Saturday 31 August 2013

A Card for Dad

It's Fathers' Day tomorrow here in Australia, and last night and today I got busy with my coloured pencils and made Dad a card. I sometimes find it tricky to make cards for males, mainly because most of the stamps and so forth I have are not very masculine. So, with cards for Dad I usually try to think outside the box and do something a little different to my usual.


I did most of the 'Dad' and the green last night. I was so into it that eventually my hubby had to tell me "pencils down" in a school examiner's voice to make me stop and go to bed...

Today I finished off the green and did the background. I was going for a wood grain effect... I do hope that's stating the obvious? All up I used about four different browns, two greens, dark blue and black.


I had a bit of trouble getting the colour right in the photos. It's probably somewhere between the first and second photo.

On the back of the card I did this quick little heart:


I think it's safe to assume that Dad will like it. He likes the colour green, he loves wood and working with wood, and he likes that "Old English" style of writing. Plus he's my Dad and as such he will love it because it's made with love - I'm sure that's what's most important to him. 

Thanks for visiting me here. I hope you and the dads in your life have a wonderful day tomorrow.  

Bye for now x

Tuesday 27 August 2013

Nature's Chorus

Hello! Goodness time flies, doesn't it? I knew I'd been away from my blog for a while (again) but hadn't realised just how long. Well, I thought it high time I shared a quilt that has been finished since my birthday at the end of April:


This fabric is Nature's Chorus by April Cornell for Moda. The brown is something I bought from my local fabric shop that I thought went rather nicely with the fabrics.


The quilting is all free-motion, even the straight 'in-the-ditch' quilting. I wobbled off course now and then but I would have to search to find where. I quilted it with a few different designs. This on the centre section:


This on the borders (you can see where I wobbled off course into the brown slightly here):


And this flower design on the corners:


As you can see, I decided on a pale binding, and I really like how it looks.

So, there you have it. I am so pleased with the quilting, even with those wobbles. I think the texture is lovely and so different to the straight line quilting I've mainly used in the past. I am dying to quilt another quilt, so I guess I should get on with some WIPs and get something ready to go!

Bye for now x