• Blog - Crafts - Creativity

    T Tuesday: two month update

    March 16, 2026 - By 

    My goal is to do a post for T stands for Tuesday monthly… I’m moving in the right direction at least.

    I’m not going chronological this time. I’m starting with a project that I’m thrilled to have finished…and in record time as far as I’m concerned.

    I made a flannel rag quilt. It’s not the first one I’ve made but I think the quickest.

    It wasn’t without some choice words at a couple of times…like when I accidently cut well over half of the flannel squares 1/2 inch larger in two directions than I should have. Better than too small though!!

    I even remembered to add a quilt label to this one. It’s something that I want to do with all my quilts. I hate doing hand embroidery, I don’t have a fancy machine that can do it either so I decided to draw 2026 on a piece of flannel and roughly stitch the year with various stitches and colors. Not ideal but it works.

    I usually leave the Marvin photo for the end of my post but he fits here this time around. He thinks that anytime I lay out quilt blocks to audition a layout that its exclusively for him. Those are 9 inch squares. 🙂

    This is another quilt I’m working on. I’ve actually gotten the entire top joined together now. I’m waiting for the motivation to put the entire quilt sandwich together and start the quilting process. That part is always daunting to me. I actually have another quilt in at the same stage laying on the spare room bed awaiting inspiration.

    All the quilting was somewhat inspired by a cold snap we endured.

    It was so cold that the wildlife were trying to take shelter next to the house.  We had a couple of whitetail deer right off the deck. The doe was shivering…it made me sad to see. The buck stood at the sliding glass door looking longingly at the indoors. He scared Mini-me who was recovering from her knee surgery on the couch. Her surgery went well and was able to return to her place and work right on schedule.

    The cold days made for beautiful sunrises.

    As usual I worked at our districts archery tournament this year. You may notice my obligatory beverage on the table per T stands for Tuesday rules. 🙂

     Shifting back to crafting…I used some itty bitty scraps to embellish a few cards and make some clusters. I love making something out of virtually nothing.

    My last thought for the day is brought to you by some bunnies.

    Today (Monday) was an unexpected day off. We had a blizzard over the weekend but only half the snow that was expected. I was super surprised when I got the text that school was closed. The weather played a part but it was mostly a district-wide phone outage. I’m not complaining, it was a nice bonus day!

    T stands for Tuesday
    What are you doing today?
  • Art - Blog - Creativity

    AJJ: fabric floral

    July 19, 2025 - By 

    I had a little play this morning with some fabric I picked up at a church rummage sale on Thursday.

    I cut a paper scrap down to 7×10 to fit in my planner journal then tore the fabric to approximately the right size. Next I put a bit of tape runner in the center to hold the fabric in place while I stitched around to create a stable base to work.

    Teal and orange are such a wonderful color combo. The bits of teal against the warm palette were very inspiring.

    I pulled from my stash and starting the layering process.

    Adding more and more bits from my table.

    I keep this glass cookie jar on my sewing table to toss little bits of this and that in as I am crafting. This system works really well for both containment and inspiration.

    This color scheme really spoke to me. It was hard to decide when this one was done.

    The mix of fabric, lace and paper has me very pleased with the end result.

    I’d love it if you’d stop by Art Journal Journey and play along with my Botanical theme this month.

  • Blog - Crafts - Creativity

    Small journal love

    March 31, 2022 - By 

    I was recently inspire to create some new journals. These are single signature journals.

    I’ve never thought to create small journals such as these but I realized that these are going to come in very handy.

    I used scraps of heavy fabric for the outside of the cover and recycled posters for the inside of the cover.

    The denim cover is from a pair of jeans that my now college-aged daughter wore as a preschooler.

    Since the embroidery was so cute on it, I saved the leg. Waste not, want not.

    I used about 15 pages of various papers for the signature.

    I wasn’t worried about them all being exactly the same size, in fact, I prefer that there is some variation.

    The rose on the left is a digital creation of mine. I had a group of mine printed at Kinkos to make sure that they would print properly if I were to sell them as digital downloads. I have not taken that step yet but maybe someday. In the meantime, I have some fun and uniquely me pages to play with.

    The right side has one of the tags I have created from the masterboards I’ve been creating with scraps. I like to stitch around them both for interest and to secure the edges.

    Here’s yet another tag slipped in a side tuck on the page. The tuck is from my stash of mini colleges. Also a scrap busting project.

    Both masterboards and mini colleges are things that I tend to do when I’m lacking that creative spark. They are quick, use lots of scraps and are great to have around for later projects.

    Here is yet another example of both being used on one page.

    Attaching an envelope to the edge of a page then folding it to the back creates a fun flip out that can hold a secret note or photo or whatever you want to tuck away for safe keeping.

    I’m really having fun with these journals. They are quick, no pressure of strict theme, multi use and just really darn cute.