Snack mats for practice

  . A little bit of practice on the leaves with curled element this week....and extra curls added in.    The little "tweets" are a thread sketching technique where you basically just are creating an outline drawing.  Then you get to have fun  and highlight and color with Prismacolor pencils.
  On the second one I used the fold over backing for the  binding---ugh.  I don't like it, and won't be doing that again.  But these are just snack mats for fun.  Lesson learned!





I also worked a bit on some updated samples for the Crazy Quilting program I am doing for guild next month.  I wanted to focus on and show  a couple techniques  for different embellishments.  So I dug into the stack of journal quilt samples from last year and came up with a few that will be great.  I'm so glad I did that journal challenge.....it was a great experience. To try a technique,  and accept the results, both good and bad, and learn from it.   And end up with a "library" of journals to use as inspiration for later.  I do believe it will miss it this year.
Happy stitching.

Journal quilt..thread sketching

New technique!  Terri has a tutorial on her

thread sketching technique that I have been wanting to try.  So here's my first attempt at a thread sketched journal quilt.  

  I used a sketch from my sketchbook of a simple bird outline--few details.  Scraps were strip pieced together for the background.  I followed her directions for the thread sketching and used a brown thread to stitch the outline and letters.

   I should have taken a "before coloring"  photo.   The pieced background was done with a light purple, and one yellow-gold  fabric.....all the other fabrics were white!    I used Prismacolor pencils (purple, blue, and yellow)  to color, and blend it all together.   I love the effect of the colored pencils.  Before coloring, it was so boring.   Now it is too cute and I plan on hanging it up in the sewing room.   

  My thread sketching needs a good bit of practice---especially on the letters, but I know I will be trying this one again.

I want to pass along what Wanda discovered
 and shared about the problem with Blogger comments.
I changed the settings here for comments to the pop up box last week when she emailed me.    It sure seems to work.  Thanks, Wanda. 
Happy stitching,