A Gift.

The wrap for a gardening art journal that I have made for my daughter Emily in New Zealand.

The paper I've used for the journal in the making. Mine is at the top of the photo, it was made during a 'fun arty' day with three other friends. Both sides of the giant sheets were covered with marks in black ink, applied with a wide selection of  tools including brushes, cardboard, sponges and twigs!

Front Cover

 My daughter is heavily into gardening, so I chose that as my theme for this book. I selected some quotes that were relevant, and also put in some magazine cuttings of different plants. 

The inside of the wrap is lined with some gorgeous hand dyed fabric purchased from Maggi, and I stitched in this little machine embroidered daisy that I made a couple of years ago, as a pocket to hold seed packets.

I inserted a very small book that I also made, with a hand stitched wrap. I named it 'garden notes', so my daughter can keep track of all things gardening!

I'm showing a small selection of the pages where I have also inserted some of my own art work, all with a flowery flavour.

There are quite a few pages with not much added, so that Emily can add her own magazine cuttings and notes.

The back of the book.

And finally my February JQ. I used the photo from my January JQ to experiment with. In the edit section of my camera phone, I selected 'mirror', which gave me the arrangement you see above, then changed the colours to 'vintage'. I printed the results onto some silk organza, twice, and cut them to produce a piece 12"x8". The quilting is in silver metallic thread.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my latest creations, I have certainly enjoyed producing them, and thanks very much for reading my blog!