Fish Under The Sea, Old Lace & More!

I'm still here! But I've been busy as a bee trying to organize my stash better and get some finishing done. And I've done alot this past weekend!

Starting off with my Fish Under The Sea purse:



It's completely finished now and I've decided that I can't part with it! It sure looks different as a purse than it did as a stitched piece. I won't get into all the little details of the finishing but as you can see, I added a tassel which I made myself and then added some silver bugle beads with more seashells on the ends. I used it yesterday morning and will admit, I got alot of weird looks. Those looks from other women that say, "who the heck does she think she is?!!" Ha!! I don't care. I think I'm someone who prefers pretty one-of-a-kind purses to plain ole boring store bought ones! That's who I think I am!

So now, my next big project will be this purse:



I've titled this one, "Girl With A Kitten". And yes, I'll most likely keep this one for myself too. I just fell in love with this vintage photo when I saw it at Art-E-Zine. I don't download much from the internet, but I just love hand-tinted vintage photos of pretty little children with animals, esp. cats (that's a surprise, right?)! I hope to start on it later today.

In the meantime, I also did a bit of antiquing over the weekend and I have to confess to you another weakness that I have, vintage lace! I can't help myself, I buy all the old lace that I find. I can't stand to see it laying around in an antique shop, not being enjoyed. Esp. the hand crocheted lace but I feel that way about all of it!

The problem is, I have a chest of drawers in here that is full to the brim with vintage lace! So, I have decided, that when I find it, I'll buy it, wash it, hand paint it and offer it in my Etsy shop to other stitchers who don't have access to it or who don't want to mess with the dyes. And yes, it does get messy!





What you see here, is only 1/2 of what I've hand-painted this weekend. The other half is hanging on hangers on the rod in my bathroom drying. I finished up this morning.

As soon as I got home with this batch of lace, I hand-washed it and started painting! I don't use a traditional dye pot method. I hand-paint each piece one at a time. I like my lace to be unevenly dyed so that's why I do it that way. I'll be spending the rest of my afternoon, heatsetting and lightly starching it. And tomorrow morning, I'll start packaging it up.

I have tons of stuff to add to my Etsy shop as soon as Etsy is up and running again. I just checked a few minutes ago and they don't have the new version of their site running yet but I'm sure it'll be soon. I have some beads, some needlework books, lots of quilt fabric in case I have some sane quilters who read here and then some new things I made. It'll probably take me hours to list every thing so I'll most likely add a little each day. I'm still on dial-up!!

So, that's what I've been doing. I have more finishing to share tomorrow but in the meantime, I'll off to iron all that wonderful old lace!

Let It Snow Fabric Postcard

Been very busy here organizing my stash. I have limited storage space but am blessed with an amazing collection of beads, buttons, fabrics, laces and other trims and embellishments.

I've pulled some things that I know I won't be using again and will add alot of goodies to my shop next week. Since Etsy will be down this weekend (at least that's the plan at the moment) I figured I might as well hold off until I have everything together and do it all at once.

I'm getting ready to go through my fabric collection but in the meantime, I wanted to share my "Let It Snow" fabric postcard with you. I completed it last night.


Just as a refresher, I started with some white 28 count linen. I tore one of my hand painted fiber (dryer) sheets and fused it to the bottom with some Heat & Bond. I then stitched the snowflakes in using 2 strands of DMC floss and 1 strand of Kreinik Blending Filament and did eyelet stitches. I then sewed the tatted tree on by hand, embellished it with sequins and then added the Mill Hill snowman button. I sewed the blue snowflake sequins on and attached a bit of glittery snow with some fabric glue. I added some iron-on interfacing to the backing fabric and layered it all with cotton quilt batting and then blanket stitched the edges using 1 strand of DMC White Perle Cotton #5. I almost hate to part with it but I'll adding this to the shop next week too.

Ok, so now I'm off to re-organize my fabric stash.

Tatted Tree Fabric Postcard

Tatted Tree Fabric Postcard
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I'm running a bit late today. I've been trying to reorganize my CQ stash of beads, buttons, trims, lace and everything else I have to stitch with. I'm making good progress here so the next thing is go through my fabric stash and see if I can't make that more accessable.

I didn't quite get this completed last night. All that's left to do on it is layer it with some interfacing, quilt batting and backing fabric and then I'll blanket stitch the edges.

For the eyelet snowflakes, I used 2 strands of DMC and 1 strand of Kreinik Blending Filament. I added sequins to the tree a few snowflake sequins to the "snow", a Mill Hill snowman button and some that funky glitter that you can get to put in snow scenes. I used fabric glue to hold that on.

I'm sure I will get this completed later today. It's really sparkly!

Fish Under The Sea 2 Purse Completed

This is one weighty purse! DH took it off the frame for me last night and told me that it exceeds the weight limit! Honestly, it's not that heavy considering all the seashells and other do-dads that I have on it:



I added a few sequins for bubbles, did a ton of french knots at the bottom with some tan crochet cotton to simulate sand and then I added a few tiny star sequins for a bit more sparkle. I plan to assemble it later this week.

I think unless someone emails me and tells me that they want it, I'll probably keep it for myself. I'm assuming now that I'm one of the few women out there who would carry a purse like this, esp. during the day.

To me, a purse like this is what a beautiful hat was to a women in the early part of the 20th century. I feel great carrying these gorgeous purses. And since I don't go out much at night, I use them during the day. And yes, where I live (not the fashion capital of the US), I get weird looks. But I don't care. I feel really great using these so that's what I do.

Before I start on another larger project, I decided to start another fabric postcard:



I worked up a little red tatted Christmas tree yesterday afternoon and this morning, took a piece of 28 count linen, tore one of my Fiber Sheets and ironed it onto the linen using some Heat & Bond. I want to do some eyelet snowflakes and then bead the tree. I'm sure this one will be done later today.

First, I need to run to Michael's and WalMart for a few things!

Fish And Fiber Sheets

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to paint some dryer sheets:



Well, I went a little crazy with them! So I've packaged some up and added a few to my shop:



I enjoy painting these and I love using them in my projects but I didn't need so many at the moment! I put some music on to drown out the sound of the football game that Scott was watching and I guess I really got into it!

These Fiber Sheets are wonderful to use on crazyquilts, fabric postcards, altered art and other mixed media projects. They can be cut, torn, stretched and applied to other fabric or paper with fusable web, fabric glue or household craft glue.

When I finally ran out of sheets to paint, I worked some more on this:



Oh, this has just been such an enjoyable project! Peaceful and quiet, almost like watching the fish in my aquarium! As you can see, I added alot more do-dads and the fishies are there now! All that's left is to add a few bubbles (sequins) and some french knots to the bottom for sand and then it'll be ready to assemble. Although I honestly don't know how I'm going to sew this together with all the 3-dimensional do-dads on it! I know I'll be quite thankful for my zipper foot when I get that far. I should have the stitching complete for you to see tomorrow so stay tuned!