Trading my fabric for....

a glue gun....for just a little while. I love looking through catalogs around the holidays to get ideas for new decorations. I do get a bit obsessive over holiday decorating, don't know why as it's up for such a short time but I love it just the same.

 I saw this in Pottery Barn - (a store I could live in) and thought I could make this pine cone tree myself, how hard could it be and ohhhh.....the money I would save.

So I bought the biggest styrofoam form I could find.

which I had to spray paint with brown so the white wouldn't show through.

I found these huge pine cones at a craft store. I thought I'll take them apart in a few minutes and then I'll be off and running. I'll have this done in no time at all.

First came the scissors - not strong enough, then the wire cutters - okay but not great,. I found this saw in hubbys workshop but that didn't work at all - last came the garden snips which seemed to do best of all but still not great.

It took lots of twisting to get the little pine pieces off.

and left with with a little flower like top.  I had to mark each row all around so they wouldn't wind up on a slant and use a glue gun to put each in place.

So...many, many hours later, I happily finished it. I kinda got into a rhythm once I separated the cones and I am happy with the way it turned out but I'm laughing out loud thinking of that silly Master Card commercial....                            
                                                    stryofoam - $8 with a coupon
                                                    pinecones - $ 9 for 3 of them
                                                    paint         - $5
                                                    large package of glue sticks  - 7
                                                    One pair of very sore hands

                                                    Having the "fun" of making it yourself....."priceless"....hmmmmmmmm I wonder...

Taking a short hiatus while my company is here....Have a wonderful Thanksgiving

PTA - November 2013

I always look forward to our monthly PTA meetings - such a fun and talented group. This month we met at the home of Janice M. It was very cold outside and Janice had some hot mulled wine waiting for us. After lunch it was on to Show and Tell - always a highlight. Usually my pics are okay but because of the angle I was shooting, many were blurred. So here are some that turned out.

 You can see the sleeve of a new piece Connie made - crocheted and beautiful. This is her quilt using a center panel that was quite old - really a nice piece.

 This is Kate's latest piece. Kate does a lot of marbling and loves working with the stones pattern. Her tiny circle quilting in between the stones is remarkable - wish I had gotten a close up. She also has a unique way of mounting each piece.

 These wonderful hand knitted socks belong to a pair of feet - either Barbaras or Gens - the 2 sock knitters in the group, they were fantastic. As I've mentioned before, not being a knitter, I would have to frame these and hang them on a wall.

 And I loved this piece by Janice - who is a great, great piecer!

 I know Mary showed this piece on her blog a little while back. What I didn't know was this was her design - a great way to use black and white prints. The binding is made up of all the colors in the splashes of color in the quilt - very cool.

 And still another one from Mary - busy lady..... She is the champion of hand stitching;  this is still in the working stage but looking great.

 We were all fascinated with the purse that Georgia made and brought. She started by making a square quilt - quilted and bound to finish 17". She then manipulated it to make a purse. This is the front - or back.

And this is the other side; it has 3 pocket areas. It was just darling and a great way to use scraps.
As always, great friendships, great ideas and great fun - a good day.

Puttin' Away the Rust

I like to create rusted fabric in warm weather when it's nice to be outdoors and the sun speeds up the process.

My rusting for this year has come to an end and I'm happy to move on to something else.

I did one last batch of scarves to put away for future sales - some with good results, others not so good.

I used a lot of my indigo pieces as I thought the white areas were a bit strong and hopefully the rust would tone them down.

This was done on a crepe du Chine which always gives good results.

The chiffon scarf is probably my favorite and enough rust to make it interesting.

Some scarves were just overdone with rust.

Like this one - way too much rust. I think part of the problem was I layered the scarves so they had rust touching them from the layer beneath and then more rust on top. Also, I scrunch them up and some parts don't touch the rust, I think it's going to be the right amount, but sometimes, it's just too much.

I think some of these will be good candidates for pieces in a quilt, we'll see, all is not lost.

Leaf Peepin' - Don't Think So

Last week, hubby and I went for a ride to see some beautiful fall color. The leaf color has been late in coming this year so we thought we might still be in for a treat.

Forgetting about the high elevation on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the beautiful leaves had come and gone, but what we saw was breathtaking in another way.

And it's the cold stuff, but what unusual and beautiful formations.

I love the long icicles on this rock. When I was a kid, we used to eat icicles thinking that was so cool to do.

The ground icicles were the most fascinating.

I think they formed around weeds which you couldn't see, but how cool is this. This is the photo I'm going to play with in Photoshop Elements and layer with another picture. I think it might be really interesting.

All that remained of beautiful fall leaves were under the icicles.

We drove a little further and came upon this scene. All the trees had ice on the branches so the tree shape was kept intact - It was a beautiful sight.

This was taken at Craggy Gardens which is very high up.

I particularly loved this bush; it looked like it had been spray painted white.

As we drove on further down, the weather was brighter, warmer and still some color. This little touch of winter was so unexpected and really pretty to see. I'm one of those rare birds who likes winter, I love the coziness of it, so this was a thrill for me.
Til next time...

Bamboo

At a recent Fiber Junkies meeting, we were working with fiber pastes made by Golden. One of the things we did was to use a stencil. 

I had a hand dyed fabric and thought it might work with this stencil of a Bamboo.

I did like the results but thought it needed more in the way of color. It was hard to see where the "Bamboo" began and ended.

I thought I would use some of the small leaf shapes as a pattern for orange and green fabric.

I used clear plastic with a leaf drawn in black marker to lay over the piece to see placement for additional leaves.

. 

I also wanted to bring some of the Bamboo stalks down to the bottom  - problem was I didn't have access to the stencil anymore.

I took Jane Dunnewolds workshop on Complex Cloth many years back. I remember we made stencils out of manilla folders. We shellaced them for endurance; I didn't with these, but would only be using them a short time.

I also wanted to do a little shading on the stalks to distinguish them from the background. So it's a work in progress - Please check back to see what comes next. I'm curious too.