quilt update and lesson 4 workshop

 Here is a picture of lesson 4 from the online workshop. The prompt was: three is a charm.

The collage is made on a double page of a moleskine notebook. All the pictures are copies. The background is made from torn book paper and gesso. And some distress ink.

Sorry, there is missing a half cm. from the top.

Below the 48 "wonky" log cabin blocks sewn together. Now it needs a border or two.

Block size 9".

work and workshop

Looks this familiar to you when you are a quilter??
 The last few days I sat and sewed wonky log cabin blocks for a quilt for my youngest daughter.
Not ready yet! I need 48 blocks.
When I became bored or my shoulders and neck hurt too much I switched to an other table and cut and glued paper strips. That was for the workshop from Mary Green.
That is fun :)) and relaxing. Below a part from lesson 3: deconstruction.
If you like what you have seen so far, it is not too late to join! The workshop stays open until April 2011.

Fabric book pages

 This is the fabric book page I made for Helga ( Germany). Helga's theme is 'flowers' . I made sunflowers from silk ribbon embroidery. The flower hearts are made from many, many French knots with different threads and a few seed beads.
Below the page Peggy ( USA) made for me. My theme is 'yellow'.
 The size of those pages is 6 inch square. 15 cm.

online class, collages

 Lesson two and three ( below) from the online class , Vintage collages.
Above the use of charcoal and color in a black and white picture. The charcoal gives a shade.
I should use chalk to color the image but I don't have it so, I used color pencils instead.
Below lesson three, shapes and black/white. I added a dash of red too.
The pages are made in a moleskine notebook 3,5x5,5 inch.
I used a double page for each of those two lessons.

Lovely mail, addition to my journal.

 Last week I got a very nice surprise in my mailbox. It was a bubble envelope from Lottie ( GB). Lottie and I were in the Journal class together and I sent her some pieces of old fabrics.
Here is what she has sent be in return. This is só very nice. I have sewn an envelope in the "Roses of Picardy" journal to keep it there. It is better in the journal than on the wall, because the colors of the embroidery would fade in the daylight, Lottie wrote.
Her is a part of the letter she added to explain. Than you can read how special this gift is !!
During the first World War ( 1914-1818) silk postcards and handkerchiefs were bought as souvenirs by soldiers who were serving on the Western front.
Local French and Belgian women embroidered the different motifs onto strips of silk mesh which were sent to factories for cutting and mounting on postcards.
It is an example of an industry which appeared as a result of war and must have been a useful source of income for families in France and Belgium.
Soldiers would send them in envelopes or if they were lucky, take them home for their loved ones as gifts~hence they were not always written on.
Sadly, many of the soldiers who sent these cards did not returned home. Which makes them especially precious. Just think~any remaining cards are now almost 100 years old~and think of all the stories a card could tell if it could 'talk' ! 

Just click on the photos to see them large.Maybe twice!

Flea market harvest

Today DH and I drove over 200 km. (128 miles)to visit a flea market. They are seldom were we live.
I had made a "shopping" list. It had to be worth to drive that far!
1e; Old books to use for future journals.
2e; Old doilies to cut up.
Then I found two candlesticks and two dishes to make two cake-dishes.( maybe I will show the result later)
And 6 lovely Norwegian made ( Egersund) cake plates with white wild roses.
I am happy with my bargains.
The money I spend goes to charity.
You can click on the photo 2x ! to see it all :)

Jam

 Yesterday evening I washed and soaked dried apricots.
This morning I picked the gooseberries from the bushes.
Now I have made jam from this combination. Six jars with jammy, jammy, to use on a slice of breakfast bread the coming winter :)
Last week I also made six jars jam from a combination of black and red currants.
In spite of the very cold and wet summer we have this year I was able to pick some fruit from the garden.
The plums will not make it this year, they are still very green!

Swaps received

 Above the Album Amicorum page I got from Maureen ( Australia). Beautiful embroidery work.
The size is 15 x20 cm.  On the back Maureen wrote:
 Animals are such agreeable friends, they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms. ( George Eliot)
Below the two atc's from Ellen( Singapore).
Thank you both for those nice swaps!

online class, collages

 Two atc's made with the instructions from the online class of Mary Green.
Yesterday we got lesson one.
 Make a background from torn papers and add a focus point and some other things.
I have tried to make compositions which I liked.
This is the first lesson ;)
You never know what is next.
Lucky enough there are many old nice photos on internet which we can use.
 There are also sheets with images added with the lessons.
Those atc's are not for trade.
They don't have a nice back, I made them on old playing cards.

Naked Crazy quilt blocks

Lately I have sewn four crazy quilt blocks. One rectangle and three square blocks. I noticed on blogs and in the groups I am in, that many people have difficulties sewing crazy quilt blocks.
Sometimes it is the color combination and sometimes the sewing itself.
Also the choice of fabrics is not always easy.
Therefore I have sewn those blocks, for you to embellish with your own embroidery threads.
You can make a wall-hanging from it, a front for a shopping bag or a cushion front.
Or make a nice gift from it!

They are for sale in my shop.

"Memories" journal

Here is my second journal. It's called "Memories".  There are 50 pages plus 5 double cards.
If you are interested, there are eleven pages on my Flickr site. You find the first HERE, just click on next photo when you are there :)
If you would like to learn how to make such a journal, have a look HERE.

atc's swap

I have made two atc's for Ellen in Singapore. She asked for sre, so I made one with sre and one needlefelt.
This is a private swap.
They are in the mail now. Hope she likes them ;)

Weekend work...

 On saturday my DH picked over 4 kg. strawberries from the kitchen garden.
 That was good for 11 jars delicious strawberry jam!
In spite of the very cold and wet summer the strawberries have decided to grow ;)

 After that I spent my weekend to make a thank you card. I should have done that months ago but never got a nice idea.

 After I have made the journal and are working with the second one, I got the spirit to make a card as a little booklet.

A cover as for a journal and an inside card made from watercolor paper.

The white bobbin-lace beside the silky is made by me, long ago. I have cut up a few of my bobbin-lace doilies to use them in special projects and this is one of them :)

I hope the receiver likes it.