Yesterday my Coral
Reef Pillow Cover was featured on a blog, the Ardent Sparrow.Go check it out.It's also a pretty great blog.This morning at midnight my papernstitch
exhibit went up.Papernstitch is "a
community of buyers and seller showcasing the best in art, handmade, and
vintage."Got a call this afternoon from
my Mom saying she needed some info on a dye class I'm teaching next month in
her gallery because the newspaper in town and radio wanted to announce it.So yay!I'm excited!
I know I haven't
posted in awhile.I've been very busy
with all kinds of craziness.Like I
mentioned in my previous posts I will be moving by mid November latest, which
we have yet to decide, Denver or Portland.Because of this I started working on Christmas
presents since I won't have time after the move.All of the Christmas gifts are made
completely of scarp pieces of fabric that would have otherwise been thrown
away.I've also had a few custom jobs
and some wedding gifts.I've also been
trying to make up some things for my papernstitch exhibit going up
Wednesday.September is going to be
crazy.My husband might be going to Denver at the beginning
for work and I will go to see if I like the area.We will then drive to our friends wedding
reception in Cincinnati.They just got married in Jamaica.Followed by a short drive by visit to my
mother's bakery in Horse Cave,
Kentucky to teach a few dyeing
classes, screen print some shirts, and possibly have some custom work with a
local bed and breakfast.Oh yeah, I just
purchased a screen printing machine, I can't wait for it to get in!Then I've
been helping with my local Etsy team for our very busy next few months.I will be participating with two other Etsy
locals in the USHwy36 Treasure Hunt in September.It's a 400 mile long flea market, fair
thing.Then we are doing another Craft
in Public night, Parking lot sale beginning of October followed by a local
parade.Sometime in this mess my husband
and I will be flying out the Portland
so we can come home and fight over which city we want.I want Portland
he wants Denver.Well, then we have to find an apartment,
pack, and move.Whew, busy busy, but I wouldn't
have it any other way.I love being a
busy bee.I'll try to at least post some
quick updates and pictures soon and during.
I have been in love
with the headband trend since it became popular to wear them again.They are also more comfortable than I
remember when I was a kid.My friend
Julia inspired me to make some.She
seems to always wear fantastic colors and have big flowers in her hair.She's so stylish.I went into her facebook profile and grabbed
some pictures of her that inspired them, hehehe.Then I created a few last night.
I used some sample
swatch fabric that was going to be thrown away to make the bands.The fabric is a very expensive velvet swatch.I sewed a piece of elastic on the
underside.The flowers were from some
poly organza I had bought for my wedding to put on the tables.My mom salvaged and saved me the fabric to
reuse.I cut just over 20 circles of the
organza fabric going down in size a little every couple circles.Then I took a lighter and burnt around the
edges of each circle.I sewed the flower
down to the bands and added a final touch of glass beads to the center.
I made three, plum,
red, and blue.
I made the plum one
with the intention of giving it away but it matched my clutch so well I decided
to keep it.Doesn't it look fab on
me? I'll just make
another one for my friend.
My husband is a
wonderful cook (and a wonderful man).He's
actually a software developer but he's an amazing cook as well.He bakes all of our breads, makes fresh pasta,
roasts his own coffee beans, has an aquaponics herb garden, and just started
brewing his own beer.I love it because I'm
happy to eat whatever he sets in front of me.I mean really, how can you complain with a man that tends to the kitchen,
including all clean up?Anyways one of
my favorite dishes he made up is his spinach pasta with artichoke hearts in a
lemon butter sauce.He makes the pasta
fresh but you can easily substitute store bought.It's really easy to make too.
This recipe serves
2
Ingredients:
10oz spinach pasta
6tbs of butter
2 jars of marinated
artichoke hearts
1 lemon
Drain artichokes
and set aside.Cook pasta as
directed.While the pasta is cooking melt
the butter in a sauté pan. Then sauté the
artichokes in the melted butter.Zest
the lemon over artichokes and butter and stir.
When the pasta is
done drain it and throw it in the sauté pan.Mix all the ingredients well.Serve in two bowls.
Doesn't it look
yummy?! Serve with some bread to eat up anything left behind.
I know I have been
quiet this past week.I have managed to
get a custom project, working on stuff for my upcoming paper n' stitch exhibit
at the end of the month, and creating gifts for the family.Since my husband and I have decided move by
the end of October I know I won't have time to move, unpack, and make gifts for
the holidays.So I've decided to work on
those fall birthdays and Christmas gifts now.I think it's a good plan.
First up is a quilt
for my mommy.Yes, I still love to refer
to her as my mommy.She's been crying
for one of my quilts for years and she's pretty much the only one who doesn't
have one.She even bought me fabric when
I was in high school to make into what I thought was a cool design, now I find
pretty awful quilt.I had even started
but just didn't have the heart to make it.It was comprised of a leaf green, sky blue, dusty purple, white with
paisley, and a purple paisley calico.I
ditched the green and blue to make an entirely purple and white quilt.My mom loves purple.I love modern quilting and find Denyse
Schmidt my big inspiration.I like the
deliberate crookedness and slightly askew of the squares and the simplistic
design of the quilt work but using color to give it dimension.For my mother's quilt I used the contrast of
the solid purple fabric with the stark white paisley as a bold statement.The backing is the purple paisley calico.I referenced it to make the free motion
drawings in the middle of the squares on the front.The thread alternates with the squares.
Now I do realize I'm
sharing this on the world wide web, but she's so busy she rarely checks my blog
and so what, she'll flip she's got one on the way over the surprise.
Here are some
progress pictures.
Laying out the
squares to figure out where I want them.
The free motion
embroidery sketch lines.I love quilters
chalk especially when you have a lot of drawing to do because I find the washable
markers run out fast. I have a pen that
can change the chalk color.It's
great.
I stabilized the
back of the squares with Super Solvy water soluble stabilizer.Then I put it in an embroidery hoop to stitch
on the machine.
I had some help
pinning the layers together.The orange
is Tabitha and the calico is Matilda.I
generally don't let them on my projects but since it's for my mom I know she
will love that they helped.Pinning is
so much faster than basting.Those are
special quilter's safety pins that have a small kink in the center to make them
pop back up through the layers easier than a straight one.
Here's the back
flipped up to see.
I'm still working
on machine quilting the layers down.I'll
make sure to post pictures when I get it done.
I was recently
commissioned to make a super fabulous little purse for my step mom.In the process of making it I had some
problems getting the tree design to look right.After a few takes I was able to complete it for her.I really love the end result.Here are the work in progress photos.
So I had planned on
stitching the tree like on my clutch shown in a previous post.Since the fabric was a woven tweed like
material the stitching fell down into the fabric and looked just plain messy.
I then took a scrap
of the fabric and tried felting on it.I
hand carded the color wool I wanted then felted it down with my Bernina Needle
Punch foot.It looked messy again.
Then I resorted to
cutting the tree out of fabric.But I
didn't want to sit and roll the edges under and appliqué a bunch of tree
branches, because well that's just insane.I remembered I had some gorgeous expensive wool fabric samples that my
former job gave me.I found the color I
wanted cut the tree out then free motioned embroidered it down with the same
color thread.I love the out come.
Here's the finished
bag.It's super cute.Even though it has been sold and mailed to my
step mom please check out the listing to see other views and the inside of the
purse.
