Powered By Blogger

Thursday, January 25, 2018

And the Tie Goes To...





Homage to Menswear, an upcycled quilt project made from years-worth of my husband's neckties and ones gifted to me by his co-workers. The bag of ties had hung around the sewing room long enough! They needed to find a home in a project. And this is the result.





While I was deconstructing and preparing the ties, I noticed that the labels were pretty interesting, too. Hidden away on the back of the neckties, they needed to face front and be part of this recycling effort. While most of the ties are paisley, dots, stripes and other standard menswear, a few maverick prints stood out. Notably, this one of the children's artwork. It was from a tie produced as a fundraiser for UNICEF some years back. 



There were a couple of "joke" ties in the collection, too. My husband worked in banking, so the money tie was a fun addition. The decorative stitches also serve as the quilting in this piece, sewn in Crazy-Quilt style.




Still lots of silk pieces and labels left over, so I turned them into Prairie Points and added them to the bottom edge of the quilt. The beads serve as a little sparkle, plus they weight the silk because it wanted to curl a bit.



And once I got the beads out to add them to the quilt.... well, I HAD to get in a little more practice at making charms. So many pretty beads. It's fun to work with them. I find that nearly everything quilty or crafty appeals to me so much that I want to try every kind of project! Of course that leads to a remarkable amount of fabric and supplies. But I'm working my way through, bit by bit. Up next? Mandalas! Paper ones, fabric ones, and who knows what else? Stay tuned. The Mandalas are coming.







Monday, January 8, 2018

Charmed and Tagged for 2018...




This accordion-fold sewn book almost put itself together. I wanted a quiet but quick project to work on over the holiday week, and this was just the ticket. Pawing through paper scraps and images was relaxing and fun. And so is sewing on paper! After taking Mary Ann Moss's online class Stitch Bookery last summer, there are so many papers that just beg to be sewn into a book. This one began by making tags from black cardstock.



Next came collaging various images and background papers into small, pleasing layouts. To secure the papers I used decorative machine stitches rather than glue. I did discover that my sewing machine occasionally skips stitches when sewing on paper. Maybe if I slow down a bit it would help.


I also discovered that not all decorative stitches are suited to sewing paper. Any that sew in one spot repreatedly to form the pattern are likely to perforate the paper so much that it can't hold together. Noted. Junk mail, calendar images, pretty scrapbooking papers can all be found in this sewn tag book. And each hole is looped with crinkle ribbon for a pretty topper.


And what book is complete without its own jewelry? After exchanging hand-made fiber beads at Christmas, I decided to use some of them as charms on the hair band closure of the book. It's a first foray into bending wire and forming the charms and it's a bit hard on the hands. There is more to learn about this technique, but I am a willing pupil! After all, I know I have more paper and images that need to reside in a tag book of their own. And they, too, will need jewelry.