modern knotted fabric necklaces

I've been busy making some new jewelry recently.  I've been wanted to try making some fabric necklaces and after making one, I was hooked!  I really like being able to showcase some of the great fabric I have in my collection.  I absolutely love this yellow and white floral necklace above!

These necklaces are made from cotton fabrics and wooden beads.  Each necklace is finished neatly with grosgrain ribbon that is adjustable in length.  Fun, unique, and a beautiful statement necklace!

Find more of my new fabric necklaces here.  

new clutches....

I recently took a little break from making plush toys and went back to sewing clutches.  I used to make almost solely clutches, which usually included trees and grassy hills.  I still make them, but not as much.   However, once I made one of these, I knew I had to make more.

The fabric that lines the clutches is one that I've had for quite a while.  Kinsey saw it at our local fabric outlet and thought we should get at least 2 yards (I think it was really cheaply priced...maybe $1.98 a yard?).  I wasn't quite into the colors and wasn't sure, but I went ahead and got a few yards.  It sat untouched for some time.  Then I found it again.  And loved it.  Moral: Always listen to your husband in the fabric store even if you think his selection is a little off.  (Kinsey always picks out great prints, even if I don't think much of them at the time.)

I really like the off center jellyfish next to the small fabric circles and french knots.  These clutches just came together really fast and quite beautifully.  I'll be keeping one for myself.

I've done jellyfish clutches before, but these really stand out to me.  These are currently available in the shop.

new fabrics and Christmas

Now that all the holiday rush is over, I thought I'd share some of the things I got for Christmas.  Kinsey gave me this wonderful fox necklace from boygirlparty.

I've loved this store for quite some time and have various prints and cards from her.  I've been wearing this necklace everyday it seems.

He also gave me fabric.  Lots of fabric, which I love.  A few are from illustrator,  Julia Rothman, whose work we both admire much.  I can't wait to start using some of these!  The green hill one on the far right, I'm planning a octopus or squid plush with it.  I can see it now.

So great!

Also, on the subject of Julia Rothman, he got me this wonderfully illustrated book she did.  

We saw a review on designsponge a while ago, but I completely forgot about the book.  The illustrations inside are beautiful!

You may be wondering what I got Kinsey since he got me all these and more awesome things? 

Here's one more thing he can cross off his list for his new business.... an iMac!  (I must admit though, I've been using this a little bit and LOVE it.  It's so much easier to use for photo editing and updating than our rather old laptop.)

In addition to my Christmas fabrics, I stopped by our local fabric outlet and picked up some great finds.  First, this rocket ship fabric.

It caught my eye across the room and I fell in love.  Not completely sure what I'll do with it, but it DID inspire a new plush design.  Any ideas?  (Coming soon!)

On the $1.98 a yard table, I found this crazy circus fabric.  Once again, I have no idea what my plan for it is, but I couldn't resist getting half a yard.  

And finally, from the .99 cents table:

I've actually seen this before there, but for some reason never purchased any.  It's a pretty thin cotton, but such a lovely print.  

Obviously, I'll be keeping busy!

new clutches!

I've been working on a lot of new clutches in the past couple days.  I'm really enjoying playing around with some new designs, especially with water and the sun.  Here's three of the newest ones in the shop. 

Setting Spring Sun by River Clutch

 The Creek in the Woods Spring Flowers Clutch

Snowy Spring Trees Clutch

The Ongoing Quest for Fabric and the Shirt of my Dreams

This past week, I found some really great fabrics for a few projects I've had in mind.  Above is my newest fabric additions.  The past couple times I've went, I've been really drawn to the "artist series" of fabrics they are carrying.  Last year I bought some of this fabric by Heidi Grace.  My usually crafting style doesn't really feature too much fabric that has busy prints.  I'm usually drawn towards small prints and not too overall distracting from the main color.  However, I often really find great fabrics with lots of color and big prints, but can't usually find a good use for them in my day to day sewing.  Maybe I'm just plain in my choices.  Or maybe I just prefer small prints.  Anyhow, I have yet to use the yard I got of this fabric, but I love it. 

Speaking of of big prints, I absolutely loved this one I found!  It's very similar to fabric that Ikea offers.  I like the flowers, birds, and nature inspired designs.  I'm definitely planning at least one pillow and another very exciting project with this one!

This fruit fabric definitely has a retro vibe going, but I think it will be really fun to use for kitchen textiles.  Maybe a few pot holders and kitchen towels?  It also would make a really nice and graphic pillow.  (Yes, pillows are a new favorite thing of mine.)

The whole reason I even went to the fabric store wasn't to stock up on fabric (which kind of happened anyway), but to find suitable shirt material.  Last summer, I made a few sewing goals.  The goals included making a dress (I even bought 2 or 3 patterns) and making a blouse.  I didn't make the dress (I did cut out 80% of the pattern pieces) and I made a few attempts at a simple tank with shirring.  The tank wasn't really what I wanted.  I think it might have been okay, but the fabric just wasn't right.  It seemed  little too stiff.  It seems to be really difficult for me to find the type of fabric I want for my shirt.  I like my summer shirts to be pretty thin, soft, and usually a simple print.  I have a few shirts I bought that have the exact material I want, which just seems to be 100% cotton or a cotton/silk blend.  But the only fabric at the store that's even close to the same feel I want, is either too silky or the silky/polyester/see through material.  All the 100% cottons are really stiff, even after repeated washings.  So I guess my question is, where can I find suitable shirting fabric that is lightweight and in nice prints?  

Until I find it, I figured I should start practicing.  So the top 2 fabrics in my new fabric stack and the purple gingham (which is almost the exact feel of the fabric I want, just not really the ideal print) are my practice fabrics. 

The pattern for this shirt I found last year on the Sew Mama Sew.

I love the the style of the shirt and the pleated details of the back.  Why isn't it easier to find shirts like this one in the stores?

So, I'll be practicing with my fabric and keep checking the stores until I find "the" lightweight summer shirt material I want.

You + Me + the Jellys (or Jellies)

Ever since seeing the jellyfish exhibit at the Baltimore Aquarium this past fall, I've been really fascinated with them. So much so that I've started to find myself sketching them in groups for no apparent reason. Then, I embroidered this orange one for my current exhibit.

My favorite jelly inspired design so far? Definitely this one. Two jellys (or is it jellies?) holding tentacles in love? Yes.

Offering them as pictured or customized with your choice of names.

Sneak Peek at the Art Show....

So my solo art show is less than 2 weeks away (opening on January 18th) and I've been pretty busy finishing up my final pieces and getting everything framed and ready to be hung.  I've especially enjoyed being able to work on a slightly bigger scale than what I'm used to.  I'm often hindered by the size of the embroidery hoop I'm using, so being able to do things in standard frames and rectangular shapes has been a fun change.
Here's a planning stage shot of a new piece I finished (see the end of post for the final piece).  I initially planned to do a full bear who was turning over some rocks, but settled on using just the back side of the bear.  Here's also my beloved rotary cutter and my brand new cutting mat.  I've been using a really old mat that had all sorts of ink spills and gashes in that sometimes made cutting a straight and even line a little challenging.  

Here's a detail of an embroidered ship that I'm in the middle of.  

Here's a before and after of one of my favorite pieces I just finished. I've been playing around with the concept of having a bear sort of "walk off" the page leaving behind his footprints in the snow. I initially had planned to do this in a circular embroidery hoop, but thought the overall design would seem a little cramped in the space. I decided to go with a more traditional rectangular shape for the design. I love the fabric that the brown bear is made with. I actually have no idea what the official name of this fabric is, but it's sort of suede like on one side and a more flat cotton appearance on the other side. The best part is that it doesn't fray. So it's perfect for using when you want sharp/complex edges and don't want to do a proper applique. I've had pieces of this fabric for years. I acquired a stash in my crafts class my senior year in high school in both this brown color and a forest green. Unfortunately, my stash has been dwindling down pretty fast lately.


And here's the after. I love the contrast of the white snow and dark tree trunks. All the trees were made from leftover scrapes of the felt from my owls. I kept the jagged edges on the trees for a little extra detail and more realistic appearance. This work also marks the first time I've ever including a child in a piece. A little reminiscent of Little Red Riding Hood perhaps?

Here's a new one....or three

I've recently been creating more clutches.  I used to make a lot of these, but took an unintentional break.  Here's three of my latest.  (Of course, they all feature trees!  Nothing unusual there!)



I love this aqua canvas.  The color makes everything really pop out, especially browns, which I use a lot of.  

1 Whale + 1 Owl= Lots of Little Owls

It all started with a whale.  A stuffed whale that is.  Kinsey made this for me early 2009.  I had seen a stuffed whale in one of my craft books and loved it.  Although the one I saw in the book was made of old jeans and didn't look quite as good as the one below.  
I love this whale and I won't lie, I sometimes use it as a pillow when I sleep.  So seeing how much I loved the first animal, Kinsey surprised me with this one last Christmas:

I was so impressed and couldn't believe he didn't use a pattern for these animals.  I told him he should really make more and sell them.  Who wouldn't love an owl like this?  But we never really got around to making more.  

The other week I got the sudden urge to see if I could make a similar owl.  I didn't want my new owl (or owls in this case) to be as large as the original, but not too small.  I also wanted to change the eyes and make them not as large.  I wanted to eliminate the zigzag stitching and give the a cleaner overall appearance.  Another area I wanted to improve was the shape.  I like the original and how the spiky tail is, but I thought a smooth, straight edge may be a little better for the overall shape.  So with all this in mind, I set out to create an owl of my own.  I started with this one....

I replaced the eyes and beak with felt, as well as the back of the owl is a solid piece of soft brown felt.  I liked the idea of a bolder stomach fabric and the simplicity of the shape.  

That owl eventually lead to a pair......
....which eventually lead to a small army of owls!

The final results: I ended up with an ideal length of about 10 inches and by replacing different features with felt, the overall feel is much softer. The owls don't contain any small parts and are filled with a non allegoric poly-fil. Just in time for Christmas...

forest and the sea...

Lately, I haven't been posting too much on my latest art and craft projects. If you read our blog occasionally, you probably have noticed we've been focusing on a lot of home projects.
Last week, I was able to set aside some time to create a few new embroidery pieces. These pieces contain my first attempt at cross stitch lettering.





Also, these are the first pieces that I've signed. I like the idea of signing my pieces, but like keeping the color I choose for it relatively similar to the background, so it doesn't distract.


This last one isn't a good photo, but it sold the day after I made it, so this was the only shot of it I got. I'm planning a small series based on the sea. Of course, the main inspiration is from the coast of Maine.

living room redo take two...Klobo before and after...

We recently tackled a project that has been many years coming.  Four years ago, Kinsey purchased a loveseat from Ikea (Klobo is the name of the style and is how we also refer to it.) for a mere $99.  He was living in a small apartment and only had room for a loveseat, not a full sofa.  The shape was nice and modern, but the downside was of course, it was white.  We're not really white furniture people.  Case being, about a month ago Kinsey spilled a bottle of black india ink on the arm of the Klobo.  

This wasn't by any means the first stain.  Imagine a well used piece of furniture in a white color...that hasn't been washed for four years.

So the other week we purchased a dark brown fabric in hopes of finally making a cover for it.  We had just come home from Target with our new curtains, and suddenly the urge came to cover the Klobo.  I think the task of making a slipcover was a little overwhelming.  Neither of us had done this before and we weren't entirely sure about how to make everything fit.  

We decided that we didn't really need to make a slipcover that could be taken on and off.  We just needed to cover it, pronto.  So we moved the Klobo to the center of the room and began to deconstruct it.  The good thing about Ikea furniture is how easy it can be disassembled.  We were left with 4 pieces. 

We did a combination of of stapling and sewing.  We sewed the sides and back to give it a nice, firm fit.  The bottom edges we just stapled to the bottom, which is exactly how Ikea did it originally.  


Kinsey was the stapler guy and I was the sewing girl. 


Project breakdown: 

The whole project took about 2-2 1/2 hours roughly.  This includes a quick trip to Jo-Anns when we realized we were about 2 yards too short.  Luckily, the Klobo broke down into individual pieces which made not having enough fabric not turn into a disaster.  When we ran in the store we discovered they had exactly the amount we needed, no more and no less.   We used a total of about 6 1/2 yards of fabric which was $9.99 a yard.  We of course had a 40% off coupon the first time and a 50% off coupon the second time, so total cost was roughly $40 for the cost of all fabric.  

Paired with our new curtains, we love it.  A whole new loveseat for $40!  Our next step for the living room: Bamboo flooring.

Summer

In between picking and processing the many fruits and veggies of the season, I realized that my everyday purse was, well, a little autumn like. Dark brown and green made up the bag and the inside was a dark (and quite messy) mess. I'm on of those people who can put something into a bag and it becomes lost among the growing collection of pens and gum wrappers. I'd really like to try to keep a neater bag, so I thought a new one was in order. A few years ago, I got this great screenprinted linen and never knew what to make with it. I loved the mossy green color and the flower print. I decided this with my current favorite sea green canvas would be a perfect combination.



A square bottom is essential. I used to be real big into tote bags, then I discovered how easy a more shaped bag can be. This one took a hour in the evening and another hour the next day.



I love the contrast in the yellow lining.

I will keep this bag neater. I will not leave trash in it. I will not keep a stash of pens in it.

A great, new summer bag just in time for our trip to.......Maine. :)