Slow Stitching - a little stitched flower to embellishing a handmade card

Over the weekend I worked on getting some small  slow stitching projects to take to Slow Stitching today and after a couple false starts I came up with some small fabric pieces I can use to embellish my handmade cards.  The little off white/ivory squares of fabric were found in my stash of precuts and I managed to come up with a few images that would work well in the space.  I traced them with my gray pigment marker and then embroidered the image with two strands of embroidery thread.  I did the flower center in yellow with a few French knots and then the flower in blue and the stem and leaves in green.  I pressed it really well and used my Inktense Watercolours to paint the inside of the shapes.  I only had a little run through the edge of the flower near the stem.  The leaves worked out really well.  I added a bit of watercolour around the image to soften the contrast of the composition.   I cut a piece of horse hair interfacing to  3.5" x 4.75" and stitched my little fabric piece to it with  green thread.  The horse hair is a bit maleable so I added some stabilizer behind it to keep it square.  I will have to figure out to attach it to my card front.  It would be fun if the person receiving the card could remove it and add it to a project.  I will figure out something.  Lots of fun and many options for subject matter!!  Therese

Quilting - the last of the cat squares embellished with fabric strips

I worked several days this week on this project in hopes of getting them all done and being able to clean up the scraps and put everything away.  They are all done!! It was a fun project and I am really happy with how they all turned out and now I will have to brainstorm a way to highlight them in a quilt. 

Therese

 

Denim journal covers made by upcycling jeans and their pockets

I am late getting these up on the blog because I gave them up before I was finished getting all the photos I needed for blogging.  I managed to get them back and have now taken my photos.  I made the journal covers to hold composition books which are available locally and makes these journal covers reusable!!!  It was fun to upcycle jeans into these covers by just piecing around the pockets to get enough fabric to wrap around the composition books.  I added hand stitching on at least one seam on each cover in a different colour just for fun!!  The pockets make a great place to keep pens or head phones and add a lot of texture and detail to the covers.  Will keep an eye out for jeans for giveaway so I can make a few more!!  Therese

 

Quilting - finishing the cats without hand stitching

I have so many cats yet to slow stitch and I am no longer looking forward to doing them so I have decided to finish them off in a different way.   I spent some time today working on them.  I have found some small pieces of coordinating fabrics and will add them to the borders of the cats as strips.  I lined them up and then stitched the one side. I pressed the fabric over, trimmed it off at about 1" and then folded the edge under and pressed again.  I stitched that side down with white thread.  It works quite well and I like the way they look - a bit like stained glass.  There were a few that were tricky because they had several small sides that had to be done before the longer ones.  I eventually figured it out!! I am about half done the remaining cats so one more sewing sessions should finish them off and I can put them into the quilt pile and find some bright fabrics to add to them to make a quilt top.  It was a fun day of sewing and I am really happy they will soon be ready to be incorporated into a quilt!!!  Therese

 

 

Large birthday card with a fast car, embossed flags and shiny gears

This card is for the other grandson - brother of the other.  I started with a large black card and added a striped blue background.  I trimmed two long flags and embossed them with gears (TH-Sizzix) and Diamond Plate (CB).  I die cut three gears (TH-Sizzix) from silver cardstock and mounted them over the flags.  I colour printed the car (CLKER) after I added the font greeting. I ran  my pattern tracing wheel on all four sides to add some paper piercing texture.  I tied on a thin cording between the greeting and the car then mounted it to my card using 3D foam tape.    Therese
 

Pet bowl mats made from animal fabric and some pieced side bars

 I have been sewing for our Gramma Link Africa fundraising effort.  These are two pet bowl mats I made with some pet fabric I found in my stash and some pieced fabric in coordinating browns.  It was fun to put together and piece the side bars.  I made these like I have been doing the pot holders - GAYG - No binding.  I put cotton batting inside and a sturdy fabric on the back to make these durable and washable.  Therese

Quilting - another casserole carrier in fun stripes and a bright yellow interior

I was on a roll and made another casserole carrier yesterday!!!  This one used a cast off of heavy weight fabric in fun stripes.  I pieced the 22" square and then stitched it to one of my batting squares.  I trimmed it to the size of my fabric after adding the stitching.  I trimmed out a 24" square of the yellow fabric for the inside and then pinned the two get together very closely.  I added quilting lines going the other way which are completely absorbed into the design of the fabric.  Next, I bound the edge by folding the yellow over the stripes in the same way as I have been doing for the QAYG - Potholders. This way of finishing a piece works really well for me.  I can get my corners lined up and properly stitched.  I added a 22" handle and two 6.5" loops in yellow to finish off my carrier.  

Therese

 

Quilting - square casserole carrier in soft green floral and brighter palm trees on the inside

I made another casserole carrier for fundraising for Gramma Link Africa. I used a beautiful warm green floral cotton fabric which feel so soft.  It was part of part of a cut out garment which we were not going to be able to sell so this will give it another life.  I used a palm tree cotton from my stash for the inside.  It worked out really well.  I used one of the battings I made the other day and chose to layer my pieces (22" square) and then sew all the way around leaving an opening to turn it right side out.  I trimmed the batting to the edge of the fabric pieces before turning it.  I added two rows of top stitching in coordinating thread around the perimeter after a good pressing.   I used scraps of the palm tree fabric to make my handle (23") and my two loops  (6.5").  It feels a little lighter because it has light weight fabric and a lighter weight batting but I expect it will do the job of keeping a casserole hot or cold. 

Therese

 

Quilting - made up some batting sandwiches

 I made up some batting sandwiches for the casserole carriers I have been making.  I used polyester batting remnants from Mom's stash.  When I brought them home they were headed to the second hand store but in the mean time it only seems reasonable to use up as much of this "free" resource as I can.  I am using a polyester sheet that was headed for the garbage because of how thin it was but it worked perfectly for making layers for both sides of the batting.  I cut several 24" squares and then laid the batting pieces on one and once it was covered I laid another one on top and stitched up several lines to keep everything in place.  Worked really well.  I expect Mom did this as well because there were several bags of small to medium sized pieces which was nice for getting four of these done!!  I will be using them up as I continue to make casserole carriers for Gramma Link Africa.  Therese

Large birthday card with a fast car and embossed flags and stripes

 Grandsons are growing up and now interested in cars!!!  I created this card for one of them.  I started with a large red card that fit in an envelope from my stash.  I added this very cool square background paper and then added embossed stripes in red and green which were embossed with gears (TH - Sizzix) and Diamond Plate (CB).  I tucked three little green flag under the stripes which were also embossed (Diamond Plate CB, Lattice SU, Checked TH Sizzix).  I laser printed the car (CLKER) after I added the greeting with a font.  I ran my pattern tracing wheel on all four sides and then mounted it over the stripes using 3D foam tape.    Therese

Easter Egg card kits

 With good success at making the St. Patrick's Day card kits I decided to make up some for Easter.  I started with the egg.  I downloaded a simple shape from the internet, sized it to fit on my pastel cards which fit loosely in the envelopes.  I printed on paper and glued it to a cardstock scrap to make a template.  I trimmed white rectangles that allowed just a bit of extra space all the way around and then traced the egg shape on one side.  I found this set of papers in her stash that were all pastel colours in very beautiful watercolour papers which were perfect for the egg.  I trimmed 8 strips for each egg at 1/2" wide and 4" long to fit on the white rectangle.  There was a large gap in the middle so I trimmed green strips from my decorative paper scraps to fill in that space at about 1.25" x 4".  I die cut the grass from green cardstock from my stash  - one for each card.  The process of creating the card is that you glue four thin strips to the back of the white rectangle at the top and then another set at the bottom right next to each other.  Then glue the green one in the middle of the two to full cover the rectangle.  Then you turn it over and cut out the egg and when you turn it over you have this wonderful Easter egg.  You glue the egg to your card front (all pastel - pink, blue, lavender, yellow) and then glue the grass just over the bottom of the egg.  I really love how the egg turned out!!  It can then be embellished with glitter, sequins, stickers, etc as they wish.   Totally fun!!!!!  Therese

St. Patrick's Day card kits

 My sister owns a daycare and is always looking for activities for the kids do to.  I had offered to make card kits for her and we connected at Christmas where she handed over a box of supplies - cardstock, decorative papers and envelopes.  She would be happy to take whatever I could make with them.  Yesterday I decided to see about making a few card kits as I had missed Valentines!!  I made 23 card kits for St. Patrick's Day.  I die cut three white hearts and then die cut three smaller green hearts from various decorative papers from my stash.  I trimmed out green cards to fit loosely inside the envelopes.  I made up some instructions for the daycare workers along with how many kits there are and have provided this sample.  The process is to glue the green ones to the white ones, glue the three to the front of the card after placing them where you are happy with them then drawing in stem with a green marker.  They could then be embellished with glitter glue, sequins, stickers or any other embellishment they might have on hand. 

Therese

Custom baby card featuring lace, lacy punched border, ribbon and fabric flower embellishment

I received a request from a friend for a couple special cards for events that are coming up in her life.  This is for a friend of hers who has just become a grandmother of a baby girl.  I started with a pink card base and added a pieced background.  I punched a rectangle of pink cardstock with the eyelet border punch (SU), added a piece of lace and a length of ivory ribbon over it and adhering them to the back of the strip using double sided tape.  I added a tiny brad to hold my tag.  I used a off white stamp pad to colour a white brad so it would coordinate.  I adhered this piece over where the papers join.  I added a beautiful lacy fabric flower embellishment over the ribbon.  I colour printed the words, die cut the tag, embossed it with floral border (SU) and then sponged on a bit of off white ink to just tone down the white a bit.  I tied on a piece of ivory crochet thread which I slipped under the brad to secure it to the card.  To keep the tag in place I used two small pieces of 3D foam tape.    Therese

 

All Occasion cards featuring laser printed images on transparencies over layered hand decorated backgrounds with eyelets

When I was prepping card kits for my January Cardmaking class I printed a few extra images on transparencies!!  I always get over ambitious and printed more than I need.  So this past week I took the time to put together the backgrounds from my stash of hand decorated papers and make up these cards.  I coloured most of the images a bit on the back with markers to highlight the image and provide good contrast against the backgrounds.  The Briar Rose  - source unknown. The fern is from Trish Bayley - no longer online.  The ship - no credit available.  The Floral heart's source is no longer on line.   I really love how bright and beautiful these cards are and that is credit to the beautiful background papers.  I used eyelets to secure the transparencies to the layered background papers before I mounted the backgrounds to my card fronts.    Therese

 

All Occasion cards featuring paper pieced backgrounds and little watercoloured images

 I had started sorting pieces for these kits for my last card making class at the end of January and this past week I finally cut all the extra pieces I needed and got the cards made up.  It always goes so much faster when some of the pieces are already to go and card kits are fastest.  Quick and easy cards in minutes.  With every thing cut and ready to go I got these done fairly quickly.  The colouring takes the longest time but I love the process so that is what I do for the sheer joy of watercolouring.   The little potted plant is from Craft Starters - I recently bought a variegated snake plant so I added some different colours to the leaves to replicate the look.  More depth and dimension and therefore a bit more interesting!!!  The little cupcake is from Black Berry Jelly Digitals.  I watercoloured it to coordinate and then added a little clear glitter to the sparkles and the flower centers.  The Canada Geese are from Arthurs Clipart (no longer on line).  I used a diamond format and left them black and white.  The little cup is a stamped image which I acquired in an image swap and do not have credits for it.  I watercoloured it red to contrast nicely. It is layered with a brown scalloped circle (Nestibilities).  So a few more cards for my stash!!!  

Valentine's card featuring a serendipity background, an embossed strip and a fussy cut heart

This is my Valentine's card for DH.  I did get it done on time.  I am just slow at getting it onto my blog.  I started with a deep maroon card and then created this fun collage background using a scrap of hand decorated paper to which I glued a variety of paper scraps.  I then added some tissue paper which I had coloured to give a bit of red to the background.  It did not show up as much as I would have wanted so I used a deep red stamp pad and just touched the surface once it was dry.  Perfect!!!!!!  I trimmed a strip of red and embossed it with a heart embossing folder (CB) and layered it with gold paper before adhering it to my card.  The heart is from a clipart site and I added the Always before printing it.  I fussy cut it, used a black marker on the edges and then coloured it to coordinate using gold shimmer paint for the heart and red watercolour for the banner!!!  I used 3D foam tape to adhere it over the red strip!!  We had a good meal at home and played my favorite board game - Carcassonne!!  We will go out on the weekend when it is not so busy! Therese
 

Custom birthday card with a dictionary page background and a watercoloured book shelf with ribbon

 I made this card for a friend who has a special person in her life celebrating a significant birthday!!  This person is an author and loves to read and books!!!  I found this wonderful book shelf (Pixabay) which I watercoloured after adding a font greeting.  I trimmed the bottom edge with scallop decorative scissors and used a push pin to pierce each scallop.  I ran my pattern tracing wheel on the other three sides.  I added green ribbon that coordinated with the fern border and tying a short piece to the length to simulate a bow.  I dug through my dictionaries for creating (they are falling apart) and found the words wonderful and woman that perfectly framed my image.  I trimmed the dictionary page and layered it with background paper that contains letters.  I adhered the background to a blue card and added the book shelf image using 3D foam tape.  Two great cards to celebrate significant events in life!!  Therese

Slow Stitching - cross stitched mugs

I will be working on a few little cross stitched mugs to embellish some mug rugs I want to make.  It will be my first go at this sort of project but I am looking forward to incorporating these little mugs into these projects.  I did not find a pattern I liked online and I did not have any in my pattern book so I made one up!!  I will be using Derwent Inktense Paints to colour the cup and the background to coordinate with my fabric.  It will be a fun project!!  I will stitch a few more mugs, cut them apart, colour them and then add fabric all around them when I make the mug rugs.  Therese

 

Quilting - large casserole carrier for 9" x 13" dish

 

I acquired a large quilted pad with cotton on both sides and polyester filling and decided it would probably make a very nice casserole carrier.  I stitched cotton batting to one side piecing as I went to give it enough heft.  I dug through my precut and some already sewn pieces and put together strips which I added to the batting using QAYG stitching.  I put the first strip right side up on the corner lining up the bottom and side.  I laid the next strip over it right side down and stitched my seam through all the layers.  I folded the top one back over the batting and repeated the process until I had covered the end.  I repeated the process on the other end of the batting.  Finally, I added a large strip across the opening in between with the pieces running the other way.  I turned both edges over and top stitched this piece into place then ran a couple of lines of stitching in the ditches of the long seams.  Everything was nice a secure and quilted.  

I added a backing in a mottled warm green fabric and stitched a few lines to secure the backing to my main piece.  Several on each end and two through the middle section.  I trimmed the backing leaving 1.25" on all sides.  I folded it over by half and turned it over the front like I have been doing the potholders.  I finally had a large piece nicely quilted piece (27" x 35") - really a very small quilt.  

 I then proceeded to make the handles. I used a coordinating green cotton and cut a strip that was about 84" x 5".  I folded it in half on the length and then folded a half inch or so on each long edge.  I stitched the ends to created a large circle and then stitched along both sides to finish off the handles.  Next, I folded it in half with the seam on one end and marked the other fold with a pin.  These two points would be in the center of the bottom of my carrier.  Always works best when the two handles are the same length.  

I carefully pinned the handles to the bottom of my quilted piece - about 6" from each edge and the seam and my marked position in the center of the piece.  I measured how long I needed for the handles to reach the edge of the casserole and marked that with a pin on each handle.  I stitched from one mark, across the bottom and up to the other mark, across the handle and back to where I started. Did the same on the other handle.  The pattern I had used as inspiration stitched the ends together to make a pocket into which you would have to insert your hot casserole.  I decided to add elastic loops and buttons instead which makes it really easy to wrap your hot casserole.  Just put it in the middle, fold over one side and then the one with the buttons and put the loops over the buttons.  All ready to go!! I covered the ends of the elastics with a little square of the same fabric as I used for the handles.  Secured it well with stitching.  

You can see here that I decided to change up the buttons I had used once I gave it a test.  The elastic was a bit wide to stay under the red buttons so I removed them and added two larger green buttons instead.  That will work better.  You can see below the casserole in the middle with one flap brought over.  I am happy with how it worked out and this size will accommodate a larger dish - up to 10" x 14".  Therese

Large birthday card featuring a large cake and greeting, flags over a decorative paper background

 This large birthday card has a large focal element which is a digital freebie from a clipart site.  I printed several of them large so they would work well for large cards.  I found some coordinating papers in my stash of scraps and then cut a background from a polka dot decorative paper.  It was fairly quick to put together once I had the pieces cut.  I did run my pattern tracing wheel all around the edges of my birthday greeting before adhering it to my card front with 3D foam tape.  Therese

Slow Sunday Stitching - denim journal covers

I worked on denim journal covers this weekend and have spent some of that time does some stitching over the seams that were significant in getting the large piece I needed for the journal covers.  It was fun to work four different stitched in four different colours.  Two of the stitches were new to me:  chevron stitch which I did in yellow and open cretan stitch which I did in red.  The two others I had done before - blanket stitch in purple and fly stitch in blue.  I used variegated thread which is was donated to me and I am thinking is polyester from the way it felt and worked in the fabric.  It was quite acceptable for this application.  I was wanting stitches that would overlap the fabric edges.  I had previously stitched the two pieces together with a decorative machine stitch with blue thread which was almost imperceptible.  I will have to remember that thread when I am mending jeans!!!  These covers hold composition books and can be transferred to another one once the original is filled.   These will be donated to sales later this year!!!     I will be joining the group at Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching.  Check them out - there is always lots of inspiration there!!      Therese

 

Quilting - a beautiful blue floral casserole carrier

I brought home scraps from out sorting for the fabric sale on Thursday and was able to piece a new casserole carrier from one of them.  The blue floral is beautiful!!  My Mom would have loved it!!!  It is a piece of quilted cotton with fiberfill.  I had to trim and piece to get a 22" square.  I dug through my stash to find fabric for the inside.  This navy with little white polka dots was the final choice.  I trimmed a piece to cover when I joined my pieces (22" x  2") and stitched it on with green thread.  The inside had to be pieced as well to make a piece large enough.  I made it 24" and used it to bind the edges like I do the QAYG potholders.  I made the handle (22"x 3.5") and the loops (1.5" x 6") from the navy polka dot fabric.  I added several rows of quilting parallel with the strip on the floral side and then bound the outside edges.  I stitched the handle ends to opposite corners by folding over the end and then stitching a rectangle with a cross through the middle.  I folded the loops in half, folded the ends over and stitched them into the other two corners with the same rectangle with a cross in the middle.  I stitched them about 2" from the corners.  As you can see in the photo below this carrier is reversible.  It is a very versatile design that is fairly easy to sew up.  I am very happy with how this one turned out!!!  Therese