Need a quick-to-make last-minute gift? These padfolios are perfect as a hostess gift, exchange, or for a special arty friend who like to keep notes wherever (s)he goes! Once the surface design is done, it takes less than an hour to finish one of these beauties.

These are began with rust-dyed fabric. Some have Earth Safe Finishes Colorants applied, some are stamped with ESF Colorant as a rubber-stamp ink, and some are touch-printed with ESF Opaque Shimmers.

The fabric for this one was sprayed with ESF moss + Fabric Magic while the rusted fabric was damp. The polymer clay pendant picks up the green nicely.

This surface treatment is ESF Colorants + Fabric Magic drizzled on a shaving cream printing plate and swirled for a faux marbled effect.

Bottle caps and paper-towel cores were used as touch-print shapes. The flaps are cut freehand with a rotary cutter and the edges are finished with satin stitches.

This is what the outside surface of the padfolio looks like spread out flat.

Inside there is a pocket for a pencil or pen, calculator, or anything else you want to keep close to the notepad in the center panel.

Directions for the padfolio may be downloaded as a pdf from the margin. Make sure you have the version with the measurement correction! I made a mistake in the first version.

Enjoy!

As promised, here are a couple of photos from the workshop with Hands All Around Quilters in Bloomington, Illinois last Friday.

Becky took a photo of a beautiful poppy she grew, the kind that produces seeds used in baking and cooking. The detail in the center is remarkable, even after altering. Becky jumped right in a did scads of free-motion stitching to outline the petals and detail the center—then proceeded to add borders and stretch the piece and mount it herself! Didn't she do a fabulous job?

Sue’s piece is very different. She took this photo at a hot-air balloon festival earlier in the year and was intrigued by the image of the sun and clouds on the balloon. After altering, she added texture and detail with free-motion work.

Sometimes altering a non-floral image can be challenging, but Sue’s piece is exceptionally lovely. It has not yet fulfilled it’s destiny (it hasn’t yet been mounted or finished). I’m hoping Sue will send another photo once it is bound or framed.

These are just two examples from the group of 16 diverse compositions in the Friday class. Additional photos will be shared as they are available.

If your quilt or art guild would like to have a program and workshop, please contact me. There are a couple of openings in 2010.

A great big thank you goes out to the Hands All Around Quilt Guild in Bloomington, Illinois for a fabulous trunk show and two days of workshops! What an enthusiastic, friendly group they are. It's always fascinating to see how others perceive the Altered Photo Quilt technique and how they each add their own voice to it.

Can't wait to share photos with you!

In the meantime, here is an amusing little Creature Comforts video about “What is art?” It always makes me chuckle, especially the printmaker. He is so serious about his work! LOL!