A coworker recently brought me some really cheap but kind of cute felt "baskets" she bought in the clearance area of a mass merchant for a dollar. Personally, I thought if you "kicked it up a notch" and gave it some rustic charm, you might come up with these:
We use a variety of burlaps.... natural, cream, teal and even a damask print. They are embellished with a variety of trims including some with vintage buttons. A few have basket handles too. They hold a canning jar perfectly and would be ideal to give as a gift with a canning jar filled with goodies.
Owls are great and I couldn't resist this wise little guy!
Burlap pennants are the rage. For the Easter season, we made a few of these:
We have worked hard to perfect our soy candles and here they are in the booth at the Cottage Shops in Monticello. We will be adding new scents as well
Moving forward, we are working on our own blend of wax melts. I've been having some friends at work test them out and we almost have perfected them. A great big THANKS to them for their much needed feedback. We should have the melts in our booth shortly. As with our soy candles, we want them "superbly scented"!
We just added these to our booth at the Cottage Shops in Monticello, Indiana this weekend. So hubby says, "Where did you see this idea?" I didn't see it anywhere. I mean, surely everyone has seen the cinnamon scented pine cones to scent the home and use in the fireplace and then there's those cases of nasty waxy sawdust things that admittedly work well. Why not combine the two? This is my experiment that we found works quite well!
The first batch I cheated and absconded with two red crayons from my kids. I didn't particularly care for the lack of intensity in the red color, as they resemble pine cones in raw hamburger, but I did use some fantastic cinnamon scent!
As you can see, I used one of my less than best cupcake pan. It may have been one obtained at an auction, but it's now been officially designated craft only! We started with dipping the pine cones in the wax. Then after mixing in the fresh sawdust out of the shop, we packed the sawdust wax mix around each pine cone.
After they were cooled, we had to try out my theory. All I can say is, "WOW"! I took one out in the back yard and set it in a non-windy area on a stepping stone. I used ONE wooden match to light the base of the pine cone. At first I thought the pine cone would burn and I would be left with a wax lump. The pine cone worked almost like a chimney with the flame about 4-5 inches tall and then the wax bottom was on fire. We, my son and hubby, actually got tired of watching it burn and walked away. It was still smoldering about 15 minutes later. It might burn shorter if it was more windy. At one point I did stand close and they heat it was putting off was significant. We've decided that extinguishing it after starting it, might not be an option. The sign below is what we put on them in the booth. Definitely a fire starter, not a candle!!!
Mercury Glass seems to be having a resurgence. Several blogs online give all sorts of tutorials, so no point in doing a repeat. These are my version. The interior finish was interesting, but I decided a little fun embellishments were needed. A little metal banding, slightly antiqued, was exactly what was needed. The middle jar, a Kroger maple syrup bottle was dressed up with a little burlap ribbon and a cotton muslin flower.
These disappeared out of the booth and so I am getting ready to do another set. The biggest problem I had last time was getting the paint down inside the bottles. I bought a spray lubricant that comes with a special nozzle and a little tube. I'm going to try and swap the nozzle out and use the little tube to shoot the paint. My biggest concern is it may clog the little tube after the first application.
One other tip... a heat gun... the type for embossing... works wonders in shortening the time between paint layers.
I'm so tired of finding my kitchen towels on the floor! I have revolted!
Two kitchen towels purchased for the grand price of $2.50 at Big Lots and some fabric leftovers. I did raid the button box, but wound up purchasing 2 1" buttons at Joann's. The top portion I just "winged", but I'm pretty pleased with it. I know most towels like this, directions are to cut the towels in 1/2 and then each towel makes two hanging ones. These look a little long, but the Hubby is pleased that they are big enough to actually use.
I have actually been thinking of making some of these for awhile and I looked into buying my own toweling fabric. I found a couple of internet sites that had some nice selections of toweling. Harts Fabric had some nice colors and plaids. Also, look at Fabric Depot as well. Of course the Big Lot's price was pretty competitive if you can find a color or design that is to your liking.
The American Girl Doll Company makes a very nice wardrobe for their dolls. It's reportedly the size of a small nightstand, painted white and comes with some assembly required for a mere $349. Possibly a great deal if hubby didn't have a few cool tools and some spare oak.
This is our version, minus the doors of course. Hubby built it this past weekend and I just went out and stained this portion. He will be making the doors this weekend and I need to hurriedly get some appropriate doll hangers so we know what size of "closet rod" we can install. The side shelves were built based on some simple storage trays I purchased. I will be making the storage board for the inside of the big door and the little fabric pockets to hang on the inside of the small door this weekend.
Our plan is for her to use this now to help hold her doll and clothes. Maybe in 12 years, she will want to take it to college as an actual night stand. It's solid oak so it should be a classic piece that will last.
Two nights ago I was being lazy or I can use the excuse I was recovering
from a 4 day bout with flu. Anyway, I sat semi-watching a movie on
Netflix and perusing Pinterest. I stumbled across a pin that led me to
the blog of Megan Chaney. Her clay artwork, inspired by nature, put some ideas in my head.
Last night I came home, got the kids in bed and disappeared to my studio and "let my hair down". I made a stoneware tile. For once I didn't calculate the shrinkage and try to make a tile that was in standard 4" or 6" size. I used the slab roller for a nice uniform thickness and then I used an old plastic texture plate for faux wood grain. I textured the tile and then broke out the oak leaves. One I imbedded in the tile, the other I put a layer of clay on the back and randomly made it appear as if it was dropped on the tile. I free-formed an acorn and used thin pieces of irregular clay to make a patch of bark. One area I used raised clay to give a little flame pattern seen in oak lumber. I used a bit of iron oxide on the barkish area.
This evening I came home and refined some areas. It's a a bit of abstract tile. I'm anxious to add it to my kiln that is almost ready for a bisque firing. Right now I'm meditating on possible glaze/finishing techniques... I may have to look for more Pinterest inspirations!
Bone dry clay... ready for any last finish touches and a bisque firing....
No, I am not sane. I can't possibly be sane. Why? As my husband was kind enough to remind me, I never can do anything easy. Now if that isn't calling the pot black, but then, I digress.
We, hubby and I, plowed in and constructed my eight foot tri-loom Saturday night. Lapped the corners, marked, drilled and stained the maple. We only used 183 brads per side. Wow! This AM the loom was ready and so this afternoon I got started. This is where the insanity kicked in. So far, I have made ONE tri-loom shaw on my 5 1/2' loom built from scraps. For my first project on the 8 foot loom, which looks HUGE, I chose to use Paton's classic wool yarn. I also thought that this time I should show I can do more than over and under, so I chose to attempt a double diamond twill.
This is the pattern out of Patricia Herman's Triangle Loom Weaving Twills 'n More
Within three or four rows, I knew my yarn needed to be doubled. Off
came the yarn and I restarted with a double strand. (This of course means I must be running back to the store ASAP as I will be short of yarn!) I am carefully
keeping the strands from twisting and all that. That in itself is a
challenge, but as I am not a master weaver, maybe, just maybe, I should
not have made my second tri-loom project a double diamond twill. I have
removed probably as much yarn as I have put on by now. However, I
think I have finally made a break through. My brain has started to
grasp the repetition of the pattern and I hope the "do-overs" will now
be minimized!
Paton's Classic Wool in Rosewood - Double Diamond Twill Pattern
I marked the repeat, 8 rows on a piece of painters tape and I stick one of my picks over the number of the last row I just completed. So far, that has helped with the errors.
The finished product should be interesting. The yarn is wool and I don't want to felt it heavily, but I think I will felt it just enough to give a nice warm shawl. With work, kids and a blouse I have in process, I dare say it will be a week or two before I get it completed. At least I've done enough so far I can start to see the pattern and I think I will like it.
A few weeks back... actually August, we were on vacation. On the way out to Missouri we stopped at Rockhome Gardens. There was a vender inside that had a triangle loom in action and she had some completed projects as well. Being a crafty person, I was intrigued. I started some research and my engineering husband started calculating.
After we got home, progress lagged or really never even started. That's when I take matters into my own hands!!! Hubby was gone on business so I headed out to the garage to see what I could see. Hubby has been building some cabinets, so there was some nice "scraps". OK...maybe 2 eight foot pieces of red oak 3/4" by 2" is a bit more than a scrap, but after I grabbed and cut, well...
I took one of the 8' pieces and cut it in half. I then cut a lap joint - by hand - so the 90 degree joint would be stable. I clamped those and then laid the other 8' piece across the top to make my hypotenuse. I marked the overlaps with pencil and again made lap joints by hand. Now if you check out the web, standard sizes seem to be 6' and 8'. Mine is not exactly standard, but I wanted to build the biggest I could with what I had!
I started marking the nails and then messed up and the kids demanded food, so I had to stop.
Once the hubby returned the next day, progress resumed. I erased my bad markings and started all over. This time I got it right. I spaced the pins on the hypotenuse 1/2" apart. I used a square to mark the pins along the side. If you do a bunch of web searches, it's a little confusing, but the pins/nails along the side are closer together than on the hypotenuse. When you're done, you should have the same number of pins on all three sides.
Then hubby helped set up the drill press and I drilled holes. A LOT off holes I must add!
After nice neat uniform depth holes, hubby put a socket extension in the drill press upside down. It then worked to uniformly press each nail in to the exact same depth.
I will admit hubby assisted but anyone, with a little persistence, may commandeer the work shop and build their own as well!
After the loom was glued, screwed and dried I rummaged in my stash and found a couple of homespuns. Talk about dumb luck, I was just barely able to finish. No fringe, but I have ideas...
I have since invested in one of the few triangle loom manuals out there and found a few things I did wrong. We also purchased some nice maple to make a full 8' triangle loom. As I've had the maple for at least a week or two, I guess I'm going to have to take matters into my own hands again!
I would suggest a book available on Lulu.com by Barbara Herdman called Tri Loom Weaving. It shows the basics of weaving and has a real nice chart on how much yarn to plan on for the size of the loom.
My kids go to a local Christian school. This year they changed the dress code so that dresses must be below the knee. WOW! Now that is a challenge. We've shopped and shopped and the options are limited. Now she only has to wear a dress on chapel days, but as she is only 5, she loves pretty dresses.
This fall I purchased some Gymboree items from their "Smart but Sweet" collection. As usual, the skirts are all too short. They had a fun navy pleated skirt with embroidered daisies, so I revolted and made my own.
I used Butterick 4593 and cut the yoke 1 " longer. I cut a size 7, but used the size 8 for length plus added 2 inches. Out came the embroidery machine and I matched the daisies on the leggings and made a nice yoke for the dress.
Then I needed the "bling"! A web search pulled up the following tutorial:
Click on the picture for the tutorial
I made my own pattern, although you can do it freehand. I covered the back with a circle of felt that helped secure a pin on the flower. This way I can take it off for laundry or replace with a new one if there is a mishap in art or on the playground.
Here is a couple of pictures of the dress and the accent flower.
The flower was super easy and could be addictive! I saw several others online that would be fun to try as well. Meanwhile, although it may not be The Gymboree skirt, my daughter loves it and the flower! Pattern:
Yes, I finally fired the kiln! Prior to child number 2, I fired the kiln at least 2-3 times a month or more. After child number 2, I think I've only fired it a handful of times. Anyway, I did a glaze firing with some interesting results. I tried a new glaze or two and used a bunch of Mayco's reptilian green on some bisque frogs I had. The reptilian green turned out very cool.
If I hadn't played so hard out in the garden today, I would be toting a 50# bag of fresh clay down in the basement. I haven't had fresh clay to play with for a while, so throwing hasn't been possible. Now, that I'm really thinking about it, I may just throw tired aches aside and go throw a chunk of clay. I wonder if I can even remember how?!
So last week in clinic, one of our regular patients asks me if I've ever seen a Jelly Roll race. Blame it on the fact I've been dieting, but I envision a plate full of nice sweet jelly rolls with a bunch people having some sort of contest shoving them into their mouths. Anyway, after my brief delusion, I said, "Oh yeah, a jelly roll... gotcha." Now maybe my brain was still on the edible jelly roll, but I didn't quite get the full concept, so I Googled "jelly roll quilt race". Boy was I in the dark! Very cool, fun and hey, why not?
Joan's didn't have a full jelly roll and what they had was not to my taste. Our local quilt shop here in Monticello did not have any jelly rolls, so I decided I would "design my own". I chose 11 different cathedral batiks in a variety of colors. The quilt shop lady inspired/insisted I throw in some brighter colors with the more muted colors I was choosing. Anyway, after some trial and error, I chose 11 colors from the cathedral batiks. The cathedral batiks are very cool in that they go from dark at one selvage to a lighter shade at the other selvage. They actually look like they were gradient dyed.
Anyway, after purchasing too much (1/2 yd each), I went home and cut my 2 1/2" strips and started sewing them end to end. After a couple of "oops" sewing the strips together, I was ready to start the strip sewing. Before I started sewing the strip together, I ironed the seams that joined them. As I worked my way down, I kept folding the strips back and forth on top of each other. When I was done ironing I had a neat fan folded pile of the strips. I was able to take both ends, one at the bottom of the pile and the other at the top, line them up and take the whole mess to the sewing machine. Unceremoniously I dropped the fan folded pile into a box to the left of my chair. My eight year old son volunteered to sit beside me and kind of line up the strips. In some ways, that just slowed me down, but for the most part I did sew pretty fast. I did goof and run out of bobbin thread and that slowed me up to. However, HOW that lady in the video did it in 25 minutes, I have NO clue! I wasn't really "racing", but it took me about an hour and 15 minutes. Even if I hadn't stopped to wind a bobbin or had to resew the area that I did with an empty bobbin, I don't think I would have been in contention.
The overall design came out fairly pleasing. The kids are calling the Joseph quilt based on Joseph and the coat of many colors. It also challenged me to work outside of my comfort zone. The process is totally random and even if you try to "plan" your randomness, it is just not possible. If you're like me and want everything planned and plotted, this will challenge you.
The lady at the quilt shop here in Monticello had not heard of the jelly roll quilt race until I told her and so she was anxious to see what it looked like. I took the top in today and she said she liked the way the colors came out. We were talking, and as it is smaller than a twin quilt and my son seems to like it, I think I'm going to do some "piano keys" with the remaining fabric and then get some black to set of all the colors. Working.....
Earlier this summer I visited River City Knits in Lafayette, IN looking for some ribbon yarn for a crochet project I was wanting to try. *sigh* The pattern was disappointing... or perhaps my gauge was the problem... but I digress! While there, I overheard the lady at the counter telling another customer about this crochet/knitting web site. Of course I made a mental note of the web address but then forgot it, of course! Shortly thereafter though, while doing a web search I accidentally found the site. Membership is free, so I have since signed up for a username and password. The site is www. ravelry.com.
It has several fun features but I like being able to save projects I want to do to a work queue or save patterns you are interested in to your notebook. One can even enter your private stash of yarns and threads and then use that to hunt for possible projects to use up that supply. I have started entering my stash of magazines, books and booklets. Now when I stumble on a stash at a yard sale or auction I can pull Ravelry up on my droid phone and see if I already have the issue or book.
Finally, and one of the cooler features is adding a button on my Firefox browser called "ravel it!". If I find something I like on a web page, I can "ravel it" and it will hunt for that pattern/design on Ravelry. It will pull up that pattern if possible as well as similar patterns. I did that on an interesting crochet potholder and then hit the "ravel it" button. WOW! Not only did I find the pattern I was looking at, I got sucked into a whole realm of other cool ideas. Let's not forget.... Christmas is coming and crocheting a kitchen ensemble may be old fashioned, but appreciated by those who actually know how great a good crocheted/knitted cotton dishcloth is!
About 5 years ago, my maternal grandmother passed away. Prior to my grandfather passing away, he sent many of my grandmother's sewing, knitting and quilting supplies home with my mother. Recently I have been doing some crochet and I have been using Grandma's crochet hooks. I have also had the pleasure of looking through her piles of magazines, pattern booklets and books. I even found a few crochet patterns that were marked as done for me. I remember those crocheted vests and capes! Now as I crochet, I have to wonder, is this the hook Grandma used to crochet one of those treasures?
Just a week ago the family had the estate sale for what remained of my grandparent's possessions. As I looked at the old empty home, I was very glad to know I had the important thing... Memories of grandma sewing, crocheting, knitting, and gardening. Many of her tools I have inherited and it will bring a smile inside every time I use them for my creations!
Guess this is another something I want to try.... Bronze Metal Clay. Could make some one of a kind buttons, eh? Web site for it is www.BronzClay.com . I knew of the silver clay, but heard about the bronze clay on Favecrafts.com. Check it out -- they are giving some away!
This is Anna in her Cinderella costume. I used Simplicity 2569 as the basic pattern with light blue sparkle satin and shiny tulle. The waist band has silver embroidery. The cape was a last minute item I whipped up the night before Halloween to help keep her warm. Ann called it her superhero cape!
The background fabric is a polyester dupioni in brown.
This is the pincushion.
I used the same polyester dubioni with a piping of silk fabric from my grandmother's stash. The flowers are FSL embroidery. The top of the pincushion was hand done using a method to put a lattice like pattern on top.
The American Girl Doll Company makes a very nice wardrobe for their dolls. It's reportedly the size of a small nightstand, painted white and comes with some assembly required for a mere $349. Possibly a great deal if hubby didn't have a few cool tools and some spare oak.
Last night I came home, got the kids in bed and disappeared to my studio and "let my hair down". I made a stoneware tile. For once I didn't calculate the shrinkage and try to make a tile that was in standard 4" or 6" size. I used the slab roller for a nice uniform thickness and then I used an old plastic texture plate for faux wood grain. I textured the tile and then broke out the oak leaves. One I imbedded in the tile, the other I put a layer of clay on the back and randomly made it appear as if it was dropped on the tile. I free-formed an acorn and used thin pieces of irregular clay to make a patch of bark. One area I used raised clay to give a little flame pattern seen in oak lumber. I used a bit of iron oxide on the barkish area.
Then hubby helped set up the drill press and I drilled holes. A LOT off holes I must add!
This is Anna in her Cinderella costume. I used Simplicity 2569 as the basic pattern with light blue sparkle satin and shiny tulle. The waist band has silver embroidery. The cape was a last minute item I whipped up the night before Halloween to help keep her warm. Ann called it her superhero cape!
This is the pincushion. 
