Forest Quilties: Vickie Jones, South Dakota

Vickie Jones, from South Dakota, sent in two sets of really interesting and textural Forest Quilties. She used photographs of trees printed onto fabric and large colorful sequins to represent the leaves of the forest trees. Vickie wrote me an email describing her process, when she sent her quilties to me:

I struggled a little, because I was looking for the perfect background and was not finding what I wanted. The fabric I chose ended up being more bold, but think it ended up working fine...I wanted to get the effect of the sunlight shining through the trees. I used some heavy yarn to represent the "aspen" trees, stitched that on the background, added yarn wrapped pipe cleaners for the the bigger trees. I stitched colored capis disks to represent the aspen colored leaves and added a few regular leaves in the mix. The printed saying set the tone. Enjoy, and thank you so much for hosting these challenging swaps!

You are most welcome, Vickie! Thanks so much for an extra shades of the forest quiltie just for me. Here are a few close-ups of Vickie's fabric art:

I love the jewel tones in her quilties. Click on any scan or photo for details.

Star Ornament Swap! Vickie Jones ~ South Dakota

Vickie Jones from Sioux Falls, SD sent in TWO sets of 5 star ornaments -plus 2 extra ones for me, thanks so much! Vickie created her stars out of felt. Some are open in the middle and have "danglies" and others are beaded with sequins.

Fantastic!

Here is a close up of one . . . (click for more detail)

Shades of Sunshine Quilties: Vickie Jones ~ South Dakota

Vickie Jones in South Dakota sent in 4 great quilties for our shades of sunshine quiltie swap, very bright and colorful, and all a bit different! Vickie wrote me an email that describes her process a bit . . . . .

"I used some of my hand dyed fabric on either the back or front of the quiltie. I tried using a little thread play to give the flowers a different look. I used pellex or timetex because I initially planned to do more beading and I was afraid the beading would be too heavy for the batting. This was my first attempt to hand dye fabric...one of my friends Darlene (she's in this swap also) gave me a lesson...I plan to do this again and be quite a bit MORE creative!! I had fun! Thank you for hosting the swap and encouraging us to try new things! "

It's my pleasure, Vickie!

Row House Swap: Vickie Jones ~ South Dakota

Vickie Jones in South Dakota wrote to me prior to my receiving her package, and said it really took her a while to make her pieces because . . . . .

"my creativity just vanished!"

I think after looking at her houses you will agree with me that Vickie's creativity has returned!!

Vickie also wrote, "On a couple of the houses I took a little different spin on what the others have done...I did "Tree Houses" and then added a Pooh Bear photo and his address... The adobe and rock house came together quite quickly... the two I included were a couple of quick ones. I enjoyed it once I got going but it sure took me long enough!"

Excellent job, Vickie -I think your swap pieces are very creative! Click on any photo for details -Vickie used some unusual materials --tyvek, paper clay, pipe cleaners, vellum, embossing powder, pebbles, and dimension media.

Itty Bitty Collage swap: Vickie Jones ~ South Dakota

Vickie Jones is a fairly new participant here at creative swaps, but she is creating wonderful things! Vickie wrote me an email describing her process for the Itty Bitty collage swap and I am going to quote her . . .

"I chose to do something a little different than the others...I took a recent photograph of Mt Rushmore and printed photos on vellum and other glossy print media. My embellishments were yarn, paper clay accented with metallic rub-on media, sticks and "grasses/weeds" plus some chalking to give a little more color or highlights to the pics. Some turned out neater looking than others. I enclosed an extra one for your collection. I chose this theme because our family has a "cabin in the Hills" so we spend as much of our summertime as we can in the Black Hills. Mount Rushmore is always on our agenda even if it is just a "drive-by look"...it is an amazing monument to our fore fathers, their creativity, beliefs and dreams! Thank you for hosting this swap...I look forward to being in others...I think I even have more "artsy people" from our area watching your site! It has been fun!"

It is my pleasure, Vickie, thank you!

I love Vickie's grasses, pine cones & alphabet beads! Did you print some of the images on fabric, Vickie? It feels like it! You can post your answer as a comment, if you wish. (Make sure to sign in when commenting, if you are new to this!)

~ click on any photo for more detail : )

Grimm fairytale 5x5 Collage swap: Vickie Jones

This is the last week for me to receive pieces for our Alpha Stamps Grimm fairytale 5"x5" collage swap. The in-my-hands deadline is this Saturday, June 28th. Wow, can you believe we've reached the end of June, already???

In today's mail there was a large package from Vickie Jones filled with 2 -sets of 4- Grimm fairytale collages and lots of extra collages! Vickie is new to creative swaps and she enclosed a really lovely note with her collages. I'd like to share part of it with you . . .

"Dear Lenna, Thank you so much for inspiring me to truly adventure outside my confort zone. I have always loved crafts and sewing but have never "adventured" any further . . .

Thanks to your site I gained the courage to try . . . . and that I did! I am a quilter and a scrapbooker . . . and now I enjoy the multi-media arts! I went "crazy" and completed twelve Brothers Grimm cards -- 8 to swap and 4 for you and Alpha Stamps . . . . I hope you enjoy these pages as much as I enjoyed creating them!"

Well, the answer to that is easy, Vickie! Your collages are varied, using angelina, eyelash fibers, my favorite flowers and leaves from Alpha Stamps - wow! I love what you have created and feel honored I could help you venture into a new artistic & creative outlet. Awesome!

Below you'll find the back of one of the collages above (wonderful!) and then more of Vickie's Alpha Stamps Brothers Grimm collages --please click on any scan to see more detail. ThanK you very much, Vickie and welcome to creative swaps. Looking forward to your art for the Itty Bitty collages, Row Houses and the sunshine quilties!













WOW!! great job, vickie!