January Journal Giveaway!

Well the holidays are just a memory now but I hope you all had a wonderful New Years and enjoyed being with family and friends. 

As promised I'm starting off the New Year with my first giveaway!  I've chosen one of my journals which are very popular so i know who ever  wins will be very happy. :) 

Here are the pics of the actual giveaway journal.

                    It holds a 9"x6" coil notebook which are very easy to find and so the journal cover
                                                       can be refilled again and again.

The cover is made starting with a bottom layer of cotton batik fabric then a few silk flowers are scattered that have been pressed flat.  A layer of organza is fused over top and finally free motioned stitched with a variety of variegated threads. The interior is a very stiff stabiliser and then the edges are all zigzagged.

                                               This is a close up of the free motion quilting.

                             So how do I win this giveaway you ask?  Very easy!  Just post a comment to this post      or any other posts this month (one chance per comment) and after a random draw at the end of the month                                   I will mail out your prize, no matter where you live. :)

                                           I'm excited to share my work with someone new and I'm excited to have              some new followers to my blog. Feel free to share this post through facebook or twitter with your friends and good luck! :D

So Busy That You Miss Things

I found the other day by accident that Sara Slean has had a new album out for a month now. She is one of my absolute favorites and I've been waiting for something new since The Baroness in 2008. I wasn't really a fan of her work on Black Flowers with Art of Time Ensemble. I'm thrilled and can't wait to devour the whole thing. Her new work is titled Land and Sea and the first release is called Set it Free. She's a wonderful song writer and her voice is fresh and unique, give her a listen, here the official video for Set it Free.




And here is an acoustic performance of Out in The Park from the album Orphan Music 2006.




Oh! And She's Canadian don't ya know. :)
Hope you enjoyed!

Another Favourite Tool

One of my favourite tools that I want to share with you are called Machingers. They are used for machine quilting and thread painting. There are plenty of options out there that you can use but I believe that nothing compares to these. 

They come in a variety of sizes which is great  because the trick to making these work   the best is for you to get a good fit. You want them to fit like a second skin so there is no movement that you don't want.

I do a lot of work with a very stiff foundation so it is impossible to grip the item.

The tips of the fingers seem to be dipped in rubber which gives such good traction. 

The other great thing about the dipped fingers is that the gloves are reversible. You don't worry about which one you're grabbing for which hand but mostly it means they are reversible and so you get twice the wear out of them.

As you can see here all I need to do is put a bit of pressure with the tips of my fingers and the grip is so good I can move the piece around easily. 

If you aren't familiar with these do yourself a favour and check them out at your local quilt store, or Google them, they are widely sold.

Hope they work as well for you. :)

Have fun!