Odds and ends in red red red

 Not too much creating going on in the last week but here's a sweet picture of my beautiful daughter wearing her felt flower that I made a couple of weeks ago and posted about.

She wore it in to school and even wore it to her volleyball game that evening.

While I didn't create any major art this week, I did help Fiona with a big school book project today. She has to give a powerpoint presentation, wear a costume, provide a snack, handouts and a quiz based on her book. So I helped with the costume of course. After a little embellishing of a spare white T-shirt and some scrounging in my closet we came up with a pretty decent assembly of clothes. Here's my sewing contribution--you get one guess as to the name of her book. :)

I stabilized the rose print cotton fabric with Shir-Tailor fusible interfacing Pellon Shir-Tailor Fusible Interfacing- 20 Inch W x 25yds, cut out the A and then stitched it down using a decorative diamond stitch. On the inside of the shirt I placed some Tearaway embroidery stabilizer Regular Tearaway 8x8 200 Precut Sheets for Embroidery Machines. That way the cotton fabric doesn't shift or fray and the stretchy T-shirt knit doesn't give and stretch too much while I'm sewing. For a quickie project--turned out pretty good!



       

Universe Box

Did I tell you I love felt? Well, I do. So here's some more felt fun (although it may not look it at first glance.) A while back I made this cute little fabric (and felt!) covered box. I stiffened it with a wonderful product called Timtex  Timtex Interfacing Craft Pack. Its a very stiff synthetic interfacing that can still be sewn and ironed. Think of it as a sewable cardboard, if you will. I keep it on hand for any quilting projects that need a stiffer batting (points that stand out etc.)

I made this box with a removable lid and sewed a celestial fabric cover for it. I wanted a little surprise on the inside so I lined it with bright yellow felt (ah...there's the felt connection!). I call it my "Universe Box".

When all of the parts were assembled, I blanket stitched it all together with a gold lurex thread. There are metallic gold highlights in the fabric so I thought that tied it all together.

On a related note, I went to my local book store yesterday and guess what cried out to me from the shelf? You guessed it-- a felt project book. Ooooo, I'm so excited to try out one of the projects. Its called Big Little Felt Universe: Sew It, Stuff It, Squeeze It, Fun! by Jeanette Lim. Just check out the apple on the cover! So cool. Can't wait to try something out! This lady is a true felt artist--check out her etsy shop that features her incredible creations (and patterns) at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/umecrafts.

I'm only sorry I have to go to work today. :(

Et voila!!--Ikea pillow done!

Whew! Still playing catch-up with my pix. I finished my pillow about a month ago so....here's that pesky Ikea pillow all finished at last! And what have I learned? Cylinders are a bitch. My advice? Think twice before you start one--way more complicated than it looks.
That said, I am happy with it and glad I made the cover but its pretty unlikely that I'll make another one to match my other sheets.

Feltastic

I think felt is a drastically underused textile--I've used it in the past and really enjoyed its qualities. A couple of days ago I came across a great project on another blog: not martha http://www.notmartha.org/. OMG! A beautiful felt flower pin--right up my alley. I'm not going to post a tutorial since Megan already did an excellent job of that; do be sure to visit her blog and check it out. Here are the lovely results...

I made two of these pretty felt flower pins so far and have another under construction. Each petal is made individually and is sewn down to a felt covered base of cardboard.

I think they look a little sun-like, don't you?

Fiona, my daughter, came home from a party and fell in love with the red one so I gave it to her. She plans on wearing it to school tomorrow.

Now I'm thinking about how to make other flowers besides dahlias.  Or maybe some embellishment. Or different sizes? With a leaf or two?  Hmmmmm--the possibilities are endless!

Christmas cards leftovers

I was scanning the archives today and realized that I never posted the 2010 Christmas cards. Shame on me! So without any further ado, here they are. 2010's cards featured some filamentous yarn and some heavy textured paper from a gift bag. I started with a large hole punch....

Isn't it great? I'm pretty good at cutting things out but there's no way I can cut a perfect, smooth circle. This punch (from Michaels, or see the one here: Uchida LV-SJCP40 Clever Lever Super Jumbo Craft Punch, 2-Inch Circle) takes care of that issue in a snap,

A gift bag was sacrificed to yield these beautiful circles in a red metallic paper with an alligator texture finish. Very eye-catching!

Here's my tree branch made out of that filamentous yarn (a swipe of glue stick Avery Glue Stic, 0.26 oz, Pack of 6, (98095) holds it down) and the ornament I punched out. I've adhered my ornament with a raised adhesive stickers.

And I couldn't forget the little thingamabob on top of every ornament!  So I covered a sticky dot with aluminum foil, shaped it a bit and then stuck it into place.

Not bad! I really like the dimensional aspect of the ornament and the yarn. Silver ink was drawn in to indicate the ornament's hook. And then they were all signed at the bottom as usual.

Unfortunately I ran out of the green yarn so a few cards went out with iridescent white branches. (uh, snowy, right??!)

Then that ran out too and some post-modern versions went out with purple branches and gold ornaments (kind of an LSU theme).  So much for Christmas 2010! Wonder what the 2011 cards will be? hmmm