Organization Sunday 2

Posting two days in a row--Wow.  I really am capable of sticking to a plan (for a short time, anyway).  And I do like the idea of getting more organized in small, underwhelming projects.  One a week--I can handle that . . . .

     As seen above, I already have some semblence of an organized system:  wonderful shelving unit from IKEA, storage boxes, even labels on most of the boxes.  However, if you pull out almost any box and look inside--CHAOS.

    

     This is what would greet me when I pulled out my box labeled Fibers:  plastic baggies filled with wool roving, silk roving, silk hankies,  embroidery flosses,  yarn scraps, hand-dyed threads, and one large bag of

MISCELLANEOUS.  In order to find anything, I'd usually have to haul out the whole mess and sort.  So--

     These two sizes of small plastic boxes were purchased quite inexpensively at my nearby Hobby Lobby and work perfectly.  The larger ones are around 7x5x4, and the smaller ones, 3x5x3.  I separated the wool roving into warm and cool colors, and so on, labeling each box on top.



     Here are my flosses (cool box, warm box), my own hand-dyed threads from a class, yarn scraps (still in semi-sorted baggies) and finally a small open box with cards of special embellishments, etc.  Wowsie, I'm impressed!!!



     And finally, my unbelieveably organized stash of fibers!!!!  The plastic boxes stack easily inside the storage box in three layers.  I do have to unstack to find a specific box, but I try to keep the least-used items at the bottom.  Anyway, so far this works for me.  Hmmmm, what next?

Quick Post

This will be a short one just to catch up on a previous entry before trying to share everything from this week at once!!!  I still haven't gotten into the practice of doing short blogs more often instead of letting stuff pile up.  I'll keep trying!!!



     This is a "portapad" cover made from the "Teatime" fabric shown earlier using printed teabags fused down to my gelatin-printed background. 

Here's the inside of the portpad with the right flap folded over a small legal pad.

     I took the left-over fabric and put together a little container to hold my box of favorite tea.  The box itself has a convenient opening at the bottom through which you can extract one teabag at a time.  I love it.  So, when I constructed my fabric "teabag caddy," I also made a slot at the bottom and a lid on top.  Works beautifully!!

Organization Sunday

     OK.  So I decided that I needed some motivation--both to blog and to get more organized--thus ORGANIZATION SUNDAY!!!  (We'll see how long it lasts).  Ever since constructing my desk using a hollow-core door from Home Depot, I have tried to figure out a way to install some kind of drawer under the space in front of my chair.  I simply couldn't find any undermount drawers for less than several hundred dollars (my whole 8x3 worktable cost less than $80).  Enter IKEA:  I stopped on my way back from Tucson last week and found this--for $10.99:

     You probably can't tell very well from the photo, but it is a metal sliding support for a computer keyboard that fastens to the underside of a flat surface. 

 

     And this for $4.99:

     It's kind of a felty, plastic drawer divider which should hold all of my various and sundry stuff, once attached to the hanging support (I hope).

     I made little marks on the underside of the "door" where I wanted the "drawer" to hang (you can see them if you look closely), then removed everything from my work table and flipped it upside-down.  I got out my trusty electric drill and laid out the template included with the "drawer."  Drilling into a hollow-core door is a bit tricky, and I had some trouble, but at last, the anchors were pounded in, and I was able to screw the whole thing into place!!!!. 



     I fastened the drawer liner onto the keyboard pad with double-stick carpet tape, and Yippee Skippy, it works perfectly!!!!!  Can you tell I'm a bit proud of my handiwork?  I'll have to be careful not to put anything too heavy in the drawer, or lean on it (as I am wont to do), but on the whole, this is exactly what I wanted--a place to store necessary stuff that took up too much room on my work surface.   

One product and (finally!) one process!

     I completed another sheer fabric applique (but forgot about taking pictures along the way again).  I designed this one for my portapad pattern, and it turned out OK.  Trying hard to remember all of the problems I had with the first attempt, this one was a lot easier altogether.  Still a few tweaks, but on
the whole, I enjoyed the entire process. 

I added small pieces of copper for a little bling, but the narrow strips don't show up very well in the photo .  I also used copper embroidery thread to delineate the center of the flower.

     As for my bragged about process:  step-by-step (well, I left out a few) photos of using teabags to create collaged fabric.

The above photo shows one of my pieces of gelatin printed fabric which I used as background.

These flower photos were all stored in my Photoshop files.  I cropped them, using images that would compliment the background, collaged them onto a blank page, then printed it on teabags taped down to a sheet of printer paper.  (See tutorial by Judy Coates Perez.)

Here the printed flowers are simply laying on top of the background fabric.  I added Misty Fuse to the back of each print, being careful to use parchment paper both front and back as I ironed it on.  Right now there are a couple of missing steps because my photos weren't clear enough to publish:  a printed a sheet of  tags off tea bags, text downloaded from the internet about the history of tea, and some short labels.

This is actually the finished piece.  Steps not shown:  tearing the flowers apart and placing them around the background before ironing them in place; same for the tea tags; then the text.  Finally the labels were scattered strategically across the whole piece.  I added loosly-cut strips of antiqued-lace fabric, then batting and backing, and free-motion stitched in an easy echoed-flower pattern.  I have an idea of how I'm going to use the fabric, but probably won't get anything completed for several days.

Busy not Blogging!!

     It seems like I have too many things going on (all my own doing, of course), so I try to finish something before putting it on the "waves."  I really need to start showing process not just product.  I'll try.

     Some things I have been working on this week:  gelatin printing; drawing class at Desert Museum; on-line sketchbook class with Jane La Fazio; trying a new technique (appliquing sheer fabric); and organizing an idea about setting up an Etsy shop.  Un huh, my daughters agree--adult-onset ADD.  Anyway, here are a couple of the results:  I'm calling them my Easter Egg gelatin prints.  I don't know what I'll be doing with any of them yet, but I'll leave them up on my design wall until inspiration hits.

     These prints were all made using an inexpensive bouquet of flowers purchased at the grocery store.  I actually wanted a few purple aster-like flowers to sketch for a water-color print and not wanting to waste the rest of the flowers, I decided to tackle another round of gelatin printing.  Next time, I am going to show a step-by-step rundown of the process. I also printed the leaves available in the bouquet, but I'm not happy with the results--not enough texture.  This time of year there aren't many usable leaves available in AZ (or in MI, for that matter!!).

     This (journal cover) is my first real attempt  at appliquing sheer fabric using a pattern (my own drawing) sketched onto tracing paper.  I made several major mistakes!!  First of all, there should be more contrast between the sheer fabric design and the background (I ended up adding some Lumiere paint to enhance the final result);  my individual elements (leaves) need to be larger for more impact, AND, most importantly, I have to be more careful when stitching around the pattern twice--removing the tracing paper took FOREVER.  By the way, this technique is beautifully explained by Deborah Boschert in the new Emag, In Stitches from Quilting Arts Magazine.  I will definitely be using this wonderful application again, hopefully learning from my previous attempt.

Something New

          A few weeks ago, I stopped in an antique mall to browse and ended up walking out with an armful of cool vintage stuff.  My pile included several women's magazines from the early 1900's, old sheet music,  hand-crocheted doilies and lace, old dress patterns from the 40's and 50's, and lots of neat buttons.

       I wasn't sure what I was going to do with my treasures, but after purchasing a new (for me) magazine called SEW Somerset,  "the art of creative sewing with mixed media," I was intriqued and inspired.  Pulling out some fabrics, I  began to play, and ended up using a little bit of each of the items displayed above.   Super FUN!!!!

     This is one of my standard portapads:  an 8x16 inch "mini-quilt," tri-folded around an 8x5 pad of paper and fastened with a magnetic snap.  I printed  my "Old Keys" sketch on a teabag and backed it with Misty Fuse.   After tearing bits and pieces of ephemera from the magazines, sheet music, and dress patterns, I used gel medium to adhere them to the fabric.  I free-motion stitched the whole piece piece together with a pseudo-Greek Key design and added some ribbon and rickrack trim.  Finally two small keys found their places on the front. 

This shows the front and back laid flat and open

        and this is the inside with the right side folded over the pad.

    I also made a journal cover using the same basic materials and process.  (Be sure you click on the photos because they will enlarge to show the details).  Love the creative zing I get when experimenting with new "stuff."

Up and Running at last!!!

     I can't believe that I've been out of touch so long.  Two friends were here from Michigan, and we  went birding to Tucson and parts SE for @ ten days (saw great birds and two "lifers" for me).  During that time my computer died a quiet death, and my wonderful son-in-law, Steve, found me a new one, set it up, and spent a lot of time fine-tuning it to fit my "special needs" (I'm technologically challenged).  Anyway, I'm back, but haven't really started to focus on any new projects or finish any old ones; this seems to happen every time I take a sustained break.

      I am still working with the on-line sketch class (see scone below) and have just started a drawing class at the Desert Museum in Tucson--LOVE IT!!  I'll probably post some of my drawings when I get a bit more accomplished--maybe. . . .

    This assignment was completed early one very crispy morning in the charming little town of Bisbee, AZ.  The scone was delicious, but I had to draw it before eating!!!