December Journal Page

I've spent a busy few days just trying to catch up.  I'm determined to get both 2011 and 2012 JP's done before the month is out and then I'll be back on line.  It's frightening how quickly you can get behind without meaning to.  

On the December JP I've been trying out the shadow/trapunto quilting.  By this I mean I wanted the central image to be raised and shown against a different translucent background.  It's the 'add buttons' feature of this challenge that is giving me problems.  I don't like the feel of buttons, odd I know but it stems from those rubbery ones on liberty bodices I was forced to wear as a child, ughhhh.  They still make me shudder.  Anyway here it is.

I call it "Button Tree" after I heard there was an American wood called Buttonwood.  I first drew out a 'treeish' shape and used this as a template.  I placed felt on top of a cotton backing, drew round the template then sewed on the drawn line.  Next I cut it back layered a sheer organza over the top and sewed it to the background.  With wadding behind I then echo quilted round the piece.   As I said I don't like buttons but made some embroidered and some Dorset ones to finish off the piece.   Keith has made me some wooden ones for the January's JP which is on its way to being completed.

Work in Progress

In between these two JP's I've made a weighted pincushion to take to workshops etc with me.  I never know what to do with waste threads etc and although I always pick up as many as I can I feel sorry for the cleaners who have to come in an clear up the mess some people leave.

I've also joined the Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge - see sidebar - but so far have only done the first one, herringbone stitch on a very small project.  I intend to be a bit more adventurous with this stitch but just wanted to make sure I'd done something.  It's a covered tape measure which is very easy to do.  I  picked up one quite cheaply in the market, drew round the diameter and cut it out with seam allowance twice.  I cut out a strip of felt to go round the outside of the tape, embroidered both top and bottom and buttonholed the two pieces together.  Buttonhole stitch is the second TAST stitch but I wasn't going to use this as the TAST piece.