quilt

Originally uploaded by craftscout

This is the beginnings of a quilt for DD for the holidays. It is made from a large stash of her clothes from when she was three years old. Yeah, for some reason, almost all of her clothes that year were purple or turquoise . . .

There is a backing fabric stitched to it, lavender with tiny white polka dots. I think I did remarkably well keeping my lines straight since this is done almost entirely with KNITS. Bah . . .

Ready to Declutter

Originally uploaded by craftscout

So I have been sewing “one for the Sale, one for me”, and this is my latest “one for me”. I have been wanting something like this for a while. I realized that I could make it, use up stash, and even some more of those denim scraps from my Dad’s old jeans. Even the stick is a lovely one I have had for a while.

It is to hold mail for me, and papers from school for both kids. Basically everything that people end up stacking on the peninsula in our kitchen. Here’s hoping it works!

From this (well, not these screens in particular, but you get the idea):

To this:

To this:

I am so thrilled with this project. I love how the linen turned out. I love the print, I love the colors. I love this pattern (Simplicity 2916, view D), and I think it will actually be really useful! Mom will probably think it needed some punch of color, but I love the muted, subdued tones. I NEED some calm in my life. Love you, Mom. I really do.

So, I had some bias tape leftover from this project, so I used it to finish ANOTHER PROJECT! Wow, a UFO actually FINISHED! This lovely little bucket has been sitting around for months now, because I really did not want to whipstitch the top together by hand. I hate handsewing. So what did I end up doing? sewing on bias tape by hand, because the interfacing is too stiff to fold around my sewing machine head. Le sigh.

The interior is recycled back pockets from some of my Dad’s old jeans. Second project finished in the past two weeks involving recycling pants. . ..

Okay bear with me, there will be artsy crafty goodness at the end.

I try to be eco-friendly. I really do. Not in a trendy, “Ooh it’s so fashionable to be green right now!” but in a “I’d like my children to have a planet when they get old” kind of way. As cute as all the new reusable shopping bags are, I have only bought one (and only because Boogie Boy wouldn’t leave me alone until I did). I have a perfectly good set of 8, which is generally plenty for every shopping trip. I try to keep packaging in mind when I buy groceries, to add as little as possible to the landfills (this year I switched from juiceboxes to reusable drink containers and large juice bottles for DD’s packed lunches, and grouse when we are REQUIRED to send lunches packed in a brown bag with all disposable packaging and juiceboxes).

I have also stopped putting my produce in a plastic bag when it isn’t necessary. These can be recycled, true, but the order is “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle” for a reason. Reducing what we use and what we buy is better than contributing to our nation’s rampant consumerism. After all, if I don’t use them until I need them (like for 2 pounds of fresh green beans, or for bean sprouts), then the store won’t run out as quickly and won’t have to buy more as quickly and the factory won’t have to make as many.

I know. I sound ludicrous. But if EVERYONE did it like this, think about how many bags WOULDN’T get used, bought, and made!

Okay, so here’s the rant part. This morning I went to the grocery store. I got a bunch of yummy produce, lettuce, and cilantro, tomatoes and onions, apples, a melon and a mango. I got a bag of cherries, which I left in the bag (it would be hard to corral them for weighing at the register). None of the other produce got put in a bag, it wasn’t necessary.

Apparently the sacker thought differently. I would have thought it was really easy to see that I didn’t want plastic bags, unless it was necessary, afterall I brought reusable shopping bags and I didn’t put my produce in plastic bags. However, the sacker knew better than I what I wanted. So she put my lettuce and my cilantro EACH into a bag, and then put THOSE bags into ANOTHER BAG!! Holy wastage, Batman! What a @#$%^!!

I guess now is the time to whip up some handmade produce bags. I have a bunch of mesh bags from previous produce purchases that I plan on reworking into new produce bags (and one really huge bag from our crawfish boil a couple of weekends ago!). I might also make some muslin bags for getting bulk rice and stuff. Here are some links to others who make reusable produce bags (just to show I’m not some kind of freak! *grins*)
kootsacs
LoveLane bags
Good Earth bags

If we look at this as a workshop, instead of me and my mom fooling around and having fun, day two of the workshop is finished. Day one was making and prepping the screens and printing surfaces. Day two was actually printing. Day three will be mom washing out the dye from the fabric and sending the fabric to me and me going “oooooooooh, that turned out waaaay (better/worse) than I thought!” – which will actually take more than one day. But so is day two – I am going back over for a little more pulling. Not all day again, just a few hours.

So here is one of my screens prepped with dye for doing deconstructed screenprinting:

This looks boring now, but it actually pulled really cool. We discovered that the screens which looked more like a Jackson Pollock painting or a Mondrian or some other abstract design worked best.

Here is one I did using a circular screen with a soy wax resist – no deconstructed techniques:

This screen needed a LOT less dye than I thought, so the image looks really dark to me, but it may lighten up after washing.

Overall this was fun, but I think I will hold final judgment until I see the finished fabric.

Colorful Screenprinting

Originally uploaded by craftscout

So Mom and I are embarking on a new crafting expedition. Actually she’s already on the cruise, and I’m in my little dinghy frantically rowing to catch up.

Screenprinting.

I’m not exactly sure I’m going to be in love with this, so when the instructional DVD said, “If you varnish your screen frame before you tape it up, it will last through a good ten years of printing, otherwise it might last 5,” I thought “Five years sounds long enough.” If I fall in love, I will take the tape off and varnish. Easy peasy.

These are little $1 picture frames from Michael’s, sized for 4×6 photos. Perfect for using one of those fake little credit cards all of us crafters have hundred of for a squeegee. And the screen? The green is from Mom (of course), and the pink is remnants of curtains DD cut off so she could see out the window. Also pictured is my printing surface.

I also made a 12×12″ square frame out of cheap stretcher bars. No screen on it yet, as I need to have my DH locate his power sander so I can make one side flat. I love a project that involves power tools.

The blue tape is actually Duck tape, not painters tape. I wanted to make sure I could find my screens in a hurry, as we are planning on doing this with our Study Group, so there will be at least 20 other screens running around that day. I figure no one else is going to get this particular Duck tape.

Now to figure out what I am going to DO . . . .

Fabric Beads

Originally uploaded by craftscout

Xyrons are good. Very very good. Especially when you have the superstrong permanent adhesive cartridge in. Beads made from fabric (run through the Xyron) wrapped around a washed plastic straw. Then they were cut apart and had the ends dipped in Lumiere bronze paint.

O.O

Wow. I have not posted anything in so long, this blog has gotten soot sprites.

Actually, my mom got a copy of Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet by Ana Paula Rimoli at a chic yarn store over the weekend, and I immediately had to try it out. Et voila, I have a cute little turtle:

Then I realized that a soot sprite was only a novelty yarn away . . .