Places to go... to enjoy

Hi beautiful

The theme for this month in my fabric pages is "Places". What a wonderful creative journey I've enjoyed and agonised over. I ended up with 2 double sided pages; one became the front cover of a journal and the other, the back cover.

Enjoy the journey.

The front cover carries the title "Going Places". This page gives glimpses of my early memories of going for drives and outings from our home in Rockhampton. All the kids bundled into the car and off we'd go! The mountain range, the meandering Fitzroy River, the big bull, an icon of the town. The street we lived in ran straight down to the river and my school was just walking distance away. Below is the whole front page. Lots of machine stitching on a variety of prints.

Front Cover

Turn over and the inside page reflects my "Happy Places" - ocean, sand, gardens, home, Christmas, rolling green fields, star studded sky. A collage with lots of colour and use of prints, a combination of hand and machine stitching, crafted wire shapes, fabric scraps from dresses made long ago, a double weave test piece.

Happy Places - verso of front cover

Now to the back cover. The inside page features Canberra, a place I've both visited on holidays and lived in. Autumn colored fabric forms the background with a free motioned rough outline of the inner city's original street layout. Stitched and stamped patches each show a place in Canberra.

Canberra page

The back cover is a collage of stamps, each featuring a place in Australia. The stamps were glued and stitched onto a foundation of cotton fabric supported by heavy interfacing. The outline of Australia is stitched by hand - apologies to Tasmania as I ran out of space!

Back cover

So there are the four pages viewed individually. To bring them together, a felt spine decorated with machine stitching is attached to front and back. Paper pages in 3 page signatures cut to size are machine stitched across the spine. 

Felt spine with decorative machine stitching

Signatures viewed from above

First paper page

Decorative stitching between each signature

I loved how this journal evolved, challenging me to try out different ideas. It certainly was nothing like the idea I started with!

Enjoy your creative journey! 

Love

Cara

Lace nostalgia

Hi beautiful

Last post I shared the beginning of my fabric journal journey.

Here's the second signature which focuses on the "lace" theme.

Page 1

For me, lace always conjures up times past, the old days. This first page uses pre-loved worn pieces of fabric, a strip of cotton lacy edging, a length of tatting, scraps of vintage fabric, a clothing label depicting a colonial couple, old buttons - all patching and decorating the humble tea towel base. A variety of hand stitches highlight the "make-do" nature of this page.

Page 2

Glorious lace and pre-loved buttons bring a feminine softness to this page. The lace butterfly is so nostalgic of a bygone time.

Page 3

The old days theme continues with a photo of my great grandfather with his hoop. The lace top and bottom and the use of three buttons are continued across from page 2.

Page 4

The soft neutral colours continue with the crocheted doily, a vintage button, a piece of lace, a strip of ric rac and petticoat lacy edging.

This 4 page signature was most enjoyable to make. I love the softness of the finished piece - both its texture and colour palette. So reminiscent of a bygone era.

For a flip through this signature, watch my video clip below.

May you go gently through your day.

Love Cara

Fabric journal wander

Hi beautiful

What a wonderful world of textiles we live in! 

One of my projects this year is inspired by a wild group of women who love their textiles. The project is a fabric journal with the pages reflecting a different theme. The themes to date are "Words on the Page" and "Lace".

Here's what I've created for the first theme, "Words on the Page".

Page 1: Postcard - front

The front of the postcard depicts a village by the water, visited on a holiday. A cheery hello is sent by the happy holiday maker.

Page 2: Postcard - back

Quickly written words describing ever so briefly the fun and discoveries while on holidays.

The following two pages in the signature move to school days.

Page 3

Scissors and glue, crayons and printing, a ruler - memories of the first years at school. Mind you, I don't remember too much of the scissors and glue fun!

Page 4

Learning to print on lined paper with a pencil. The joy of written words has begun.

For a flip through these 4 pages and a description of how I constructed the pages, check out my video clip.

Thanks for dropping by!

Love Cara