A sweet little craft project

 

Today's post isn't really a quilting project but it was such a cute craft project I wanted to share.

This sweet little Boho bag idea was something I just happened upon at Nonnie's Sewing Room.  She has a fun YouTube channel as well as Facebook page.

This little bag is made with a dish drying mat.  What a great idea!  Nonnie also had a variety of other ideas using the drying mats.  I hope you with stop by one of her social media outlets to see more of her great ideas.

I hope everyone is enjoying a beautiful day!

MaryEllen

A quick end of the year baby/kid's quilt

 

This little end of the year project started with a panel I found  at a thrift shop. For only $2.00 I couldn't pass it up. I did some research on ebay and saw panels like this and in this condition going for $20.00. I guess my $2.00 was a great deal and I'm excited to make it into something useful at long last.

I hope the mom or grandma that didn't quite get to this piece done will be happy with my results.  And, no judgement anyone, I have lots of stuff I'll never get to.

These are the instructions that were printed on the panel.  I almost added this piece to the back as a label but I think the quilt will go to donation so I wasn't sure that would be meaningful.  However, I think the idea is something to remember for future projects.  As a member of the Quilt Alliance quilt labels, quilt preservation and quilt documentation are all of special interest to me.  If you are interested in quilt history and documentation check out the Quilt Alliance at their website, quiltalliance.org,

As you can see from this detailed photo as well as the full photo at the top of the page I didn't follow the layout exactly but I was close.

Finished quilt was quilted on my domestic machine, 80/20 batting and a wonderful, soft flannel backing.  Size 46" X 60".

Have a wonderful day!

MaryEllen

Gelli Printing!!

My gelli plate has arrived and now I'm experimenting!!!!

What a mess!!

The FIRST RUN.

experimenting with papers and fabrics.

For now I'm working with what paints I have on hand and scrap paper and fabrics.

Above are a few of the tools I used. These are just things I found around my studio to get me started.

The rollers I used!  Not what I was seeing on you tube but it was what I had on hand.

I thought I had some very interesting things happen and I learned a ton.  I'm sure I'll expand on what I use for tools but you don't need everything to be perfect before you try something new.   Always be open to just trying things, you may just find your true voice because of the experimenting and the make dos.

Below:

Because this is a new craft for me I'm trying to document things like type of materials and techniques each day.  You can also see were I'm marking each piece with the day I made it.   Now I can return to the pieces I liked and build on the techniques I thought were successful.

Oh boy, this is like eating potato chips, you can't stop at just one.  Look for more gelli plate pulls in the future.  And then, of course, how I end up using them.

Thanks for stopping in.

Have a wonderful day.

MaryEllen

Two Christmas makes

With the holidays over I can now show photos of the quilts I made for Christmas gifts.

This Christmas I made two quilts, one for each of the grand babies.

Both quilts were inspired by wonderful panels from the 2024 Minnesota Shop Hop. The panels and coordinating fabrics were by Tim Chapman for Clothworks. 

Let's start with the Paul Bunyan quilt. 

If your from Minnesota or the states across the northern parts of the U.S. you know Paul as a folklore figure who carved out the northern landscape with his ax and the help of his best friend, Babe the Blue Ox.

For this quilt I used a panel and also border prints from the Clothworks line.  The blue inner border is fabric from my stash. I used my own pieced patterns for the trees and stars.

I also wanted to point out a change I made on Paul's face. 

Originally the panel had Paul with a pipe in his mouth. I have  allergies so I was uncomfortable with the idea of a pipe.  I needed to be creative and make the pipe disappear. 

I used a piece of the coodinating fabric to cover the pipe. I picked a section with a tree as the darker colors of the tree gave more coverage.  

I raw edge appliqued the piece down and did extra quilting to hold it in place. I also added some thread painting to fill out Paul's beard and help secure the applique. I was quite plaesed with how it turned out.

My point in writing this is to remind you that you can make changes to a fabric to make it perfect for you.   Paul's pipe was prefect for his lumberjack, woodsman character and he was really cute.  The pipe just didn't personally work for me.

This quilt finished at 50" X 51", it has meandering quilting and a flannel backing.

Quilt number two is the Ducky quilt.

This ducky quilt panel was soooooo cute!  The problem here was that the coordinating fabric were sooooo cute that they were sold out! So for this quilt I needed to find fabrics from my stash. I also designed the layout and the patterns for the pieced ducks.

Each of the little pieced ducks are a little different in size to add personality.  Some of the eyes are pieced and some are embroidery. If you look close you will also see the wings on all ducks are 3-D. These 3-D triangles are called Prairie Points.

This quilt is 49" X 52", swirl and meandering quilting, flannel backing.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my creations for Christmas 2024.

Have a wonderful day!

MaryEllen

Altered photos and favorite places

For this project I decided to try a new (to me) technique.  It's called Momigami which is a Japanese method of kneading paper into a fabric. This seemed like an interesting idea to experiment with, and used items I easily found around the house.

The videos I watch suggested several different options for medium (I believe traditional Momigami uses a type of starch). I used grapeseed oil as I had an expired bottle sitting around.

 I also let my Momigami pieces dye on a rack for over a week before using. Not all videos I watched mentioned this and I think it is really important. Below is a photo of my Momigami pieces dying.

 

Basically you dip your fingers in the oil and you work it on the the paper; rubbing, crumbling, folding. un-folding, etcetera. until the paper is soft and drapes like a fabric.

The new fabric will be darker and smaller than the original paper.

I experimented with several types of paper; gift wrapping paper, tissue paper, paper napkins, sheet music, pages from children's book and brown paper lunch bags.

Below is a picture comparing before and after applying the oil.  My personal photos were printed on a on an ink jet printer with basic home copy printer paper.

Below are details of Momigami photos on the project with embellishments added.

Yes, you can sew on the new fabric, but you must be gentle.

For me the Momigami was fun and nice results: 

The colors are great.  The paper really does drape like fabric, and I did sew on it.

The thing I found problematic is even after a week the Momigami pieces are still very greasy. I would say you need to use with caution as that grease will transfer to your work. I ended up putting a coat of glue over the Momigami to seal it in hopes of containing the oil residue. It's possible the starch used in traditional Momigami would not be as greasy but I have no personal experience about that to know for sure.

A better use for Momigami may be something like art journals.

I would suggest anyone interested on this technique should check out some of the many videos on the subject.  Caterina Giglio has a channel with some great information.

Hope you are inspired to experiment with a new technique. If you have had any experience using Momigami please let me know how it went in the comment section. I'd love to hear from you.

Have a great day.

MaryEllen

Paper Making and Art Journals

The projects in this post started out as an experiment in upcycling fabric scraps into a usable "paper" product.

I began my quest with a search on Pintrest.  I was not disappointed as I found numerous recipes and ideas for making paper from fabric.  

What I settled on was a recipe for a homemade glue using flour, water, sugar and vinegar. I used a recipe I found at SustainableEcho. The instructions on this site were clear and easy to use. The recipe made a smooth mixture, was easy to make and used ingredients that were at hand.  If you are looking for other ideas there are many similar recipes available from other sites.

I made two sheets of fabric paper each with different fabrics but both appr. 11" X 35".  One batch of the glue mixture was used for whole project. Above is a detail of one of my fabrics.  This piece is a combination of two layers of hand dyed cheese cloth with lace, paper fashion sewing tissue, and small fabric scraps sandwiched in between. 

One of the interesting qualities of this piece of fabric  is how light it is. I wasn't expecting to be able to sew it on my domestic sewing machine.  Being able to sew on it enabled me to make pockets and add cording for an embellishment.

My second handmade fabric was a bit thicker.  For this fabric I used the same glue mixture but with a large piece of lace for the back and a piece of cotton patchwork for the front. The patchwork area is a combination of scraps of hand dyes from other projects. Because this piece is so much thicker I wouldn't suggest trying to sew on it with your machine.

My finished project is an art journal, using my handmade fabric to cover a basic composition notebook. I have done a few doodles and embellishments and foresee adding more as I use my  journal.

I really enjoyed this project and like my two fabric papers.  Unfortunately I do feel like they weren't exactly what I had in mind.  I was looking for more of a sheet paper for writing on.  So the search goes on for more ideas for making fabric paper.  I hope you will be back to see where my search may take me.

Have a wonderful day,

MaryEllen

Pumpkin Patch. Fall holiday decorations with a crazy quilt twist.

Happy Fall everyone!

As you can see today's project are some fun embellished pumpkins.  These little guys are made using some of my own fabric designs and some easy embellishing.

Back in November of 2019 I did a post call Fun with Paint showing how to "pour paint".

Above is one of the canvas panels I worked on that day. This canvas panel is 11" X 6 .25.

These painting were so much fun to do and I loved how they turned out.

After that post I decided to try having fabric made from some of those paintings. I photographed the Canvases/painting and sent the photos to Spoonflower to be reproduced on fabric. Above is a photo of the original canvas next to the design printed on cotton fabric. (21 .5" X 17 .5").

To make the pumpkins I cut three circles, (Using all my available fabric) and set to work embellishing them. I used a variety of threads and stitches as well as beads.

I  ran a gathering stitch around the top and pulled tight. The balls were filled with leftover scraps of batting. Wool scraps were used for the stem and leaves. Fancy yarn was tacked in place as another embellishment. 

 I love crazy quilting and this little project reminded me of that look.

I hope you enjoyed this fun fall project.

Have a great day everyone!!

Fun with Paint

I recently spent a wonderful afternoon experimenting with pour painting.
You can find some wonderful tutorials online, look for "pour painting" ideas.
I started with some old paint canvases. They had been used before, but I covered them with a good coating of solid white paint.  After they dried they were just like new, and off I went.
I started by using a mixture of white acrylic paint and white glue for kids as the base. I then added the glue to various colors of acrylic paint for the designs. I used what I had on hand; mixing various glue and paint brands.
These mixtures should be quite fluid but not runny. You want them to move around your canvas but with some control so they don't over mix and leave you with one solid color.
Again, you can find some wonderful tutorials online, and options for art products.

 My set up. Notice how I elevated the canvas so extra paint can drip off without the canvas sticking to the table.

 My paints poured on the canvas. Next you need to carefully pick up your canvas by the edges, and tip and tilt it around until you have your desired design.

   First try!  Now to let it dry. Over night would be best. Or at the very least several hours.

    
Round two. Here I used an  paint comb to drag the paint around the canvas.

  
And, more fun!
Hope you enjoyed see what I did, and decide to give it a try.
It makes a bit of a mess but the results are really interesting.