Large bag with a zipper, short handles, QAYG patchwork and a pocket inside

I have been mulling this concept in my head for a while and decided to just get at it.  I cut a large piece of the turquoise floral medium weight fabric - 22" x 60".  I trimmed two strips of 5" x 122" off of each end to make the handles.  They are a bit wider than usual so I folded both sided to the middle in the center of the handle and stitched it down.  It makes them both nice and sturdy and not too bulky.  I started by stitching my little folk art bird embroidery on the front of the bag which was white as it was the wrong side of the fabric.  The floral is on the inside of the bag.  Next, I created a pocket for the inside and stitched it place over the sewing lines I could see on the inside of the bag.  I stitched the pocket in place from the inside and the proceeded with sewing two pieces of coordinating patch work fabric to each side of the bird.  Next, I added two strips of fabric QAYG (right sides together, stitching, and flipping over the top one).  I pinned my top piece of fabric to the top edge of my bag cut long enough that it would be captured by the next fabric strip.   I add my handles  sewing them in place so they would stay where they should be before adding the little turquoise checkered strip.  Because it overlaps the handles it had to be folded over and top stitched which secured all the pieces in place.  I finished the bottom half of the front in the same fashion leaving a bit of an open space for the piece I would be putting on the bottom of the bag.  I did the back in the same way I had made the front.  I used a wide strip of black for the bottom of the bag which I pinned and top stitched into place.  Next, I added the zipper.  I added two small pieces of fabric to each end of the zipper to create a single piece to encase in the seams.  I folded over about a half inch on both  pieces of the top front and top back of the bag.  I pinned the zipper in between very carefully so I could sew one seam on each side to secure all three pieces of each side together.  Worked well!!   Next, I created a French seam on each of the sides to give a finished look to the inside.   I boxed the bottom at 6" wide which encase most of my black bottom which I had failed to calculate in my design.  I would have preferred to have my bottom piece come up a little higher so the whole bottom showed the black fabric.  I will know better next time.  It is a large bag and I will be donating it to a local Charity for their clients.  I like that I have a nice finished inside without a lining and that the bag is a little more robust due to the two layers of fabric.   Therese

 

Tree skirt - Christmas fabric done QAYG onto a used tree skirt

I had a tooth pulled this week and was feeling like a quiet activity so I decided to make a tree skirt.  I had been mulling this idea in my head for a while and wondered if it would work.  I had picked up a used tree skirt during Trash to Treasure without realizing that it was torn.  I have wanted to find a way to make it useful again and was playing with the idea of QAYG strips on the front.  The front was a velvety surface on which someone had very nicely painted several beautiful partridges but with the rip it made trying to repair it impossible.  I cut out the Christmas scraps I had on hand and a few from Mom's pile and looked to see what would be possible.  I found a Merry Christmas border and decided I should work around that.  I added fabric to each end to make it long enough to fit where I thought it would best be seen.  I found the bottom white piece which was tall enough to fill in between the greeting and the edge of the skirt though I had to add to each end to make it wide enough.  I positioned the white piece where I wanted it and then the strip with Merry Christmas so that it was even from side to side upside down over it.  I stitched both down to the skirt using white thread on the top and a red in the bottom so it would blend with the red on the back.  I ironed the greeting over and then started finding more strips to add above.  Most of these were already strips so I did not have to cut too much fabric.  I kept adding strips until I was pass the middle and then used shorter pieces to do each side of the back.  Once finished I stitched from the back really close to the stitched edge to secure all the ends down.  Next,  I trimmed between the line of stitching and the edge of the bottom layer so the stitched edge of the skirt was all that showed.  Then, it was a matter of figuring how I would finish the two edges at the back and the circle for the trunk of the tree.  After a bit of mucking in m supplies I decided to use black seam binding with a decorative stitch in red to finish off those edges.  It worked really well and made a very cool looking tree skirt.  Glad to have made this piece usable again!!  Therese

 

November Card Club - embossed ornament framed with cardstock strips over a Christmas background

 This last card was a quick and easy one!!  The embossed and die cut ornament was positioned on the decorative paper background and then strips of cardstock were adhered to each side and trimmed to the edge of the paper.  I started with the top strip and aligned the square end to the left edge of the ornament.  Then just did the same for the other three sides.  Glued this large element to our card fronts and then added little sparkly embellishments to the ornaments to finish off our cards!!   I like the movement in this card and it is so much easier than it looks!!!  Therese

November Card Club - gold embossed nativity scene on a beautiful gold foil background

For our second card we created these cards.  The O Holy Night (inkadinkado) was stamped and embossed with gold embossing powder and trimmed to size.  I had considered adding colour but could not decide just where and with which medium so decided against any colour.  I used my distress tool on the edges.  The layer was punched on the bottom and then the nativity was adhered to it.  A window punchie (SU) was added with a gold brad and adhered on the back.  The beautiful flourished foil paper was adhered to the coordinating card and then the large O Holy Night was added with 3D foam tape.  There were a variety of colours for the cards, layers and window punches which provided some variety to our cards.  

Therese
 

November Card Club - silver wreath, blue backgrounds and embossed greetings

 It was fun to make up card kits for this Christmas card class!!  Always so many options!!  I decided to use a few tools I have had for a while and not used.  I started with this wreath die and embossing folder set which I acquired from my sister, Sylvia.  I tried it in traditional colours but the time it took to get all the pieces finished and the berries dried was longer than we have at Card Club so I went with a quicker version.  I cut these from silver foiled cardstock and then embossed them - done!! The white layer (3") was embossed - I provided a variety of embossing folders.  I used the distress tool on mine.  I added the wreath to the white square using double sided tape being as I was adhering an embossed layer to an embossed layer and sometimes the surfaces are always aligned.  I provided strips of white cardstock and greeting embossing folder and they could chose which one they wanted for their card.  I used two different ones for my cards.  I adhered my backgrounds to my white cards then arranged my elements before adding them to my card.  I used 3D foam tape for the wreath element to give it a bit of dimension.  We all added a few rhinestones to our greetings to finish them off!!  Always the best to spend time being creative with friends!!!  Therese

Wine bottle bag

I worked on a design for a wine bottle bag which was two layers of fabric but not an outer and a lining.  Instead I stitched both layers together and then created the bag.  I made a finished seam on both sides and across the bottom.  I added the handles and the top inside strip afterwards which was interesting keeping the handles in their proper place while using my free arm.  It was a bit easier doing the top stitch because everything was secure.  I hemmed the inside strip by hand to avoid making another row of stitching in the blue outside strip.  I had decided on using the Japanese Knot for the handles but in the end it was not as effective as I had originally imagined and did not any ease of use so I will just do two identical handles next time.  This one is quite spacious at a diameter of 14.5 inches.  More generous than is necessary for a wine bottle but does accommodate almost any other liquor bottle which tend to be a little bigger in there body size.  I boxed the bottom which worked out really well and I will consider adding a cardboard square on the bottom for a neater look but it stands very well on its own as is.  I will reduce the size of the body next time to better accommodate a wine bottle.  It might serve very well as a knitting project bag though only for a single project.  Therese
 

Christmas cards featuring embellished snowflakes and decorative paper backgrounds

Inspired by the last set of cards I made with snowflakes I decided to make a few cards for my Christmas cards stash which has not been fed too many times this year!!  I will be in a time crunch very soon!!!

I started with both pieces of the snowflake die cut - the full quarter sheet as a background and the snowflake die cut.  I found some envelopes in my stash that were just a bit bigger than A2 which worked really well for these cards.  I chose some Christmas decorative papers and then cut cards that coordinated and fit in the envelopes.  I trimmed the decorative paper to size and then added the back of die cut which I paper pierced with several lines using my pattern tracing wheel.  I glued this piece to my background.  I coloured the snowflakes to contrast with both backgrounds.  I added tiny snowflake embellishments with a brad and then the large snow flake and added this large element to my backgrounds.  These were glued to my card fronts to finish off my cards!!  Really like how they worked out!!!  Fun to be inspired by previous projects!!  So I am adding 8 to the stash!!  Therese

 

Birthday card with a large fun greeting with a layered star embellishment and some ribbon flags

 This card is for another one of my grandsons who has a birthday in November!!  I started with a warm blue card to coordinate with splash in my colour printed graphic from Freepik and layered on a yellow zig zag background (SU) to which I added a strip of black cardstock.  I used a black marker on the edge of the greeting to define the edge and added paper piercing.  I used double sided tape to secure my fabric flags and then added a layered star embellishment to the lower left corner using a brad.  I added this large element using 3D foam tape.  Therese

Christmas cards featuring snowflakes and brads

My sister was in need of a few Christmas cards for her staff as well so I made up a few of these fun snowflake cards.  I used the large snowflake die (SX) to cut them from a quarter sheet of cardstock.  I used the piece with the opening instead of the snowflake.  I chose some snowflake paper from her stash for the backgrounds - three different blue purple pink and one red and green.  I created cards to fit envelopes from her stash.  Trimmed backgrounds from the decorative papers  and then layered on the snowflake openings.  I ran the tracing wheel around their edges to create four paper pierced lines - one on each side.  I adhered the snowflake layer to the decorative paper and then added a snowflake embellishment which I created with a variety of snowflake die cuts from my stash.  I secured them with a large brad to the decorative paper and then added this large element to my coordinating card fronts.  Totally fun!!!  Therese
 

Christmas Card Kits featuring triangle trees and gold stars

 I have made up 40 kits of this Christmas card design for my sister to use with the kids at her daycare.  I trimmed cardstock and decorative paper into a variety of different sizes and then glued them onto

coordinating card fronts which fit in a set of gold envelopes from her stash.  They will be relatively easy to put together.  I embellished mine with dots of glitter glue but they could use paint with a qtip to make white dots or a little snowflake stamp or small snowflake punchies to decorate the background and/or the trees.  Kids have no trouble making things their own so I expect the final results will be very unique to each child.   Therese

All occasion card featuring a collage background with a cute red truck!!!

 I started this card with a dark green card and then found a piece of hand decorated paper I could use as a base for my collage background.  Added brown a strip of orange coloured tissue paper just above the half way mark, then some torn trees and then bits at the bottom.  After gluing my background to my card I added the fussy cut and watercoloured red truck using 3D foam tape.  You can see a bit of blue - that is release paper from my 3D foam tape this is hitching a ride which I did not notice before taking the photo.  It has been sent packing!!!  Had fun making my background and colouring my truck.  This a stamped image - I do not own the stamp so I must have borrowed it a while back.  

I took a photo of my collage background.  Never know when it might come in handy!!

Therese

Slow Stitching - finished up the cute folk art bird from Chloe Redfern

 I have finally finished my little folk art bird stitching project.  I started it in September and it has travelled around with me on several outings and I have worked on it at home as well.  I downloaded the PDF from Chloe Redfern.  I chose to stitch it with the colours she recommended and love how it turned out though I found it quite busy because I reduced the pattern in size to suit my project.  Next, time I will reduce the amount of details I transfer to my fabric and will consider doing it in variegated floss which will mean much less starting and ending which would be less distracting as a slow stitching project.  You can see that the transferred lines have all disappeared after having washed it by hand with which was what I was expecting.  I used the gray marker from the small Ultra Clean Crayola marker set I bought in early September. I am very happy to have a washable marker for my stitching projects!!  The price cannot be beat and you can use the marker closest to the colour of your stitching if you like.  I will now have to find the other squares I cut out at the beginning of this project and the markers which have been misplaced before I can move on with a few more of these cute little birds!!  

I am linking to Kathy's Quilts blog for Slow Sunday Stitching.  Check out the other

interesting projects that this creative group is working on.  

Therese

All occasion card featuring a fun background, a watercoloured truck scene and a key brad

 I am working on cards for my family's special occasions!!  I started with a red card and added this funky background that coordinated well.  The truck is stamped though I do not own the stamp so it was borrowed from someone!! I painted the background starting with the ground and moved up.  I painted the truck yellow and added clear glitter gel pen to the hub caps, lights, bumpers and door handle which would have been chromed.  Added white gel pen to neaten up the white walls on the tires.  I added paper piercing on all four sides before adhering it to a black layer.  I added the layered key brad embellishment to it then mounted over my background using 3D foam tape.  Happy with how it worked out!!  Therese

Birthday card featuring a large watercoloured birthday greeting, god sequin star and colourful borders

 A card for one of my grandsons who is celebrating his birthday in a few days!!  The greeting is from Craft Starters and I watercoloured it to coordinating with my decorative borders (SU).  I layered the borders behind a gold layer, added the star embellishment with the cording and finally tucked the greeting under the star after paper piercing the edges with my pattern tracing tool. I adhered this large element to black card which I created to fit in a luxurious gold envelope I found in my stash!!  Therese 

Happy Hallowe'en

 Have a great day of fun!!  Therese

Fire starters made of twisted strips of kraft tissue paper, wax and cording to finish them off

 With the last bit of wax left in my double boiler I decided to try to replicate the fire starters my sister and I played at earlier this fall.  I would have preferred to apply the wax in a less messy way but I did not really know how to go about it so I just crumpled the strips (3" x 36") and dunked them in the wax and then let them drip of a little bit before twisting them.  I formed a round shape with the twisted end and then twisted and wrapped the remainder in and out of the round.  I ended up with both ends at about the same place and held them together for a bit until the wax started solidifying.  Would have been neater to use wax crayons like I have used for these fire starters but that would have required cooling the wax to solid and taking out the griddle.  In the end, they will start a fire very nicely and that was the goal!!  After they were cooled I tied the ends together with kraft utility cording to which I added a little red cording bow.  I made a dozen and have packaged them into a cute little gift box with red tissue paper on the bottom.  Everything can be burned so it leaves nothing to dispose of later.  Therese

Fire starters - wax and pine cones with cotton wicks

I had an evening last week with a bit of time on my hands so I dug out the wax I melted a while ago and the pine cones I collected before it snowed and made up a few fire starters.  We have been enjoying Girl Guide cookies - chocolate mint!!  They have been repackaged this year and come in these nice clear trays which I have been saving knowing they would come in handy for something!!  They work perfectly for these fire starters!!  I put a cupcake liner on the top of the opening in preparation for the pinecones to be ready to put inside.  I melted the wax in a double boiler and then turned down the heat.  The wax was not cooling very quickly so I removed the top of the double boiler and placed it on a cast iron frying pan which worked really well for lowering the temperature.  The lower temperature of wax makes coating the pine cone thickly very easy.  Once it temperature was right I got started.  I managed to get about 5-6 done and then had to put the double boiler back into the hot water bath to bring the temperature up a bit to get it a bit more liquid again.  It was an ongoing process - in the bath, out of the bath but it worked well.  I had added cotton cording to the pinecones by slipping it under the bottom arms and wrapping it around til it was at the top.  I tied a single knot there encasing the few arms at the top.  Not sure it was necessary to have it wrapped around the bottom part.  I think you could just tie it to the top few arms tight enough to secure the cord to the pinecone so you can dip it without burning your fingers.  It worked really well to have the cord to dip them.  With the wax at the right temperature it coats the pinecone thickly in a couple of dips.  Once my pinecone was well coated I placed in on the cupcake liner I had placed over the opening in the tray and simply pushed it down into the cavity.  Once the wax solidifies you can lift them out very nicely.  So if you choose to package these a different way for giving you would really only need a couple of GG cookie trays to make a production line.  I started with yellow wax and then added teal to the yellow which made green.  I managed to get 4 packages ( 6 each) of yellow ones and 2 green ones.  I did find a few pinecones that were too big for the cavity so it would be good to test your pinecones before you start to make sure they are the right size.   

After they were all done I found some heavyweight paper in my stash that was long enough to make some wrappers for the trays.  I just measured, scored, folded and then glued the flaps to each other.  Worked really well.  I will add some information and instructions to them before gifting them away!! The fire starters can be used up and the sleeve can also be burned.  The plastic tray is recyclable so it can be put in the bin for pick up.  No garbage to dispose of!!!     Therese

Sewing - a zippered bag with fun bright colours

There has been mention of bags for women in need in our larger community and I decided to see if I could make one that I was happy with.  For this one, I reused a bag that was already while.  I did take it apart to add the decoration and the zipper piece.  I reused the handles (30") they way they were and boxed the bottom for it to be shorter and more functional.  It measures 4" across the bottom, 15.5" tall and 12.5" wide.  I made french seams inside so it is finished neatly inside.  I added tabs to the end of the zipper to make it easier to open and close.  I added three strips of the fun turquoise fabric just to decorate the front a bit.  I stitched them on using a decorative stitch on my machine which also will help to keep the raveling to a minimum.  I have a desire to create panels using my scraps and quilting techniques which I can then use to make bags.  I will need them to be between 32" and 34" and I would make them wider - 16" to 18" wide so they finish up a little larger than this one.   Therese

 

Christmas card kits - Peace on Earth gold embossed on brown, a layer of red vellum and beautiful flourished metallic paper for the background

This is my last set of 6 card kits for my friend.  I started by embossing this elegant image of a dove and a Peace on Earth greeting (Stampendous) onto small pieces of brown cardstock.  I trimmed them to size and then used my distress tool to roughen up the edges.  I added clear glitter gel pen to the leaves and the earth below.  I trimmed pieces of red vellum to size and then ran my pattern tracing wheel to the four sides to create four rows of paper piercing.  I paired these two elements with beautiful metallic paper with  wonderful flourishes.  I cut green cards for all of them.  I glued the decorative paper to my green card.  I adhered the dove image to my vellum piece with double sided tape and then adhered this larger element to my card front using double sided tape.  Love how it turned out!!!  Therese
 

Christmas card kits - cute little tree tags over hand decorated backgrounds

While I was in my stash of Christmas supplies I also found this set of tags which I printed off a while back.  They are also from Homemade Gifts made Easy.   I trimmed them from the sheet using my paper trimmer, added a large gold brad in the hole at the top and a gold confetti star to the tops of the trees using glue dots.  Next, I embellished the pots with gold gel pen and gold shimmer water colour.  Added a tiny bit of brown watercolour to the stems as well.  I auditioned them with several different backgrounds and eventually selected two different hand decorated ones from my stash. They are paste paper from a session I did a while back with my sister.  We had a lot of fun that day!!!  I trimmed them to size and ran my pattern tracing wheel on all four edges.  I trimmed dark green card fronts for all of them.  The tags still needed something to I added two short lengths of gold ribbon which I secured with double sided tape.  That was much better!!  So I adhered my background to my card front, added 3D foam tape to the back of my tag and secured it over my background.  Green and gold - great Christmas colours.  Therese