http://www.flickr.com/photos/44958656@N02/4283377323/in/photostream
Continuing with last year's theme, "use what you have" projects, I made a January wall hanging with re purposed, thrifted, leftover supplies. January is the darkest longest month for me & I wanted to think Springy thoughts. Titled, Snowflakes on Daisies, I took 2 different components from quilt magazines. The daisy came from a floor quilt project in International Quilt Festival Quilt Scene, the snowflakes came from a table runner project from another magazine. I like how the toile and novelty fabric go together. The light blue is flannel scraps I got along with the red snowflake fabric in a bag full from my local thrift store. Some nice quilter is donating her leftovers & they are selling them for pennies! The toile is Waverly, but from a shower curtain I got from Goodwill a long time ago to make accessories to match the Waverly valances I used to have in my kitchen. I think I paid $4 for all that fabric that I knew I'd use someday for something. I love toile but it doesn't really go with anything in my house. (I really don't have any kind of style, anywhere!) It was fun & quick to make and good practice for free motion & echo quilting and my binding skills without making something huge.
Next on the January projects is trying to transfer a photo to muslin using gel medium, to be made into a tote. I printed it in reverse on glossy photo paper, covered it with 3 separate layers of gel medium. Then when each layer was dried overnight, I added one more thick layer to the photo and pressed it onto the muslin and used a brayer to smooth it out to get out any air bubbles and once again let it dry overnight. When it was then basically glued face down to the muslin, I wet the back with water & it released, leaving the thickened image on the fabric. It has a matte finish and feels like flexible leather.
