Where Oh Where…

…has my crafting mojo gone?

Oh where, oh where can it be?

With my yarn and threads and material galore,

Oh where, oh where can it be?

Do you ever get into a crafting “funk?” I don’t seem to want to finish anything I have started. I don’t seem to want to start anything new. Nothing really seems to be inspiring me. I guess it must just be that time of the year…or maybe the month…for the last couple of months!

It’s not that I haven’t been seeing some darling free projects online. There are lots of those. Here are a few I have found recently (just click on the picture to be taken to their site):

I also have a couple of lovely stumpwork books by Jane Nichols that I received for Christmas:

AND a kit to go with the above book:

So it’s not that there aren’t enough projects to keep me busy…I just don’t seem to have the energy. I think I just need a break…a vacation… How about a European tour…that would be fun. Or maybe a trip to the South Seas where it’s warm and blue and sandy beaches galore. I wanna be like one of those famous people who, when asked, say “I’m going to Disney World!”

Since none of those lovely things are going to happen anytime soon, I think I just need to add a bit of springtime here in my northern climate. I believe I will start with Paulette’s felt strawberries. Hopefully I’ll have some done to show you tomorrow!

Peace Out!

Bias Tape…

I am going to be making something practical tomorrow and I need bias tape for it. What I found in my fabric stash, that I wanted to use, were two fat quarters. My dilemma was how to make enough bias tape to cover what I need. Well, I found this wonderful tutorial on how to turn a fat quarter into 5 yards of bias tape! Fantastic! If you want to learn how to do it, go here: Stop Staring and Start Sewing   Thank you Jona!!!

On another note, here are a couple of recent finishes:

For Valentines day I made myself a small heart brooch. It’s made of wool felt, vintage seed beads and various other beads.

I am also doing a free BOM offered by Cheryl over at Willowberry Designs. It’s called Under the Sea and it is absolutely darling! Here is the first block done and I will have the second one done in another couple of days! You can just glimpse some of the fabric I will be using, when it is time to finish it, in the background.

Happy stitching!

My “Felt Smack Down” Entry…

Well, here's my entry for the "Felt Smack Down" contest! I really enjoyed making this. I have loved working with felt now for quite a while and have been inspired by Salley Mavor for years.

It was a learning experience for me as well as a fun project to make. I tried some techniques on this piece that I haven't employed before as described below. My piece is a wall hanging that is 8" x 9", mounted to foam core board and finished along the edges with ribbon and pearl headed pins.

My “Little” (doll), as I call them, measures 1 3/4", including the little tip on her cap. I painted her face (no easy feat being as she is so small!) and embroidered her tunic and skirt. Her hair is made from yarn.
The pot of hydrangeas measures just over 3/4" and is sculpted and then painted using watercolors for extra dimension. Each flower was made individually with a single strand of embroidery floss worked in colonial knots, gathered and then sewn in place.

The apple tree measures 3" and is sculpted and painted using watercolors as well for extra dimension.

I needle felted the clouds then stitched them down to the sky.
The wisteria vine is actually a couple of different colors of floss that I dipped in a 50-50 mixture of white glue and water, then wrapped around a paintbrush to dry before stitching in place with some silk fleurette's. The clouds ended up being my least favorite part of the project. I need to experiment more and come up with something more satisfactory and realistic.

Overall, I am pleased with my end result. There were times that I was feeling dissatisfied with it, but as I added more detail, the picture started to match what I had in my head. I can see making more along these lines in the future.

Much Ado About Nothing...

I haven't been posting much lately because, well, frankly, I haven't been completing anything.

Last weekend Spartan received his Masters Diploma from Lawrence Technological Institute. He is now officially a Structural Engineer.

Runner and Boy Genius had the last concert of the year. As soon as I get my video camera uploaded, I will show you some of the pieces the Symphony band played. These kids are absolutely amazing! One song in particular called "Traffic" was cool beyond belief! That should be up in the next day or two.

Here are pictures of what is on my hoop/sewing table/craft tables:

This is one of the blocks from Jenny over at ELEFANTZ. If you want to get the first three blocks then you better hurry! They will be coming down soon!

This is a purse that I have cut out, but haven't yet sewn together. I don't know why...

This is a table runner I am doing along with Cindy from Quilt Campus . It is English paper piecing, therefore completely hand sewn. I think I like making the hex's more than I like sewing them all together. I just love to see the rainbow of colors stacked all neatly together.

This is a baby quilt that I am making for Baby Girl's teacher who just had a baby girl (...gee...I bet you couldn't tell...being pink and all...) I had to find more material for the border. I'll post a better picture when I get it done.

Have you seen the new issue of Haute Handbags? Normally I wouldn't spend $15 on a magazine, but there are some really cute bags in here! One in particular I am pretty excited about (or as excited as I get lately) making. I just have to find the right pair of Baby Girl's old jeans to use. (Being a pack rat comes in handy sometimes!)

This is the front of the purse.


This is the back of the purse.

These are some of the goodies I am tentatively planning on using for this project.

close up.

Sorry for the crappy pictures...a photographer I'm not.

So...what's on you work table?

Playing Catch-Up...

This past Friday, Baby Girl and Spartan went to the Daddy/Daughter Dance. First they went out to eat for dinner, then danced the night away...well, at least until 8:00 when the dance was done!

It's amazing to me how fast she is growing up! She is such a little darling!

On Saturday I took Baby Girl with me to a local quilt show. There were some beauties there! Here are my favorites in order of preference:

This one was just so sweet and simple. It reminds me that things don't have to be complicated to be beautiful!

This one I loved because of the applique flowers. They are blanket stitched on and beautifully done!

How cute is this one?!? I love that the maker made things dimensional on this. The jewelry and watch are real!

I love the colors and the over all romantic feel of this one! The images are gorgeous!

This one was my favorite because it incorporated everything I love in a quilt! First of all, it's quilted! Second it has applique. Third and the biggest draw for me, the embroidery! The maker did an exquisite job on the embroidery! This one gets my blue ribbon!

Silk and Satin and Linen...oh my...

Here a couple of my recent finishes.

This one is from a kit I won at Giggle Buttons the beginning of February. I stitched it using Kreinik silk thread and colored it with colored pencils. I chose the colors based on this material that I had. Just a minor departure from the suggested DMC colors.

Sonya chose the winners from the comments that she liked the best and I was one of the fortunate ones! Here is the comment I left:

I love all of them! My favorite has to be the roses though. When I saw it, it instantly reminded me of my Grandmother who passed 14 years ago. She loved roses, rose water and rose scented drawer liners! Her favorite was from Crabtree & Evelyn. I hadn't thought of that for awhile, thanks for the memory poke!

I plan on framing this piece and displaying it on the wall with a picture of my Grandmother, I just know she would have loved the embroidery and the material I have chosen, definately her colors!

This piece I stitched on a vintage linen napkin that I have had for a while. It is part of a set with placemats (which are on my Daughter's dresser's now that she has a "big girl's" dresser set) that belonged to my Dad's~Uncles~Second Wife. Lovely lady and I think she would approve of me embroidering them. I used DMC's satin floss for the girl and flowers, regular floss for the house and gate. They recommend using 3 strands instead of one, but I used ONE strand! I found that the satin floss "spreads" more than the regular floss and therefore one strand was equal to using two strands of regular floss. It's very splitty so shorter lenths were better. I love the end result! It has such a beautiful shine to it and it was awesome for my french knots (yes, her hair is all french knots...I do love them!)

In my hoop right now is something different. I am trying stumpwork. I should have a picture soon. I also have made two new purses, one for me and one for my Mom that I will show in a few days!

Finally! Blogger has been being a butt-head and wouldn't let me upload pictures for the last couple of days!

This is the most recent block in the Once Upon A Time BOM. It is Snow White and Rose Red. I decided to use ribbon roses instead of just embroidering them. They are my first attempt at ribbon embroidery. Not bad considering I just used the cheap-y ribbon that you get for $.99 a spool.

I am trying to decide what to do now. I'm kind of in a slump. I can't seem to make up my mind on anything! I just flit from possibility to possibility. I have new material I could make...something with. I have new floss I could embroider...something with. Or, I could just go take a nap. I think I am in the pre-spring, pre-warm weather dumps. Oh, did I mention that I'm 44 and I seem to have A LOT of the perimenopause symptoms? White hair multiplying like rabbits, forgetful, moody, forgetful, tired ALL the time, forgetful, can't sleep at night, forgetful...whine, whine, bitch, bitch, complain, complain...sorry, it's one of those days.

Did I mention forgetful???

Shopping Spree and a Share...

Okay, so like don't tell my Husband, but I went fabric and craft shopping today. I didn't spend a lot of money, in fact I saved over $20 on my purchases by using coupons! Here's what I got:


House material that I originally saw on Jane's Fabrics & Quilts and a coordinating print.


This delightful group of blue/white/brownish-black material. I'm thinking maybe a new purse!


Some new satin floss and I have decided to try punch needle embroidery. We'll see how I like it!


So I grab the mail on my way up the driveway after my exhausting day of shopping at JoAnn's and what do I find, but a package! More material love-li-ness! A few days ago I purchased this Alexander Henry fabric from Anthem Fabrics. My picture really can't do this material justice, it's so cute!

It's called April Showers and May Flowers in chocolate/strawberry. I don't usually do the cutesy thing (despite the previous house material) with material, but I just couldn't pass this up!

On to the sharing! I have the Febuary and March block done in the Veranda Views BOM. I am so happy with these!

I am still looking for the right fabric to use for finishing the quilt as we can start sewing sashing on the blocks now, but I just can't decide on anything! I may have to bite the bullet and go to the quilt store and look at some more expensive fabrics. I have been trying to stay on a tight budget with my purchases, but sometimes you just have to splurge!

So that's my day...how was yours?

Finish #1...

I have been busy sewing...hand sewing that is. I have a few finishes to share with you, but I am going to dole them out one at a time. Give me more to blog about. Today I'm showing you my "Wonky House" that is an embroidery freebie from Jenny over at Elefantz. There are supposed to be more coming too!



"Wait," you say, "I thought you said embroidery freebie." You say. Well, it is. I just decided to do it a little differently. Instead of embroidery, I got the great idea to do it in needle turn applique. Something that I have never done before. I made the image bigger (since I'm not completely insane enough to make it so small!) and used it as a pattern for my material pieces. I also challenged myself as far as the material choices. As you can see, the "grass" and the "hill" are pretty traditional materials...what I'm most comfortable with. I chose what, to me, looks like a night sky with it's swirlies and "star lights." Where I really jumped out of my comfort zone is in the main house material. I love it, it just isn't something I would normally choose to make something out of. I used wool felt for the windows, doors, tree, sign and mail box. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out and I am really looking forward to the others that Jenny will be sharing. I hope she likes what I did with her pattern.l

A Mushroom, A Couple of Birds and A Hairy Finish!

I take bad pictures since I still haven't figured out how to use my digital camera to its best advantage, so, I played with my new images in my PaintShop Pro program (that I love!) and made them all look fancier!

First I have a darling little wool felt mushroom house that I finished a couple of weeks ago. I got the pattern from the little house by the sea. I love the way it turned out! If you like to work with felt you should really check out her wonderful pattern! I took a series of pictures of the embroidery I did on it. We start at the front door and work our way clockwise around the "house."


Next up I have the second completed applique block from the BOM offered over at Bunny Hill Designs. I think it turned out really cute! I fused the applique's on then did a blanked stitch in coordinating floss around them. But where is the first block you say? ('cause I know you totally noticed that I haven't posted the first one yet) Well, I haven't quite made that one yet. No one ever said I liked to do things in the proper order!!

(lace was just added in my photo editing program)

Last, but not least, are a couple more pictures of Baby Girls hair. The first one I did yesterday. Just kinda "made it up" on the fly (not that anyone ever makes up anything new!). I was doing her hair the way I usually do it, just pulling the front back in a band, when I decided to put it in a twisted pony. Why stop there I thought, so I kept gathering new sections and twisting them through until we had a complete pony tail/twisted braid thingy. (Just in case you didn't know, "thingy" is a technical term that I frequently use)


Today I went here and used a modified version of her heart ponytail. I like Baby Girl's hair down and softer around her face so that is what prompted me to do it this way. I think it turned out really cute! In case you can't tell, my Daughter is loving all the new do's! 'Course, what girl doesn't!!

Once Upon A Time...

One of the BOM's I have been doing is the Once Upon A Time embroidery BOM from Bea at Capricorn Quilts. Her images are charming to say the least! I have finished both January's and Febuary's blocks and love how they have turned out!
Rapunzel:

The Frog King (or Iron Henry)


I have a couple other things in the works that I will be able to share with you soon.