Under a blue moon

Charmed, I'm sure

 

Hmm, I wonder how many times I've used that post title.   Seems rather well-worn.

More teeny collectibles.  I wish I could say that I've been collecting these treasures over the years but actually I bought them all in one swell foop.   I do have a couple left over from a phase I was in about 15 years ago.  Back when those pins with all the watch parts and doo-dads were so popular.  You used to see them at Art & Wine festivals and I, as I so often do, thought to myself - heck I can make those. 

I can't tell you how many watches I smashed to get the little parts. 

 

I am not revisiting that creative phase.  I've been using them in my collage pages.  I was wracking my brain, trying to remember where I bought them 15 years ago.  I don't recall seeing anything like this in any craft or bead store I've been in lately. 

A Google search turned up a company that has a gazillion of these charms.  Rather low-frills website but the selection is amazing.  Any shape, size, design heart you can think of, body parts, bugs, birds, crowns, fairies, animals - you name it.  

 

The detail in some of them is just amazing.  The heart in the first picture, for instance.  Love that - I think it is my favorite one.  The prices are very reasonable - I paid anywhere from 30 cents to a little over two dollars (for the larger, more detailed pieces). 

The name of the company is Fancifuls, Inc. and they are located in New York.  I am all the way on the other side of the country and I had my order in just a few days.

It was a bit hard to guess the size of some of them because they basically just have a photograph of a page full of charms (hundred of pages) for you to view.  The page is 8 1/2 x 11 inches so you can kind of guess.  They figured out about 100 pages in to include a ruler or a coin for scale. 

Anyway, if you are looking for metal embellishments for any craft project you will not be disappointed in their selection.  The hard part is not going hog wild and ordering all of them.

Lobster roll, anyone?

 

Page 2 of the travel wishbook.  The places depicted are in no special order, by the way.  If someone waved their magic wand and said I could go anywhere I'd be on a plane to Paris faster than you could say au revoir. 

 

But since there doesn't appear to be a travel fairy godmother in these parts we'll just head for Maine in my imagination. 

As with the New Orleans page each item represents something uniquely Maine-ish.   Can you guess them? 

 

I stitched that spider web onto the page.  I saw a Halloween card where they had done that and filed the idea away for future use.  Now what could a spider web have to do with Maine?  Hmmm?

I've always wanted to eat a lobster roll and I never have.  There is something kind of appealing about taking a rather luxurious food item and serving it in such a simple, accessible way.

 

I think the next stop on our journey will be somewhere in Europe.   Not sure yet where.  Paris would be the obvious choice but I have to let the images and embellishments inspire me. 

Puttering

 

I am on day 8 of my vacation.  I really haven't accomplished much.  Not that I had any steadfast plans or anything.  I just vaguely pictured myself swanning about the house, admiring how clean it is and how many lovely crafty things I had created.

Okay so none of that has happened yet.  Swanning, maybe but not so much on the cleanliness and crafty front.  

I did line an African tote bag yesterday.  I have to confess something.  I see many beautiful hand made tote bags out there.  Made with gorgeous fabric combinations.  Beautiful toiles on the outside, coordinating stripes on the inside.  And in the back of my mind I am always thinking "I could make that." 

Until yesterday when I tried lining my straw tote.  That whole business of getting the pieces to fit inside and to fit each other is HARD.   Mine is a fat mess of puckered seams and hot glue.  It isn't pretty.

I lined it with a scrap of Lecian faded floral (from the Durham Quilt Collection) that my niece Sara gave me and trimmed it with some vintage crocheted lace that my friend Kelly gave me.   I love being able to use bits and pieces that I already have.

Okay I need to go swan into my kitchen and do something about the mess that is my kitchen floor.  Happy Friday everyone!

What do you think?

 

Kelly, in an effort to shave a year or two off my life's work, gave me these yo-yo clowns.  She figured I could disassemble them and have 150 or so finished yo-yos to add to my meager, little collection.

But I don't know.  At first I thought they were kind of creepy, being clowns and all.  But now they are sort of growing on me. Maybe I should just clean their faces and keep them as they are.

What do you think?

Semi done

 

Someone sent me an email and kindly suggested I might want to update my blog now and then. 

Getting a bit tired of looking at those cupcakes?

So I am this close to finishing my runner. 

 

I wish the colors were coming out better in my pictures.  I give up on my photography skills (and my post editing isn't helping either).

I still have to do a blanket stitch around the green outer edge.  I have to confess that I really don't like the blanket stitch.  I think it is a very inelegant stitch.  Too aggressively home-spun for me.  It does help that this doesn't have a contrasting color for the floss.  The outer edge will be done in the same green as the felt.

 

There are 96 French knots in that runner.  Why do I always like to count how many French knots I've done?  Sense of accomplishment I suppose.

This was a fun project and I love the colors I decided to do it in.  I think they are very soothing. 

So onto the next project - Should I start a brand new one or keep plugging away at my 'to be finished' projects?

500 and some truths about hand work

 

I was really hoping the title of this post would be '500 and YAY!  I finished something...." 

So this is my 500th post.  Good lord, what have I been blathering on about? 

I have spent the weekend polishing silver (more on that in another post) and working on my table runner.  Which I bought last January and promptly stuffed into my craft closet. 

What stalled me was that teeny bit of green felt that is winding its way around the perimeter of the white piece of felt.  Sewing that on has been t.....e......d......i......o......u.......s to say the least.  While I was working on it I came up with a list of truths about hand work:

1. If you are working with white fabric you will prick your finger, hard, a minimum of 137 times

2. You will run out of thread or embroidery floss when you reach that final 1/2" of stitching and will have to re-thread your needle.

3. The whip stitch does not go quite as quickly as the name would imply.

4. You will do 56 French knots and then promptly, and quite totally, forget how to do them.  The skill will vanish.  It's remarkable, really.

5. One of the million itty bitty pieces you have painstakingly cut out and meticulously pinned exactly where it needs to go will vanish.  Coincidently said piece will be the exact color of your carpeting.

 

I actually adore handwork.  But you do have to know what you are up against.

I don't have much more to do except affix 16 more blossoms with French knots and then blanket stitch the white top piece to the green bottom piece (patiently waiting on the kitchen counter).

Here is the pattern if anyone is interested.  I took some liberties with the color scheme.

And I'm hoping that I finish it before I have 500 more posts.

Embroidery

 

Oops.  I should have cropped the tri-pod out of the picture.  I was so blinded by the exquisite crocheted trim I didn't even notice it until just now.

The light is just not cooperating for me these days.  It is very gloomy and grey out and we have issues even on sunny days so these pictures aren't going to be all that great.  And I really should have maybe ironed some of the pieces before photographing them but I'm not very patient. 

This is one of a pair of embroidered and crocheted pillowcase hems.  Someone had the clever idea of just cutting away the worn out pillowcase piece and saving the pretty part.  Included in my five boxes of linen loot were a stack of vintage, cotton pillowcases.  Worn to silky softness from years of laundering.  I'm sure I can find a match for these pieces and sew them on.

 

I love the delicate colors in this hand towel.  Reminds me of the colors in one of my unfinished projects (the embroidered pillow). 

 

This was one of many small, card table size tablecloths.  I love the unexpected bit of black in the pansies.  It would never occur to me to do that and yet it really makes the embroidery jump out.

 

There's that pesky tri-pod leg again.

Kelly's great aunt had embroidered a number of these adorable tablecloths.  Lovely, simple designs.  They all have the same edging on them which at first I thought was a slender bit of crochet but on closer inspection is actually a really tight blanket stitch and every two inches or so she did a special little knot to give it a little more detail.  So what looks like a deceptively sweet and simple tablecloth actually must have taken quite a long time to create. 

 

Would you look at this diva.  One of a pair of pillowcases.  Someone carefully cut out a portion of the pillowcase and crocheted her hoop skirt.   I wish I had taken a close up of the crochet trim on this one because it is especially pretty.

 

I really should have ironed this before taking the picture.  I love this little tablecloth because it reminds me of when we first moved into our last house.  We had a sunny area behind the garage and next to my studio and I totally envisioned planting hollyhocks and foxgloves and pretty daisies along the back fence.  In my mind it looked just like this piece of embroidery.

 

I also envisioned sweet-peas but my sister Kate lived right down the street and she grew masses of them and my niece would pick bunches for me and leave them on my front porch.  Gosh I miss that.  

 

Most of the pieces so far have a 40's or 50's feel to them.  But this piece, a delicate little pillowcase seems older.  It reminds me of 20's lingerie with the muted peach fabric and the tea stained lace.  The lace is so delicate and the material is so fine that I can even imagine embroidering it in the first place.  I'm going to have to get a little pillow form to fit this. 

I think tomorrow we will take a break from the linens (and there is much more to come, let me tell you) and I'll share with you some of the china pieces and the adorable glass lamps.  In the meantime here's a picture of my assistant.  She has been helping me sort through all the linen pieces.  

Hanky bunting

 

Project No. 9 of the Sweet Six Studio online art retreat.  The instructions called for hotgluing the hankies together but I couldn't bear to do that so I just tied the ribbons on the overlapped hankies. 

 

I'm not planning on leaving it on the mantel (which I have not changed out since the beginning of the year - I must really like that assortment of things up there) ~ it's just there for photographic purposes.  Perhaps over the window in the bathroom.

 

Out of the ten projects posted so far I have completed seven.  One turned out so terrible that I am not putting a picture of it up here.  Just one of those times when what was in my head did not make through my hands and into the project.

I cannot wait to start project No. 10.  I think it is my favorite so far.

Halloween invite

 

This is the mock-up of the Annual Halloween party invitation.  Ignore the little speckles of embossing powder - I wasn't going for perfection - just trying to get an idea if this would work and if I liked it or not.

My favorite part is the little ghost is sparkly - it's hard to tell but he is.

Now I have to figure out if I can print on the inside of the card with my printer.  Normally I just print up the invitation details on a separate piece of paper and then glue it in but I don't really like that method. 

Doncha love my knock off glitter skull? I was all set to get the $20 Pottery Barn one then found Mr. Glitter above at Marshall's for $7.99.   Nice to get your human skulls at a discount.

I did not do any of the on-line retreat projects this weekend because I did a walk-a-thon on Saturday and stayed the night at my cousin's house.  I am on vacation after this Friday for two entire weeks so I hope to get caught up on house and creative projects.

Embellished Photo Board

 

I snuck in a quick project today.  This is an embellished photo board.  I decided I was feeling Autumnal and Halloweeny so I went that direction with it.

I started off a bit plain (if you can call black velvet flowers and orange Halloween paper plain) and then went from there. 

 

Too bad that great black and white paper has to get covered up with a photo (or in my case a vintage Halloween image).  I *love* the ruched, black ribbon on the bottom.  It looks like rick-rack at first glance but it is so much more.  I found it at a rubber stamping store and it just looked like trim that would be on a Victorian mourning gown.

 

(Click on the image to see it larger)

I added a litte running pumpkinhead man and some German glass glitter.  Because what isn't better with a little German glass glitter?  Hmmm?  Not much.

Whenever I finish a project I always think of about eight different things I would have done.  I have some great black lace that I should have added to the top.  Ah well.  It's all good.  I'm learning and that is the total point of this online art retreat.  Stretch a little.

I have to give Rick partial credit for this project.  I had him dragging out his saw and cutting me pieces of wood (actually I think it is veener - it's really thin) and drilling holes in it.