Too Long

I was looking at this blog today and I realized that I have not posted since 2014.  Three years.  That's ridiculous.  For some reason, I just lost sight of this blog and posting.  I need to do better here.  I know that I had some followers three years ago, but I'm sure they've given up on me by now.

We just finished with Thanksgiving and now we're into everything Christmas.  On our way home last night from my sister-n-law's house we saw 3 houses on our street that had Christmas lights on.  This filled my heart with so much joy that I squealed like a little child.  Eddie got a kick out of that.  He doesn't get into Christmas as much as I do, but I guess he gets a kick out of me getting a kick out of it.  I have to admit that the last few years I haven't been into it much either.  It's not the same when you get older as it was when you were a child.  Back then it was all about Santa Claus and lots of presents.  Now that I'm older, I try not to think too much about presents and focus more on what Christmas is really all about, which is Christ's birth.  The main thing I love about Christmas is the season or the time before the actual Christmas day.  I love the lights, the music, the Christmas carols and Christmas programs that churches put on.  Also, the other performances and things that happen in our theaters around town.  To be honest, the actual Christmas day itself it a big letdown for me.  I don't know why that is, but once Christmas day is over, I'm ready for my tree to come down.  I put my tree up the first part of November so I can enjoy it for a long time.  I know some folks leave theirs up through New Years, but leaving mine up that long after Christmas is kind of depressing for me.

The last few years I have put up what I call a country tree with lots of those type of ornaments.  A few years ago I made an old fashioned paper garland made from Christmas scrapbook paper.  It was pretty and I enjoyed it for a long time.  This year I decided to decorate a more elegant tree.  I bought a pencil tree about 2 years ago that was on sale at Michaels.  I decided to use white, blue, silver and pink ornaments on it instead of the traditional green and red.  I love it!  It turned out to be more of a Victorian type tree, but I love it.  It's really nice for a change.

It was hard to get the whole tree in the photo because it's 7 feet tall.  I also have a wire dress form and I decided to decorate it too just like the tree.

I don't remember when I've enjoyed looking at a tree so much.  I l always enjoy looking at my trees, but I guess it's because I went out of the box this time and decorated a totally different color theme.

Ana Strumpf Re.Cover Magazine Covers

Last week I learned about some really pretty, quirky magazine covers made by Brazilian designer Ana Strumpf.  She takes covers from fashion magazines such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Playboy, Elle and several others, and enhances them with her own drawings using Sharpies and Decoart markers.  Here are a few examples of her work:

I love these covers and, like with most everything else I see, I wondered, can I do this?  Of course I can do this.  All it is, is sharpies and markers.  I did some research and learned that she sells hers for around $1,500 each.  Now, I'm not dumb enough to believe that I could ever sell mine for that or that I could sell them at all.  In fact, I probably couldn't sell them.  Why?  Because I'm not a Brazilian designer and I don't have the connections she has.  But, that doesn't mean that I can't  have some fun with mine, and dream about having my own exhibition some day and maybe someone will like them enough to want to buy one.  I would not be greedy about it.  I would sell mine for much less than $1,500 each.  And, the ones I do will be mine, not replicas of hers.  So, with that in mind, I would like to share a few that I've done in the past few days.  Mine are not perfect at all.  I have only done a couple of actual magazine covers.  I discovered that I had a few lying around from a few months ago.  I also enhanced a couple of pages from the magazines rather than the covers.  Here is my interpretation of this art form.

The first 2 are magazine pages, rather than covers.  I had alot of fun making these.  Mine are not professional looking at all, but I plan to practice and hopefully get better.  At some point, I'm going to put them in frames and, who knows, I might be able to get them in an art show of some kind in my town.

Twister Quilts

This past week the American Quilter's Society had their annual quilt show in my city.  I'm so happy and I think they are going to be here for the next 3 years.  But, before that, I became enamored with the Twister Quilts.  They are so neat.  Not to mention how easy they are to make.  A tutorial using the Twister Tool is here.  I bought several sizes in the Twister Tool at the quilt show.  You start out with 5" inch charm pack squares, or you can cut your own.  Here is my first Twister quilt.

On this one I just sewed together 6 rows by 6 rows of the 5" squares.  Then using the Twister tool I cut them out and arranged them.  Then I saw a pattern for a wreath and since I had some 5" squares and other fabric leftover from the first quilt, I decided to try the wreath.

Then I saw a pattern for this Jack 'o Lantern and I had to try it.  It took longer than I thought to get it sewn together, but I love the results.

Now, I'm hooked on this pattern.  I can't seem to stop making them, but I'm going to have to at some point and start quilting them.

Magazine Cover Clutch

I recently learned about these very pretty and chic magazine cover clutches.

I saw it when I was searching for something else on Google.  But then, that's how I find most of my inspiration, while searching for something else.  I guess you could say I'm easily distracted.  Anyway, I saw this ad for a kit you can buy for $29 to make your own clutch.  Somehow I just can't justify paying that much for a kit when I already have all the materials to make the clutch except for, well, the clutch itself.  I admit I really love that clutch that comes with the kit, but still.

So, I Googled it and came up with this really easy tutorial.  There are a couple of ways to do it, but I chose this method because it was so easy.  All you need is the magazine cover of your choice, some scissors or a paper cutter (the kind you can get in the scrapbook section of your craft store), a foam brush, some gloss Modge Podge and you're all set.  Just follow the above tutorial and you'll have your elegant and chic Magazine Cover Clutch in no time.

I decided that I could do this myself without buying the kit, so I went to the thrift store and found a little purse that was on sale for .99 cents.  How cool is that?  It's not a clutch, but after looking at it, I decided that I could make it work.  Also, the chain shoulder strap was very tarnished, so I had to figure out how to get that off.  I found another tutorial on Youtube for how to do that too.

Here's my version of the Magazine Cover Clutch/Purse and I love it!

A Long Time

I was looking at my blog today and I realized that I haven't been on here since February of this year.  For one thing, awhile back I tried to sign in I couldn't sign in under my old account in Blogger.  I realized recently that I can sign in with a different account, which means that I can sign in again.  Since that has happened, I'm going to try and do a better job of writing in this blog.

I have been away from here for so long and I need to get back to it.  I use Facebook alot, every day, in fact.  I know some folks think that Facebook is a waste of time, but for me it's a way to keep in touch my my family and friends that I don't see or talk to very often.  I have been able to reconnect with some old friends from high school and from various jobs where I have worked in the past.

I have been doing some sewing lately.  I have been working on a nine patch snowball pattern quilt.  I have a picture that shows about 4 blocks of it.  I've begun sewing it together and right now have about 2 rows sewn together.  It's hard to see what it's going to look like at this point.

I hope to work some more on it tomorrow and I will post more pictures when it comes together better.  While working on this quilt top, I was really inspired by other photos on the Internet.  Here are just a few.

Fun, Flirty 50's Vintage Inspired Apron

Earlier this week I received a sale flyer from Hancock Fabrics.  One thing really intrigued me and that was a sale on cotton fabric at $2.49 a yard.  That's always a plus!  And the other thing was a photo of some cute flirty aprons made by Simplicity.  The pattern number is Simplicity 2592.  The front of the pattern looks like this:

I was especially interested in view D.  I went to Hancock's, bought the pattern and some fabric, came home and made this one:

I thought it came out really cute.  I love it so much that I'm making another one that is green with white polka dots.  The new one I made is view C of the pattern.  It's the one with the ruffled skirt and bib.  This pattern has been described as a vintage inspired 50's ruffled apron.  It's a pattern that was discontinued and Simplicity has reissued it.

Bargello Boxes

A few years ago I became interested in bargello needlepoint, specifically, the Florentine stitch.  There are many variations of this stitch, but the one I like the best is this one:

This stitch can be done over any number of threads, but I prefer Row 1 over 4 threads.  Awhile back, I found some pretty wood boxes with lids that can have needlework put inside.  I think these are really pretty.

 

 

The thread I really enjoy using for these is Caron's Watercolors in variegated colors.  I love the way the colors evolve as the stitching progresses.