Beads

I've been trying to learn a little more about adding beads to my quilts. I have a book by Nancy Eha called Bead Creative Art Quilts (if you go to this link you can enlarge a photo of the beaded coil from the book, it is stunning). Beaded coils add dimension and texture to a quilt so that is one of the techniques I have been trying. They're kind of fun, it's relaxing to sit and work on this project.
Nancy's book has so many wonderful photos, when my eyes need a rest from beading I page through her book again trying to decide what to try next.
I'm not sure what I did to make the color so different in these two photos. They are both the same quilt. It's really about half way between the two. I did take the photos in the evening so the light wasn't the best. Maybe I used the flash on one and not the other.
Have a Creative day
Janet

Fabric Postcards

Hello,

     I know I said I was going to learn more about my new embellisher on Tuesday but I got caught up watching the inauguration instead.  I was planning to record it and watch with the rest of my family, I did record it for them but I had to watch as well.  It was very inspiring!  I think what strikes me the most is the fact that Obama is telling us our job isn't over.  Our civic responsibility doesn't stop when we vote.  We are all in this recovery program together and we each need to do our part.  That is how we stitch and mend the fibers of this country.

     Yesterday I worked on some landscape postcards for an exchange.  I can't show those to you until they are sent and received but I will include photos today of some other postcards I have completed.  I purchased a free motion quilting pattern by Sharon Schamber a few months ago.  I know I need more practice with free motion and this looked like a challenge to me.  I was making postcards at the time and thought it would be fun to try her techniques on a postcard.  It was more difficult than I expected to do this in a smaller format.  The postcard with the bright colored fabric and all the stitching at the top of my post is the one I am talking about.  The fabric was hand painted using setacolor paints.  

     A second card I made is my winter snowman.  It was very cold outside when I designed this card.  The blue is hand dyed.  The snowy foreground is covered with a shimmery fabric that I used my heat gun to give a little ripple effect.  I also added a few liquid beads to this postcard.  I had never used liquid beads before and they are a fun new toy.  The beads are suspended in a gluey like substance that dries hard and clear and adheres to your fabric.  The card in the photo is the first one I made.  I tried to do better with the trees in the rest of them so they didn't look as though they were all blowing over.  Although that winter wind is pretty strong.  I've also included a blow-up of the section with the beads.  It's a little blurred but I think you can see the beads.

     A third postcard is my son.  I cropped a photo so it was just the top portion of his face.  I printed it in greyscale and made a pattern from that print.  I did his postcard size smiling eyes in shades of blue.  Today I plan to make my daughter in shades of purple.  My pattern is ready I just hope I have enough shades of purple fabric.  I will post both of those later today.

     I will also be working more on my embellisher today but I am going to work on class projects.  I am a little out of my depth with the class I am taking but getting very inspired by the beautiful work of my fellow classmates.  It is an online class through The Thread Studio.  The class is called Embellish, Stitch, Enrich.