Sewing on paper

For my first ever challenge-blog entry, I have been inspired by a challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. This week’s challenge is “patchwork“, and my mind quickly turned to cozy, snugly quilts.

As I attempt some of these challenges in the fall season, I hope to “put by a store” of handcrafted holiday cards. So using a holiday paper was a must. I used Tim Holtz’ “Holidays Past” paper. A sheet featuring 1.5″ squares furnished an appropriate scale. Then I got to sew on paper – a technique I’ve long wanted to try, but never thought of a reason before. I haven’t sewn a real quilt in ages – although I’ve recently been thinking of a new way to continue working on the ever-unfinished “Fall Quilt”. After sewing decorative stitches along the borders of the premade squares, I needed to deal with the whitened needle holes, so using a wet paintbrush, I inked the sewn lines and edges of the quilty paper with “Tea Stain” Distress ink. I fussy cut a photo of my baby and inked the edges with “Vintage Photo” Distress ink…

About now I need to confess that I have a bit of a design-crush on Tim Holtz. A month ago I’d never heard of him, and now I kind of want to buy everything that man has put his name on… Which pretty much means he must be really good at his job. So if it seems I mention his products ad nauseum, I apologize, I’m just really impressed. And as is my custom with such things, I want everyone to jump down the rabbit hole with me. It will make my excess seem more justified later if everyone else is kind of on board with me. Know what I mean? I just love tattered, grunged, antiqued, patina-ed, distressed, scuffed, aged, etc, and Tim Holtz is all over that style!

Back to my project: baby photo went on a hand-drawn pillow, and all pieces went on a pearlescent card that was on clearance at Pat Catans (the local discount craft store). That’s my first ever challenge entry! I can’t wait to see how other people interpret the inspiration.