Finished Floral Postcard

I finished the edge of my little post card/wall quilt from last Friday. It's two layers of zig zag, followed with a straight stitch aligned with the edge of the zig zag. My Janome 6600 has left-aligned zig zag and straight stitch so it was pretty easy. And I used my ditch quilting foot to guide the edge for a nice, straight edge.

When I did the straight stitch, I placed a layer of card stock on the back so it can be used as a giant post card or to record a sentiment or something. It curled a little as shown in the above picture, but a little time in the slammer under a heavy book has straightened it up.

A closer shot of the edge, above. I think the straight stitch makes the line of stitching look smoother and neater.

Eleven people left a comment on last Friday's post for a giveaway of this card. Random.org decreed that number 8, "What Comes Next?" was the winner. If I can get an address, this will be tucked into an envelope and mailed to you asap.

This post is linked up with Free Motion Friday at Leah Day's site and Off the Wall Friday at Nina-Marie's.

Web Wednesday

I am feeling a little icky today plus I have a lot of things going on this week, but wanted to get a post up today. Sharing some of my favorite finds on the web seems to be a perfect fit for following some posts on inspiration.

Like I said in my previous posts on inspiration, I try to get most of my inspiration for a new quilt from sources other than other quilt sites.

Geninne's Art Blog is so chocked full of artful inspiration and life! One day I will ask her for tips on how she homeschools two boys and yet has such a neat and sleek home! She's taking a small break from blogging (New book in the works, perhaps?) but she also puts out a free download for a digital desktop calender. You can still get yours for September.

Johanna Basford is a talented young artist in Scotland who specializes in ink drawing with a strong graphic appeal while retaining the hand drawn charm. (Something that I've been thinking on as computer-guided quilting has been growing.) Her work is full of fabulous scrolls, swirls and florals.

Janome has redone their site so it's easier to find their videos here.

Valerie at Visual Blessings makes me want to incorporate scripture and doodling into my work more often.

And since I mentioned doodling, it's appropriate that I end with a site of Zentangle designs at Tangle Patterns.

Watermarking Images

I mentioned watermarking my own images if I'm worried they will be misused when I post them online in a previous post; What to Do With Inspiration When you Find It. That post was a follow-up to Finding and Using Inspiration.

I received a few comments asking about how to watermark images. I am not real good at it but I will tell you what I do. I am sure there's a better tutorial online to be found if you Google it. I don't know how to do screen shots of the process.

First of all I use a free online photo editor called Pic Monkey at picmonkey.com. It's pretty easy to use.

Open your photo at the picmonkey site. Choose the text option in the editor tools list to the left; it's the "P".

Choose a font (hardest part, I swear!) and type your text in the box, and move or resize with the handles. Use the text toolbox to change the size, color, etc. and most useful for watermarks, set the "fade" level. Fade is what gives a transparent effect.

Then save or download the newly watermarked pic to your computer. Ta Da! Done.

Freed from the Creative Funk for Friday

So my last post was a bit cranky and I was feeling a bit out of sorts in a bit of a creative funk that seems to happen between major projects.

Today was a bit better and then I realized another week had past and I had nothing to post at either Free Motion Friday at Leah Day's blog nor at Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.

But I decided I would get some free motion quilting in anyway. It was quiet time and the kids were being pretty good so I grabbed a piece of Peltex and a funky bit of batik that someone had given me in a stash purge. I decided I would make a large fabric post card/small wall quilt.

 I decided I would just doodle quilt a flower strategically over the blobs of color. It turned out pretty well and I'm glad because I decided that I wouldn't rip out any stitches. I wanted to stretch myself and curb my perfectionism; do it and have fun. Gave my inner critic the day off too. OK, I confess there was one tiny spot I had to rip.

 Since the ruler toe was still on my Janome Convertible Free Motion Quilting Foot Set and I hadn't done much ruler work on the Janome lately, I did some curved lines using Rhonda Beyers small Double S ruler. I really like doing ruler work on my sewing machine. It's one way of doing background work without getting too dense with a filler.

It ended up measuring about 6.75 x 8.75 inches. I still need to fuse a piece of cardstock to the back and finish the edges. It's far from perfect and there are some spots that really should have been redone but I enjoyed myself.

Leave me a comment and I will pick someone at random to mail it to! (In a manilla envelope)