An Easter decoration

Hello, everyone.  It's only about a week and a half until Latin Easter. I understand that Orthodox Easter is a week off from that this year.

I have gotten it together to hang an Easter wreath. 

Components: Dollar Tree wreath form and plastic eggs, Hobby Lobby fabric peonies and lambs quarters, JoAnn fabric hydrangeas, and an entire 3 yard roll of ribbon.

(I looked at the Hobby Lobby hydrangeas but I didn't like them. I checked out the ones at JoAnn while picking up the ruler holder.) 

It does put some cheer on the door, doesn't it.

Revisiting fleecy embroidered toys

Hello, everyone.

Yesterday I tried a new approach to the stuffed toy made in the hoop: making an opening to begin with in the back side.

How? you wonder. By piecing the back from two pieces of fleece with an opening in the seam for stuffing later.

The final back side of the kitty. (The seam line can be brushed out if one wants, the minky style fleece has a definite, though short, pile.)

While trimming I accidentally cut the seam allowance off on one of the paws, but that was easily repaired.

The only tricky thing about this pieced back was the sudden discovery that it is really important to tack down the seam allowances of the center back seam. (The seam allowance got eaten up by the foot, and it was a bit tricky to cut it free. Plus there was a small hole in the fabric at the end.) With that adjustment, the trick worked. And an opening that is hand stitched closed with seam allowance at the opening is sturdier than one that is just pulled together with stitches across a slit, and a better looking result than cobbling together seam allowances at the slit that will work like an unplanned dart. IMHO.

This is one of the Minkee Pals toys. It's about hand-sized, and you use the small (not miniature) hoop to make it.

Obviously, since the fleece I have is white, the colors were changed. I think they work out okay. And even though I bought the white remnant expressly to make these critters, I am going to use up the rest of the white: it's officially from stash now. (Found the remnant at Hobby Lobby.)

The kitty can be a toy for a baby, as everything is securely stitched down. It can be a small Christmas gift. It can be a package tie-on. It's a little bit small for a fidget, I think, but the back side is uninterrupted pile so it could even be that. Maybe it could be tucked into a pocket on a fidget, with a little tethering ribbon so it doesn't get lost. A flock of them could be party favors for a children's party.

March in South Texas, 2020

Hello, everyone.

I have been busy sewing fabric face masks. I'm using the Leah Day pattern with 2 layers of fabric. (It may be a little bit stiffer to fold around at the cheek bones, but having 4 layers of cotton is bound to intercept more flying spit-bits than only 2. And you can and should drop them into a hot wash load and dryer load to clean them. This particular virus is said to be very sensitive to hot temperatures, like the temperatures when your hand says the water is too hot (my sink can put out 120F sometimes) and the washer with its detergent and water and agitation just gets them off and flushes them down the pipe.) No pics, unfortunately, but I sent some to DM and gave some to DS1.

And I'm using up stash, too. Found pipe cleaners at Hobby Lobby online for moldable wire inside the mask so it will fit the nose. Though when I went to the link for the ones I ordered it now says "out of stock"--probably there are more coming soon! I used the 6 inch long twisty ties for the first masks, they were stash also as they came with trash bags a while back. Am hoping my order--or at least part of it!--comes soon so I can resume sewing the masks.

In other, more cheerful news, it's flower season!

The avocado tree that came with the house is blooming.

We've had this pot of cactus for decades. Every spring it makes beautiful flowers.

The kalanchoe pot, which also came with the house, is beautiful again this year.

Bead stash usage: another purse charm

Hello, everyone.

This is another purse charm, all bits from stash. The colors are in a springtime theme.

As with the last one, the catch was in that three-pack at Hobby Lobby. Most of the beads were from Fire Mountain Gems--some in their Boss's Bead Bag which is a random mix. (That used to be really fun to go through but the last time, some years back, it was less exciting. Still really useful, though.)

There are 5 strands strung onto 6# Fireline. I used a wrapped loop to connect the strands to the catch inside of the cone finding. Two of the strands were designed to provide balance to the other three, which have accent beads up and down the strand, so they're just plain old mixed white/clear seed beads.

I tied the bottom bead of each strand thoroughly, strung it to the right length, and held it in one of those little spring type bead holding clips. When all 5 were strung, I tied them to the wrapped loop, dropped the cone finding onto the wire, and made another wrapped loop to connect to the catch.

A Beaded Hairpin (more stash usage)

Hello, everyone.

Today's picture is another hair pin. It began as one of the bridesmaid hairpins, but the work was coming out too dense: the little branchlets too close together. Fortunately this was discovered before the whole hairpin was constructed. The densely twisted piece was set aside.
Today it became a hairpin by itself:

Interested viewers may note that this time the background is more friendly to the project. (They may show up well in person on black, but the photo of that was not so good.)

Teardrop faceted bead plus bead cap for the top bud, assorted faceted glass and pearl beads. The smallest perle beads are 3mm Swarovski beads, left over from another project some years back. The top pink bead is a 4mm Swarovski bicone, accompanied by a couple of simple 3mm fire-polished faceted glass round beads.

More Bead Play (also uses up Stash!)

Hello, everyone.

I have to give a hat tip to the Russian ladies on Youtube for this idea. They have uploaded bunches of twisted-wire work involving beads for hair, bracelets, whatever.

This is a bridal-style hair pin. A young lady I know thought that her ladies might like to have sparkly bits to tuck into a braid for The Day.

The beading actually grew like Topsy when I started working on it, I think the original idea was the daisy in the middle and maybe three or four beads sticking up, but one thing led to another and here we are. It uses up a number of crystalline faceted rounds and bicones, and some teardrops, some pale pink ones, and some seeds and various sizes of perles and even some cultured actual pearls. (The teardrop shaped ones on stems.) Also an assortment of bead caps.

The twisting has to be done carefully, I actually gave some of the wire metal fatigue by twisting too tightly and it broke. Who knew that could happen? But if y'all are thinking of doing something like this, now you know.

Beads mostly from Fire Mountain Gems, some from Hobby Lobby, wire likewise. Hair pin from the pile in my hair stuff! Rhinestone in the flower from Fire Mountain, it's a montee from a pack I got years ago to replace a lost rhinestone on a sweater. You never know when extra bits will come in handy!

Stash busting: Purse charm

Hello, everyone.

Another little stash-busting success: a dangly thing to put on purses. (It could also be hung from any other hanging point, like maybe in a window as a decoration.)

I used up some white & silver and perle bead mix, some pendants, some crosses and pressed-glass butterflies, faceted ovals, and some quartz crystal diamonds. The hardware was half-off at Hobby Lobby.

These little stash busters are fun, but there need to be more of the necklaces if there's going to be a measurable reduction in bead stash!

Decorations project

Hello, everyone.

The DD2 is working on prep for a big event in her life. A few weeks back, we wandered into the Lowes store (a big-box hardware chain) and discovered a clearance sale in progress. We love clearances. Doesn't everyone?

We picked up some wrought-iron trellises.

Now, after some visits to Hobby Lobby, and a dig through the household stash of fake greenery, we have a trellis that will be really cute.

The little corner of time between Thanksgiving and Advent

Hello, everyone.

I hope all of my US readers had a happy Thanksgiving.

That "little corner" of the title is a week long this year...plus a couple of days. (For my international readers, Thanksgiving Day is always on a Thursday. And, of course, Advent begins on a Sunday.)

We had most of the gang in house for the feast--moved the grandparents' table into the largest room and put in *all* the leaves--even had an extra guest. It was great. And as this was the first time the new graduate and the newly completed graduation quilt were in the same place, she received her quilt.

I used a new (to me) way of binding on this one. I made the double folded straight grain strip and pieced the sections with a bias seam, and then sewed it onto the back of the quilt. Then pulled the folded edge onto the front, pinned it down, and machine sewed it in place on the front. It went fairly well and was a lot quicker than the old way. Plus the corners are all mitered.

As the fabric was almost all from stash, that means much of it was from Fabric.com and some was from Hobby Lobby. The binding is plain black Kona cotton.

Small Tree (Egg Ornaments)

Hello, everyone.

As Thanksgiving is over, and the refrigerator is slowly approaching normal (from total overload!) levels, we've begun getting Christmas things down and the decorating is slowly getting going.

The small tree is up. Next to the polyclay ribbon candy ornament is a little ceramic ornament left over from when I would give gifts to my CCD students every year. It has a painting of the Holy Family on the front. On the other side of the ribbon candy ornament is one of the ones made during the mad tassel phase: embroidery floss makes lovely tassels that are just the right size for hanging from egg shells.

One practical note: with the fake trees, the top is too floppy to hold up a tree topper of any normal kind. I had to add a stiffener to it in order to get the star to stay upright. The stiffener is wired onto the tree with green pipe cleaners and is pretty much a permanent item. Then when decorating the tree, I put the last of the white mini-bulbs up at the very tip so the star would be lit from within.

Another practical note: the small tree looks much bigger because it's on top of the coffee table. I put a table cloth over the table to protect the surface from scratching by the tree stand. This also hides at least some of the extension cord clutter.

Almost all of the eggs made it onto this one.

Some years past, when MIL would come down for several weeks at Christmas time, we would have a large tree in the living room, a 3-foot tree on top of the buffet in the dining room, and this tree in the upstairs hall. That was when there were helpers still living at home with us, of course. Now we're cutting back on the over-the-top decorations. This year I decided to put the upstairs tree in the room with the piano. (The buffet was retired to the Salvation Army with the over-large table and chairs that matched it. They weren't heirlooms or anything like that. We just felt like we were crowded out of our place a bit.) The 3-foot tree was outside in the Man Cave shelving over summer a couple of years ago and a mouse moved into it and chewed up the whole thing, so that one is gone. That left only two places to put all the egg ornaments that have been made over the years--and this tree is in better proportion for the smaller items.

The trick with eggs is to use your handy corsage pin to break up the yolk before you blow it out the holes that you carefully drilled with your Dremel. (Or chipped patiently open with the said pin and a starting hole made with the point of a sharp knife--less mess on the tools, but more eggshell breakage!) On the side, there was so much eggshell cutting going on at one point that DH got tired of finding egg white on his things and got me one of my own!

One nifty thing to do with an egg shell is to cut a slice in the shell while the egg is still inside, allowing the cleaned shell to be used to display a tiny angel or other scenic element. My grandmother's friend Mrs. Beckley was an expert at this and even made an egg shell with a tiny skating scene once. She sent us each an ornament, back when I was a child, and I still have mine.

The Beckley egg

She used graduated pearl beads and velvet cording around the opening of the egg, along with the golden fringe. There is even a bit of frou-frou on the back of the egg! She was an amazing egg artist.

(This photo taken before we stopped buying a fresh tree every year--now, sadly, we have fake. The expense of the extremely large fresh floral item over two or three years was the same as the cost of a nice fake tree which lasts for five years or more. And let's not talk about the problem of keeping smelly mold from growing in a water-filled tree stand for several weeks!)

When making Christmas eggs, I find that painting the washed and dried egg shell with gesso covers over the slight texture of the natural shell and makes it stronger. Then the shell can be perched on a bamboo skewer--one that you don't intend to re-use for food--and spray painted. That will give a smooth, shiny surface for further decorating. (Link goes to a really huge container of the stuff. My gesso is in about a 2 ounce bottle! And if you're only painting egg shells it goes a long way.)

The children and I would have "Christmas in July" over the summer holidays and make egg ornaments. They would paint words or even little scenes on the shells. They never broke an egg shell, either--they were all old enough for elementary school by then. (For younger children, I'd stick with popsicle stick crafts. There is only so much manual dexterity available before about age 8!)

Model paint works really well for painting words and tiny scenes, but requires mineral spirits for clean up. The tiny brushes sold in the model department are wonderful for the work.

Acrylic paint works well also, and is very easy to clean up, but after the paint is all dry the shell must be sprayed with sealer before any lacquer coat is added. Otherwise the carefully painted flowers or whatever will run. The tiny brushes can still be used, or one can go with a more elaborate floral kind of decoration.

Acrylic paint is also more generally available (in scads of colors) even if there is no hobby store in the area. Wal-Mart has it, Hobby Lobby and Michaels and JoAnn all have it, and if one gets into elaborate shading and such there are even blenders and extenders to give more working time. The gesso is also sold in little plastic bottles in the acrylic craft paints section of stores.