Spring Fling with Sizzix

Welcome to the Sizzix Spring Fling blog hop!  I love my Sizzix die cutters:  I own the Big Shot Pro and the Fabi.  The Big Shot allows me to use the really BIG dies and, while it works for all the dies, the Fabi is more portable and I use it when I travel to teach.  "Mr. Big", as I call mine, stays home for those trips!
For this project I used quite a few different dies.  You don't really need to do that, but I guess I used dies like I cook:  if I have it, I might as well add some.
The main dies used are these:

The Sizzix Bigz Pro Die:  Flower

and these:  (L) Flowers and Leaves Die #658480, and (R) 3D Wrapped Flowers #657116.

I also used these:

Big Shot Pro Circle and the "D" piece from the Double Wedding Ring die!

I was interested in creating appliqué pieces from felt that would subsequently be used to adorn a throw pillow.

Here are a few wool blend sheet of felt I am considering...

as well as this crazy piece of woven end-pieces off a loom that I previously dry-felted.

They are all going to make a trip through the Sizzix machines!

First, using the large flower die, I cut the woven piece.

I love it!

Then I cut small sections of the wool felt to go through the other machine.

Here are a few of the results!  They are so gorgeous!

I wanted a larger leaf shape so I opted for this portion of the Double Wedding Ring die.  It works!

I love the blanket stitch (mirror image reversed) by my Bernina 750 QE.

I overlaid the die-cut weaving on the gray felt.

I love the way these beautiful die-cut leaves look over the weaving.

To create a dimensional look I stitched the edges slightly raised from the surface.

The combination of the 3-D flower and these open-cuts:  awesome!

So much yumminess.

I "modified" the base of my too-long zipper by cutting it, then applying some embroidery thread on the base.

Love the way my Bernina handles the uneven levels of the zipper to pillow.

Hand embroidery on the edges makes this even more special.

For the pillow background I selected these pieces.  Note that the open flower shape

on the left is actually cut from the leftover gray of the flower base.

Note my green "leaf petal" that is folded with the black leaves on top?  

There are many uses for each shape in a Sizzix die.  Think outside the box!

Pinned, then straight-stitched to the surface of a piece of yarn-dyed Kaufman Essex.

Then the main appliqué is stitched onto the surface.

The zipper installed....

And the finished pillow!  

I really love these spectacular Sizzix dies.  

They are just so darn much fun to play with.  I hope you try them!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Be sure to visit all the artists participating in this hop:

Mon, April 6 - Jamie Fingal

Wed, April 8 -YOU ARE HERE!

Thurs, April 9 - Cindy Cooksey

Fri, April 10 - Victoria Findlay Wolfe

Sat, April 11 - Sue Bleiweiss

Sun, April 12 - Jessee Maloney

Mon, April 13 -Karin Jordan

CREATE workshop: "Dreaming In Canvas: A Painted Quilt"

Our first workshop at the CREATE! Cloth Paper Scissors retreat in Chicago was an overwhelming success!  Our fabulous students created 2 canvases that were truly breath-taking, and transformed sections from both into beautiful quilts fused to black felt.  Please take a look:

Part of the group works on the underlayment of the painting

Here is the second painting.

Groups switched back and forth between the two canvases!

Close to finished!

The second canvas is almost finished!

Each canvas was divided so every student got a section from both.

Pieces were cut and assembled onto felt, then fused. 

The fused designs were machine-quilted with our beautiful Bernina 440 QE machines!

Students hard at work on their creations.

Music playing, and we had a great time together.

Here are my 2 quilts, assembled and quilted in the afternoon.

Here are most of the students, holding their finished quilts!

Yay!

For additional photos please visit Jamie Fingal's blog: http://jamiefingaldesigns.blogspot.com/

Felt Stones

I am updating a guest room in our house.  Since I'm obsessed with rocks & stone this is the dominant theme of the room.  I found these amazing felted "stones" in a catalog, and they finally arrived.  Since the guest room is still a dusty mess, I placed the pile of "stones" in the living room temporarily.

This is one of the medium-sized felt stones.

The stones range from 20 inches long to 36 inches long

My daughter poses with the rock pile.

They are very comfy to sit on!