Cupcake pincushion

Just a quick note about the cupcake pincushion I made last Friday. No tutorial on this one ... I was in a rush to finish this for a birthday gift, so I didn't have time to take pictures of the various steps. And the picture I took of the finished pincushion is sort of - icky. Sorry about that.

But, anyway, here's the "recipe"
(1) fulled wool aka shrunken sweaters (I used the wrist area to imitate a cupcake liner)

(2) poly fiberfill to round out the top portion
(3) emery grit (for keeping pins and needles sharp - it also adds weight to the pincushion) ... I got my emery grit from etsy.com
(4) muslin in a pillow shape (to enclose the emery grit) - I put this pillow of emery grit on bottom for balance and for ease of use
(5) embroidery thread ... french knots that look like candy sprinkles plus a few straight pins with colored balls on top
(6) lace around the top of the cupcake liner ... just to neaten things up a little

Voila! Cupcake pincushion. As Mom would say, there's love in every stitch!

Seafoam Cashmere Acorns

What do you do with an outdated cashmere jacket? One thing you can do is make acorns! As my sister said this morning, "From this acorn, mighty cashmere trees will grow." Ya think?

It's been a long, long, l-o-n-g time since I've written, but I'm going to try to keep you updated about what my busy, busy hands are currently doing.

Today it's cashmere acorns. Although Tex-Nan bought her acorn caps at Walmart (didn't realize they carried them!), I also picked mine up at Walmart ... underneath the not-so-mighty oaks dotted around the parking lot.

I'm hoping this photo will tell you everything you need to know about making acorns the quick and cheap way. Oh, yeah!  I used a baby food jar to pencil the circle on the wrong side of the fabric. Otherwise, I think it's self-explanatory.

Welcome, Autumn!

Chocolate Festival Quilt

The Chocolate Festival quilt is 99% complete. I have just a little hand quilting to add here and there to highlight the different parts of it. It will be a doorprize at the Chocolate Festival for the Soul which takes place at Krum First United Methodist Church this Saturday.

Many thanks to Debbie who has a long-arm quilting machine and for all the help with the appliques, etc.

I think it turned out well.

Autumn Arrangement

Just a quick update. Tonight we're going to hear the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra at the Bass Hall. Can't wait. They'll be playing The 1812 Overture as well as Holst's The Planets. Okay, the only way I know The Planets is from an Inspector Lewis PBS program from a few weeks ago. But what I heard of it sounded great.

Regarding the picture above, I made this today to use in staging photographs with an autumn feel. The height of the arrangement is around 1 inch - I think it's hard to tell from the photo. The pumpkin-looking vase is actually a bead that I painted with 2 colors of orange, a little brown for highlights ... or is it lowlights? .... and then a nice glossy finish. The flowers are all made from teeny punches of handpainted paper (handpainted it myself this morning).

All in all, I'm pleased. I think it will serve me well almost to Thanksgiving. Sometime in early November I'll switch to a Christmas themed arrangment.

Poinsettias? Or a tiny Christmas tree?

August Update

Sorry it's been so long. As usual, I've got more projects going than I can shake a stick at. Here are a few (in no particular order).

Nursery sheets for the church.

They asked me to make sheets for the nursery "cots", so I used some flannel I've had in my stash for several years. I'm not absolutely sure what project I had in mind when I bought this fabric, but I was glad I had it available for this project. I think they're cheerful.

Chocolate Bliss Quilt for the church.

Every year we have a Chocolate Festival at the church with proceeds going to missions. Since several of the ladies were interested in creating a sewing group, I thought this would be a fun project with which to start. I got the pattern here. So far the project is going well. The Festival is in October, but I'd like to have the quilt finished by the end of August. .... Reality check. It's mid August already! Oh well, with many hands working on the project, perhaps we won't be far off the mark.

Miniature paper "porcelain" pitchers.

I found the pattern and directions here for the miniature paper pitchers/watercans I make. Until recently, I was painting the pitcher with acrylics and doing a whitewash. I was pretty pleased with the result.

But I was looking at some of the Incredible vases and pitchers at Une Petite Folie ...

and it made me wonder if I could make my simple paper pitcher look more like porcelain. I used vintage plates as a starting point for my "porcelain" pitchers.

I've been experimenting (see picture below) ... the rooster needs to be smaller ... I want to print on both sides so that the interior has the same base color as the exterior (this involves some nit-picky concentration to get it right) ... I want to find the right finish for the project so that it has a porcelain sheen (the four on the left have clear nailpolish and the one on the right is just untouched paper). But, I think I'm on the right path.

And those are just some of the things I've been busy with.

New Improved Roses

Just a quick blurb. The roses in the previous post were made from tissue paper using something I'll call method one. Basically a long, skinny strip of tissue with one deeply scalloped edge that is wound around and glued to the wire base. The petals are shaped using tweezers and then I used a felt tip pen applied very carefully to the edges to give additonal definition.

The roses in this post were made with method two. I used a very small flower punch on lightweight paper to make the petals (they have to be cut apart which is a bit of a pain in the patoot.) Then using tweezers, I glue each individual petal to the base wire, overlapping as I go. Before it's completely dry, I shape the petals. After it's completely dry, I use watery acrylics to tint the petals. In this case, I used very pale pink, pale pink and pale yellow to get the realistic colors.

The vase is a metal bead I painted pale blue and then whitewashed.

I'm pretty pleased with the results. I'm still trying to decide if I want to carry this as a product in my shop. Although I enjoy making them, I'm not sure how I'd feel about putting this into production for sale. The jury is still out.

In the meantime, I think I'll work on yellow roses and a white vase next.

Lovely roses

Just a quick look at what I've been doing this morning. I made a miniature paper pitcher with roses! It's a first for me and I'm pretty pleased with the results. I learned the technique for the roses here and got the tutorial (with pattern) for the pitcher here. Although I don't understand a word of the tutorials, the pictures are all you really need.

I painted the pitcher a soft blue, waited for it to dry and then did a very thin whitewash. For the roses, I started with pink tissue paper and then touched up the edges of the petals with a pink marker. I put a few grains of rice in the bottom of the pitcher to keep the roses in place.

It wasn't that difficult to make pitcher ... or the roses. It took a little time to get the hang of it on the first rose and then the others were much easier.

All in all, I'm pleased.