It’s that time again: March 1st is the date that I share the “fruits of my labor” in February. I am exaggerating a little – I didn’t labor, for one. The theme “Fever” evoked feelings of warmth and passion, perfect to survive a super cold climate, and ideal to combat mid-winter cabin fever.
My materials consisted of Timtex for the stabilizing background, a layer of Steam-A-Seam fusible and a favorite piece of red fabric from my stash. I decided to work all 28 CDAs as one single piece to start with. I used automatic stitches on my Janome, selected a limited palette of thread colors in Rayons and created 28 passes (one for each day of February) of fancy stitches.
Once the stitching was complete, I cut the piece into 28 individual 2.5 x 3.5″ rectangles. I was ready for the final stage. I had hoped to use beading and hand stitching on the small pieces, but cutting my thumb (making dinner) and the combined thickness of Timtex, fusible and fabric soon had me realize that I needed to shift gears. I opted to use a metallic marker to add circles, small dots and broken lines for interest. Wool embroidery threads were couched around the edges with zig-zag stitch by machine to avoid fraying.
Are they perfect? Far from it – but perfection was not the goal. I am grateful to have found time to “fire up” the sewing machine in February and embark on one small creative journey each day.
On to March and the new theme “All that Jazz”… Hmmm, I better get my thinking cap on quickly to come up and focus. But first things first, today is the last in-class session for my Advanced Design students. I am so excited to welcome them back to my studio. Can’t wait to see their homework results. Let’s hope I don’t forget to use the camera this time. Look for an update about the class soon.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Anna Hergert, Art & Design 
Pingback: December CDAs: Putting on the Glitz | Anna Hergert, Art & Design
Finding this months theme difficult. Hoping something creative crops up soon.
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“All that Jazz” – think glitz, glitter, beads, sequins, metallic threads, metallic pens… anything?
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I really like your “Fever CDA’s Anna, The idea of couching yarn around the edges is a great one and also completing each individual design with metallic is also a great one. Thanks for sharing these ideas.
I have been in classes all day, learning to use a fusible vinyl and then working on a Lutradur piece. Thus my “fever” CDS”a are delayed but will be on my blog tomorrow.
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Thanks, Elinor. With the busy weekend I have not uploaded my images to the CDA Fickr site – hopefully I can catch up before the weekend is over. 😉
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Ah! You’ve done exactly what I have planned for my March CDA’s….to work the month in one piece and then cut it up! Mine will not be as detailed as yours however!
I’m so proud to say I completed a small piece each day in February!
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Yeah, Vivian!!! Wish I could see your February CDAs – will you post them to the Flickr CDA group. I have to post mine later this weekend.
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I have just posted to the flickr site for our CDA’s. I’m still finding it an exercise in frustration however, as the pics get turned around, flipped upside down or the upload takes several tries. I wanted consistency in posting, but as you’ll see, it didn’t happen! But…they are there!
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Thanks, Vivian – you are not alone in feeling frustration with Flickr. I joined a little over a year ago and uploads were easy and straight forward – then the site was upgraded and larger images permitted. Now the site appears less user friendly – but I have not found a better alternative, so we will stick with Flickr. I am sure that as the months progress the uploads will become easier. 🙂
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