has to be said that there is not much in the way of contrast here. No light and dark values to give real interest.

So in the spirit og "getting back into things" I thought I would make some cushion covers and explore the possibility of adding the contract through my stitch choices.

After stripping pieces together, I did some sketching.

This is what I have done so far.

It feels good to be stitching again.

I have been painting too.

The colours here are actually stronger than they look here. I need to play with my camera settings.

Bye Bye Birdie

2010-12-09T12:13:00.000Z

These little birdies are off to a new home tomorrow. They look a bit sad don't they?

Not to worry. I know they are going to good homes where they will be well looked after.

They came into being after I got myself a copy of this delightful book. It is full of wonderful bird designs and inspired me to make these.

I winged it with the pattern; no pun intended, and so they are not the most elegant of birds but I love the way the hand painted fabrics show themselves off in these creations and I think I will be attempting some more stuffed animals soon.

This fella below is staying home with me. He was the prototype and a few mishaps occurred, one being that I stitched the wrong sides together (AGAIN!) but after the others were finished I thought "What if" and produced this version.

Can you spot the other error?

I forgot to reverse the wing shape while cutting out and so his wings are blue from one side and pink from the other.

I like these mishaps so much that I think I will see them as a design opportunity.

fabric friday

2010-12-03T14:00:00.000Z

Art Quilt companions available here.

fabric friday

2010-11-26T11:29:00.000Z

Getting ready for Christmas.
I had lots of fun doing this using artist acrylic paint, rather than my usual textile paint.
They have given the fabric a nice stiffness which will help as I cut out shapes for my hand made Christmas cards.

fabric friday

2010-11-05T13:05:00.000Z

Playing around with a potato masher. Mmm.

fabric friday

2010-10-22T11:58:00.000+01:00

Autumnal Charm

2010-10-21T12:58:00.000+01:00

Living by the sea we don't get to enjoy a lot of autumnal charm so I decided to create a bit of my own.

Using painted fabrics in Autumn colours I fused two pieces wrong sides together and then cut out leaf shapes of different sizes. I was in a bit of a hurry so I kept the shape basic.

I then free machine stitched the leaf veins in contrasting threads. The webbing (I used HeatnBond Lite for these) acts as a stabiliser making the stitching simple.

I then attached the leaves to some machine wrapped hemp cord which has a nice stiffness to it. (Look in the jewellry supplies section of craft shops for this).

Et Voila! My own Autunm Leaves Bunting!

I have a variety of downloadable leaf templates for sale in my in my shop here (Etsy $)

and here (Folksy £).

What do you think? If you make some Autumn bunting I would love to see.

Etsy UK SILLY SALE

2010-10-10T14:42:00.000+01:00

Haven't been very active here, but that is because I am undergoing a huge sort out of everything. Part of that involves joining in with the Etsy UK SILLY SALE. So head on over to my store to grab some bargains.

fabric friday

2010-09-10T14:45:00.000+01:00

Inspiration

2010-09-08T20:01:00.000+01:00

An artist whose work I really like is Fredrich Hundertwasser. I think his work is a quilt artists dream.
I did this piece based on one of his paintings, last year.

Here's a close up.

While at the Festival of Quilts this year I saw that someone else has had the same idea.

I like the added border and the use of silky fabrics in this.
(If anyone can tell me whose work this is I would love to add their name)

If you are looking for some inspiration have a look at Hundertwasser

fabric friday

2010-09-03T12:34:00.000+01:00

Hearts and Flowers

Festival of Quilts

2010-08-28T16:26:00.000+01:00

If you made it to the Festival of Quilts this year, you would have seen the work of DeAnne Hartwell Jones who had a solo exhibition. DeAnne is a traditional quilter in every sense of the word, as she pieces and quilts everything by hand. In her 30 year career as a quilter she has produced many beautiful quilts, predominently in the Welsh quilting style.
I want share with you a few of her landscapes, that she kindly let me photograph, as some of the fabric in the pieces were painted by me.

These too were all done by hand, and she will be demonstrating her technique at the Jen Jones Quilt Centre next year.
If you want to find out more about DeAnnes work, there is an article in the August 2010 issue of British Patchwork and Quilting.

fabric friday

2010-08-27T14:39:00.000+01:00

Paint Effects -Scrunched

2010-08-24T16:01:00.000+01:00

Couldn't really think of another word to describe this method. 'Scrunched' seems as good as any.

Choose 3 or more colours, watered down, a sealable plastic back and a pippette, (or spoon if you can't get your hands on a pipette).

Dampen the fabric with a spray and scrunch it into the back. Start adding drops of colour on top of the fabric until you are happy.

Seal the bag and squeeze a little if you want the colours to blend more, or leave well alone if you don't. Leave preferably on a sunny window sill until the water droplets in the bag have become clear. You can then remove the fabric from the back for faster drying.
As with any of these techniques the results will depend on amount of paint to water and on how wet your fabric was to begin with.

I have to be honest with you here, this technique can be a bit hit and miss. Sometimes it comes out wonderful other times not so much. However, if you are not happy there is no reason why can't stick it back in the bag and splosh on some more paint, as I did with this one.
And, in true Blue Peter style, here are some I made earlier.