Starts & Finishes

This past week has seen both finishes and starts – well, quite a few starts actually.  More starts than finishes, definitely, but they won’t all be shown here.  Firstly, I finished the small community cuddle quilt for the local hospital co-ordinated by Toowoomba Quilters club.

I have always wanted to do ‘echo quilting’, so I went around each heart about 1/2’ away.  It looked good, but I think it made the little quilt a bit stiff and I could have spaced the quilting a bit wider . It is 24” x 24” finished.

Next finish was done because there was a time frame.  I seem to work better when I have to have something finished by a certain time!
“The Uh-Oh Bra” is a take off of “The Ahhh Bra” which is advertised as being the best u-beaut bra on the market.  Well this poor ol’ one has seen better days. 
I painted it purple  which was the theme for the “Cuppa for Cancer” fund raiser at Toowoomba Quilters this year.  You can read all about the great day we had and all the decorated bras HERE.  I used Dye na Flow fabric paint  and then went to town to destroy it.  Hitting it with the heat gun almost set it on fire and I thought I was back in the 60’s woman’s lib movement burning bras.  It caught on fire and was quickly put out.  I then put the heat gun away and got out the scissors.

Our Art Quilt Group is doing portraits at the moment and I decided on a self portrait.  Scary……
Shirley manipulated the photo for me on Gimp and I have traced off the outline.
The plan is to free motion quilt it from the back through the drawing.  Free motion quilting is my nemesis.  I have watched all the you-tubes, plenty of DVD’s (which sent me to sleep), and read all the hints and tips I can, but still I seem to be hopeless at free motion. Oh, I have also done a workshop!!  I know, we are supposed to practice and that is what I am doing at the present time before embarking on the portrait.
But…. all I seem to do is a mess with it.   My attempts are far too ugly to be showing here on the blog.  Will keep practising.


WIP – Another collage journal cover started.  This time I wanted to experiment with image transfer and chose the gel medium method. After a lot of messing around and a lot of You Tube videos watched (latest addiction), I ended up with this

The image didn’t come out very strongly, but I kind of like the ethereal look of it and it’s ragged little edges. Lots more fun to be had with this yet.
Gotta run now and practice my free motion!!