CREATIVE PLAYDAY

Last week I had an entire day free without any appointments, obligations, or errands to run.  So I did what any quilter would do with a free day.......be creative and have fun!!

But before I even got started in my sewing room I got my exercise clothes on and went to the gym.  For me that's the best way to really start my day off right and to recharge my batteries.  Plus, when I am on the treadmill for 30 minutes, 5 days a week, I use that time for designing, planning, thinking. Even though I don't write anything down, I can remember a lot of different things I thought about.

When I got home an hour later fully energized I was ready to start working on a project I had been thinking about for awhile.  Previously I had used a photo of my two grandsons, Preston and Davis, and tried several different creative apps on my iPad until I got an image I liked.  Below are the two pictures I started with:

Next you will see the resulting picture from merging these two photos together:

I then used the photo above and changed it to black and white and removed some of the tree.  I printed the new black and white picture and with a felt tip marker I outlined the parts I wanted to use as an appliqué. Then I cut each piece out.  I fused wonder under to the bottom of different pieces of fabric and pinned the cut-out pieces on the fused wonder under. Then I traced around each piece and cut it out.

I had printed the tree image separately on a piece of Transfer Artist Paper (TAP).  I had purchased the package of TAP several years ago and hadn't used it until this day.  After printing the tree image and rereading the instructions that came with the TAP, I realized I was supposed to reverse the image BEFORE printing it.  Oh well.....no problema!  I quickly reversed the image of my grandsons so I could correctly place my appliqué pieces.

I chose a muted brown marbled background fabric.  I placed each appliquéd piece on top of the background using the photo up above with all the pieces cut out as my guide.  This was all fused down with my iron.  I used a black Copic marker to draw in the boy's faces and outline their clothing.

The next step was to place the TAP with the tree image onto the appliquéd background piece.  Following the instructions I ironed the TAP, then carefully removed it to reveal the black tree image on my appliquéd pieces.  Not all of the TAP transferred to my liking so I used the Copic marker and added more branches to the tree, marking directly onto the fabric.



All-in-all I'm pleased with the results, and glad that I finally experimented with the transfer artist paper.  I will definitely use it again in a future project when I have another "creative playday"!