Having messed about with raw edged leaves last week I had some ideas to make a few pretty things for Christmas. The holly leaves looked particularly nice, so I soaked a few more oddments of fabric in the Terial Magic stiffener and cut out a few more leaves; small, medium and large.
I placed the holly leaf shapes on top of each other and finally put the little pile onto a piece of green felt. I then free motion stitched the leaves down and did a bit more stitching around the edge to look like berries. Then I cut it out. Looks ok, don't you think? 
All looking good.... a little bit of fraying on the light green fabric - that was the piece I stiffened with starch. Maybe the Terial Magic would have been better for this particular fabric.
Next I cut a piece of white felt into a rectangular 'tag' shape and laid the mistletoe and felt leaf onto it and then stitched that down too.
Ta da!!!
And then I got carried away.......................... Why not try out something similar? It was lots of fun and all I used was a few cotton fabric scraps and some oddments of felt. Thanks for looking.
Trying out Terial Magic
To see how it worked I took a few pieces of cotton quilting fabric from my scraps bag and sprayed them until they were moist. Following the demonstration on the Terial Magic website (click here) I put my fabric into a small tub and sprayed it. Once it was quite moist I squished it about a bit to make sure the liquid had penetrated throughout the whole piece, and then squeezed out the excess liquid (I put this back into my bottle).
After smoothing it out I left it to air dry on a flat surface for the 15 minutes stated. After this time it was still very wet - it was a winter's day in the UK, so not very warm - so I left it for around another 20 minutes of so, by which time it was only just damp. Obviously the temperature plays an important part in this, so use your judgment. NOTE:At this stage the fabric was slightly stiff, but not noticeably different to when I had started. I then took the fabric pieces and ironed them, as per the instructions. I used a hot iron directly on the fabric (no ironing sheet) and the heat obviously had an effect, as the fabrics became smooth, very crisp and stiff. There was no residue on the iron and no flakes or 'gunge' on the fabric. 
Pressing the damp fabric with a hot iron. It became very crisp - like a piece of thin card
According to the blurb that comes with Terial Magic these are two of the drawbacks of using starch. Another thing they mention is that insects like to eat the starch and therefore your fabric. I must say that I have never noticed this, but I am not a regular 'starch user'(!) so I am not able to say whether this is an issue or not. They also say the stiffener in Terial Magic is not edible by insects - so if this is important to you it may influence your choice. What to do with this stiffened fabric The stiffened fabric was interesting. It folds crisply - just like thin card, so if you have a project that needs firm creases or needs to stand without support this may be a good product to use. I tried a few origami ideas...
The crispness of the fabric made it perfect for folding techniques. I can imagine it would also be particularly good when piecing small, fiddly shapes or pieces cut on a bias.
Origami links for the above For the folded dress, click here For the yo-yo hexie, click here Next I tried some needle turn applique
And then I tried stitching some raw edged leave to a piece of fabric
The stiffness of the leaves made it easy to position them on the fabric and the raw edges, once again, did not fray.
The blurb also says you can use the stiffened fabric for machine embroidery without and further stabiliser. As I don't have an embroidery unit I can't let you know about that - but if anyone does and has experience of this product it would be good to find out if the claims are true.
So - do I like Terial Magic? Yes, I think I do. It is similar to starch, but has a nicer feel, doesn't gunk up my iron and the treated fabric is nicer to stitch. I don't often need fabric that is stiff or crisp, but when I do I think this product would be a useful addition to the tools I already use. Thanks De - when I run out I will be buying another bottle from you!
Now for those Doodle birds! These are a few pictures I took during the workshop at Midsomer quilting last weekend. Brilliant aren't they?
And how about these two amazing Doodle Poodles? My thanks to Chris D who was so inspired when she got home that she made these two fantastic pieces. I just love them! Thanks for sharing them, Chris, I think you have cracked free motion quilting!
I hope you have enjoyed seeing all this brilliant free motion work. Thanks for looking.
I hope that makes sense. It really isn't difficult. The thing tat sometimes goes wrong for me is that I make it too small - so be generous when you add your seam allowances - you can always re-stitch around the edges if it is too big.
If you make one I'd love to see it! Thanks for reading.
Do you remember this picture? It was only a month or so ago; look how blue the sky was! Using the humble apple as my inspiration, I made a few print blocks with lino and card and some stencils. I used them to make rubbings and prints on a selection of different fabrics - and then put them in my 'to do' pile. (You can see the original blog post where I made the fabrics I have used below by clicking here). Well, last week I took several of the bits and pieces and a pretty piece of hand-dyed fabric and turned them into a journal cover. I think it is a nice way to use up some of those experimental pieces of fabric. I stitched them onto the background fabric and added aome free motion quilting, thread sketching and wrote directly onto the fabric with a permanent pen. I then held it all together with some long lines of simple hand stitching, to keep some of the loose bits from flapping about. It is pretty random, but I think it turned out quite nicely in the end, and was a good way to use fabrics I created from my explorations. Why not have a go at something similar? It was quick, easy and fun!  Here are a few other sketchbooks which I have made, also using up 'experiments'! Thanks for looking.
Nesting flower bowls - they just keep getting more beautiful
It has been flower power all the way form me this past week. It started on Wednesday with the ladies from the Wiltshire Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Quilters in Steeple Ashton  As you can see - everyone was hard at work. Then on Saturday and Sunday I was at Midsomer Quilting - creating even more fabulous flowers. I think we made enough to fill a whole florists, and not only that - we can all smile and know that the future of quilting is going to continue. The age range of the people at the workshops this week spanned from age 9 to ............... well, more than 21!  On Saturday poppies were very popular, but a sunflower, a little waterlily and a poinsettia also snuck in.  Then on Sunday waterlilies stole the show... with another sunflower, and a few poppies in the mix. I think you will agree - they all look amazing. What I love the most is that no two bowls look the same. There are so many ways they can be varied; just by changing the colour from yellow to white - a sunflower can be transformed into a daisy. By changing the thread colour the visual texture alters the flower; smoothly stitched free motion lines make a gentle, delicate flower, whereas bold embroidery stitches make for a vibrant, flashy bloom. There is lots of room to experiment and try new ideas. If you would like more information on this and other workshops, please click here I hope you have enjoyed seeing the fun we all had this week. Thanks for reading.
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