Welcome!

Thank you for visiting artful embellishments. This is the third year for this blog and I am so happy to keep publishing. I started in 2011 and began with a quilt of the week, this lead to the leaf of the week for my newly designed paper tree that is located on the wall of my garage in 2012.......2013 is going to bring a lot of excitement and positive change. As a personal challenge for 2013, I plan on designing a artist trading card each week to be featured on the blog.
With so many interests, there will be quilting, art quilting, leaves (and more leaves), as well as experiments in thermofax screen printing, fabric dying, and tons of DIY recycle projects. I may even enter that altered fashion scene. To a happy and healthy 2013, may we all find happiness in those things we create....thank you for stoping by artful embellishments.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Week 18 Flintstone

Week 18 is a photo journal quilt dedicated to the memory of Flint aka Flintstone. Flint was a golden retriever that I rescued who had a large tumor when I adopted him. He passed after a few happy months with me and his friends. He was such an awesome dog, worthy of so much more than an art quilt. I used photoshop to alter the photo by "painting" it using the mixer brush. I included a great friendship quotation, a dog tag, and old scrabble letters. He will be missed by all.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Week 17 the Bike

Week 17, This was so much fun. I actually was able to use some of the skills I learned in photoshop class. This picture I took in Antigua. I must say, Antigua was not my favorite place, but I did get some fun pictures. This bike was in front of this graffiti ridden metal fence. It was just amazing. I took almost 20 pictures. While in photoshop I was able to "age" the photo by using the pointillize filter under the pixelate menu. I also changed the color saturation. It gives the photo a worn, older look. The picture was then printer on photo-fabric. I then used some scraps of fabric to make this quilt square. I am fascinated with old dictionary pages so a small plastic tag was made using an older dictionary definition of the word bicycle.....

Monday, May 9, 2011

Week 16

Week 16 is a testament to faith and hope. Faith that Saginaw can figure out how to keep the power on for longer than 10 hours at a stretch and Hope that my internet provider can deliver internet for longer than 2 minutes at a stretch. Honestly, this has been an endeavor in fortitude. I am two weeks behind in journal quilts, but never fear I will catch up if and when Consumers and AT&T decide to cooperate.
This quilt square was so much fun to make. I had painted some muslin last summer with acrylic paints. Although the feel of the fabric has changed, it made an awesome canvas for stamping. I used all types of inks including embossing powder. I was also able to play with metallic thread which can be tricky. Beryl Taylor had the best technique in her video Layer by Layer. In this video she demonstrates keeping the metallic thread on a separate spool to keep the thread from kinking. It worked like a charm. Happy stamping!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Week 15

Week 15 is a journal that is made from fabric from africa. The pattern for the elephant is in the summer issue of Stitch magazine. I thought it would make an excellent motif for echo quilting. I typically don't work in primary colors or in the jewel tones, so these are always a challenge for me. Today, it was 65 degrees again, I guess I can finally put away the snow shovel. Happy Spring.