Using Colored Pencils on Fabric

I have been working on my travels quilt . I talked about coloring the photos with colored pencils.

I belong to two online postcard swapping groups and the current swap in one of the groups was a winter landscape.  I decided to take a photo that I recently took of the beach in the snow which is  unusual for this area.  Again in this photo the sun was not shining and the sky was fairly dull.  Also the white snow showed no contrast.  I decided to get out the colored pencils and try coloring the photo once I had improved and cropped in it photoshop.    I have attached photos of the photo before touch up and then after I had colored it.  The coloring is subtle, but you can see a definite difference.  I then turned one photo into a postcard.

FinishedI am very pleased with the results and thought others might be interested in learning about and trying the technique.

Travels with Margie

This weekend I finally had a chance to get back to work on this quilt.  First I chose some  batiks and sewed them together.  Next I went through my photos of our trip to Italy and scanned them into the computer.  Opened them in Photoshop and edited them.  Next I made several documents in Publisher.  I inserted the photos in and made them the size I wanted and then Printed them on to fabric.   I cut them out and then lay them on my background to figure out placement and marked some lines.

Some of the skies on the photos were washed out as we had lots of cloudy days while traveling.  So I then took our my Derwent water color pencils and colored  and shaded.  I then took a water brush and smoothed the colors out.  I think it enhanced the photos. My next step is to do some writing with thread on the background to label the photos.

Riley Blake challenge

Before I could get back to the Travels with Margie quilt, I had to finish my Riley Blake Challenge  for the Modern Quilt guild..  I  began by taking the fabric we were given, cutting the into small rectangles and hand stitching a braid.  I added white and orange and blue strips, Then used some of the left over fabric to make circles which I then added to the Table runner.  I used my circular attachment and used my machines decorative stitches to stitch around the circles.  i then quilted and bound it.   Since I hate to have left over fabric, I stitched the strips I had left and cut into squares.  I then added the squares from which I had cut out the circles and created four mug rugs. 

When I finished the Riley blake fabric was all gone.

I am in sunny Florida.  so much fun to see my sister and visit old friends.  I did manage to finish the baby quilt on Monday amid packing and doing lots of laundry.  The pattern is “9 day trip around the world” in a book by Lisa Bongeon and Carole Charles called Nine Patch Gatherings.  They have a special way of making the nine patches which is very clever.  There sample was done in tans and some reds.  I decided to use batiks.  It is intended for a boy baby and I have some nice blue checked Minke for the back.

These are so fabric buckets I made using a pattern from Atkinson designs.  they are lots of fun to make.  I have the large one now holding all my yarn .  I began making socks recently, why, I have no idea. It just seem like fun at the time.  I had been busily making lots of ruffly scarfs and it just seem to be the next step.  I will have to take a photo of my socks and up load them

Florida , here I come

Karin & Margie in Israel in 1998

Just printed my boarding pass.  I’m off to Florida tomorrow to visit my sister. I’ve just begun a series of quilts depicting the

Planting trees in the Isram Peace Forrest

many trips we have taken together over the years.  Our first major trip was to Israel . Here we are before an almond tree and planting trees. They should be quite tall by now.  Lots of packing to do and washing etc before I leave.  Would also like to finish the quilt I started piecing yesterday.

Abby and her finished tote bag

Joann and her finished tote.

Above are two of the ladies who just finished their colorful travel totes in my latest class.  I just designed this bag using 5 fat quarters and 1/2 yd for the lining.  Lots of pockets.  

Today I have been working on a new baby quilt.

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Colorful Travel Tote.

Colorful travel totes. A new design

Charm Party Totes

Two Recent Totes that I have made.