QuiltingAndPatchwork.com 
I visit Jen’s Domestick Goddess blog regularly and always find fascinating ideas.  The latest that captured my attention is Virginia Fleck Mandala Art, guest posted by Pelf Nyok.
Virginia Fleck creates strikingly colorful mandalas from….Guess what?  Plastic bags!  As Pelf says:
With all the hoo-haas around the excessive use of plastic bags, it is heartening to learn that there are people who turn these plastic bags into beautiful art pieces!
Virginia’s art is displayed in galleries, public buildings, and private homes.  At Domestik Goddess and Virginia’s web site, you can view her work.
Even though the mandalas are not made of fabric as quilters think …read more

Many quilters probably have a dog in their life.  We have Ginger.  Although she’s actually my daughter and her family’s pet, she lives in our multi-generational home.  Ginger loves to romp in the New Hampshire snow, but her paws get cold.
When I read this post at Jen’s Domestik Goddess, How to Teach a Dog to Wear Boots, I simply had to share it with my daughter, friends who have dogs, and my Quilting and Patchwork readers.   This may be something you’d like to try with your dog if you live in northern climates.  At any rate, most everyone will enjoy Jen’s photos, whether they have …read more

Don’t let those fabric scraps go to waste.  Jen at Domestik Goddess has a great idea.  She mentioned it in the comments section to my post, Holiday Wreaths from Quilt Fabric Scraps.  However I thought it so interesting that I wanted to pass it along to anyone who might not check out every comment to every article.
Fabric scraps left over from quilting projects would be perfect for those Victorian scrap gift balls that I mentioned in passing, too[in Holiday Decorations]. Basically, it’s a ball of fabric strips, wound up the way you’d make a ball of yarn. At the center, you …read more

Jen at Domestik Goddess has an interesting Christmas wreath project, Holiday Decorations from Recycled Sweather.  She also includes some tree decorations and stockings.
As I read about this and saw the pictures on Jen’s blog, I wondered, “Why not make these from recycled quilting or fabric art projects?”
Fabric artists save fabric for years.  (Cyndi at Layers Upon Layers, that the leaves for her September Morning art quilt came from fabric she’d obtained 12 years ago.)  So why not take some from your fabric stash or scraps and whip up the wreath and other decorations Jen mentions at Domestik Goddess?
How have you …read more

Jen, at Domestik Goddess, comes across so many novel ideas for home decorating.  The lastest is a Faux-Finish Concrete Carpet which she pictures with a patchwork design.  As Jen asks, “Why not stencil the concrete to look like a luxurious carpet?”  Thus you’re eliminating the bare concrete floor look.
She provides instructions and resources so you can have yourself a faux carpet.  If you’re a quilter, you can add a patchwork design!

Create a patchwork tote bag…..see this lovely version.    Over at Domestik Goddess, I discovered this lovely patchwork tote made by Jen’s teenaged daughter Emily.  She stitched it from odds and ends in her mother’s fabric remnant stash.
For a description of how Emily went about making her tote, visit the Domestik Goddess blog (link above).  Jen also gives information about a tutorial for a tote bag.
When I had my quilting business, I often made tote bags for customers and pictured them in my brochure.  My daughter made some fun ones for me, her daughter and herself from denium.  They can be …read more

Jen at Domestik Goddess asked if my daughter or I had any more resources about sun dyeing or printing.  (She enjoyed seeing photos of Beth’s sun prints on her Meandering Threads blog. )

When I saw Beth on our deck the other day, involved in painting some more fabric and placing ferns, leaves and stems for designs on her sun prints, I thought of Jen’s request.
Two books she’s found helpful:
*Mickey Lawler’s Sky Dyes, a Visual Guide to Fabric Painting.  Beth pointed out the portion on “Sunprints” whereby you apply paint to fabric, then lay objects over the wet paint and let it dry …read more

Would you like a quilt in opulent autumn colors?  Jen at so you wanna be a Domestik Goddess? has a pattern with suggested autumn colors on her blog.  Check out Crossing Paths: Free Quilt Pattern for inspiration as you head into autumn.
My daughter tends toward autumn colors and leaf motifs in many of her quilts and fabric art.  In fact she’s making a hanging to submit in an exhibit today, and it consists of falling leaves against a green, rust, and brown background, some of these made from her hand dyed or sun dyed fabrics. 
What are you doing in your quilting world …read more

Jen, at so you wanna be a Domestik Goddess? was so impressed with my daughter, Beth Mastin’s sun dyed fabric (mentioned in a previous Q & P post) that she referred to it in an article,  at her blog, Sun Prints on Fabric. 

Jen also researched and mentions a book and instructional web site where you can learn more about this fascinating technique.

As I browsed around Jen’s so you wannabee a Domestik Goddess? blog I discovered a number of free quilt patterns. 
Anna Maria Horner’s inner gypsy had to have been at play when she designed her 22 Lollipops Quilt and Bohemium Quilt – and the fabric collections that inspired them, too, mentions Jen.
The fabrics in the quilts shown on Jen’s blog remind me of fabrics my aunt and grandmother used in their quilts and dressmaking in the 1940s.  Lots to reminisce there for quilters who created quilts then…or those who like that type of fabric.  Anna Maria has adapted these fabrics into her …read more