On Day 25

On day 25 of March, another single flower appeared for my art journal.  Sheila of  

Orange Esmeralda is hosting the theme of a single flower at Art Journal Journey for the entire month of March.  

I had one more single flower idea so I got my page ready to receive the flower.  I do like how the page prep came out.  I hoped I wouldn’t ruin it.  I kinda just wanted to stop here.  

My original flower idea just looked blah.  So I moved on.

I have been inspired by the white flowers in the other entries that were cut from music paper or had text and other markings added to them.

No more drawing for me....

I traced the outside of the flower die onto fabric that I backed with paper so that I’d be able to glue it to my page.  I stitched around it twice then cut outside the stitching.  I also die cut the flower from black paper to add interest and somewhat disguise my poor choice of fabric.  I added a paper punched center and a large brad.

I glued the flower to the page only around the center so that the petals are loose.

I haven’t played with stamps like this for awhile and had a fun day with this page.

Paper Pieced Table Runner

From Turid’s blog  I learned about  Leila Gardunia’s  free paper piecing scrappy triangles.  I downloaded them and printed them.  They come as a 6” block but I shrunk them down to 4.5” blocks.

I had a limited amount of the the gray fabric so I made blocks until I ran out of it.  

That gave me only 20 blocks.

From sloppy to nice and neat.

It’s a good thing I used a minimum amount of fabrics.   I can get pretty messy when I’m paper piecing.

There weren’t enough to make them into the design I was hoping to use so I worked on alternative layouts.

I decided on blocks of 4 blocks.

I quilted it with too many rows of quilting.  I don’t care for tight quilting lines.  I think they make the piece too stiff.  I removed 2 rows of quilting in each direction.

Much better.  You can still see where I removed quilting lines until it hits the washer.  Then the needle holes will disappear.

The table runner measures 49”x15”

Now that I’ve had that practice I am going to make them at full size for a Christmas quilt in the design I had planned to begin with.

My August calendar journal

Many, many awesomely fun days of sewing last month.

I forgot to cover the personal stuff...Mom is doing fine.

I have to write blog posts with Blog Touch to write them on my iPad.  The app crashes often while writing and adding photos.  Every time it crashes I have to edit the post and then it puts “(Temporary Backup)” in front of my post title.  It does that every time it crashes.  So if you see that, this is why you see it.  I have to edit the title in Blogger dashboard.  Jeezelouise, the hoops we have to jump through sometimes!

A Little of This and a Little of That

I’ve been up to a little of this and a little of that.

A little bit of sewing...

A fabric postcard.

Then, I’ve gotten hooked on making these keyring wristlets.

I have quite a bit of ultra suede pieces that I purchased years ago when it was much more reasonable to purchase.  So it makes for a nice durable wristlet.

Then, I’ve sent out some mail...

It seems like it’s been awhile since I’ve sent out some mail art envelopes.  Even just a bit of quick stamping changes boring mail into fun mail.

Sheila had a birthday.  Happy Birthday Sheila!

I did a little roasting and salting of pecans.  Once we reach a certain age and condition and life style, we appreciate edibles more than things.  These are a favorite of my special Valentine.

Of course a little pocket tag was needed.  I added a short letter into the pocket.



There’s my variety of little things that all went out through the mail to make very special people smile.

Although, I have SO many keyring wristlets still!  And I still want to make more!  Where to give them away???

Sewing Space Decor

I was inspired by Pinterest (as usual) to gussy up my vintage wooden bobbin to hold a special pair of scissors.

The sewing machine charm is also special.  As well as the vintage shirt buttons that my grandmother had saved, and the pearl head pin.  (I’m sure it isn’t a real pearl, just looks like one).  A small collection of memorabilia that I’ve saved and pushed around for years.

Well now, making one wasn’t enough!  But I had no more bobbins and I wanted to make another for a special friend.  I found some on eBay for a pretty price.  I couldn’t find any others, so I finally talked myself into buying them.  When they arrived, I was sure they were reproduction bobbins, not vintage.  But they would have to do.

Now my friend has one too for her sewing space.

Her cute little scissors came from Hobby Lobby and the sewing machine charm I’ve had for years.  I knew I’d think of use for it eventually.  I tried finding one that was more defined like mine, but I had no luck with that at all.  The buttons are from my small vintage stash from my grandmother.

Details

Antoinette, we’re bobbin buddies! 

 I’m trying hard not to collect “things” unless they have great meaning to me, or it is something I LOVE and enjoy or serves a purpose.  Clutter is a thing of my past.  Not my present.  Not my future.

Sewing again!

I have finally gotten back to sewing again!  One thing that kept me away from it is my teeny tiny sewing space now that I am back home.  It was not at all inviting.  I moved more stuff out of it to make space for cutting and pressing.

It isn’t even so much the lack of space as it is that dang low slanted ceilings.  I hate them.  I am tall.  Then there’s the awful striped wallpaper.  All still better than no space at all.

Even a mini design wall is better than none at all.

I’m a little disappointed that this large bottle holding my wooden spool collection cannot be kept within this tiny space.  But priorities must be met.

I have four unfinished quilty projects.  The first needing to be finished was my sewing machine cover that I started a year ago.

I was very ambitious when I started this improv piecing.  I did a little more, but I had no patience to finish it.  So I cheated on the back and sides.

I don’t see those sections much anyway.  So I moved on to quilting the thing.

It’s quite less than perfect and I don’t care.  At least I don’t have to throw a dish towel over my machine anymore.

So tacky!

This is much better.

Now I can get down to some serious sewing!

Scrappy Sewing

As packing to move narrowed down to getting the fabric scrap drawers and sewing machine ready, I had to to stop playing.  But just before that had to happen, I made a few new potholders.

This one came from the green scraps drawer.

This one from the pink scraps drawer.

And this fun set came from the scraps from a couple of quilts.  

Of course they had to have the black and white striped bindings for added fun.  

And now everything is packed and ready to go.  So this is it from me until I get "home".

Now I'll be reading and watching your creativity and collecting inspiration.  These things are already happening and it's driving me crazy that I can't play!

oxoxo

Scrappy Sewing Fun

Two little fabric boxes and one nail polishing mat have not satisfied my desire to sew ... right now!

BUT!

I'm in the middle of packing to move back to my home in Wisconsin!  My fabric is already packed!  Scraps are all that is available to play with.  

Of course a postcard always comes to mind first.  My sweet cousin-in-law is figuring out a way to carve out a dedicated sewing space in her home with red and teal as her color theme.  And I want to be virtually in that space with her.

So I mailed her a small bit of me to display in her new space-to-be.

I also wanted to share with her some of my vintage wooden thread spools for Decor.  They needed a little padding in their box so that they didn't rattle so much.  A quick potholder would do the trick.  Who can't use a new potholder?  I hadn't yet packed my printed Miracle Fabric pieces.  How perfect this piece of collaged recipes is.  She likes neutral colors too.

So I've managed to fractionally satisfy this desire to sew things.  But far from completely.  I've dug out more scraps.  I've been watching my sewing friends share scrappy projects on their blogs and I have the desire to make scrappy fabric too.  I need a soft cover for my sewing machine.  It would look so much nicer than the dish towel I throw over it.

I have chosen neutrals and low volume color scraps for this project.  I don't really have a lot of patience for improv sewing with scraps, but as this piece has grown, I've enjoyed working on it more.

Here is where I have paused this project.  I now needed something smaller and quicker.  You know...more instant gratification. 

So, back to sneaking in a little more sewing play time in between the packing of boxes.  It is so hard to put "everything" away then wait until it can all come back out again.   

XOXOXO