Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!

"Party Animalz"

11.5" by 16.5"

Inked and thread-painted, hand-dyes, acrylic paint, beads and assorted trims, machine stitched and quilted

Today is reveal day for the carnival challenge at Art Quilts Around the World.

I was inspired by a news story that showed a parade of pets during Carnival in Rio de Janeiro this year.  I tried to think of what kind of dogs would be fun at a party and I chose Jack Russell terriers because they seem like such high-spirited dogs.

And I thought they might enjoy the hats.  The hats are fused hand-dyes with machine stitched accents and hand-beading.  I challenged myself to use only stuff I already had and I was delighted to find this quilting thread in my stash that perfectly complemented the hand-dyed background.

A Journal Cover to Give Away

But not here...

I was inspired by one of the prompts in the books I'm reviewing tomorrow on the "...Fire" blog.  I made a little circle template by tracing around the bottom of the bottle and getting out the deColourant spray that I haven't had a chance to play with.  I sprayed a half dozen circles down the length of a half yard of Kona black.

Then I wet the fabric, scrunched it up,  poured diluted copper fabric paint over it and let it dry for a couple of days.

I love the texture -- the little circles looked like moons over mountains to me, so I went with that.

I layered it with a piece of cotton batting and quilted it using cotton threads in several colors.  Then I traced around the journal and cut out the part I wanted.

Because old books often had marbling on the inside covers, I dug through my stash of hand-marbled fabrics and chose this one.

Here is the inside of the cover -- I used a plain piece of Kona black to line the inside of the journal cover.

This is a shot of the backside of the covered journal.

There are detailed instructions for making a journal cover here.

I'm linking up with Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Fridays -- even though it's really Saturday.

And here is a shot of the front.  I will be giving this away in our December giveaway and book review on ...And Then We Set It on Fire.  Check out tomorrow's post.  

Sunday Update: click here to go to the ...Fire blog and leave a comment to win this book!

Making a Journal Cover

I made a cover for my favorite journal with the painted fabric in the previous post.  I included a small pocket on the spine for a pencil.  I needed a place to put the pencil, but clipping it to the pages makes the book flop open and then it's not flat, so the spine seemed like the best place for it.

The first thing is to measure the book and cut a piece of thin batting and some Pellon Decor Bond for the back to stabilize it.  The batting and stabilizer should be at least an inch or so bigger than the total measurement of the journal.  I set the batting on top of the Decor Bond, with the shiny (glue) side of the Decor Bond facing away from the batting.  Then the painted fabric went on top of the batting, right side up.

I auditioned threads and finally went with the shiny rayon variegated thread at the bottom of the picture. I thought that it would complement the metallic paints and I knew that the rayon thread would be easy to sew with.  I quilted the whole thing with wavy lines and pebbles.

After quilting, I pressed with a hot iron from the top to flatten it a bit using a bit of baking parchment underneath the Decor Bond just in case the glue wanted to stick to my ironing board.



I set the book on the quilted piece and drew a chalk line all around.  Then I cut it down by lining up my ruler on the chalk line and trimming it to 3/8 of an inch outside of the chalk line.

I took a spare unquilted piece of the painted fabric and cut it about an inch larger than the measurement of the spine of the book.  I turned the top (short) edge 1/4 and then another 1/4 inch and stitched it.  Then I pressed each long edge under 1/4 inch and put a 1/8 inch pleat down the center.  I used the book to measure where the spine would be and topstitched the pocket down each of the long sides, leaving the bottom edge even with the bottom.

I set that aside while I got the inner flaps ready.

I wanted to use a marbled fabric on the inner flaps because old books were often marbled on the inside covers.  So I dug through my stash of marbles and found this one.  It is one of my favorites and the colors complement the colors on the metallic piece.





I cut two strips that were about an inch longer than the book is high and about half as wide as the book is.  I pressed a quarter inch and then another quarter inch and sewed that down along a long side of each piece.







I cut them down to fit the quilted piece and with right sides together, lined them up with the outer edges.  I put a piece of lining fabric cut exactly the same size as the quilted piece with the right side facing the quilted piece on top of the marbled flaps.  Then I stitched a 1/4 inch all around the edge, leaving a space open at the top for turning.




I trimmed the batting and metallic fabric close to the stitching and clipped the corners.



 After I turned it right side out, I pressed in the seam that was left open and topstitched the edge shut (I used a little glue and some pins to hold it while I stitched.  Then I pressed the lining to the Decor Bond for a neat fit.









Now my favorite writing and drawing journal has a pretty cover and a slick place for my favorite pencil or pen.

Metallic Paints on Fabrics

Over at Three Creative Studios, they're offering a Technique of the Month.  I wasn't going to do this because I already have enough to do, but this month the technique is painting on fabric with metallic paints.  

I love metallic paints on fabric and decided that I just had to do this one.

I got out my old Jacquard Lumiere paints and my new Setacolor Shimmers.  I used a plain white PFD fabric and a chunk of Kona black.  First I doused the white fabric in diluted Liquitex soft body acrylic in Cadmium Yellow.  I used some purple on the black.

I scrunched up the wet fabrics on my recycled ground turkey palettes and added more color with a sponge brush.  Both got some Lumiere blue.

The yellow got more Lumiere in Citrine.  It wound up getting a bunch more coats of diluted Lumiere because I wanted to change the hand of the fabric and make it more stiff for a specific project I had in mind.

The black was painted with Setacolor Shimmer in copper, then rescrunched and painted with some more of the copper.  I let it dry while still scrunched, then heat set it.

I really like the way the black turned out with the blue and copper paints.

I also took some pale hand-dyes and wet them with water, then scrunched them in my handy palettes.  I painted them lightly with full strength Setacolor in Pearl. and let them dry.

They have very subtle sheen and it was perfect for this project.  I keep running out of light fabrics, so these were a nice addition.  I used the greenish one for the triangles in the outer middle sides.

I used the blueish one for the small triangles in the dark outer triangles.

As always, if you want a better look at any of these pictures, just click on the one you want to see close up.