A Little of This and a Little of That...

I have been puttering around lately doing a little of this and a little of that...  I finished another Nordic Shawl in gray cotton and its been keeping me warm these past few nights when the air has gotten cool this week.  The blue shawl is from a pattern I found on Pinterest. At least I think that's where I found it... it's in Russian so I'm following the graph ( love me a good crochet graph, easier to follow than written directions )

The shawl is complete now except for the edging which I'm finishing up...

I made a skirt that I am in love with for several reasons ( it's from the pattern I got from Meredith at Mereknits )  

1. I love, love, love the fabric! I got it at Joann's Fabrics last week for $4.00. It was a remnant. There was just enough to make a skirt. 

The blue in the skirt is deeper than what is showing up in this picture. The color in the first picture of the skirt is the true color.

2.  I needed to add some length to it since I was limited on my fabric and I didn't have any coordinating fabrics I liked to go with it for a bottom band so... I crocheted a trim to the bottom with a dark brown crochet thread from Red Heart I found at Wal-Mart.

Yeah! I love when a plan comes together! The skirt fits really well and is very comfortable.

I started another sewing project this morning which is presently pissing me off so i stopped for now to write this post...

It's from this Japanese sewing book I got from Amazon. The directions are in English and it comes with patterns.  I love the styles of the outfits and have been itching to make something...

I'm working on this tunic/dress in the fabric above ( another piece I picked up last week on clearance) It will look cute with leggings and boots this Fall if I can get past the directions ( or lack of directions).  I am slowly figuring out what I am supposed to be doing, but I would not recommend this book for anyone who has not been sewing for a while and has a working knowledge of constructing a piece of clothing...

You have to trace out the patterns on another paper ( I used baking parchment since I didn't have any pattern paper or tracing paper) Not a big deal but it took some time and patience since all the patterns are superimposed over each other in different colors in different directions. Not something you want to do if you have a headache...

I have already sewn the sleeves wrong and are going to ripping the seams out of them later to re-start... as i am looking at the limited pictures and written directions for sewing the pieces together I am figuring it out as I go. I need to sit back and study the directions some more before continuing.  Also, I added a little extra to the pattern since even at the largest size it was going to be a little snug. I'm generally a size 12/ large ( although ,I tried on a beautiful linen dress yesterday and I was a medium , not a large. They are sized for real people. Didn't get the dress even on sale I couldn't justify spending $70 dollars on it :(  the dress line is called, Flax. Really nice stuff!

I'm also reading, Teach Like A Pirate by Dave Burgess. It's an easy read, I'm about halfway through. I found it through a book club read from Cassie Stephens blog. (I can't get Blogger to link to the book club post today and I'm in no mood to fight with it ) I'm not on Facebook so I am just reading it on the side. I'll probably finish it up this weekend. It's another item to put into my Domain 4 for school next year... 

Well, off to make some breakfast and back to my sewing...

Have a good weekend everybody! :)

Printing Queen Anne's Lace...

I have started to print different flowers/plants from my garden onto pieces of canvas... my favorite by far... Queen Anne's Lace!  The spikey pieces, the random, free form shapes from the flower head, the delicate lacy feel of the leaves... love, love, love!

I have been working on a new bag to carry everyday... I have been using a smallish SAK brand crochet bag for a over a year now and felt it was time for a change! Having searched far and wide for something that felt like me, with no success or the willingness to spend lots of $$$ I decided to make one myself...  :)

How in love am I with this bag you say?  More than you can imagine! I started it a few weeks ago... the body of the bag is recycled jeans ( save your old jeans people!) I made a simple bucket bag, two rectangles, sew the side seams, bottom, sew the bottom points on an angle to create the flat bottom. 

Made a lining from some batik fabric I purchased a few weeks a go... making sure to add a couple of pockets inside.  It needs another larger pocket on the other side inside and a zipper at the top. That's today's mission, among other things, laundry, dishes, Costco, market, etc... At first I was going to create a band at the top using the lining fabric, but wasn't loving it. So it sat on my ironing board/workstation for a few days while I stared at it from time to time trying to figure out what to do with it! 

I ended up ripping the waistband off a pair of my daughter's old jeans that were too small for her. They were the perfect size for the top of the bag! The bottom of the loops needed to be disconnected and re-attached after the band was sewn on...

I had two belts that came with pants I bought at one time... never used the belts... I measured and cut them to use for the tote handles. After cutting them I stay stitched the edges so the belts didn't unravel while I was working with them!

The handles are machine sewn securely in place and the band was eased over the edge and pinned in place.  I machine sewed what I could, mostly the top edge, but not over the belt loops as they were too thick! 

I hand stitched the bottom of the belt band, the spaces behind the belt loops and the bottoms of the belt loops in place. It was better but still lacking something... I stared at it some more during the week...

Tuesday while putzing around I decided to try printing some plants...  the Queen Anne's Lace was the most successful...

I used a sponge brush and dabbed the color onto the flower... laid the pieces one at a time onto the cotton canvas and pressed them into place.  I placed a padding of paper towel over the top so when I pressed the extra paint that squished through the flower ended up on the paper towel nd not me!  I liked that I could use what ever parts of the flowers I wanted and create my own arrangement...

This one looked the best on the my bag. I added some embroidery "doodling" in the corners, stitched around the edge and fringed the sides.  Once it was pinned in place I hand sewed the entire piece to the front of the bag. I added some tiny + stitches to the center to hold it place so the center didn't sag over time. (If you look close you can see them)

I added a scarf I had to the belt loops and TAH-DAH!!! Even my teenage daughter approved, " It's way cute Mom. I would use it.", she said  :)  

I finished the crochet edge on the Shibori scarf... it helped to make it a little longer and usable.

Two different shawls going on at the same time... I'm going back and forth between the two... when I get bored with one I move to the other... they're easily stuffed into my new bag for crocheting on the run! My Eco-Colour book by India Flint came yesterday and I am reading through it now! I am going to try some plant bundling this weekend and see what happens. The bundles need to sit for a few days to a week to continue to process after they are steamed ( the longer the better it seems...) so more on these sometime next week. 

Everyone have a beautiful weekend! The weather has turned cool and comfy here! It;s been 57 degrees F overnight and around 80 degrees F during the day. Perfect! It can stay like this for the rest of the summer for all I care! 

Mrs."C"  :)

Creating....

I picked some flowers this morning off my deck and then sketched this...

Observational sketching... superfine Sharpie and Prismacolor watercolor pencils...

While listening to the many. many birds singing in the woods around my house and watching CBS Sunday Morning... ( the humidity is gone from the past couple of days and the windows are open again, yeah! ) 

Another South Bay Shawlette on my hook... this is a really popular pattern! I am seeing it pop up in all different versions all over the internet! I'm putting some striping in this one at the bottom and making it a little longer than others I have made before...

I picked up this pattern at Wal-Mart last weekend while I was running errands... it's the pattern that Meredith from Mereknits blogged about after so many us asked about it after seeing several skirts she made from the pattern! 

I, of course had to then drive over to Joann's Fabrics and get some fabric to make some of the skirts!  I picked out 4 nice batiks. Meredith, I didn't realize it until I got home, but I think you made one of your skirts from the same gray and white flower print! I left the pattern in the car and was too lazy to go out and get it to read the yardage,(and they didn't have the pattern at Joann's)  so I guessed and I will now be using these four prints for many other things as I purchased enough to make a skirt with each and then some! I didn't plan on going so I didn't have my coupons with me... :(  I did have my teacher discount card and the cashier was awesome and found me 6, yes, 6 coupons, I could use right then and there on a magazine that Joann's publishes. It cost me a whopping $1.00 something for the magazine and I saved over $60.00 !!!  :) :) :) 

This piece of cotton duck canvas is going to get painted, stamped, printed and drawn on.... I will then turn it into... ???  Bags possibly... ???

I am trying to get up the motivation to start cleaning out this space, my son's old room... (I painted that Milky Way on the wall for him when he was 9... ) so that I can move my sewing machine and ironing board into here...

Here is the sewing machine...

... and the ironing board is under here... yeah, I know... it looks like something from Hoarders...

dresses and clothes from work, shawls from winter... all clean but I have been too lazy and busy the past few weeks to hang them up and put them away in my closet, so ... yeah ... I will organize it today... I promise...  

I also have to re-organize all my yarn stash... it is a complete disaster and is taking over a corner of the family room... this is the first task after I make some nacho's ( can you say procrastinating?)

I am slowly straightening up one room at a time... the downstairs is not so bad... now onto the upstairs... oh yeah! Nacho's first!  :)