Marbled Fabric Mosaic

Last year we had an inspiring trunk show from an area fiber artist. She challenged our group to use 2 pieces of hand marbled fabrics she had made, interested in what we would do with them. I chose coordinating aqua/brown/gold/green pieces. I didn't want to start hacking at them since this was all there was...no more on a bolt somewhere! I had no plan...so I took the pieces to Office Max and had color copies made of them. I used these paper copies to play around with a design.

One of my idea's was to cut them into 1" squares and arrange in a mosaic layout paying special attention to the coloring in each small "tile". I didn't commit to it then but...

I was looking at the pictures on my phone the other day and saw a pic of my layout (good tool...any digital image..both for reference later and to shed light on the color value in a design) and got the REAL fabrics out and had at it! I cut them into the 1" squares and came up with this. I like it. It's representational of a busy night sky, shoreline and watery foreground. Not sure what is next at this point though!

I did a little more stitching on Aida's RR block. The nest charm is about the size of a dime. I wrote "PRECIOUS" out on tracing paper, pinned to block and backstitched with 2 strands of variegated thread. I went back in after pulling out all the paper bits with 1 strand and thickened up the line. I stitched the nest with random long and short stitches with rust/brown thread and added some green all around.

Originally I thought to put eggs in the nest and I wet felted some light blue roving into teeny egg shapes. They were too big! I could have trimmed them down but I really wasn't feeling them. Then I remembered my visit to Michael's and knew the nest charm I bought in the clearance rack would be perfect.

I have learned:

1. This is a great site that directs you to various blogs and websites for free project idea's. I love this one from Lindsay's site with a tutorial for making a wreath from discarded book pages.
2. Cat's catch mice. Good Cliffy!
3. Super Scrabble, a newer, expanded version of Scrabble. I want this game. I love Scrabble. When I was a kid I would play with my mother...we didn't keep score, ever. As an adult I can't even understand the point to that since I REALLY like to WIN at Scrabble! Really.
4. I really liked Garth Brooks in the beginning. Alot. Then he started crying all over TV, just a total disconnect from his original agenda. Disappointment. Now...un-retired? Las Vegas? Seriously?