Knot Bag........

I wanted to make a bag that is sometimes called a Knot Bag.

I had this half yard of batik cotton in my stash that is kinda summery. I also found a piece of polyester broadcloth that was a perfect match for a lining.

The pattern I used is called "Grab Bag" and was designed by Bonnie Kozowski. I found it at AllPeopleQuilt.com.

It was super easy and super quick to make. 

The designer suggests quilt batting or craft fleece to give thinner fabrics a bit of body. I lined mine with a type of craft fleece but it seems a bit rigid. I think it will probably soften as the bag is used. 

A small bag that goes over the wrist to carry hand sanitizer, mask, sunglasses, baby wipes and kiddie snacks when I go to the park.

Today is a very warm day and we don't have air conditioning. However, we are on the 5th floor and if we open the balcony doors at both ends of the apartment we get a lovely cool breeze off Lake Ontario.

Sometimes it's a bit too windy. My pattern piece blew off my sewing table and my son had to chase it before it went out the other door....ooops :)

Take care and keep safe :)

Not A Pincushion.......

I was looking for some green felt and came across a UFO that I had forgotten about. It was a pattern given to me as a prize on an online doll club that sadly no longer exists.  I recall that the competition I entered was about fairy tales. I made this doll.

The Princess and the Pea.....

So naturally the prize was about a fairy tale....the Frog Prince. This is a design by Cynthia Treen.

I got this far with him then.....

After I started working on it again I remembered that I had issues making the eyeballs. Why I had started with them after making the arms...who knows. They were still a pain to make.

The whole frog is completely sewn by hand with itty bitty stitches. The toes and fingers....arrgghhh.....LOL

Anyway....he is finished and awaiting his Princess.

Take care and stay safe :)

A Finish.........

My boudoir rag doll is done.The pattern and face template are by Gabriele Cardy.

I wanted to dress her all in black but of course I really didn't have enough of the right weight of fabric All I had was much too heavy for a doll. I made a resolution not to buy any fabric this year as I have lots. So I really looked hard at my stash and I did manage to find a couple of small bits. For her blouse I ended up using a piece of silk skirt lining that I had. Her skirt is a small bit of fine man made linen.

I made her bodice by using a strip of my lining fabric, hemming the edge and then gathering it. Worked great and showed her cleavage which to me is an intrinsic part of this boudoir doll.
I used the sleeve pattern from the book and one of the two skirt patterns offered. It was supposed to be four panels but I only had enough fabric to make it two. Oh well. Typical.

I painted the boot part black with some black paint that I bought totally by accident. I was in a rush one day and picked up what I thought was black acrylic paint. Ha! It was gloss enamel. Serendipity I guess. I've since used it a few times to make "leather" looking shoes/boots.

Next she needed a big hat. I used the pattern in the book and embellished it with lace and ribbon. I also added a wee bit of black marabou. Voila!

I was going to call her the Winsome Widow of Whiskey Wells. But I think she would rather be called Rose Marie. She has a whole background story in my imagination. She definitely is "The Widow" with a mysterious past looking for a new husband no doubt.

Take care :)

TUSAL and a finish......

Well it's time for TUSAL. To learn more about TUSAL go here to Daffycat's blog. 

Here is my ORT jar.....

I finished my button wall hanging. I used practically every button in my odd button jar. Some of them are very old and some not so much. I filled in the spaces with French knots using up those extra longer ORTs. Waste not want not. I wasn't fussy about perfection in my knots so don't look too close.....:)

I used a really old 12 inch embroidery hoop. It's about 40 plus years old. I very rarely do anything requiring one this size so at least it's being used. I almost tossed it out so now I'm glad I didn't.

I faffed about with a bow etc at the top join but so far I haven't decided what to do.

Click on the picture to get a bigger view.

I wrapped the inner hoop with thin tape and then I sewed the background fabric to that while it was still taut in the hoop. Then I glued the loose fabric to the tape...see pic. After that I glued the outside hoop to the inner hoop. The fabric made a good bond for the glue. A bit of overkill maybe but I wanted to make sure it stayed in place. This sucker is not going to fall apart....LOL

Actually the back is interesting with all my zigs and zags. I put a thin layer of glue all over the back to make sure none of my finishing knots come apart. I might cover the back with something???? Not sure.

Button overload.....

Take care:)

A Finish....

We've had problems with our telephone line since about January 8th. We only found out that we had no land line when my son phoned my husband's cell phone to tell us. So of course the internet was down most of the time. It came back maybe two times? I gave up bothering to check. We finally got service back on January 16th. No explanation was offered by Bell Canada as to what the issue was.

I will admit that I was going through serious withdrawal....LOL.  I did listen to some audio books to keep myself amused while I finally finished a doll I started ages ago.

Queen Beetrix.

Take care:

A Finish.....

This is a doll I have just finished for a mermaid challenge at the Dollstreet Dreamers club. The doll body is from a book by Patti Medaris Culea called "Creative Cloth Doll Beading". Her head is from another book by Patti called "Creative Cloth Doll Faces".

I had a hard time finding a good place to take pictures as it was a bit overcast. I probably could have gone outside but it was about 81F/27C at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Sweltering and no breeze. Opening the back door was like opening an oven. 

I haven't made a doll in awhile so the face was a challenge. I made a big oops with her mouth and covered it up with white gel pen. Then to hide that I gave her extra pink cheeks. In person it looks okay but in the pics it looks a bit extreme.

She has a very rubenesque figure so making a bra for her was a bit of a challenge. I'm quite pleased with what I came up with. Wired shell like shapes.

And here she is.......

I am so glad that she is finally finished.

Take care :)

It's the May new moon and so it's TUSAL time

So what is TUSAL......you can find out more about it at Daffycat's blog here

Here is my ORTS jar. Not much embroidery or cross stitching stitching done as I was busy doing something else. My friend Eeyore looks a bit worried but then he always does:)

The stitcher’s definition of “ORT” is an acronym meaning “Old Raggedy Threads.”

TUSAL is scheduled based on the the new moon. In May the new moon is known as the Flower Moon. Other names include the Corn Planting Moon and the Milk Moon.

In our household the month of May is when we transplant seedlings into the garden. Normally we do this on or around the 21st of May. There have been years when frost has happened but usually by this time of year we hope for better weather. Actually they aren't exactly seedlings. They are usually well established plants as our growing season is relatively short. If the tomatoes aren't getting red by the end of August then they probably won't ever be red :(

I mentioned above that I was doing something else. I was finishing a doll that I started last May 2017. You read correctly...2017. Even worse. The last doll I made before that was in September 2015!!!

She is from an online class I took with Angela Jarecki called "Song of Hope". I had a lot of problems making her but now she is finally finished.

Happy Ides of May. Take care :)

Finishes and WIP's

I was following along with Pam Kellogg's "Never Ending Sampler Stitch-Along" and completed Sampler One. As I mentioned in a previous post I was trying to use up bits and pieces of canvas left over from other projects.

I haven't really followed along with her second sampler as it didn't really appeal to me. Maybe a bit too traditional although I did use two of the bands...the middle part of number 2 repeated and number 3.

I didn't quit though. I've been adding bands on my own. Some of them found online. Some my own creations. There's lots of inspiration for bands out there. Just Google Blackwork, Redwork, and so on. Pinterest is also a great source...better than Google actually.

 Some look at bit plain. I intend to add some beads here and there.

And......

I'm ALMOST caught up with "Take A Stitch Tuesday" aka TAST". 

I decided that I needed somewhere to put my stitch samples. So I made a cloth book with cloth pages. For the front cover I decided to use some of my ORTS....old ragged threads...that I have in a bottle on my work desk. It's where I put the ends from embroidery threads, ends of silk ribbon...whatever. I have stared at them for ages and wondered why the heck I was keeping them. Habit I guess.

I was sort of inspired by various crafters/artists that use fibres, threads and ribbons and layer them between sheer fabric or netting and create "fabric". I used a piece of white cotton and a piece of white wedding tulle. In between I placed threads and bits of ribbon from my ORTS jar.

To sandwich the layers together I used a running stitch on the diagonal.

The rest of the cover is some lovely purple batik. To reinforce the cover I used cardboard front and back and a separate piece down the spine. The fabric pages were glued together and then glued to the spine of the book.  So messy and gluey...eeek!  Ah well:)

Not my best effort. There are much better ways of making a cloth book. Next time I will do it very differently.....less glue.....LOL  But, I must say it's quite tactile and it does invite one to turn the pages. I have lots of pages. I intend to put my sampler pieces in the back as a reference for future CQ seams.

Take care:)

A Finish.....

I've been working on a mini challenge for the online doll group I belong to on Facebook. If you're interested please visit my cloth doll blog over...... here.

Tale care:) 

A Finish....For CQJP2015

Er...... I think this is number 4 in my blocks for CQJP2015. At this rate I should be done by 2018...LOL

Ah well:)


December and January just dragged this year. I don't know about you lot but I always feel more positive in February. Spring will be here soon. I wonder if that pesky groundhog saw his shadow? I must check.

I had a difficult time finding good light to take pictures today. It's raining here which is perfectly acceptable weather. Anything but snow. 

Stitching fun....

At the end of her online Crazy Quilting class, Kathy suggested a Yahoo group that we might be interested in called StitchMAP.

The MAP in the name stands for Mentor Apprentice Program.  Since they are offering a further class in Crazy Quilting  I decided to join up. Not just for the CQ but because they offer so much more.

"Crazy Quilting, Hardanger, Redwork, Silk Ribbon Embroidery, Surface Hand Embroidery, Brazilian Embroidery, Needlepoint, Quilting, Blackwork, Color Theory for Stitchers, Cross Stitch, and other Counted Thread techniques."

I think this group will give me the much needed push to learn new stitching techniques and keep me focused:) 



In order to be able to take the CQ class you first have to complete two initial programs...Colour Theory and Red Work Embroidery.  Since those classes are currently running and can't be joined mid way they offer quite a lot of fun stuff to do while you wait.

Such as "Fun Friday Tut".......to make an Origami Lotus Drawstring Bag.

You can find the how to's here......Exchanging Fire.

The challenge is to of course make the bag but to also add some embroidery. The area you have to work is very small so I decided to do a tutorial and motif that I saw on Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread.

Buttonhole Stitch Leaves.........find the tutorial  here

Be warned.......those leaves are so cute and so addictive....LOL

Here's my finished bag.

I didn't do too bad on the leaves but the flowers....hmmm. Too teeny tiny for me.

Take care:)

A Finish....

Two good things I learned while doing my CQ sampler.

1. Make sure your block has some kind of defined border that is nice and straight....not all over the place like mine was.
2. Leave at least half an inch of clear space around the edge...no beads, no embroidery...nothing! 

Why?...because you are really not going to have a great time trying to finish it off nicely.

After cutting the edge very neatly.....I'm such a fibber:).....I had nothing to put a binding on so I sort of cheated. First I cut some heavy pellon about 1/2 inches larger that what I was left with and placed my block on that. I stared at it for awhile.

Then I roughly cut some backing material from a scrap I had.  I lay my pellon/block bit on top.

Not bad...I took off the block and folded the fabric over the pellon like I was wrapping a gift.

I then pinned it nicely and carefully basted it so that no stitches could be seen on the back. I closed the mitered edges with a invisible ladder stitch.

I found a small lace edging that matched the fabric and basted that on the raw edge of the block...voila.
 

Now all I need a some gimp edging to put over the outside edge of the lace and finish it off nicely.

Phew.....I have learned my lesson and will be careful when doing my CQ blocks in future :)

Take care.