Felt Eye Candy

These are rolls of felt that you can purchase. They are around nine inches by eleven inches. Some have polka dots or stripes pre-felted into them, some have embroidery on them. They make a nice base for projects. I love all the choices!

Wool Roving - Yum

This is my suitcase of wool roving. Don't you just love all the yummy colors. It makes me feel so happy every time I walk into my sewing room. Some are shiny some are fluffy, but it is the color that just makes my knees weak. [The best place I have found to buy roving is a wonderful place called Panopolie. ]

Finished Felted Fabric ATC's

These are the felted fabric ATC's with images, beads and lace. I feel like they are more finished. Maybe because I do so much collage work they just didn't feel like they had a focal point. Now I feel like they give your eye a story.

The top five have images a friend gave me in a trade. They say Debbie Warren on the collage sheet. I have know idea how to get in touch, a web site or blog for her. If any one knows, let me know. I do like the images though. I printed them on fabric with one of the ink cartridges that had run low. I save them and put them in a zip lock bag. Then when I need something "off color" I use them. This time I needed a purplish hue.

On the last three ATC's I used some lace butterflies that I got in college at an estate sale. The woman was the textile curator for Henry Ford Museum in Detroit Michigan. I bought everything she had that the museum did not purchase or receive. There are six sizes of these butterflies and 12 of each size. I have been carrying around a dresser full of lace from this estate for years. It was fun to pull out a piece or two and use it.

I find I am a hoarder about with certain things. As I grow personally and chronologically I find hoarding is not such a problem. My goal is to use it all up in as much art work as possible. Two of the butterfly ATC's I am planning on swapping. The other is a small gift for one of the girls in the Fabric ATC yahoo group that as hit a really rough patch.

So what do you think? Do they look more finished to you? [I apologize for my scanner. It did not like these images.]

Fabric Felted ATC's

First let me just say I LOVE my needle felting machine. It is so cool. I am doing that quilt square exchange and thought I might do a felted square this month. I had all this purple fabric I purchased for pennies at a yard sale. I had a purple piece of craft felt and thought why not.

I first covered the whole piece in fabric shapes. Squares and rectangles. Thinking this would give it a quilt look. I then added the wool roving in several shades of purple. After that I sewed the whole piece with my sewing machine in various stitches around the fabric pieces and the wool roving. I found a piece of lilac purple lace and added that. Then, some eyelash yarn.

At this point, I became undecided about using it as a quilt square. The girl I was sending it to had her first sender not follow through. How disappointing. I knew it needed to be special and here I was just randomly playing. I knew then that this going to be a fabric ATC project that maybe I could trade with some other people and make a special quilt square with the remaining fabric.

The top two pictures are the ATC's I was able to cut from the sheet of fabric felted felt. [say that three times fast] The bottom picture is the fabric felted piece of felt. I was able to get eight ATC's and had some scrap pieces left over. I love the size and feel of the ATC's. I am not sure if they are finished. Should I add some beads? Maybe an image?

Felted Fabric Fragment

This is the left over scraps from cutting the big piece of felt into eight ATC's. I felted and sewed the pieces together to get this three by three inch square. I added the images and some beads to see what they would look like. I am going to use this as the focal point for a swap I am in. I don't want to say to much or it will spoil the surprise.

After doing this piece I am thinking I should go back and spice up the ATC's. I have a bunch of images printed on fabric that might do, a little bead work for "glitz" ..... hmmmm. Back to the studio.

The Oldest Boy has a Birthday

The oldest boy has a birthday today. [ We started the slew of birthdays this month. Going from the youngest to the oldest in twenty four hours.] I know this was a hard birthday number to stomach for you son, the years have flown by for me, too. You have brought only joy into our lives these past years. I am so proud of you and the life choices you have made, and the wonderful woman you have chosen to share it with. My wish for you today is that you are surrounded by people who love and respect you as much as your family does.

Our Little Princess is One!

Guess who is one year old today? It's our little princess! She is the sweetest thing. I can't believe it has been a year since this little angel came into our lives. Happy Birthday Sweet One!

Row Houses Deux

I tell you these are addicting. I did these tonight to send off as extra's for some swaps I am in. They are just too fun!

Quote

"I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it".
Pablo Piccaso

Blue and Green

Chris's Pound Cake

With all the birthday coming's and going's the next few weeks, cake has been on my mind. My grandmother Chris was the queen of cakes. She made train cakes with every imaginable candy on them, swimming pool cakes with blue jello, doll cakes, you name it she could make it. So this is a simple pound cake recipe. Most of the ingredients are probably in your cupboard so you don't have to run out and get something from the store. What makes it special is what you put on it. You can ice it with a simple frosting, serve with strawberries or blueberries, turn it in to something tangy with an orange icing or just eat plain.

1 cup butter/half a pound
2 1/4 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/4 cups flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Have all ingredients at room temperature. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Sift flour three times. Add baking powder and salt for third sifting. Add alternately with milk to mixture with eggs, beating thoroughly. Pour into well greased pan. Bake 1 1/2 hours at 325 degrees. When cool frost.

Frosting - two recipes

SEVEN MINUTE FROSTING

1 cup sugar
1 egg white unbeaten
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon white Karo
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Place sugar, egg, water, Karo in top of a double broiler over rapidly boiling water. Beat until it will hold a peak. Remove from heat, add vanilla and salt. Continue to beat till it gets that frosting consistency.


BUTTER FROSTING - my personal favorite and my kids love it on everything, cake, cookies, graham crackers,etc...

1 lb. box confectioners sugar
1/4 lb. soft butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 to 4 tablespoons milk

Cream 1/3 of sugar with butter and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Blend vanilla, tablespoons milk, and remaining milk into mixture. Gradually stir remaining milk into frosting till you get the consistency you like. Spread on cake.

Brillante Weblog Award

I am ashamed to say I received this award several weeks ago. I was right in the midst of my son's wedding and then coming home to almost ten days of upheaval from my floors being ripped out, replaced, sanded, stained and polished and a stay in a hotel. I really was thrilled and excited about receiving this award. I actually still am excited! So thank you, thank you, thank you Deanna!

The rules to this award are similar to some of the others. First, place the award logo on your blog. Second, add a link to the person who gave you the award blog. Third, pass encouragement on to at least seven other blogger's with the award. Fourth, add a link on your blog to their blog. And fifth, leave a message on their blog for them about the award. It is late and I might not get to all seven tonight but I can think of several off hand.

1. Aileen
2. Linda Misa
3. Sharon at E14 Studio
4. Martha Brown
5. Melinda

I think you will find Aileen full of inspiration an ideas and how- too's. A very talented lady. Linda is a brilliant doll maker and will amaze you, Sharon is fresh and I feel like I am reading a friend's blog, Martha is pure talent out of Canada. You have probably seen some of her things in Somerset. Melinda has new things on her blog, her family, her fabric creations, making you feel like you too can manage the family and be very creative.

Freebies #8 Sisters

I celebrated a "milestone" birthday last week that lasted through the weekend and the beginning of this week with family and friends. I had a lot of time to think about how special my family and friends are to me. As I talked and laughed with many of them the resounding theme in my head was "how lucky I am" and what a dull and drab life it would be with out all of them. They are what color my world.

It is only appropriate that this week's freebies should be sisters. My friends are like sisters to me. I have a sister, she is very special to me. My baby sister, my writer sister, my sister who lives far away. My girlfriends are my sisters, too. The difference is we picked each other, through thick and thin. Sisters whether related by blood or things unexplained are precious gifts from the universe.

So I give you some sister images. Some related by blood, some just friends. I hope you will take a moment and call, write, email, or text a sister. Make something special for a sister with one of these images. Color their world with you.

Purple Quiltie Squares for August

Remember that fabric I bought for 25 cents at a yard sale a couple of weeks ago? Well this is what I made with some of it. My monthly quiltie square swap is purple this month. We do a 6 1/2 inch by 6 1/2 inch square and send it to our assigned person for the month. I am making two so that in the end I will have two art quilts.

The center of my quilt is an idea that I got from the new issue of Teesha Moores' Art and Life.
This is one of my favorite zine's. She is so inspirational and her colors are right up my alley - bright - bold - and full of life. So, thank you Teesha for the wonderful felt flowers and I hope my swap recipient loves her quiltie square.

More Snippets

These are a couple more snippet dolls that I made from the left overs from my yellow quiltie and the purple quiltie. They are very quick and simple to make [see previous post]. I figure by the time I finish with the quiltie swap I will have a whole school of snippet dolls.

As I was making the two purple dolls tonight I was trying to figure out why as an adult I like to make dolls so much, but as I child I did not play with dolls. I have a wonderful doll collection from all over the world that my Mom started for me as a child. My parents and their friends would bring me dolls from far away places they visited. I never played with them. They all sat on shelves and I loved making up stories about them, but I didn't play with them like little girls play with dolls. I loved their exotic clothes and hair styles. They spoke of far away lands and places I wanted see. I think they represented to me the possibilities of adulthood.

Birthday Flowers

These are my birthday flowers from two of my boys. They gave me such a big bouquet I was able to fill two huge vases with them. One is on the kitchen table and the other in our family room. It is so wonderful to wake up every morning and be greeted with fresh flowers. What a wonderful way to start off the day.

Art Quote

"It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance... and I know no substitute whatever for the force and the beauty of its process."
Henry James

Marguerite - One Sweet Angel - Four Ways

Here is a sweet little angel from one of our local cemeteries. She dates back around 1915. Our community was hit hard by the influenza epidemic and there are a lot of childlike angels and enough little lambs to make a herd. It is so sad to see the little lambs.

This angel is one of my favorites. I love her little bow at the neckline. Her skirt has lace along the hem as does the sleeves of her dress. There is great attention to detail in so many of these statues. I also love the fact that her wings are feathers.

I hope you will have fun photo shopping her and - or adding her to your art work. If you have time I would love to see what you have done with her.

Old Cupboard - New Look

This cupboard sits in my kitchen. I have had quite a mess in my house for the past few weeks. I had some water damage and had to have my kitchen floors replaced, sanded, stained, and a finish put on them. It has been a saga that would bore you to tears! Trust me I almost came to tears a few times, but humor won out.

While the furniture an appliances were moved I decided to repaint my kitchen. Of course this led to changing things around, new color scheme, some new decorating, etc... I have a large collection of ironstone and white pottery - Thank you to my grandmother for this - so I decided to move my green pottery and pull out the white. I was even able to find a place for a couple of last week's garage sale finds.

I love it. I cannot even begin to explain how big of a difference it makes. It is so clean and bright and I love the simple lines of it. It also looks so great in my really cool oak cupboard. It makes my whole kitchen so inviting. Plus , I think about my grandmother and somehow that always gives me strength. She was a very creative person, also very independent and strong minded.
I think she would be very pleased.

Angel with Horn

I think we all have a real affinity for angels. They offer such hope. [I personally hope I have a few looking after me and the ones I love.] I particularly like the angels that you find in cemeteries. They are so quiet and full of the past, so worn an aged. Have you ever noticed how each country and city sort of has their own style of angel? I found this angel on Margaret Rodgers' blog.

Margaret has very graciously offered several photos on her blog for personal use. This is my version of one of them. I have several more angels I hope to share with you. I have some unaltered, but really nice photos from San Francisco, New Orleans, Paris, my own home town, etc... Again, thank you Margaret!