Gathering Dust

Still Can't Shoot or Sew Straight

Last week I decided that I was going to "take the week off".  I was still going to my big girl job, but when I got home, I was going to do whatever I wanted.

(That's not as provocative as it sounds, mostly it meant I did some sewing, crafting and organizing)

I finally finished the cover for my Remains of the Day journal.  I may be the last person on earth who hasn't already taken this on-line class, but I've heard nothing but good things about it, so after three years of pondering, I decided to jump right in.

It's great because not only do you NOT have to sew straight, you're encouraged to stitch crazy- like I did with my wandering seam on the piece of brown tapestry.

(picture borrowed from Mary Ann Moss, creator of the class)

My next step will be to make pages- stacks and stacks of pages like these, hopefully using up many of those little scraps of paper that are too cool or pretty or interesting to throw away but seem to take over.

What I love about this class is that about the only thing you need is a sewing machine and paper- any paper.  And I do have plenty of paper (and other stuff).

Last week, on my "vacation", I sorted some of my paper, housed it in cigar boxes and made labels.

I've done the same thing with this cubby that I filled with cigar boxes. The labels help enormously.

I've never believed in being super organized- I want to be able to find things, but time spent organizing is time NOT spent crafting.  But I keep looking at these cigar boxes and their pitiful handwritten tags and wondering if I should make all new matching labels or tags. 

All printed in the same font, on the same size tag, all with a string, or NO string, but all the same; or all with red Dennison style labels.  It would take some time, but the uniformity might stear me onto more creativity.

I don't know, what do you think?  I know, I know, such problems...storage, scraps and sewing.

Sew Somerset magazine apparently was able to overlook my lack of sewing skills and published a mini quilt I made.  I got my preview copy in the mail yesterday, I believe it will be at the craft and book stores on Jun 1. I didn't know it was going to be published, so it was a nice surprise.

 

A Necklace, A Sampler and A Close But No Cigar (Box)

I think if you talk to anyone who's been to an art event, or even just spent a productive craft day with creative friends, you leave feeling re-energized, full of ideas and plans for new projects.

That's been the effect Bird Song had on me.  I finished Karla's necklace project and I think her idea of using a crochet medallion as the focal point was such a beautiful and unique touch.

This is my finished project for Lisa's Faire Theater class. 

This was her example.

I does look like I strayed a little off track- but I couldn't find a cigar box to use for my project.  I know that not everyone travels with a bunch of cigar boxes, but if I'm crafting or antiquing, I usually have at least one or two filled with supplies or things I'm selling. 

So, I improvised- I used a book cover and foam core to make a theater in the round. 

Lisa had beeswax to make fairy wings, but I used it to cover the back of my stage.  I'd never used wax before, and it was fun...I'd love to try more encaustic art.

Another project I finished last week was this sampler.  I've been wanting to do a sampler for a while, and with Memorial Day and 4th of July coming up, I went with red and blue on an oatmeal colored cloth. 

I picked out the alphabet from a book, and the border from another book- but I think it needs something else.

- vines around the letters?

-some kind of filler figure between the letters and the borders?

-something 3-d like sewing on lace or buttons?

-maybe a straight stitch border around the letters and another around the outside border?

Suggestions?

Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller? 

(A not so obscure reference to the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off.)

 

Digital Bird Collages

Blue bird postcard on French script.

As part of Bird Song, I hosted a nature journal swap- everyone made six pages, I swapped them out, made covers and coerced the Other Karla into putting the books together for me.

Sparrow on the back of a cabinet card.

I used Picmonkey's overlay feature to create some simple digital collages for the covers.  I was happy with how easy it was to use and thought I'd share the images for you to use.

Bird on sheet music.

Singer Sewing Trade card on postcard.

To save a picture to your computer, click on the image, and it will open in a larger window.  Just right click and pick "Save as".

Birds on French Ledger paper.

Bird on an antique photo album mat.

Happy creating!

Bird Song Collage Elements Project

I was very flattered when Karla invited me to teach class at Bird Song.  I went with a project that could be simple or complicated depending on how much time the class wanted to spend on it. I had enough supplies that some gals were even able to make two collages.

The idea was "collage elements"- make a number of small collages and then arrange them on a background made of different pieces of black and white text- German music, German text, a Kansas City grain report from 1925, and a book of math charts.

The picture above is some samples that I made, and one that Karla made.

I also made an extra large collage and velcroed the elements to it, so I could take the pieces off to show them around the class.

This one shows how I used stamping to make a frame.

This is an example of a contact paper transfer.  A contact paper transfer lets you create a transparent image so you can see the background paper through the image.

I had fun teaching the project and was just amazed with the finished projects that my "peeps" came up with.

Hope they had as much fun as I did!

Bird Song This and That

My pictures of Karla's Bird Song event are a little late in coming.  My plan was to finish some of my projects and then post about the event. But, well, you know how it goes...I'm hoping for some crafting time this weekend.

In the meantime, I've got some pictures of some little touches that caught my eye...like this cute tag that Karla made for all of the gift boxes.  Each one of them has a REAL four leaf clover.

It was nice to see so many familiar faces, and make so many sweet new friends.

Notice the birds and bird cages hanging from the ceiling?

Karla even took the time to decorate the glue bottles!

These coconut birds nests and decorated cookies were just a tiny portion of the sweets Karla had for her "peeps".

One of the nicest "touches" of the event wasn't put together by Karla, it was a surprise FOR Karla.  Laurie had the idea to decorate the fairy trail through woods.  She and her Colorado peeps, Rebecca and Suzanne and Cami and her Texas peeps, Tami and Nicki hung fairies from trees, ribbons from branches and tucked windmill flowers along the trail.

Karla was just tickled because now she knew how excited the kids felt when they walked the fairy trail after she had decorated it.

Miss Bird Song II & Her Apron

I started stitching this little bit when I was in Texas with Karla for Paper Cowgirls.  At lot of the Texas gals were coming to Bird Song, and as we talked about it, I thought it would be fun to turn this into something I could use as a door prize for Bird Song.

It's ended up being an apron.  We'll have a drawing during my class and some lucky gal is going to have the pleasure of wearing this apron all weekend...well, only if they want to...

Besides stitching, I added a bird printed on fabric, and charms and buttons.

The top is finished with the edge of an old table cloth, some millenary flowers and a rhinestone heart.

I've wanted to stitch up an apron for awhile, so it was fun making this and then decorating it.  I think my next stitching project will be making myself an apron to wear at antique shows.

But right now, I have to put the finishing touches on the  display for my class- of course, Miss Bird Song II will figure prominently in it.

Vintage Finds, Vintage Knitting

Unfortunately, not every weekend gives you great estate sales, but that's ok- that gave me time to rearrange my knitting needles.  

That sounds kind of sad doesn't it? 

"What did you do this weekend?"

"Sorted my knitting needles".

But really, its one of those mindless activities that can be kind of satisfying- and honestly, don't you think a crockful of knitting needles sorted by color has some eye appeal?

(I left out the ugly needles, the plastic needles, the gigantic size 50 needles that are bigger than a poster size Sharpie).

This is a little collection of crochet hooks (kept near the knitting needles) that are in shades of white- I'm not sure what everything is made of- I think some bone, some ivory, some mother of pearl and some celluloid.

Actually, they aren't even all crochet hooks- this is a button hook- and a dirty one at that.

And I'm really not sure what these are...but if I get a chance to buy one, I do!

Possibly manicure tools, and the pieces with the routed edge are bodkins- a tool for making a hole in something.  These are so fragile I really don't know what they could put a hole in.

So that was my shopping weekend- it leaves me plenty of time to something else interesting, like alphabetize my books.

Still Stitching- Art Quilts and Ribbon Work

Are you all tired of seeing my silly little stitching projects?  I hope not, because other than the really kick-butt estate sale I went to last week, stitching is all I have to talk about. 

It's kind of ironic that someone who really isn't much of a seamstress- my mother finished my ninth grade Home Ec clothing project for me- can be so easily entertained by a needle, thread and a piece of cloth.

I've especially been in love with white- using lots of different shades and textures of white.

And printing images on fabric.  I've been using an easy (and cheap) method for printing on fabric that I learned from Diane Knott.

Would anyone be interested in a blog post with a little tutorial about how I print on fabric?

I did try something new this week.  Ribbon work- embroidery with ribbon instead of floss. 

I went to the Friends of the Library book sale on the last day- they were selling books by the bag - $6 for a bag- and in among the books, I found two old 1980's needlework kits.  The ribbon work turned out to be easy and fast.

I'm going to add my ribbon work heart to the book I made in Lisa's class at Paper Cowgirl and turn the book into a sampler of new techniques (or things that don't fit anywhere else!)

You can find the little quilts for sale in my Etsy Shop.

Vintage Postcard Quilted Fabric Book

I've wanted to make a fabric book for a long time, but didn't really have any idea how to.  I'm still not sure I know how, but I put together something I'm calling a quilted book.

I made six little "quilts" - each about 7" square, and sewed pairs of the quilts together to make three two sided quilts.

Two strips of  muslin make up the spine- each quilt is sewn to the a piece of muslin, and the middle quilt is attached to both pieces of muslin.

The theme of the book is "vintage postcards".  I scanned old postcards, most with bird images on them, and then printed them on fabric. 

I added buttons, lace, trims and embroidery.

My book assembly method probably isn't "by the book", but it seemed to work, and I love adding little bits and pieces from my sewing basket to my stitches.

AND- the book is easy to read and nice to touch <smile>.

It's in my Etsy shop- and I still have a few more of My Petite Chemise Collage kits, too.

Been Sewing Quilting Stitching All Winter....

All winter, I've been stitching and glueing my little bits and pieces-art quilts and cloth books and ditty bags and more.  Today I took a look at the stack of projects in my "finished pile" and thought it might be time to pass some of these along.

This is one of my all time favorites-  I think because of all the textures of the lace and stitches.

The logo from the back of a cabinet card printed on fabric.

Mini journal embellished with vintage wallpaper.

All available in Etsy Shop- Gathering Dust.

And to keep me stitching (and keep me from losing my needles), look what I got from Dawn at The Feathered Nest.  One of her beautiful needlebooks.  She has them in her Etsy Shop- but she sells them just about as fast as she makes them, so get one while you can.