Last week, I was able to get a few projects finished up, you know, the one’s you just trudge through to get done.

So, I decided to reward myself by indulging in a project that has been sitting on the shelf of procrastination for quite a while, my fabric journals.

I received this book by Mandy Pattullo, of Thread and Thrift, for Christmas. It’s so awesome! I can’t say enough about how much I love it! This book is already giving me the much needed nudge to finally get some work done in my fabric journals. (At present count I have four, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few more lurking about.)

I would love for my fabric collages to look just like Mandy’s, because that would be super awesome, but not very authentic. By following the pointers and lessons from her book, I’m already seeing great improvements in my style.

I made this cover out of some canvas fabric I had painted onto a few years ago, the collage is a definite improvement.

The fabric pages looked bright and crisp and I wanted to “age” them, so I gave the whole journal a tea bath. Now, I would highly recommend that you over dye your fabric before assembling your journal. But if you decide after the fact, like I usually do, you can always throw it into the dryer after it’s bath. (Truth be told, I have now done this to two other journals.)

The goal with these journals is to have a quiet, creative project to work on in the evenings, and to use up an abundance of sewing notions.

That tag is something I found in my mothers sewing things. She had a little coin purse with various clothing tags she had collected. I love using bits and bobs from her collectings.

I absolutely love doing beadwork. I’m almost sure my skills will improve over time.

This page is a work in progress, that embroidery was taken from a project I scuttled several years ago, waste not, want not.

I’m just trying new things here and there, like pop-up flowers. When the pins are removed, I’m thinking about sharing this with my grandson, he might like all the tactile elements.

Sometimes I struggle with the idea of “Creativity for creativity’s sake”, I don’t know why. Probably just that judgmental voice in my head from people that don’t get the idea of creating just for fun, and not profit. You know “That’s really pretty, you should sell those!” Ya, that’s the first and best way to take the fun right out of creating sometimes!

Well, if at the end of the day, my children have to struggle with whether or not they should chuck all my creations into the bin when I’m gone, that’s their hard cheese! Creativity for creativity’s sake. Yep, I like it!

Until next time,

Thanks for popping in,

Have a great day,

~Patty