Soft Scraps and Hard Surfaces

I really shouldn't wait a whole week between blog posts because then I have almost too much stuff to share!

First up... I'm making another "Modern Hexagon Pillow" along with my students. The English paper-piecing part is finished, and the medallion has been hand-appliquéd to the background fabric which is Essex linen. Monday I'll be teaching how to big-stitch hand quilt.

Second, I finished Scrap Vortex! That was about 16 hours of spiral quilting and six bobbins-full of Aurifil 50-weight white thread. I made binding with a variety of scrap fabrics too, and that turned out nicely.

Here is Scrap Vortex laid across our king-sized bed. 

I absolutely love this quilt! Now I'm sort of wishing I had made it just a little larger than the 88" X 92" that is it. If it was bigger, I could have actually used it on this bed!

I like this picture because you can see the spiral quilting. So glad I did that quilting design.

And last up... Several weeks ago, I bought a white writing desk through Bed, Bath and Beyond, online. The desk isn't the best quality, but it suits my purposes as a place for me to do my daily devotions and Bible study. After seeing the wonderful Christian movie, "War Room," I've dubbed this my "war desk."

Because the desk finish is pretty rough, Dan and I talked about what I might do to make it more attractive. Being the quilter I am with lots of scraps (even after Scrap Vortex), and having already made two of these "Ticker Tape on Canvas," I decided to see how the ticker tape concept might work to fancy-up that desk.

How did I do?

Quite honestly, I love it, and I had a blast actually doing it.  

At first though, since I wasn't completely sure about what I was doing, or how it would look, I started on an end... the side toward a wall. You can see that I mixed the fabric colors. In the end, I mixed the colors on the opposite end too.

After sleeping on what I'd done, I had the idea to make each of the five drawers a different color. Since orange is a favorite color, I began with that one. Happily, I could take each drawer into my sewing room to work, and trim, at my rotary mat. All fabric pieces are applied to the desk with matte finish Mod Podge.

Throughout the project I fussy cut a few pieces, so some element of the fabric design stands out. On the yellow drawer, left of the knob, can you see a small map of Australia? On the aqua drawer, see the five dice in the upper left? And the bird in the lower right corner?

After completing each drawer, and again sleeping on what I'd done, I had the idea to create a color spectrum across the top. This part really tickles my fancy!

It was a little more labor intensive because that wood piece is only two inches high. More messiness with Mod Podge and trimming teeny fabric bits.

But the finish is well worth the couple of fun evenings I spent creating it.

 

Now I'm looking at every thing differently. What else might be fair game for découpage?! Linda