A New Year!

I finished my January Art Calendar Journal and here is a 'before' picture. 

With all the snow we have gotten this year already, my journal page depicts falling snow. 

It reminds me of being a kid and looking up into the blue sky to catch snowflakes on your tongue!

I've also done a bit of work on my Rainbow Scrap quilt but not enough to show pictures! Coming soon...hopefully!

Do you do vintage?

Do you like to go antique shopping? I love to see what I can find or sometimes just be inspired. No way do I have the knack as some of my friends do. Especially my friend, Melissa. Check out her wares at Megillicutti on FB. 

Others too! You know who you are!

In any case, over the Christmas holiday when we all go up to WI for a few days, one of our favorite activities is to go antiquing. This is what I spied at one of the shops.

A quilt made from many different textiles...mostly wools but with lots of different textures. The backing was a lightweight silky type fabric of some sort. It was turned, not bound and tied, not quilted. 

I couldn't get that quilt out of my head. 

I was anxious to try to work with different textures. I knew I had some upholstery samples and some other old scraps that for some reason I hadn't gotten rid of so I dug them out. 

 My Textiles Squared quilt.

not exactly my favorite colors...

The tapestry type fabric is a upholstery sample someone gave me (I think), the burnt orange is a brushed corduroy, not sure where the solid blue came from but it some sort of upholstery fabric, as is the blue print, the cream is a heavier weight of linen and the green has a crinkled texture. 

I used a light weight flannel as the middle layer and sewed around the edge and turned it right side out. I tied the quilt together at the center of each square using some left over yarn.

The backing is a light weight silky fabric with a pieced strip of gold satin left over from one of the gowns I made my DD1 during her HS years. 

I top stitched around the edge to give it a crisper finished edge. 

The best part of this 'just have to try it out' project was that it all came from boxes of odds and ends stuff (except for the flannel).

Now that that's done, I can move forward to new projects...

but I may revisit this with some woolens...someday!

A little update

I'm excited to say that I finished binding my 2013 Art Journal pages. I showed last month's pages in my last post...but now I have altered a old book cover to bind all my calendar pages. It's a finish!

I cut away the original binding and pages of a book I found at a thrift store. Using sticky back canvas, I covered the front and back book covers. I used some spray on fabric dyes and water to make a water color effect for the background. I had some chipboard letters and numbers that I glued on and cut a piece of a doily for the upper corner and added some stamping. 

I made eyelet holes on each page and used 2 large keyring thingys  to hold all the pages and the covers. (yes, one is black and the other white)

I'm pretty pleased with my very first Art Journal. I'm planning on doing another year...although I am already behind. Trying to finish up some other 2013 challenges...like the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

Since there was no color for December...that left me with only 11 blocks...since I only made one of each color, I wasn't sure what to do...make more of each color or add more colors...so I decided to add a few more colors...like gray, light pink, hunter green, navy blue and peach. 

(I did make another orange block which made end up on the back or orphaned.)

After a bit of rearranging to make a pleasing to the eye arrangement, this is what I ended up with.

I will add some white borders to this quilt. I just need to replenish my stash of Kona White first. 

My first challenge for 2014...I have joined Journal52 ~ a Art journal workshop. A weekly prompt is posted and some ideas. 

This week's prompt is Up, Up and Away~soar into a new year.

Here is what I came up with.

Incorporating a quilt pattern and a bible verse. 

The back of my page are some clippings from magazines. 

I am using watercolors which is completely new to me...I'm looking to experiment with different art forms over the 52 weeks...we will see how it goes. For now, week one is done and I am pleased!

A few finishes from 2013

Finally I finished the 2013 Art Journal Challenge! I made 12 months of quilted calendar pages. 

Here are a few I haven't posted yet. 

November all filled in.

December before...

and after!

I am now working on binding these pages together in an altered book. January pages to follow soon....still working on a few more loose ends from 2013.