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.
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​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?
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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..........................
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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.
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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. 

​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
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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.
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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).

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. 
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