Firstly... be sure to look at our sidebar for a note about how you can win some cool stuff! >>>
Google/other feed readers... click HERE.
Cindy's love of quilting inspires her work
By Reporter Cindy Keery
If you've ever been to a Fibre Arts Festival you'll know what I mean when I say how inspiring it can be. I had the wonderful opportunity to take in the Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival last summer in Gibsons, BC, Canada. Wow! What a great place to go to have your creative imagination stimulated. Before this event I was only remotely interested in fabrics and quilting, but since then it has become a passion of mine second only to stamping. It would be very difficult to go to one of these festivals and walk away not wanting to get creative in some way!
Seeing all the beautiful quilts on display was so awe inspiring. You can't help but want to start quilting when you see all the amazing possibilities. There's such a huge range of gorgeous fabrics and an endless number of patterns and quilting techniques to try. Entire lines of fabrics are all designed to coordinate perfectly, taking the guess work out of fabric selection and quilt design. In a way it's like purchasing a kit of coordinating designer papers for scrapbooking or card making.
One particular brand of fabric really caught my eye was Moda Fabrics. My first quilt was a 36" square quilt made with star blocks and for this quilt I used Moda Poetry Collection designer fabric by April Cornell. It's such a delightful, feminine, springy line. Then I used the Moda Chocolat fabric to make a queen sized quilt for my husband and I. I just LOVE how well these fabrics are designed and how beautifully they coordinate together. The Moda Chocolat line is so incredibly rich both in how in looks and also how it feels. I just love the paisleys and the florals… ahhhh just beautiful!
One thing I discovered is that Daisy D has a line of paper that is based on the Moda Fabrics! I was able to find some recently at my local scrapbook shop! It will be so neat to be able to make a scrapbook page about my quilt using paper that coordinates with the quilt!
I quickly learned that there's a huge difference between fabrics available on the market. For example, you can pick up some cute looking polyester at Wal Mart for around $4 (CDN) per meter or you can visit your local quilt shop and purchase 100% cotton top quality designer fabric for $15.95 (CDN) per meter. The difference in your final product will astound you! It's just like the difference between the patterned paper you can get at the Dollar Giant (a whole package for only $1.00!) and the gorgeous Crate Paper that you can get at your local scrapbook store. While the Dollar Giant paper may seem like a really great bargain, your finished cards & scrapbook pages will be 100 times more beautiful if you use the quality products. The bottom line is you get what you pay for whether it's in quilting or paper crafting.
When I heard about the latest challenge on Craft Critique I sat down in my craft room and got busy sewing on cards! If I'm sitting at my stamp table all I have to do is spin around in my chair and I am sitting at my sewing machine! Sometimes it pays to have a tiny space. LOL.
For awhile I've been doing faux stitching on my cards, but I haven't been really thrilled with the results. I've been using a brass template from Lasting Impressions as a guide for poking my holes with the Making Memories piercing tool. The problem is that you can't see through the brass template to see the edge of your card stock in order to line it up properly. To remedy this situation I've ordered the Stampin' Up! mat pack from my demonstrator. The downside to the Stampin' Up! piercing template is that it's smaller than a card front, but for now it will have to do. The other thing I do not like about faux stitching is the white pen I use to draw the stitches between the holes doesn't work very well. I have the white Signo gel pen from Stampin' Up! and I find that it's streaky and doesn't work half the time. It has been like this since the day I got it… so it's not like it's worn out.
To tell you the truth, I much prefer REAL stitching over the fake stuff! I find it much faster to just zing my card stock through my sewing machine to add a pretty stitched border, 2 piece card stock together or to attach ribbon - with real thread! If you have a sewing machine that's just collecting dust I encourage you to dig it out and set it up in a corner of your craft area. Then thread it and plug it in so it's ready to go when inspiration hits! Next time you're thinking about faux stitching why not try the real thing instead? I am sure you'll be delighted with the results.
Cindy slowly guides this folded ribbon through her machine, using an object
(not her finger... OUCH!) to lead the fabric. What a handy tip!
Here are a few samples I created just for this challenge. Each one of them has real sewing machine stitching! The True Thyme card features a scrap of Moda Chocolat fabric that I had leftover from my recent quilt project. I just love the texture and dimension the fabric ads to the card. I love cards that not only look good, but feel neat, too!


