On A Denim Kick

I combined recycled denim (no there aren't any holes in the jacket below...lol), leather and a cool vintage tag to create a masculine, or unisex cuff. Added some texture with knots....no embroidery here...

My It Things! Wow front page!

I'm so excited right now! I wrote an article for the website, MyItThings, and it made it to the front page. The article is titled, Stop, Don't Throw Away That Magazine. It's about my paper quilt, which I featured in an earlier blog post. I never imagined it would get included in the front page. MyItThings is a fun website and if you are looking for a little more exposure it certainly can provide that.

Recycled Paper Quilt

I finally found some time to work on a project that had been delightfully nagging at me for a while. I’ll bet many of you look at magazine publications and think…what lovely photos, colors, textures and hate to just give or throw them away. So, what do you do with them? Well, I’m a quilter so my first inclination was to make a quilt. Usually I announce to everyone around me my next great idea. This time I wasn’t so verbal, because I thought they would think I’m nuts. You see I have an entire wall unit filled with lovely fabric that I have collected for decades. I knew what they would be thinking….why in the world would she resort to paper when she still hasn’t used up all this fabric. But all of you know, when an idea strikes you just have to go with it.

Well I went with it. I got out my paper cutter, tore pages out of magazines, color sorted those, and found graphics that I could use as appliqué pieces…there’s one magazine in particular that really helps with this –can you guess which one? Yep, Martha Stewart. Then I began cutting strips, triangles, and squares. Then I cut all of my potential appliqué pieces. This project is technically a recycled paper quilt, since I also used wrapping paper as the backing and envelopes from mail that I received as the batting. Then I began weaving and gluing. Once everything was in place and stabilized, I backed it. Then I made the binding with mitered corners and sewed it together with metallic thread. Isn’t the bird cute with string in its beak ready to make a nest?