Friday finish!

 

This week I decided to try something new with braiding, a heart wall hanging. I used scraps of fabrics and a one inch strip, since I wanted to make small ones. Well, I made my starter piece too large, so it came out larger and longer than I wanted, but I still like it. Since it was bigger, I added a stitched word and a bow for fun. I enjoy braiding and rag braids are easier, since I just tear the fabric and make a slit to attach the pieces. A great relaxing craft, while watching tv.

The colors are off but the bow is the red in the heart.

I also finished one panel of my Christmas quilt. Even with lines, I am still wonky. Hard to work on a long piece, so it takes longer than a regular block. I also need more space on the couch, so I can only work on it when my husband goes to bed. The yellows are not as bright as they look in the photo.

We got out for a ride last week. As always, I enjoy the ride and ocean areas, as well as catching a few birds along the way.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend and doesn't get too snowed in. They are predicting up to 8" in our area. Tomorrow we will get out during the day, before it hits.

Friday Finishes!

I hope everyone had a good week, mine was up and down. The up was time with my grandsons, the down was Bill's surgery was messed up, so his eyesight is worse. Now he has to wait for that to heal up before they do another one.

Another good thing is my ability to make things, that keeps me sane and even if they are small items, it was nice to have some new things to enjoy. The first thing I finished was a small braided mat for Moki's bowl. It is the perfect size to sit in front of the corner cabinet and more homey looking than the junk rug I had.

This is a great way to use up old wool that is not great for hooking or applique. The green was given to me and the moths got to it, but it still works in braids. It measures 22' x 16" and I realize, it kills my bad arm, so if I make big ones, I will have to work on them a bit at a time. I messed up on the end, but I just wanted to finish it and it is good enough.

I also made up a stitchery, a lavender pillow which went into the box of wool strips, that I rolled up. The lavender keeps the wool, fresh smelling and moths do not like it. The design is by Diane Knott for Lori's facebook group, Humble Work Hand Embroidery. There was more to the design, but I wanted to keep it simple. I used colored pencils before I stitched and a twisted yarn around the edge. It measures 5 1/2" x 3 1/2".

Today I got all my paint supplies out of my sewing room and set my machine back on the desk. Next I will clean up and organize and start practicing on my quilter and prepping some new pieces, time to quilt.

Saturday we went to the boy's birthday. I got Nick a  Vtech smart watch and Alex got a fun kid's watch. Nick's can take photos and video, so he can use it when we go to the beach or on hikes. Their party was at a science center, so they did experiments and got to make slime, to take home. Alex was more interested in getting a cupcake.

It is always good to see the boys having fun.

On Sunday we took the boys out and got a slip and slide and other fun things to have a fun day in the yard. Then their dad said he wanted us to come back for an early dinner, so we ended up at their house for a Birthday dinner for Bill. We gave Ivy a gift certificate for her Birthday and she got a new fire pit. This time my son made a dinner I could eat, so it was nice to relax and let them do all the work and spend time together.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Friday Finish and Finds!

I finished my turtle, that was it for this week. I am working on a new stitchery of the month and other projects and gardening and keeping up with the house and animals, it seems I have less and less time lately, to do it all.

I love how he came out, not perfect but he is fun and makes me smile.

And one thing keeping me busy is, stripping and sewing strips for rug braiding. The great thing is, it will cut down on the old wool stash from the thrifts and I will have it ready whenever I want to make a little rug. I think I will make a mat for the cat dish next, the thinner wools will be good for that. This is just a start, I was trying to sew on my machine and the bobbin messed up again, so I think I need to get my little Juki out and use that, not worth wrecking my good machine, sewing on wools. Sew by hand is relaxing while I watch tv, but it will take me forever.

And of course we went to the beach on the weekend. We stopped at the southern beach after shopping and the tide was almost in, but we still found some nice pieces. The second day we went to our favorite spot, at low tide. There were a few beach collectors that got there first, but I found quite a few pieces that they missed.

And I have been enjoying some time on the porch, my way to relax and unwind. Lots of critters and birds are enjoying the feeder. The squirrels are a pain, they knock all the seed out of the feeders and I have seen them batt a few birds to get it all for themselves. The Guinea fowl have been spending more time in my yard, even taking naps. There were six and now there are only two, not sure if they got hit by cars or predators.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We have rain coming in, but I am s sure I can squeeze in some more beach time.

Friday Finishes!

This week I worked on an art piece. Something I have been wanting to try and practice a few techniques on. I decided to go with a small 5" x 7" canvas board. I used a new product, Liquitex matte medium. It went on a lot easier and nicer than the heavy gel, but I noticed bleeding right away.

The end result for my transfer was a bit more faded than the usual, but I did use plain copy paper and a design from one of my photos, that I put through an art filter. So, it wasn't that bold to begin with and gave me the effect I wanted as a background image. Once I cleaned off the paper, most of the red went away, so I was happy with that, as well.

This is how it looked, I did enhance the buildings with colored pencils.

I decided to further enhance some details by painting over the buildings and some of the surf. Then I started playing with things I had in my beach finds. First was the driftwood log, then I found a rock that looked like a body with an arm and some shapes and rocks that I liked and it became a little scene of me at the beach. I used wool for the hat and gloves, small pieces of glass and a shell. It was fun to do and when done, I added glass gel beads to the sand and under the boats. The boats are also my photos, I printed them out and cut out the boats.

I also finished my rug, I decided to stop since I was running out of the dark blue and truthfully, it is hard on my arm and slow going. It is 36" x 26" and I decided to put it at the top of the stairs. I gives a nice pop of color in a dark area and Bean can lie on it when he is waiting for us to get home.

This was done with precut wool, that someone had given me. It is a bit thinner than I usually work with, so the next one I will do in thicker coat weights.

And of course we went beach hunting last weekend. I am trying to keep from over doing it and making sure I get some straight walking in, great exercise and gives my back a rest. We found some nice pieces on Saturday.

And Sunday we got a bit more. I will definitely be making more mixed media art and using some of the fun pieces I find, as well as the glass.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Friday Workings!

This week I have been working on old projects and starting a new one. I have tons of wool, especially scrap wool, so I plan on using the wool that is not great for hooking or appliqué and making scrap rugs. I was gifted wool, years ago and decided to start with that and making a braided rug.

The great thing about braided rugs are, they are not hard to make and you do not need any tools, if you use what you have. There are various methods so it is a great way to use up junk wool and fabric scraps, as well.

I couldn't find my braid aids, but I did find an old set that was still in the box and it even came with a measuring tool and flat needle for threading. I get old supplies from friends and relatives, so sometimes I don't even realize what I have. It is a nice set and never been used, so I can use it for future rugs. For this one, the strips are too thin to get a nice braid with them.

This is what I have gotten done so far, a bit thinner than I like, but I have enough rolled strips to make a small throw rug, so once I use up this wool, I will finish it off and if I need a little extra, I know I have plenty of similar wools.

I am using my hands to turn the wool under, as I go, so slower going. It also twists as I braid, so I have to untwist it, as I go, so that slows me down, but also gives my hands a rest.

While I was looking for the aids, I found items I had forgotten about. To finish and paint the floral rug, or sell to someone else. The cats would be a fun one for the kitty bowls. And, it is one rug the cats won't claw at. The dog piece is another oldy, I really need to clean out my supplies, lots from the 80's.

And we got to spend time at the beach on the weekend and a few days during the week. The glass photos to the right are from my favorite beach, we found some nice treasures. The smaller photo on the left is from a local port beach, not a lot of great glass, but a few fun finds, a domino and an old local beer cap. Now I need to make time for working on some art pieces I have been thinking about.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Friday Finish!

First I want to appologize to those who haven't gotten comments from me, on their blogs. For some reason I cannot post if I do the security questions, they just keep coming at me, so I just comment and it shows up as going through, but then I get returned mail, saying it didn't. So, I have been visiting and commenting, just need to figure out how to get mine to go through.

This week I had some tries that didn't work, projects I couldn't start and one project I got to finish. The design was offered by Homespun Whimsy on Facebook. She also has a block of the month with sheep, if you are interested in checking out Homespun Whimsy on Facebook.

I reduced the pattern by 20% and made a little pillow, that measures 9" x 6 1/2". I trace my design with a blue embroidery marker that washes off. Then I color in the design with colored pencils, then I stitch the design. This time I didn't use fabric medium but the color stayed when I wet patted around it to get the blue marks off.

And then there was the project I wanted to come out nice. I used Americana decoupage on this one and it bled more than the others. I also messed up on the sizing to fit the canvas. I really love the photo and saying, so I will have to try it in a different type of art piece.

And the project I couldn't get started. I was gifted the rolls of braiding wool and decided to make a scrappy rug for the kitchen. But, I cannot find my braid aids. I found 2 small ones and the box, but not the third one or the larger set of three. I am worried they went out with other items I gave away. I can braid without them, but I think it would be easier with them.

I will try braiding this weekend without them to see how I do. I have tons of scrap, rough wools so I am going to cut them into braid strips and make small rugs for entry ways and maybe some for the pet dishes. A good way to use up scrap stash that is not really good for hooking and it is more durable for those areas.

And then there is the total disaster. I decided it was time to shave Izzy. She will let me do it for so long, so I give her some canned food and she sits still for a few minutes. The problem was, I forgot to check the blade length so it shaved too close. Then she moved too much, so she is shaved mostly on the top and sides and looks like a lawnmower ran over her, lol. I think I need to get a pill to put her in a sleep state, then I could just get it done quickly and get her nails too.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend. We have good weather coming in, so I will definitely be outside as much as possible.

Happy Easter....Eggs!

I am skipping Valentines and going straight for Easter, lol.
I was looking for egg ideas and saw a photo of some braided eggs.
Of course I didn't bother to look at the instructions, I just jumped in, as usual.
I saw that they used plastic bottles, I decided plastic eggs were easier.

So, you can visit the link above or try and follow my abbreviated version. You do need to know how to braid with fabric and here you can find the instructions.
For my braids, I did not use any sewing, I just made braids with the strips, for larger braids, I hand turn.

The braids were about 30" long for the 3 " egg. I also kept braiding after I got my 30" to make another 30" for the next one, much easier than starting over. This is just a basic idea of how I did it, if you want to try it, you do need to know how to braid and get the hang of it as you go along.

For my eggs, I bought 3" plastic eggs and sanded the surface. You want your surface to be rough so that the braids don't slide and the glue adheres. I made my braids, similar to the tutorial, mine are a bit more raggy. To put them on the egg, I used ailenes tacky glue and lots of it, so it is messy. I started at the top and put the raw edge at the tip of the edge, then folded the braid over that, to hide the edge. Then I added glue to the next level and pressed my braid down, keeping it tight against the first row and continued down and around. When I get to the bottom, I start to flatten the braid down until I get to the bottom center. Cut off excess braid and glue it to center, making sure no egg is showing. You can add glue to the fabric to get the cut edge all pressed in and work it to keep it flat. It starts out wet with all the glue, but it is nice because you can hand press to reshape areas that seem off.

I realize that I need some more darker colors for contrast. I didn't want to use my good homespuns so maybe I will hit jo anns and buy some cheaper homespun there;)



Here is a close look. The first one came out better, the other two I rushed and made smaller braids, so they were stiffer and more ragged. That is one thing I noticed, larger, softer braids are easier to get around the egg.

Little Birdie

Look what I found under my porch today. We have a second story porch, so it is a perfect hideout for a nest.
I wonder what they must think though, when we are tromping around the porch.
The other baby is hiding.



As for braiding, here are some answers to your questions.
You can type in braid aid and find lots of places that sell them.
I got mine from whispering hills of Connecticut at a rug show.

If you want to learn, there are some nice books available, I got mine from the library.

I use a long doll needle to sew my rugs and for thread, I got crochet cotton in black. I try and go inbetween the braids, but sometimes I go into them, so I do not do it professionally, just my way;) The threads for braiding are expensive, so I get the nice crochet cotton at jo anns with a coupon.

For braiding, I use thrift wools. Men's jackets are a great place to look and if you hit them on discount days, you can get some good bargains.