Apple Salad

Apple Salad Hot Pad

Saturday my friend Connie and I got together for a play date.  Our project was weaving fabric.  This technique is one Connie had done before for a class and is in the book Fabric Embellishing the basics and beyond by Ruth Chandler, Liz Kettle, Heahter Thomas and Lauren Vlcek.  I had so much fun with the fabric weaving technique and the book was full of other terrific techniques that this morning I went online and ordered it.  The hard part will be waiting for it to arrive!

Apple print fabric

We started out with our two pieces of fabric.  I chose this apple print I had and then a cream colored fabric.  These were backed with a double-sided fusible.  Next we cut wavy strips on one fabric going horizontal and on the other piece we cut our wavy stips going vertical.





Weaved fabric

 Carefully, we kept our pieces in order and started the strip weaving technique. When we had finished with the weaving we ironed (fused) the pieces together.  When my piece was finished we thought it looked a lot like an apple salad.  This morning I finished sewing a zigzag (mostly satin) stitch down each wavy strip first horizontally and then vertically and then trimmed my piece and finished the outside edges with the satin stitch.  I also had weaved a smaller piece (left side of photo) of this same fabric and I'm thinking of using it on one of my cards.  You'll have to come back at a later date to see the results of the apple salad card.

Back side of Apple Salad hot pad

Here is the back side of the hot pad.  My husband is thrilled that he now has a large enough hot pad to place under his french toast baking dish. Usually we need to place two pads under the dish.

Saturday Play Date

Yesterday, Connie and I got together for another of our play dates. The theme for this one was paper dolls but we sort of went on our own creative bent which totally worked out for the both of us. These play dates are so much fun as we get so immersed into our projects that we lose track of time. What a great way to spend a Saturday!

Here is a photo of my paper doll design using Connie's piece she did earlier in the month from Julie Nutting's project in the latest issue of Somerset Studio magazine, as my inspiration. 

For my canvas I covered a used binder with old newspaer clippings my mother had given me of various tips and hints for projects as well as crochet directions that I will never use, as I don't crochet, but with this project  I did get a chance to repurpose them. My paper doll is still a work in progress as I would like to add a few embellishments to her dress but I was quite pleased with my results during our "play date". Once finished I plan on using my binder to hold all of my craft magazine clippings.

July Craft Play Day

Painted fabric ready to be set in the sun

I am very lucky to have a friend who enjoys experimenting with new techniques as much as I do. We have so much fun when we get together on our craft play days. Part of what makes it fun is that we both have different styles so we are always learning from one another. Connie is more of a free spirit with her art and crafts and I tend to be more purposeful.  By that I mean my art or craft project needs to have a purpose.

Our July Saturday play date involved painting fabric with Setacolor Soleil (a sun printing fabric paint). We had a blast experimenting with blending the colors on the fabric, laying the objects on top of the fabric to create a design and then placing the fabric in the sun.  We also learned some objects worked better than others. 

My sun printed fabric

My favorite fabric is the one I created using buttons placed on top of my painted fabric. I plan on making a book cover with the button sun printed fabric. Other items I used on my fabric were paper doilies, fabric lace with metal hardware and rock salt. I'm still amazed that with so little effort and so much fun I created my own unique fabric.

It would be easy for me to get the fabric painting bug, my only drawback is what would I do with it when it was done?

Salad spinner art fabric

The second half of our play day involved this technique from the Creative Arts Home magazine of using a salad spinner to paint on fabric.  As a child I loved the paint spinners so I couldn't wait to play with this new technique. 

To my amazement it turned out really good and yes, I have a project in mind for these fabric circles.  I think they will look great appliqued onto a pillow cover as holiday ornaments.

Salad spinner fabric art circles