Gathering Dust

Her Life In Stitches Round Robin Update II

Just about a year ago, we started our Her Life in Stitches Round Robin.

If we had followed our original plan, we would all just be getting our completed books about now- but an editor from one of the Somerset publications saw a page on Karla's blog and was interested in publishing it.  Karla explained that the page was part of a larger project, and long story short, we ended up sending all the pages that had been made to date to Somerset back in April.

We each still had a few pages to make to complete everyone's book, and last week I got a beautiful package from Sandra with her final page for my book.

I love Sandra's work- she has a great eye for picking out beautiful textiles and then combining them to give every piece a rich layered look. 

The baby picture is printed on a satin finish fabric.

This is the back of the page- I think there are at least seven different kinds of fabric and lace- and isn't that blousy pocket darling?

Sandra also sent along a beautiful handmade lace notebook...

...with a little pocket inside with a playing card- don't you just love little surprise touches like that?

Sandra's package also had this beautiful stack of embroidered runners and doilies- I have a plan for them, I just need to find the time....but I'm sure you all know how elusive time can be!

Two of Lisa's pages, along with a full explanation of the cool techniques she used will be printed in the Sep issue of Somerset Apprentice.

If you'd like to see more of Sandra's work, click on the link above to see her work on Flickr, or check out her Etsy Shop Tattered Laces.

Is That Smoke Coming Out of My Sewing Machine?

...because I have been sewing up a storm...well, not a storm, but I did finish all fourteen of my pages for Michelle's Back to School swap. 

The theme is Vintage Back to School- I think I might have skipped vintage and went right back in time to antique. 

I embellished each page a little bit differently- for this one I sewed a card from the Authors game.

This one has a pen nib sewed on.

This one has a Perfect Attendance charm.

For the backs, I used paper from an old yellowed Big Chief tablet as a mat, and added a real school picture.  The school pictures came from an old yearbook that didn't have the pictures printed on the page, it had ACTUAL pictures glued on to each page.  It was from the 1930's and the whole school enrollment was only about 150- but still, can you imagine the time that would take?

(More than making fourteen Back to School pages)

Too Hot for Junk

The temperatures have been so hot lately that I just don't feel motivated to hit the estate sales.  The idea of getting in and out of the car, hiking blocks to a sale and

A.  not finding anything worth buying, or buying something stupid just for the sake of buying SOMETHING.

or

B. walking out of the sale with anything heavy, hard to carry, rusty or dirty

just doesn't appeal to me- although "B" is definitly better than "A".

But not having much junk to show doesn't mean I don't have anything to share.  I've learned some things since I last posted.

1. Just because you do wait in line for an estate sale, you don't have to buy the first thing you pick up.

...because you may end up with a teapot with an adjustable broken handle.  For all the years I've been buying, sometimes I still do beginner stuff.

2. A $20 dropcloth from Walmart may actually make a better slipcover than a $120 slipcover from Surefit.  It sure seems to stay in place better.  And it's a lot easier to get paw prints off of.

3.  The heavy wool sweater that you started to knit last winter seems to weigh even more in the summer.  (But I am kind of excited that the first garment that I've ever knit is finally starting to take shape.)

4.  If you're at an auction, pay attention- don't just keep nodding your head, or you might end up with a $25 Victorian napkin ring.  But it is cute- and says "Best Wishes". 

So what interesting thing have you learned this hot summer?

 

Printing on Fabric the Cheap-o Way

When I'm crafting with needle and thread, I like to add images printed on fabric- but using the pre-packaged sheets of printable fabric is expensive. 

I thought I'd share an inexpensive way to print on fabric that I learned from Diane Knott.

Start with a package of full page size labels.  These are Avery 48165.  I bought a package of 10 at Wal-Mart for $4.44. 

You'll also need some medium weight fabric to print on.  I've had good luck with bedsheets and tablecloths purchased at estate sales.

Take the backing off a label sheet, exposing the sticky back.

Press the sticky side of the label to the fabric.

Turn over the label to the fabric side and smooth out any wrinkles.  I've been able to smooth out most small wrinkles just by running my hand across the fabric. 

You will have less wrinkles if you iron your fabric first and work on a hard surface...of course I was in too much of a hurry to do that, so I have some wrinkles- but that's ok, it all turns out fine in the end.

Trim the fabric around the label, so the fabric won't catch when it goes through the printer.

Put your fabric in your printer, making sure you know if your sheet needs to be fabric or paper side up.

...and start printing.

I've found depending on the fabric I'm using, I can re-use a stickly label up to 4 or 5 times, if I do my printing all at the same time.

I use an ink jet printer, and I've only used this method for "craft" printing- not for anything that is washable. I've heard that if you are going to wash your fabric, you might want to treat your fabric first with a product like Bubble Jet to set the ink.

I just printed these for an upcoming Back to School book page swap hosted by Michelle Geller.  I've admired Michelle's handmade books for ages, so I'm excited to be in the swap.

I've sandwiched the printed fabric, a background fabric and fleece and I'm going to machine stitch them together and then hand embellish them...fourteen of them-and then I have to figure out what to do with the back....I better get busy.

Speaking of busy, I've added lots of new treasures to both my Etsy stores SugarPinkMoon and Gathering Dust.

Metal Stuff

Pretty Stuff

...and "low color" stuff.