Faux quilting hosting duties!

Welcome!  Today I get to play hostess with the mostess in the Index-card-a-day (Icad) challenge, where I will be doing the Faux Quilting prompt.

Before I get on with that, I want to encourage you to share your cards if you aren’t already.  Over at the Flickr group, people are so friendly and supportive and not scary at all.  People are so encouraging, and it is so lovely and people make comments that just lift you up.  And if you share at Instagram or Twitter then use the #icad or #icad2 hash tag so people find your lovely work.  And of course twice a week there is the blog link up over at Daisy Yellow.  The beauty of sharing, is not just the lovely comments, but also the inspiration you get when you see what others are doing.  I already have a tonne of ideas for things I want to do, so if you don’t want to share, then go check out the Flickr group anyway.  Amazingness is happening over there.

AND if you are not doing it, although we are up to Day 10, it is not too late to start (and there is no pressure to catch up :)).  So I am also going to put up the FAQ link that Tammy has made that provides you with all the juicy information you need to get cracking.

When I decided to host and I chose the theme, I had a general idea of what I wanted to do in my head.  And then I got hit with a great big screechy “What are you thinking, you are going to produce the worst card ever in your life, and it will be visible to everyone.”  And so I sat with that for a good half hour or so, and then I decided I had better get on with things, because if I was going to produce the worst card ever, then it was best to allow me some extra time so I could make a better one if I needed a back up plan.

Which is weird.  Because one of the things I love about icad is that there is no pressure.  It is a single card, that can be as involved or not as you please.  Also, because it is an index card, there is a certain freedom to experiment and play because if you make a mistake that goes horribly wrong, you can just grab another index card (and often in fact they spark of new ideas about things I want to do in my journal or other art!).  But still, I had “screechy voice” in my ear,  though hanging on to the fact I could just make another card for my blog (because really who would know unless I told??), eased the pressure and the volume of the voice in my ear.  :)

I really wanted to get out my sewing machine for these cards.  Quilting, even faux quilting screams out sewing to me.  But my sewing machine and I have a tense relationship, and so I was prepared that this could be the source of my card going horribly wrong, or I could do an injury such as sewing my finger to my card…which would have made an interesting photo at the very least, battle scars and matyrship heading my way.  :)

I grabbed a blank card first of all and some scrapbooking paper that kind of went together in a similar tonal range.  (Thankfully a few years ago I bought some great big giant pads of scrapbooking paper, so I did not have to look far).  And I cut that into squares.

I then cut glued those on, and grabbed an oil pastel in a contrasting colour to smudge roughly around the outside of the squares.

I then added a smudge of paint, which I quickly smoothed on around the edges, not quite over all the oil pastel and I was not very concerned about only sticking to the outside of the squares. I like a bit of messy (lucky for my house! :)).

I then put these in the sewing machine and sewed around each square.  Again, I was not overly measured about this.  I am a believer that it is the imperfections that add character.

And I was reasonably happy with this card as is, the stitching is not perfect (but no fingers were harmed in the production of this index card), and sewing adds such a nice added texture.

The only thing I added is the white crayon that you can see on the finished card at the top. And I just very roughly drew that around the squares in a grid pattern, and I am happy with how it looks, so I would have been happy to stop here.

But wait, there is more…

While I had my machine out, I thought I would try another card, pushing my luck a little I know. But for this I saw a lot of triangle patches covering the index card in their entirety. So I dug out some more scrapbooking paper and cut them out around an index card so that I started with 5 pieces of scrapbooking paper all the same size as the index card.

I then held all the paper together while I cut out a triangular shape and pieced one of the five bits on. And I went on in that fashion until I had cut up the entire rectangle and covered the index card. This gave me a ton of bits for me to use up in other projects but was the easiest way for me to make sure I had the pieces that I needed. I would add however that it is very helpful to glue as you go, because one wayward child’s hand is enough to scatter all the bits otherwise and you can spend over half an hour trying to piece it back together and still be clueless. It did take me two times of this happening to learn my lesson, although the second time, I did not spend half an hour trying to put it back together!

I then sewed around all the triangles. Again, I wasn’t overly fussy.

And here in advance of tomorrow is my ICAD 11. I brayered a bit of white paint over the finished card, and then wiped much of it off, I just wanted to bring the card together slightly more, and fade back some of the pattern slightly.

Thank you for joining me, I apologise for the lack of refreshments but I hope it inspires despite  that. :)