I'm back...just for a minute

Here are three little mini-purses I made for a shop here in town. That is what has kept me non-stop busy and finding it hard to blog. I also set up and printed dozens of note cards from screensaver photos. The owner wanted local color for them- and postcards for tourists, as well as townfolk who wanted to show off their town.

Then there were the journals, which I just realized are gone without my taking their pics. Bummer. She wanted simple styles that wouldn't have to be too pricey, so I had to back off lots of extras and she loved the results. She even gave me ideas to make them slightly different styles.

And I also did quite a bit for another shop down closer to the ocean. Higher end tickets were possible as the area is a bit more affluent.






I did these with my embellisher and kept the hand-sewed additions to a minimum. They are big enough for the cell phone and keys and charge cards, license and have longer straps to go shopping with.


This last one is smaller and will hold the cell, and not much more, therefore just a little strap was needed.


Off to more projects...

Latest doings

Finished my crazy quilt wall hanging and hung it in the kitchen over the phone to give me something to look at while I am talking. LOL


Here is a bit further back for a better understanding of the setting.

Autumn birds

Finally finished the little autumn birds.


It doesn't show the details well in the close-up but I tried.



I'm asuming it is because it is felt, but this one doesn't seem to want to sit really flat. Something I will have to figure out. Also the colors are super bright like trees on a sunny day, but the pic looks a bit cloudy.

happenings lately...

You name it.. it's been happening.

Haven't been blogging because I was really busy getting as much ready as possible for an offer to sell my stuff at the Nail Salon I go to. She knew I sold on ETSY and said she would like to offer her ladies some of the handcrafts in the area. I think some of the other clients may be adding to what I brought over yesterday, but I am not sure.

This wild and crazy felt job below turned into the little cell phone purse you see below it


It is beaded as well as felted and I learned how to make the handle with some advice over at Fibreand Stitch.


Here is a closer look.


Then I went on to a bigger piece of felting with the browns and oranges of autumn to make this earthy purse that is peach satin lined and beaded all over. Holds the cell phone and a bit more.


That big glass bead was $2.75, which is a lot for me to spend for just one bead, but it was perfect to finish off the look, I think. Here is the back, and I wish the pic had shown all the beading more clearly.


I just love this satin lining. It really gave the felt an elegant feel to it.


Made five quick bookmarks to have something less expensive to offer.


I added a bunch of my small wall hangings that were just coming off ETSY and five lap quilts that were in waiting.
Now I am felting some more - gotta earn the cost of that new embellisher!!
This is similar to a post card and the ATC's I did earlier. I liked the effect so much I decided to enlarge a bit more and add a tree trunk and more birds. You can see white squares where I intend to put the birds, and needed to leave a bit of background exposed to not make the birds 'lumpy' and easier to fuse and sew.


Here, hopefully, you can see the wind blowing in quilting, and the birds are accented and held down with free-motion embroidery.


Now to get some housework caught up and enjoy the outdoors a bit longer. It is getting cooler every day and I'll be inside for months really soon.

Trying something old- that is new to me...

Crazy quilting originaly didn't appeal to me. Too many colors and textures and all that handwork!!!
But I recently saw CQ swaps going on and the blocks had color themes and were using cottons, rather than silks and velvets in some cases. Ah...Hah!!- break the rules and do what you feel like works for you (ME).
So I put together three black and white squares and started looking through all my trims and buttons and threads to find pink embellishments. Reason---That is my kitchen color scheme! On my first try I wanted to keep the results, and that meant hanging it somewhere in my own house. So I have to pick a color scheme that fits some part of the house. I have a skinny piece of wall that could use a bit of color and be see-able by others to appreciate my work...heh,heh.


Here are some of the pinks I could scrape together...

...and a closer look of my first block try.

When I finish, I will add sashes and make it a long skinny piece, maybe even make it look somewhat like a bell-pull. Haven't decided yet.

Did Couple postcards and an ATC

Been ignoring ETSY in order to get a few ATC;s done for swap, but took time out to get this postcard done for the inventory.

Then finished this one up for the "something old/new/borrowed/blue challenge. This one is different in that the challenger wants us all to mail our goody to her and then she mails them out to the exchange partner she has chosen.
The felt base was the 'old' as I have inherited it from my husband's aunt and it had a 15 cent price tag on it for the 8" square.
New is the embelisher I just got to put the card together.
Borrowed is the lite purple strips cut from a piece removed from the bottom of a dress I hemmed.
Blue is the hearts, flowers in the hearts, and blue lace ribbon.

And last was another ATC with kinda fall colors. Fun to work with foil and a new glue I got to attach the enamel doodad in the middle that was formerly an earring.

ATC's fun

These cards were so much fun to make on my new felter. Lots of yarns on top of a gold piece of felt made the background. Then I took the dog for a walk to think about how to make each one a bit different. It worked out so well you can see only three of the five, as two have already gone out in the mail awaiting a trade.




Then there is THIS card...

Pure torture, when I decided to use the red mohair I had felted on the pink half circle as a great frame done in the buttonhole stitch around the edge. Well, I get stubborn when I decide something. So I spent very frustrated minutes trying to get that fuzzy end through a regular needle, then a cross stitch needle. Finally did and found I had to pull the needle through with pliers on every stitch.

Then HORRORS, I ran out of yarn before I got all the way around!!!!! And I had such a long one to start!!!

OH NO, I have to thread another needle, as that last stitch broke the first needle. After a small struggle I had a brainstorm, I had once used some kind of glue to firm up yarn on another project, so I thought it might help again. Took a dot of glue to the end of that fuzz and waited.

It worked! Now just a few more tugs and pulls and it was finished.

Note to self----NEVER use mohair to hand stitch again!!!

ALQS is finished!!!

Amazingly, this started as another challenge piece, "Something borrowed/something blue. I made the blue petals from some strips I had already sewn together from a past project. They were BLUE. Good start, hmmm
But after I cut the petals, I took a good look at my instructions and realized it was not supposed to be more than 6" square!! Well one petal was longer than that!

So lets see what can be done. Oh, Yes, ALQS can be bigger, and I haven't had any ideas for it yet. So off and running I got a whole bunch of bits and pieces and embellished them onto a previously dyed piece that had been sitting around.

What great fun my new embellisher machine is. I like the effect better than fusing. Keeps the three dimensional look. Then I did fuse the petals on and added the fuzzy yar frame for the way to hold them all in place.

Added a yellow circle with more curly yarn and copper ribbon, and quilted windy swirls up towards the top. I meant for bits of the flower to look like they were blown up into the sky.

And that is how "Windy day" was born. Hope my secret partner likes it!

Connecticut River

Took my dog for a ride/walk the other day and got some pretty shots of the water and wildlife.




So I thoght I would share them while I am working on my new "EMBELLISHER-NEEDLE FELTER-PUSHER" I love it!!! It seems so strange not to have to do the fancy threading and cutting off and even just deciding on a color.

It's a Pfaff, and so simple to use. Been thinking about getting one since I started reading FiberNStitch. ANY MORE FELTERS OUT THERE---PLEASE COMMENT AND LET ME KNOW HOW TO FIND YOU. I would love more information, and ideas, and seeing what you do.

Two more ATC's arrived

These were both purchased at ETSY as I wanted to have some examples of what they look like and how they are put together, etc. actually in my hand. I know it seems basic, but I always have this need to know more, to be sure I do it right and equally put in the effort others have done.

I have four put up at my ATC blog and am about to work on a postcard requested from a customer at ETSY She liked my kitty cat called urban hunter and wanted as close a repeat as possible for a gift. Imagine, she liked it enough to keep it and order another for a gift!! Real upper on a downer rainy day, eh???

Also have three more ATC's in the make, gotta add some pretty beads, and then bind them and take their pics. It never ends!

Visiting sisters...no quilting time

Here we are...at least three of us. The other two were joining us the next day. As I mentioned to one of my fellow bloggers, we talk and play cards and sun on the beach and ride around visiting each house and we EAT. It shows!!! I'm the one in lavendar and shades, the next youngest is in pink at my side, and the sitting sis is the one from Georgia. She is also a twin to one of the sisters still not here. The twins were the fourth birth after a brother snuck in. The 'baby' is another sis, who as the youngest is 59. I hit 66 next week, so I get the old lady jokes constantly as they are all younger.

This is a pic of one of my first ATC cards. I loved the idea of artistic cards either bought or traded that were tiny examples of so many artists I admire.


I love the details on this little fish named George. He is a 'pretty' fish, yes he is.


Love this one as it is my first TRADE. Which means I must get to work and make some to trade back with. This has a neat little face on it that caught my eye on Kate's blog And then when I received it I was able to appreciate the detail that went into it. Great colors, too.

I had a dream...quilt

I couldn't quite believe I "dreamed up" this quilt while I was sleeping. When I woke up I immediately started to add to the original image and turn it into something I could actually do. Then I went looking for the base material that was a teal batik type in the dream. And, as I have a ton of scraps in that colorway, I did find the perfect piece that drifted into my dreamscape that night. So now how do I make it happen in reality???

I started with a piece of fine net and criss-crossed it with a gorgeous sparkly teal ribbon to look like a real fish net. Using stabilizer paper underneath worked just fine.




Then I had to decide where and what to put under the net. I had some real tiny shells from beach collecting, and pieces of mica that my grandkids had given me. I broke up one of the mica into smaller pieces and thin as possible and used a dot of fabric glue to hold them in place. And the most important piece was a fish. I had recently gotten a stash of goodies from ETSY including a pair of lightweight fish earrings. They fit the bill perfectly. Took off the earwires and sewed one carefully onto the background.


Now to set the net in place and attach it with little seed beads at each cross point to keep all the goodies in place.

Can you see the beads?


Then I attached more of the teal ribbon on the outside of the net and folded one edge in a couple wrinkles to make it look more 3D. Can you see the sparkle of the mica?

Added a solid teal edge and did some quilting to make it look as though the net was being pulled out of the water.

Then I added the 'free' fish and some eyelash yarn and beads for seaweed. I carefully put the yarn over the fish to hide his little loop that held him to the quilt.

And VOILA...as they say...I have a finished dream. I call it "Caught" and I like to assume the catcher is also a believer in releasing, as he only wanted the shells, RIGHT?

Autumn Fireworks finished...

...and put into my ETSY shop My hand is doing just great, and I am finished with the therapy and only have to do regular exercises at home for about a month. I was delighted to get three sales in the shop in the last couple weeks, but that also makes me anxious to get to work and fill the empty spots. I wanted to get at least 50 items available before I relaxed about it and allowed myself to do some personal quilting--LIKE THAT DARNED KING-SIZE BED QUILT-before another winter goes by!!

Hand is getting better...

...so I can finally get to typing and more importantly, to quilting. The swelling was so bad I couldn't bend the hand for two weeks. This caused the tendons to stiffen somethin' terrific!! So now I am going for physical therapy and doing exercises every hour to get the hand working again. It is much better and I'm back in business--Whoopee!
Here is one I started a couple days ago to see if I could work the hand in all the moves necessary. It is coming along nicely, and I hope to have it finished soon.


This is a UFO that I finally decided to get back to work on. I wanted to do more embellishing, but couldn't quite decide what would look good. Now I have some beading and embroidery ideas and just have to get to it.


This is a FINISHED wall hanging for ETSY that I am calling "Losing touch" It is the first time I added metal findings from my husband's shop drawers full of hardware. Fun treasure hunt with a whole new eye down in his dusty ole drawers and containers!