Goody's To Share Today!

Scott and I went to our favorite flea market this morning and I found a few neat things. First, a bagful of vintage embroidery patterns, none of which I have! They are odd things, most of them hand drawn or perhaps copied from commercial vintage patterns. Anyway, I thought I would share one with you:



I also found some vintage millinery flowers, some glass buttons which the dealer tried to pass off on me as antique but thankfully, I know the difference and a sweet little vintage embroidered towel:



I didn't get it on the scanner straight! Anyway, I need to wash and press it. I don't know what I liked about it. I see vintage embroidered linens all the time but this just called to me. It's a bit different than what I normally see. I may not use it as a towel but rather sew it into something. I'm not sure yet. I just liked it.

I also have a few more Fractal tags to share with you. I worked these up last week:





You can print these on cardstock and use them on handmade cards or as gift tags. Add glitter to them like I do!

Click on any of the images to go to my Flickr site where you can download the large versions.

Finally for today, I'm going to put my first 3 CQ ATC's together on the cards tomorrow. I'll post a photo when I have them ready.

More ATC's

I finished up on ACT #2 today:



And then I did #3:



I guess that's it! Not much to talk about today so I'll just leave you with the photos.

Crazy Quilt Artists Trading Cards

First thing this morning, I pulled out some fabrics and treadled up 6 tiny blocks for Artists Trading Cards. I have one stitched up already and another started:





I'll wait until I have all 6 of them stitched before putting them on the cards.

I was asked how I put the peacock feather on my June Take It Further Challenge block. I chose a feather that fanned out nicely and using a brush, I applied some fabric glue to the back. I focused mainly the eye part and only added a bit to the top of the strands. I laid it down on the fabric and using a toothpick, I carefully moved the strands of the feather to where I wanted them. I had to be careful with the fabric glue because it will show on the fabric if any wanders off on it's own.

June Take It Further Challenge Completed!

I just finished up on my June Take It Further Challenge block a little while ago:



I don't think I accomplished my mission here to pile it up with stash though. My story is, I have quite a lot but I need to keep these all working together and this one, at this point, works perfectly with the others so I will let it be now.

My stash consists of a wide variety of do-dads so I tried to use some unusual things on here such as the peacock feather. The millinery flowers and velvet leaves are vintage as are the earrings on either side of the flowers. The tatting is also vintage.

To read my first post on the June block regarding my theme for Sharon's concept, please click here.

I haven't decided what to do next. I have gobs of things I want to do including some ATC's. Will have to do some treadling for those!

June Take It Further Challenge - Day 4

Well, we went back and looked at that piece of property that we found yesterday but it didn't feel right. We found another area that we liked so we'll go back and look at that again next weekend. I have a feeling though, that the first one we found back in May is the right one. That popped into my head earlier today, many times, the first one is the right one. But we'll see.

I was asked where we are in Northern Illinois. We're on the northeast side of McHenry county and we like it here so we're looking in our current area, just a bit more north of where we are now. Ringwood, Richmond, Johnsburg, Spring Grove area. There's still a lot of farmland here and we like that.

On to my Take It Further block for June, I did do some more beading on it yesterday:



I'm trying to think of some of my more "unusual" stash items that I can add to this. I want to fill this one up to convey the fact that I have more than enough stash for this lifetime and the next! I do however want to keep within the same arena as my other blocks. They all have to work together to make a nice quilt. I guess we'll see where it goes.

I mentioned yesterday that my mom bought me a kit for making Artist's Trading Cards. Scott & I went to Borders this morning to look for books but they didn't have one for fabric & fiber ATC's. I really love collage art but I'm not into the the really spooky weirdo stuff. I like the vintage look a lot. I know that Quilting Arts has one out but Borders didn't have it. I might have to order that from Amazon. In the meantime, here's a Flickr group with Fabric/Fiber ATC's. Lot's of pretty ATC's to look at here!

I also wanted to mention that I started a new group over at Stitchin' Fingers for Collector's of Vintage Iron-On Embroidery Transfers. If you like to collect and stitch from those like I do, hop over and join! Here's the link.

A Few More Tags

Scott and I just got back from driving around and looking for property for sale. We want some acreage. We want peace & quiet, privacy & seclusion. The subdivision we live in now has become extremely noisy in the past few years. It was quiet when we bought our house, but now it's nothing but screaming kids, barking dogs, dirtbikes, motorcycles, loud radios and any other noise you can think of. I don't even open my windows anymore. I just keep the A/C on. We don't spend much time out on the deck anymore either. Anyway, we kind of think that we have to start somewhere so the best place to start is to look for property. We found a nice piece that we're going to go and check out again after breakfast tomorrow.

In the meantime, I know my blog hasn't been all that exciting lately but I try to offer something interesting as often as I can. I haven't stitched yet today but I'll be turning into a pumpkin (shorts & tee shirt) in a few moments and parking myself in front of my television with my June Take It Further block.

For now, I thought I would offer you two more tags for gifts or cards:





No, I'm not in the mood for Halloween yet but this one came out in oranges and reds and Halloween was the first thing I thought of! These are Fractal images with a few other cool filters.

Click on the images to go to my Flickr site where you can download the large version.

To thank me for helping them, my mom bought me an ATC (Artist Trading Card) kit. I've been talking about ATC's for years now! Anyway, the kit includes precut ready to embellish cards, envelopes and a rubber stamp for signing the back. I am itching to play! I can see all kinds of them including tiny CQ's! I expect you'll be seeing a few here in the near future.

Ok, I'm off to turn into a pumpkin and stitch!

June Take It Further Challenge - Day 3

Well, I didn't get too far on this yesterday and I'm a little tired today so I haven't stitched but I thought you'd like to see the beading I've done so far:



I did work up a couple of tags for the handmade cards that I do so I thought I would share those with you as well:





Click on the images to go to my Flickr site where you can download the large version. Just print them on cardstock, then cut them out and use them on packages or cards. Of course, you add glitter to the edges like I do!

Yesterday, I mentioned our Victorian dream house. I know I've shared this photo before but I thought you would like to see it again:



I've dreamed of having a Victorian style house since I was 8 years old. Back then, I didn't know the style was called "Victorian", I just know that was what I liked. Anyway, this is our house. It's the most beautiful house I've ever seen!

June Take It Further Challenge - Day 2

Thank you everyone for your kind comments regarding my dad's recovery. I truly appreciate the support that I've had from my readers over the past few months. I know things have been a bit slow here and I've lost quite a few of my daily readership but things should be a bit more consistent now.

I'm still working on closets and cupboards. As you know, my husband & I intend to have our Queen Anne Victorian style dream house built. The Universe hasn't shown us the way yet but our current course of action is to get our things in order. If anyone feels like sending out some prayers or positive energy to the Universal Mind for our intention, it would be so much appreciated!

I did some more stitching on my Take It Further block for June:



The seams are covered so now I can start with some beading. And I'm off to do that until my husband gets home from work!

June Take It Further Challenge - Day 1

Well, I finally got around to starting on my June block for the Take It Further Challenge:



I'm really not sure how to pile this up with stash but I'll figure that out as I go along.

In other news, my father has been released from all restrictions now. Another ex ray was taken and the break has disappeared! He's free to drive again although he does have to be careful and not push himself. There will still be things that they need to me to but I should have a little more free time now.

June Take It Further Challenge

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I treadled! And I sewed up my June block for the Take It Further Challenge:



The colors didn't scan correctly. The center piece is definitely a tan color. It doesn't have a pink tone to it.

Anyway, I glued the peacock feather on using Aleene's Fabric Glue. I brushed the back of the feather with some glue and then laid it down on the block, covered it with a piece of parchment paper and a book for a little while to make sure it was good and on there. Then I took off the book and parchment paper and let it dry the rest of the way over night.

I'd like to start on this today but first, I have a few chores to take care of.

If you'd like to read my first post about the June Challenge, you can find it here.

Cellphone Pouch For Mom Completed!

Well, I ran my sewing machines today! Whew! That felt good. I finished this cellphone pouch up for my mom:



I also sewed up some button blocks and my TIF block for June. I'll have that photo for you tomorrow. I decided to glue the peacock feather on using fabric glue. It shouldn't go anywhere now but it has to dry before I scan it.

Cards With Tags

Thank you everyone, for your compliments on my "simple" cellphone pouch. I'm planning on getting it sewn up tomorrow along with my TIF block for June. Since I've been organizing everything in my house, including my stash, I have a better idea of what I will do with this block. I'm wanting to really fill it up with a bit of everything! I've decided to use a real peacock feather as a focal point. I have no clue how to do that yet. I may have to put tulle over the top of it so it doesn't get all munched up but I'm not sure on that approach yet. I'll figure it out when I get that far.

In the meantime, I made a few cards yesterday, some using the tags that I created on my computer last week:



As you can see, I added glitter, lot's of glitter!

Simple Enough?

I just finished up on this cellphone pouch for my mom:



She asked me for a simple cellphone pouch. Is this simple enough? I don't think I can do simple! Ha, ha, ha!

I'm hoping to sew this up during week along with my TIF challenge block for June. It's been a long time since I've been able to treadle!

A Little Bit Of Stitching

I started on the "simple" cellphone pouch that my mom asked me for:



I expect to have some stitching time tomorrow so I'll add some beads to it and hopefully, get it assembled during the week.

Marilyn asked about how I attach jewelry, brooches and shank buttons to my CQ's. For brooches and small pins, if they are in excellent condition, I pin them on and whip stitch over the pin on the back to keep them in place. Sometimes I buy pieces that have a damaged pinback so then I cut the pinback off with wire cutters and just sew them down. If there is no way to sew them down, I sew on a few small plain buttons and glue the piece to the buttons using E-6000 Jewelry Glue. This is a good way to use tack pins as well.

For shank buttons, I usually just sew them on. Since I usually do clusters of buttons, the others will keep the shank button from flopping around.

A good option if you want to cut the shank off so that it doesn't flop around, would be to do that, then sew down a plain button and glue the other button to the plain button using the jewelry glue. I've done this with antique buttons where the shank is missing.

Another Tag

Not much new to share at the moment so I worked up another tag to share with you:

Card Tags & Gift Tags

Things are a bit slow on the stitching front here. I'll admit, I'm a bit tired and I'm still working on clearing out my closets when I'm not helping out my parents.

I have no intention of turning my blog into a paper-crafts blog but I do like to make my own cards and at the moment, that's where my little bit of creative energy is ending up. I think it's just because I make one 15 minutes or so and that's all I have the time and energy for right now.

Anyway, after reading my favorite blogs last night, I decided to make a few of my own original tags using some of the fancy filters in my graphic software:









Since many of my readers are needleworkers who make their own gifts, I thought I would share these with you. You can use them as package tags or if you're a card maker, you could use them for that.

Print them on cardstock, cut them out, punch a hole at the top and add a pretty ribbon. You probably already know that I'll be adding glitter to the edges of mine!

Father's Day Cards

I haven't done any stitching. But I did promise my mom a new cellphone pouch and I am planning on starting that tomorrow.

Today I kind of felt like just playing so I made some cards:



These are the cards I made for Father's Day. The baseball man is for my dad and the car is for Scott's dad. I don't know where the images came from. They've been on my computer for years! Both were in B/W and I changed them to brown. That gave them a vintage look.

I made some others today too but will save those for another day.

I also hand-dyed some millinery flowers that I took off of a vintage hat. I bought the hat at a flea market back on Mother's Day! Anyway, I finally got around to dying the flowers. I'll try to get a photo for you. They are so pretty!

Take It Further Challenge - June

Sharon B. has posted the concept and color palette for the June Take It Further Challenge. I must admit, I'm going to have to stretch my imagination again for this one!

The concept is stash and stories that are and the stories that are possible regarding stash.

Does my stash have a story? You betcha! And I was recently reminded of it while reorganizing it. To be honest, I have way more than I will ever use. But I won't go into too many personal details. I seem to be on a path of self-actualization here and am discovering all sorts of interesting things about myself. Many of them, I don't care for. But it is what it is and all I can do is accept it and move on.

With that said, I have no idea how to execute the story of my stash. The only thing I can think of is to load up my block with everything I have but the kitchen sink! There is a pun in that statement that you'll get if you hop over to Sharon's blog and read her post on this months challenge.

In the meantime, I've matched the DMC floss colors up to Sharon's palette:



This one was a tough! That last gray color is not exact. It's the closest I could get based on DMC's floss colors. This is really just a guide to help other's who joined in on the challenge.

As always, my medium is crazy quilting and my block will be 9 inches square. At the end of the year, I intend to sew my blocks into a wall quilt. I doubt I'll have time to sew this block up right away. I expect it may have to wait until next week.

My father is still doing very well. He's walking only with a cane now. He asked me to take him up to WalMart today so I did. It'll still be a few more weeks before he can drive so I'll continue to do errands for my parents as well as my own and I'm still in the process of cleaning out closets and cupboards.