Thursday, February 28, 2008

Fabric Postcard


Here is a fabric postcard (my first, can you believe it?) I made to trade with Susan Lenz of Cyber Fyber. I still have to finish it around the edges. I layered thread snippets under tulle, then added small stitches across each color area with several colors and textures of thread. The flowers are made of rice paper. I colored the rice paper with Sharpie markers, ironed it, and cut it into small circles. The circles were about the size you would get with a hole punch, but I didn't want such regular shapes. I poked a hole in each circle and folded/scrunched it around the needle, then stitched it down with one stitch.


This is Susan's postcard, which I have received in the mail. Isn't it wonderful? I think there are a few ATCs left to trade on the Cyber Fyber site, if you'd like to have one of her ATCs and get yours exhibited.








What's this? When I had finished all the embroidery on my postcard except for the paper flowers, I wanted to make sure I would like the way the flowers were distributed along the greenery. I scanned a copy of my embroidery and stuck it inside a ziplock bag, then drew the flowers with the magenta Sharpie onto the plastic bag to see where I wanted them to go. When I was happy with the arrangement, I outlined the postcard edges onto the plastic, cut it away from the bag and placed it over my embroidery to guide me on my flower placement. I really like this method.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

More Fabric Jewelry


This is one of my pins - I think the bird is a Susan Clarke button that I glued onto a pearl button. I really like how it came out, with the twisted beads at the base.












The flower pin was inspired by the trim around the face - it is made of space-dyed strips of netting. The petals were made with snippets of threads over Angelina. Then I added some eyelash-type red yarn. It was fun!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Fabric Jewelry



Well, the answer came back and none of my jewelry ideas were accepted for the Lark book. Oh, well, I really had fun with this and it has sparked more ideas, so we'll see how that goes. Pictured is an earring made from Angelina fibers. It needs a little more finessing to improve its finished look, I think. It's folded and I wanted to do some free style stitching on it, but ran out of time, so just embellished it with a ribbon flower. The shape is sort of like a lantern.

Here is a gathered ribbon bracelet I made. I used some great ceramic cherub buttons and did a little SRE on the gathers. I really like how it came out.

Since I work at Borders, I am constantly looking at new books in the craft area. So many books are now talking about heating, distorting, burning and melting, of various man-made materials, like lutrador, or polyester interfacing.... I've looked at these books, but often the pictures of the finished product is just ....interesting.... not arresting, not gorgeous. Am I strange in wanting something that's beautiful when I'm done with it? Obviously, CQ is quite beautiful when done and we spend countless hours on the creative stitch treatments. Also, how does this type of art express something in the artist when it's so unpredictable? I know this is the way of the future and I am a dissenting voice, but these are some of my thoughts....

~Lin Moon

Sunday, February 17, 2008

February Busyness


The saucer magnolia is a-blooming! All of a sudden it's covered with flowers. I guess it's time to trade the needle for the trowel, at least temporarily. I'm way behind on my weeding/gardening. Lately I've been busily working on fabric jewelry for a new Lark book that's coming out. I mean, I've sent in proposals for the book - don't know if any of my proposals will make it into the book, but....

It's funny how if there's a competition or call for entries, sometimes the premise or idea just leaves you cold and other times it just sparks a waterfall of ideas. Well, I love fabric and I love jewelry, so this idea just sparked a million more! Even if none of my ideas makes it into the book, I have had so much fun! And it's great to use that special fabric of which you only have the smallest scrap left. The deadline is past, so now I just wait to hear....

Sometimes when I look around my sewing room, it seems like such excess for me to have so much stuff! But wouldn't you know it, when I was working on fabric jewelry ideas, I didn't have exactly the right size of ribbon, or the right color of rat-tail, etc. So off I went to JoAnn's to buy more stuff. We used to have so many more places to buy fabric around here - there was a huge two-story fabric store that went out of business after there weren't enough people left in the family to run it - I used to teach ribbon embroidery there. Then there was TreadleArt, which had all kinds of quilting fabric, buttons, etc. that was so much fun to peruse. Fabric is probably the one thing I have too much off, but fabric stores sell so much more than just fabric. When I was a teenager and lived in Ohio, you could go to the big department stores in downtown Columbus and they had a notions department and fabric departments. Of course, my total favorite was a store called Lazarus, which had a cafe. Their specialty was hot apple pie with cinnamon ice cream - it was so delicious!
Well on that note, I will close. Will post pix when I can...

Happy Stitching,
Lin Moon

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Books Books Books


There are lots of new and upcoming books to look forward to! Did you know some books are already planned to be released in 2011? We're talking 3 years away! I was Googling about and came up with these:

(But of course, don't forget to check out Pat Winter's new CQ book on her blog.)

Crazy Quilts: History - Techniques - Embroidery Motifs by Cindy Brick & Nancy Kirk, Feb 2008

Floral Interpretations for Silk Ribbon by Helen Dafter, March 2008

Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts!: Woolly Embroidery: Crewelwork, Stumpwork, Canvas work and More, April 2008

Stumpwork Seasons by Kay & Michael Dennis, April 2008

M. Joan Lintault: Connecting Quilt, Arts & Textiles, April 2008

Crazy Quilting - The Complete Guide by J Marsha Michler, April 2008

Textiles of South-east Asia by Angela Thompson, April 2008

Masters:Art Quilts: Major Works by Leading Artists, May 2008

Felted Bags, Boots & Other Things by Cendrine Armani, May 2008

Contemporary Quilt Art: An Introduction & Guide by Kathleen Lenkowsky, May 2008

Helen M. Steven's Embroidered Gardens, June 2008

Wild Women: Stitched Art Brooches by Sarah Lawrence, August 2008

Felt, Fabric & Fiber Jewelry by Sherri Haab, August 2008

Happy Booking,
Lin Moon