1st new project of the year

I was able to finish a long anticipated and never tried before fiber project today. I have been sewing since I was 13 and have gotten away from the joy of fiber arts because of space and time. And also because I had forgotten how much fun it is to take the time to create something from piles of fabric.

I have been working on this set of pillows for a friend from concept to completion for 3 weeks. I know there are those of you out there who coulda whipped this up in no time.....but that is exactly what I find myself surrounded by when the grands are on holiday from school, no time. In spite of that I finished today, learned new techniques and had a blast in the process.

I started out with an idea. Take some of MBF's favorite donkey photos and turn them into fabric. I have iron on transfer paper for the copier but I wanted to try to place muslin  on freezer paper and run it through my printer and use the resulting photo printed material for the basis of the project. Well, I can honestly say, that was not a good idea. Seems as though my printer has an aversion to that scheme and so I used the transfer technique whereby you take the photo to a copy shop, because it is a different kind of ink that doesn't run when you use transfer medium (or modge podge) smear it on muslim, lay down your photocopy and use a squeegy, credit card and brayer to completely cover the photo and get all the bubbles out. You have to let the medium dry completely and then dampen the paper to remove it. And that technique worked, except I spent the next two days wetting the paper and rubbing off the paper. When I let it dry out, I could see more paper pulp......strange process. But worth it in the end.

Justina called this the Conga line when Patrick was head hugging Buck who was hugging Gracie Belle hugging Nigel. Too cute.
I just named it "hugs".

Justina named this photo "The Fab Four". It shows Ellsworth, Bernard, Nigel and Fergus. The buckle donkey represents Fergus looking down from heaven over all of MBF

I used a new product to me, a fabric glue stick. Takes the place of hand basting and keeps even the rag roses in place until they are stitched. Cool huh?

I also fell in love with Tim Holtz Distress Ink by Ranger...grunges everything so well and adds the "attic found" quality to work.

I also have admired the art of K.C. Willis for sometime and wanted to try a fabric collage in her style. Thus the coffee stained and rubbed and frayed olde look to the fabrics. Some trims, lace, an old tablecloth, buttons, a donkey buckle, and the cutest heart shaped rusted wire were all part of this fun. I used my "fancy stitches" on my sewing machine on the collage to take the fabric and "glue" it down to the background. I think both of these pillows will be a just the ticket on the window seat of Don and Justina's den at Morning Bray Farm.

The backing looks like just burlap but it is soft and comfy. I've had the fuzzy red trim since GK was a baby and finally it found just the right project to finish. See, hoarding can be a good thing.....er maybe.

Thanks for looking at my first of many new things to try.