Art Quilt Adventure Complete

I promised a photo of my little finished Art Quilt Experiment the other day but never got back online.  At least I don't think I got back online.  Can't remember for sure.  If I did forget, then it's an ADD moment and I have tons of those so forgive me!

Anyway, here is a photo of my finished Art Quilt:

I kept the finishing simple on this one.  I wanted it to be very "woodsy" so a simple little twig from outside is all it needed.

For the back, I cut a piece of pink felt and glued that on with my glue gun:

Despite the fact that my experiment didn't work (and thank you to my readers who emailed me and told me why), I'm very pleased with the results.  I may even work up a tutorial for my technique next time I do one.

In the meantime, I have another finish to share with you.  I had a custom order for one of my little crazy quilt cat dolls:

I just love making these little cat dolls!  But I thought I'd try another little doll shape so I worked up a Teddy Bear pattern and pieced a few of them so I'll share those when I get them stitched up.

In the meantime, if you like to own one of my Crazy Quilt Cat Dolls, you might want to stop by tomorrow as I will be announcing a drawing for one!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing all of my sweet friends in Blogland a very Happy Valentine's Day!

I'll be back a little later with a photo of my finished Art Quilt!

Crazy Quilt Gatherings Magazine is now Available!

Pat Winter's Crazy Quilt Gatherings Magazine is now available to purchase!

Order your copy today!

Adventures In Art Quilting

Yesterday, I wrote about my attempt to shrink Wool Roving for a cool foundation to stitch on.  I did not succeed at shrinking anything!  But I did come up with a cool background for stitching. 

I finished adding beads and sequins to my little "Guarding The Nest" Art Quilt:

I'll put this on a little branch either later today or over the weekend and post another photo when it's complete.

I did try another little wool background.  This time I boiled it but again, nothing happened.  It's ok though, because I have another interesting, textured foundation to stitch on.  Will post that soon.  First, I have a custom order for a Crazy Quilt cat doll so I want to get that stitched up and ready for my customer.

In the meantime, I also made 2 Pink Heart Brooches:

These are little hearts that I needle felted and then embellished with Silk Ribbon Embroidery, old lace, beads & sequins.  The hearts are exactly the same but by using different embellishments, they are each unique!  These are available to purchase in our Handmade Boutique!

Wool Roving - An Experiment

Did you ever get a bee in your bonnet about trying something and it just bugs you until you do it?  And then, if it doesn't turn out the way you expected, that bee starts buzzing louder until you try again, and again, until you get it right?

That was the case with my latest creative endeavor.  Out of blue, it occurred to me that wool shrinks when heated.  I have tons of wool roving for needle felting but I thought to myself, I could do some layering with it and then shrink it for a really cool textured background to stitch on.  Yes, it's all about new things to stitch on!

I started with a layer of pink tulle.  On top of that, I added some wool roving in a variety of different pastel colors.  Then I added some sparkly Angelina fiber and then another layer of pink tulle.  I took it over to my beloved Singer Treadle Machine and top stitched it.

Now for the fun part.  I wet it and then took the heat gun to it!  Guess what happened?  NOTHING!!!  It didn't really shrink.  Oh, it melted the tulle and gave me a few burned areas which looked pretty cool but I did not accomplish my goal of shrinking the wool.

My philosophy is "Waste Not, Want Not" so I of course, worked with what I had and stitched on it anyway.  Here's the progress:

There's no doubt that what I came up IS very pretty!  Since I still had my heat gun out, I added a little bit of gold embossing powder and heat set that.

I choose an image of a little Cherub and sewed that on.  Then, I had some some recycled silk that I bought at a yarn store last Fall so I couched some of that on around the image:

Couching that silk on was quite a challenge!  It's so fine and gets caught on everything!  But I got it couched on because as you all know, I need pink!

Once I got that done, I added a variety of fancy yarns for more texture.  Then came some Silk Ribbon Embroidery, some vintage and new flowers and a tiny bird's nest.  Yes, the little Cherub is guarding the nest full of eggs!  I can't help it, all I can think of now is Spring!

This is where I'm at with it at the moment:

All that's left to do on it is to add some beads and sequins for sparkle.  Then I'll attach it to a little branch and call it an Art Quilt!  I'll post another update photo when it's completed.

So what about the buzzing bee in my bonnet?  Oh, I'll be trying this again!  We'll see what boiling water does to wool!!!