Almost Spring Cleaning

I have been on this major cleaning kick,must be all the time we had at home due to snow days,and spent some time cleaning and organizing my sewing drawer. Well,one drawer. Amazing what you can find that has nothing to do with sewing. Band-aids and an alcohol wipe. I think I put it there following an incident involving my finger and the sewing machine needle. Sounds worse that what it was. A few bobby pins. These are good for holding hems if you don't have those little hemming bird things-I do but since I reorganized I can't find them so I use the bobby pins. Q-tips,poker chips,a magnet and a fortune from a Chinese fortune cookie round out my findings. I'm sure I had a plan,I just forgot where I put it.
I'm going to be busy the next few days getting some things ready for my Mom to take around to a couple of shops. That was one of my goals this year along with this blog so I am hoping for good things. If anyone can convince people to carry my stuff it is my Mom. So I will be posting pictures of what I am sending. Come on St. Anthony!!!

Okay-so I am making myself keep my New Year's resolution. I am posting. I finished the scarf ad will have pic's up soon. My number one critic thinks it is to plain,needs more color. I'll think about it. I know I need to work on spacing and letter formation but that will come with time. I dyed some muslin yesterday-chartreuse. Yummy! Need to figure out what color thread will pop on it. Still looking up profound or sometimes profane things to write on the scarfs. So you make all this stuff and what do you do with it???? I have given some much away and I really wonder if people appreciate the time and work that goes into making these things.

Coffee Dyed Scarf

I am trying some thread work on coffee dyed muslin. Right now I am looking for a quote to stitch on the panel-something short but meaningful. This is a picture of the strips before I added stitching. It was a pain to press-I put them in the dryer to speed up the process and they wrinkled something awful. Hopefully, I can find a quote and get this done quickly.

Painted Canvas

So this is the new technique I was talking about using painted canvas and a copy of a black and white photo. I ripped the canvas apart and then sewed it back with exposed seams and loose threads. White paint was added and allowed to dry before a paint wash was applied. I think I used a little to much white-the wash does not cover the white paint but it worked. The photo I used is one of my Mom and it had to a copy done on a toner copier to allow it to stick to the paint. I attached it using a gel medium and while it was still wet added a paint wash.
The thread writing is what I am really excited about. It would have been easier to add before the photo but I did not think of the thread writing until after I saw the photo and wondered
what to add.

Back to School

It was really hard to go back to work today. I spent quite a few days cleaning and getting rid of stuff and had started working on some new projects. I have some canvas that I am trying out a new technique (at least for me) on and I am anxious to see how it will turn out.
This new box has a picture of my Great Aunt Stella in it and is not quite finished. I am still looking for just the right things for the little cubbyholes on either side.

Snow-Again

Yes-snow again! We have had no school the last three days and it looks like the powers that be may cancel Thursday and Friday. Wish we would have gone somewhere over the break-three weeks is a long time and would love to have traveled. Instead we have cleaned and organized and purged almost every closet in the house. We are working in the studio now. It does help to get the creative energy moving. I have a memory that is almost completed that I hope to be posting in the next couple of days as well as some new items on my etsy site. Stay warm!

This is one of my favorite memory boxes. I have added a door that opens and a drawer full of interesting stuff.
After the box is cut and covered with a base layer you can start to add paint and other vintage papers. I did not add much vintage paper-just the tape around the frame and a few other small pieces. There is a chicken bone at the very top-I love the look that the bones give-and I wired on a piece of twisted willow for the drawer handle.

This is one in a series of memory boxes that I have made and are available on my etsy site under fabricfriend. I have made several of these and find them fascinating. They are very light weight-made from foam core-and the pictures are sometimes of my family or old photos that I find at our local antique mall.

1/03/2010
So my first try at blogging. Lets see what happens.