Wooden Spool Ornaments and an Inspirational Advent Calendar Wreath

By on 4-16-2011 in art quilts, Embroidery, Vintage Patterns

These pieces were all made for the ArtForTheCreativeMind Yahoo group. The three wooden spools had a mind of their own and my muse just went with the flow. I had originally wanted all white and light blue and glittery spools, but they told me they wanted to look a bit like French vintage. So French vintage it was. I used large beads and small as well as cord and wire for the hangers, even a pipe cleaner. Some French vintage papers helped give the ‘French’ feel to them.

wooden spool ornaments

My advent calendar wreath was another piece that grew as I made it. I knew I wanted the Matryoshka dolls to be a part of it. First the pattern had to be drawn and I chose to create that in Photoshop Elements which made it easy to create the little faces. Christmas papers were used for the outfits. Finding the right size of prints became a difficult task as many of the paper’s designs were too large. I then glued them onto black card and created 25 different inspirational words instead of numbers for each December day until Christmas. These little dolls can be removed from the wreath to be used as tags at a later date.

paper doll wreathe
paper doll wreathe

Christmas Alphabet….the last of the letters

By on 4-16-2011 in art quilts, Embroidery, Vintage Patterns

As promised here is the last of the alphabet. I love this version of Christmas letters. It is so whimsical and adaptable for so many different venues. The letters could be appliqued using either cottons or wool felt and the rest embroidered on top. They could also be painted onto a wooden ornament or coloured in digitally and printed onto paper to make great tags.

QRST

UVW

XYZ

Christmas Alphabet to enhance your Christmas embroideries and quilts

By on 4-16-2011 in art quilts, Embroidery, Vintage Patterns

A wonderful Christmas alphabet was published in the Mc’Calls Christmas transfers, Vol II. A Santa stocking with your child’s initials could make a great Christmas tradition. Embroidered onto a quilt block in a table runner, it would make the best hostess gift.

ABCD

Adding a few beads to the letters would make them extra festive.

EFGH

IJKL

Whether you embroider white on red or red on white to give it a red work appeal this alphabet fits the Christmas season.

MNOP

QRSTUVWXYZ will be posted tomorrow. There is still time to whip up two or three initials for this holiday season.

Catnip Capers …. a summer quilt of kitties playing in the sun

By on 4-16-2011 in art quilts, Embroidery, Vintage Patterns

Catnip Capers was done for a woman who truly is the mother of these cats. Her favourite flowers are sun flowers and I thought what better than to put the cats in a sunflower garden enjoying the sun on a hot hazy day. The butterflies and dragonflies along with ladybugs are all present on this summer noon along with a hazy sun directly above. The cats are playing and rolling in the grass with one (there’s always one) looking down on them with humour.

catnip capers

These cats started as embroidery outlines. I painted and coloured them in Photoshop using a Wacom Bamboo tablet. Once they were fully drawn and coloured in I used filters to give them a soft furry look. The sunflowers have stuffed middles along with some of the petals that have been sewn down onto the quilt background. Other petals are double sided giving the flowers a 3D look. The stems are twisted cord, ribbon and embroidery floss. Large leaves were cut and sewn with a raw edge and then fray stop was used to keep them from fraying. The brown-eyed susans have button middles and the flower petals are simply a piece of gathered strips that has been cut with a pinking blade and doubled. The chickweed flowers were made on a daisy loom with ribbon and seed beads sewn for the centers. The little forget-me-nots are made with dark silk from men’s ties and mauve lame. Simple small yoyos turned backward and sewn down with more seed beads. The dragonflies, butterflies and ladybugs are buttons and embellishments. This quilt was an absolute joy to make from start to finish.

Vintage Bouquet of Flowers in a Jug

By on 4-16-2011 in art quilts, Embroidery, Vintage Patterns

Bouquets of flowers were very popular and this pattern was published in the McCall’s transfer book Vol IV in 1977. It would still look right at home on a linen towel, hanging in your kitchen.

jug with flowers

This vintage pattern would look stunning in blue work on an eggshell background or you could use a fully coloured version on a pure white. Just right for gift giving when going to a summer party.