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"  :)