Cloth Doodle Swap Received

I recently participated in a cloth doodle swap with my Cloth Paper Studio group. I just made one to swap for one, and received mine today. Isn't it beautiful? Margaret Field made it. I just love it! It is in my sewing room on an easel that is actually a metal plate that was used to fasten railroad ties together.

September - Swap Your Stash Challenge

I like to add images to the little quilties I make. This image of a young woman hanging laundry on a clothesline, from Luna Girl Images, was perfect to compliment the fabrics I received for the September challenge.

I used the fabrics and lace to mimic the background in the image: Blue lace sky, pink & white striped cotton fence, green cotton grass, and white eyelet clothes hang on the silver fabric clothesline.

Use Your Stash Challenge - Mermaids

I made this piece in a challenge for one of my Yahoo groups. Use Your Stash challenge. We get a new theme every two weeks, and this two week period theme was Mermaid.

I used this cute piece of fabric with a mermaid and collaed it on a background that is a blue jean leg, and a fan quilt block. I embellished it with a photo printed onto white cotton that is from a 1920s photo of two young women in their bathing suits. The photo caption reads "Bathing Beauties". It is just one of many cute photos I obtained a few years ago when I bought photos albums from the 1920s and 1939s.

The button card at the top gives the artwork its title, and it is finished off with three red glass shank buttons at the bottom and red croched trim at the top.
The finished piece measures 9" x 15".

Use Your Stash Challenge - Stamp Theme ATCs

One of my online groups has a challenge to make artwork with the stash we already own. I think I have quite enough stash to make artwork for the rest of my life without buying another thing! The theme for this two week period go around is "Stamps". It can be postage stamps or inked stamps, however you want to incorporate it into any form of artwork. I decided to make fabric ATCs for this challenge, then I added old Russian postage stamps that are affixed to card stock and then sewn to the ATCs. I also used beads, buttons and ribbon for embellishment. I had just ironically used stamps for another August challenge. These stamps have beautiful and unique images, and are little works of art in their own right.

August - Swap Your Stash Challenge

I received the August 'Swap Your Stash' goodies early in the month, but haven't worked with it until yesterday. I decided to make two small wall hangings because I was having a difficult time trying to put everything together into one piece. I have quite a few old Russian stamps that I brought with me this year, and I used them instead of putting a picture on each piece. I still like to incorporate an image into each wall hanging I make, as I would do when using my own stash. The first picture is taken of the stash before I made the wall hangings. I usually forget to take a picture at this step, so I'm glad that I remembered to do that this time. Although, I am missing the light blue applique that I used in the #1 wall hanging in the before photo. It was included in the fabric packet I received.

July - Swap Your Stash Challenge

The July "Swap Your Stash Challenge" is nearly at a close and I just finished mine last night. I used flower seed packages that I planted this year, and added them to the stash to make two collages. I used Twinkling H20 paint to add a bit of sparkling color to the fringe. The two collages are very simular as I plan to keep one and send the other one to the lady who supplied July's stash. Now I'm looking forward to receiving the August stash.

Pincushions - Swap Your Stash - June

The June package of "Swap Your Stash" fabrics was waiting for me when I arrived in Kentucky. The bright colored prints are very pretty, and also quite different from the fabrics I am used to working with. The package also included a variety of colorful beads. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to make pincushions. I tried to use just the items I had received, but did use a couple of my glass buttons. The large 'jewel box' pincushion measures 5" square by 2" high. It will be handy for quilt pins as well as large needles. The smaller ones are also a basic 5", but do not have the depth - so part of the 5" top becomes the sides. I finished this challenge with just a few days to spare before the end of June. Now, I'll be looking forward to July's mystery to arrive in the mail.

Fabric Cone Received

This beautiful fabric cone from Betsy Tauer was waiting for me when we arrived in KY. I love it Betsy! It was a swap with our Cloth Paper Studio group. I have it hanging on the antique dresser that belonged to my husband's grandmother.

May Swap Your Stash Challenge

I created this small collage wall hanging with the stash I received from one of the group members for the May "Swap Your Stash Challenge". The 'button card' is a scanned image of a button card that is printed on white cotton. Everything else is from the stash that I received. This has been a great challenge for me because it forces me to create a piece incorporating as many of the items I receive from the group members, but limiting items from my own stash. I like to use photos or other images in my work and will limit my stash to them.

Swap Your Stash - April

It was my turn to send out some of my stash for the April Swap Your Stash Challenge. As the participants finish their work for this month's challenge using my fabrics, I will post pictures of them here.

I decided to keep a set of the stash for myself and made a lightly quilted wall hanging using scanned photos from my Dad's grade school photo album from 1931 - 32. He lived in Lane, SD and attended Meyers School. I used an old ruler as the hanger for this piece. I will display it in our Kentucky cottage which is quite fitting because the original core of the cottage is a circa 1874 one room school house.

The journal covers are by Flicsha. Besides the one she made for the challenge, she also made one for me with my initial monogrammed on the front of the
cover.






Skye made a very cute Sun Bonnet Sue.




This wonderful fabric and painted collage titled "Give" is by LaRinda.

Swap Your Stash - March

An online group I belong to has a challenge that I am participating in called, "Swap Your Stash".

There are eight of us in the swap and each month one of us sends the other seven in the group the same pieces of fabrics, lace, buttons etc. Then, we all create something and post our creations to the group. I forgot to take a picture of the stash I received for March before I began to cut and sew. We received so many selections this month that I ended up making four pieces that I am posting here. (The pictures were taken at a slight angle to avoid my shadow)


Aunt Hope 7.5" x 15.................................. Granda 9" x 13"

Coats 6" x 8.5 " .............................................................Freedom 5" x 8"

Birthday - RAK

I received two more birthday RAKs from ladies in my Cloth Paper Studio group. They were wonderful surprises and I was happy to receive them both.

Bookmark by Jenny Rohrs


Tag by Katherine Willson

I received a fabric ATC birthday card today from one of the ladies in my Cloth Paper Studio group. The group calls them random acts of kindness (RAK) and a nice surprise to be sure. It is so thoughtful of her to make this and send it to me. Thank you Diane.

Card by Diane Ferguson


Message on the back of card

Romance Postcards Received

I received the swap postcards from the ladies in my group. They are wonderful, and they arrived in perfect shape. Next time I will have to commit to making more so that I can receive more of them too. It was fun waiting for them to arrive in the mail.

Card by Ruthie Palmer


Card by Diane Ferguson


Card by Margaret Scheers

I Joined Two Interesting Yahoo Groups This Week

I joined two interesting Yahoo Groups this week. The first is called Like Minded Artists and this is the link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/likemindedartist/ Their category is listed as Craft, but the artists work is collage art using fabric and paper as well as doll making. They are a friendy group and have made me feel very welcome. One woman has already bought one of my ACEOs from my Etsy shop. Now that is what I call a warm welcome!

The next group is called Cloth Paper Studio and this is the link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/clothpaperstudio/ Their category is mixed media and they have a lot of talented artists and many activities to become involved in.

I have done a little exploring of each of them, but have not had the chance to become very involved as yet.