• Blog

    Lots of snow and keeping busy

    December 12, 2010 - By 

    We got hammered by a winter storm here…  We got 15.5 inches at our house…but since the wind was blowing so hard we have drifts that are 4-5ft high in places while some spots are bare ground.

    Here’s a photo out our back patio door.  See the cool swirl pattern in the snow!  Up to the left between our house and the neighbors there was a 5ft drift.

    So in between shoveling and attempting to use the snowblower. I’ve been working on some crafty stuff.

    I cleaned my sewing machine..changed thread on both the bobbin and spool…and it seems to be working a bit better.

    I made a couple more journal covers..

    We also put together our Gingerbread house kit from Trader Joe’s. I think it turned out pretty cute. Maybe next year I’ll do the really deal and not buy the kit.  I know my girl and I will be making one at her Holiday party at school as well…except with graham crackers. Like these ones.

     

     

  • Blog

    Learning a new skill

    December 8, 2010 - By 

    Over the weekend we had guests…my brother-in-law and his girlfriend. I had asked her if she’d show me how to knit some time. She said sure if I’d show her how to crochet.  We both learned something very interesting, I knit like a crocheter and she crochets like a knitter. It was difficult for each of us to break the habits that we used for our previous yarn work.  I’ve been trying again and again but never get any further than this. I’ll keep trying.

    I also made this journal cover  the other day but as I was working on a second one…my sewing machine started acting goofy. I think the timing is off…or maybe the tension. I’m going to have to bring it in for a tune up. It’s about 25 years old and has never been looked at…it’s well over due.

  • Blog

    Art Journal remake

    September 28, 2010 - By 


    A while back my good friend Elizabeth sent me one of her wonderful sewn art journals as a birthday gift.

    You can see the first set of signatures here and the second set here.

    She lamented over and over about how much she hated the cover she made for mine. She even told me that I should try and fix it.

    I love the inside covers as much as she did but the covers were over-sized. We talked about how I might be able to salvage the insides while doing the remake.

    Time passed…I did nothing.

    But now I’m really wanting to start a journal so I figured I’d better listen to Elizabeth and refit the cover.

    I carefully cut the “spine” from the rest of the cover salvaging as much as humanly possible of the gorgeous inside fabric.

    Since I seem to have a thing for denim, it seemed the natural choice for a scrappy cover.

     

    As you can see I used Elizabeth fun hand-dyed fabric with pen pockets on the front inside cover.

    And her even more impressive bird mono-print with pocket on the back cover.

    I made a flower from the lace to cover the sewing of the closure strap and added a vintage button for interest.

    Now time to get writing…