Friday's Wallet Finished

Last week I bought this pattern and at the Red Deer Quilt show I got some of the notions I needed to get started. Wow look at me, I got it done. I think Thursday I pulled the fabrics from my hand dyed fabrics. I thought this purple marbled fabric needed a special place. I love the bright pink framing it. 

Inside I used another purple and the pink again. I have card holders. Lots of pockets and one zipper pocket perfect for change. The pattern is from Emmaline bags. 

Here are the fabrics, so you see I could still make more. I did make a second front flap just to see which one to use. The all Mable fabric flap is also got more stiff peltex so might work well over time. 

This wood deck was covered in snow earlier today. Yes we had snow again. The snow has never really left us for 6 months. I can't wait for a real spring. The sun is nice but I want warm no coat kind of weather. 

Inside photos and colour is just not showing off as well. 

Last night I got the latch part done. Wow that was new experience. 3 Tiny screws luckily the kit had an extra screws as one is lost on the floor. Cutting into my fabric and using glue. Well I got it done and it works well. Looks good too. 

All parts cut and have the interfacing in place. Now to think about the next one. Not sure what colours for the new wallet. I might change a few things next time. 

I have added this post to Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Marbling Fabric Day

My Surface Design group try to meet once a month and have a play day with our fibers. For March we did a day of Marbling or Gel printing with paints. I did marbling, here is my table space already to start. On the left is my hand dyed fabric cut to fit in my pan. I remembered I had my camera with me and used it. 

Dianne was getting started with a gel plate and some paper. She wanted a better stock of papers to make more cards. 

My first few fabrics with the marbling paint. 

Yvonne and Dawna did both gel printing and marbling. 

Look at what Yvonne did to her marbling paint. Wow love it. I missed getting a photo of the paint on the fabric. 

My fabrics all laid out with the marbling done. It is all very wet so it looks pretty dark. 

A golden yellow with marbled paint. 

Some of yvonne's fabrics drying before she packed them home. 

Dawna did some papers and the bottom one is Dianne's.

Yvonne and her magic again. 

I still have to heat set my fabric and wash and dry them. Then maybe I can iron them and get a good photo of each fabric. I will have a little bit more pretty fabric to used again. 

Fiber Day

Today I am off to play with the paint and have a good time with my Surface Group. Here is a photo of our last day together. We met last month and had a planning day. We had a great lunch too.

I needed to do some dying before we got together today. So Wed I dyed my 3 scarves and a few other meters of cotton yardage.  

This is the scarves drying out and the yardage folded on top. It makes me think of the colours of summer Ice-cream. Or at least something better then winter.

I also had to carve my stamp. I was going to make a new design but I just did a few adjustments to a design I had done last year. I still needed to crave the stamp. I hope it works well. If not I may not have much to do. I plan to stamp at least one scarf with this design and use paint. I am taking some dyed yardage so I can sample the paint and stamping method. I am hopping it can be one gift done. 

Gemma got a new bed. So far she loves it. I have been teaching her "to your Bed" and if she gets it right she gets cookies. Tonight is dog class too. 

Marbled Fabric Done

Last Friday I got together with my surface design group and we marbled fabric. We had to do some prep work a head of time. I soaked and air dried the fabric a head of time. Then when we got done I have to let my fabric air dry and then hand wash it and dry again. I found it hard to get the Methyl Cel out and had to wash a second time and dry and iron it. Took me all week to get it done. So busy machine quilting around here.

This piece was a pale purple and got blue and white marbled paint. I love the feather work. I used an old hair pick to make the lines and pull the paint around.

This was a pink snow dyed fabric to start. I make a white dot then added the bright pink paint in the center. then when it spread a little I run a single pick down the center the one time. And Hearts!

These next two were green dyed fabric. I love the dyed fabric better as it adds to the rich layers of colour on each piece.

I used a old roaster to hold my Methyl Cel and then floated my paints on it. I precut my fabric to fit. Most measured 10" x 14".

This was a white cotton with the blue and white paint. there was some older paint on the Methyl Cel that also came up on the fabric but it adds to the piece.

The fabric started out as a orange brown hand dyed. I added some bright pinks and black and more brown on here. Can you see I just loved the pick patterns I could do. Many of the ladies were in love with radon dots and blobs, some with or with out pulling the pick though.

This was the first piece to see if my paints would float or spread too fast or what they would do. I had to thin down many of the marble paints I had. I also tried Golden liquid acrylic paint. We all found it to be one of the best to work with. I loved it so much I bought some Golden Liquid Acrylics. I hope to play with marbling again over the holiday break.

I have added this post to Crazy Mom Quilts

I am off to machine quilt more. Maybe tonight I can work on the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Easy Street. I still have not done step 2 yet and step 3 came out today.

Lex and I did Ok at the weekend trail. We passed three out of 8 classes. The second day he was leaving the ring with out me. We have two classes on Sunday this weekend. Hope he can stay and work with me.

Design Wall Monday Painted Fabric

On Friday my Surface Design group did some gel plate painting. I have my fabrics all dried and thought I would share them with you today. I forgot my camera the day we did the painting so I have no photos to show from Friday, just my results. The 4 pieces on the left are my clean up rags. I took many handed fabrics that I did not like to make them better. Many I did make better, a lot better.

I really like these three. I have a underwater theme going here. I really love the centre one. I have some ghost colours from one of the other ladies using the gel plate before me.

These next ones I got using bubble wrap to print with (except the green one was a ice cube tray). I love dots and just kept on going with dots. The gel plate was loaded with paint and used to get the paint on to the bubble wrap. I had way to much fun with this.

We had a great day of paint and fabric play and a great lunch. I have linked today's post with Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday. 

Below is a close up of the dots made with bubble wrap. I still have one of the gel plates at home and may do some more at home this week. We will see as it is wildly busy this week. The boys start soccer, I still have agility class and the Leduc guild has a meeting and a weekend event. More about that later this week. I have a tin block due by Wednesday. Thanks for taking a look and commenting I love to hear from you. Now to check out the other design walls tonight.

Newfy Floor Mat

This September my surface design group made floor mats. We gathered over two days to paint our canvas. I got the painting done but then there it sat of months. I needed to do many coats of sealer and then hem and glue down the edges to finish it. I got it done. It measures something like 24" by 32". I wanted to make a Newfoundland sea scape because of my Newfoundland background and the trips I have made to Newfoundland.

I love the art work of the Newfoundland artists over at  The Grumpy Goat. They have a great Blog to follow along. I first was their work at the Newfoundland Craft council back in June of 2008 while in St John's. My maiden name is Manuel and my Grandfather was from Exploits Newfoundland. Newfoundland and Exploits has a special place in my heart. I wanted to make a floor mat that was in the style of the Grumpy Goat Artist's. I love the bright colours and the whimsy style. I do not have all the detail and professionally look they put into their work.

My whale with a spout. I am not sure what kind of whales you could see off the shores of Newfoundland. We did not see any. I have seen many Humpback Whales in Hawaii and Ocra Whales off shore of Victoria BC.

Other memories I have of my trip to Exploits were picking mussels on low tide to have for dinner. Harvesting some ice burg ice for our scotch just before dinner.  Walking the grassy path on the east Island of Exploits. Uncovering the head stones of family members. One little girl died at age five and we share the same name, she was my Great Great Grandfather's daughter. They had 11 children and only four lived to be adults. We found Great Great Grandfather and Grandmothers head stone too.

In June of 2008 we saw many Icebergs. There was a great sized one at the opening of the Exploits Bay so my sea scape was getting a iceberg. 

Here is Catherine's Head stone with some of her siblings. Some were also on the side panels.

Here is one photo of the iceberg outside the Exploits harbour in June of 2008. Can you see the Viking face in the ice. Helmet and nose and the long beard.

Painting Fabric Skys and Water

I have been painting cotton to sell at my booth in the market mall at the Quilt Canada (Calgary, AB). I use Seta Colour fabric paint. I have six of these wooden frame to stretch the fabric onto. Most of the time I wet my fabric before I start painting. I also use a lot of water to dilute the paint. Some times I leave the frame flat to dry or I can tilt the frame and get the colours to run into each other a little more.
Here are two pieces outside drying in the sun and wind.

Does anyone have other ideas for me? What would you buy? I love comments it makes my day.