Talented F.A.M.E. Members

We had our monthly F.A.M.E. meeting tonight and had a few of our finished projects on display. Hopefully we'll have them all on display together at the Moncton Show next month but - you lucky readers - you're going to get a little preview right here!

First up, we have Sharon B.'s beautiful piece titled "Blue on Blue". Sharon has been collecting blue and white ceramic and pottery pieces for several years. She has certainly shown them to great advantage with her Group Project.

My favourite piece is the large blue and orange piece on the table just to the inside of the door.

A view of the items on the top shelf.

I also really love the blue and white plates on the wall...and the blue tile floor...and the blue wallpaper. It may be a lot of blue but it goes together perfectly!

Sharon used jumbo craft sticks to make her own siding. I think they look great and will think of doing this myself next time I need siding for a project.

For those of you who also follow Marijke H.'s blog, Pulchinella's Cellar, you have seen the progress of her beautiful Group Project, titled: "Floriana". She brought her completed project to share tonight and we all oohed and ahed at the skill demonstrated in all of her beautiful plants, flowers and accessories.

A view through the open door:

What a beautiful display window - all decked out for spring. Marijke has the whole display tacked down to a single piece that forms the window shelf. This way she can remove the whole spring display and replace it with a new display for every season. What a fabulous idea! I'm going to steal that idea too! I'm such a thief!

This is a good view of the pots of succulents on the etagere just inside the door. Marijke made the plants from offcuts of scrapbooking card, coloured with colouring pencils to get the different shades of the plant. She also made all the pots. Great display.

Here's an overall view of the back wall - and also the shelf that runs over the whole display. I love all the little touches like the birdhouses, the wind chimes, the hanging plants, the watering cans....this is a flower shop I would visit every day if I could!

Louise McS.'s project, "Lynda's Fabric Shop", was made as a present for a favourite aunt who is a gifted quilter. This is one of the best uses of a "perspective photo" I have seen in a long while. It certainly looks like this little quilt shop is way deeper than it actually is.

Look how the shelving unit in the room box blends right in with the rows and rows of shelves in the perspective photo. Doesn't it work wonderfully?

The black and white tile floor in the room box blends into the one in the picture. What a great effect.

Of course, for any of you who have come to know Louise through this blog, you would recognize that this is her room box, simply because of the sign on the side.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Louise has never met a flamingo she doesn't like - and want to take home with her!

Speaking of which - yes, I am still working on the sleigh bed I am making for Louise's tropical getaway for Mr. and Mrs. Claus. The bed is made and painted. Now I have to make the bedding. So, I decided it had to feature flamingos somewhere. Unable to find a fabric with flamingos that were small enough for minis, I decided to try to make it myself. I took my ironing board out on my deck because it's a good height to work on and because I didn't want to be spraying glue indoors. Then I laid out a strip of parchment paper to protect the top of the ironing board, and placed two sheets of printer paper, side by side, on top of the parchment paper. I then used a can of spray adhesive on the printer paper, let it try for five minutes, then smoothed my chosen 100% cotton fabric onto the paper which, by now, was nice and tacky. I left this whole thing to dry for an hour or two while I prepared the document on my computer.

I searched for flamingo prints and found a wallpaper sample for real houses. Of course, the picture only showed a small square so I copied this into my PowerPoint program, made the background colour transparent so all you could see were the flamingos, not the blue background, then I copied this one square over several times on the page, making sure to overlap the squares so they lined up properly with the repeat of the pattern.

Once this was done I then went back to the fabric pieces and cut them out to the size of the computer paper they were glued to. I put one sheet of this fabric/paper into my printer. I set my printer to best quality and selected high-quality photo paper with no border, hit "print" and held my breath! It went through just fine! Alas, once printed, I thought the first try was just a little too small so I put the second sheet in the printer, went back to my program and enlarged the flamingo print, and the three cushion prints I was also printing, and hit print again. This time I was satisfied with the result - right size, colour is good - works for me! Here you can see the final product on top of the first try. You can really notice it with the cushion covers - the resize really makes a big difference for them! (Click on the picture if you want to see a larger version).

If you want to try this method yourself you MUST have an ink-jet printer, not a laser-jet printer. The ink-jet literally "shoots" the colour into the fabric. Tomorrow I think I will iron these pieces from the back and then the front to hopefully heat set the colour a little more.

Then, of course, I will get Louise's bed finished. Honest!!!! I will have it finished!!! For which of her birthday's I'm not really sure.....right now - I'm going to bed! TTFN! - Marilyn