Jasra Handcraft Center

Scout and I explored the Jasra Handcraft Center this week also.  It is a place to check out the local artist scene with a emphasis on the old arts, and handcrafted items.  Some of it was cheesy, like this pencil topper.

Some of it was beautiful like this gypsum carving/molding, and the model ship building, (of which I did not get a picture)

 Of course, I see quilt patterns.

Misc. Creations

This is just for my record, so I can remember some of what I made lately.

A candy bag for Munchkin

 My scrap quilt - now hanging on the wall of my cubicle.

 A Candy bag for Buddy - complete with fusible fleece letter and star.  With clip and strap to clip on the lacrosse stick.

Quilt Top

This is the top of my latest quilt, basically showing it here so my sister can see and critique... now on to basting and quilting it.  I think concentric circles in each block.

Back to work sewing

I am officially back to work now.  I am working a part-time crazy schedule.  Of course I had to decorate my office.  I also needed to use up a bunch of scraps around my sewing room.

I needed a coaster for my coffee cup, so I turned a few scraps into this. (ignore the corner, I had a binding issue)


It works great for my Calvin Mug, this mug is my work coffee cup and is used proudly every day.

 My office is a bare gray cubicle.  It needed a little bit of color.  I took the scraps from the bags I made for the teachers at Christmas and sewed them all together.  Then I added a bright yellow binding.  It is a fun mini-quilt for my cubicle wall.  I may need to make a bigger quilt for the outside wall of my cubicle, it is bare gray and boring.

Stuffed Squirrel for Princess

Some days Princess begs to work on a project with me, and I have introduced her to Pinterest, so she sees all sorts of cute projects, many she attempts on her own.  She is an expert at making Rag dolls, maybe if I can find one I will take a picture.

Today I finally worked on a project with her. She loved this cute little squirrel.

Ours is very similar.

 It is also very small.  It is about 3 inches, and those stitches are very small.  

  It is made of wool felt and embroidery floss.  Princess cut the entire thing out and then sewed and stuffed the tail. I sewed the body. Some of the arms were a little tricky because the front was a different size than the back, but once it was sewn you don't notice.

She is one very happy little girl. 

Daddy can sew

Over the last few years I have been teaching Daddy how to use my sewing machine.  He is finally learning to do stuff without help. Since he is a den leader at scout camp he needed a den flag. Since his den is the "Blue Whales"  He created this all on his own without any help.  I was proud of him.  It is not very pretty if you look up close at the stitches, but it works and will last at least a week of camp.

It is made from an old curtain ripped in half and re-sewn in the shape and then he machine appliqued a denim whale on it.  He even made 2 sleeves on top and the side for the pole. It is identical on both sides,  so that was 2 whales he sewed on.

My sister loves this picture.  "Of course I will hold the flag while you take a picture, just let me keep reading my book."

Tripod Lamp

I have seen some of the tripod lamps in home decor magazines and I love them.  Part of them makes me think about a surveyors tripod, but I think they are pretty cool.  However they are also very expensive.  But I just made one for less than $15 dollars.  Plus the cost of a shade that I haven't bought yet.  Still super cheap.
We found this at the side of our street with a free sign on it.  We grabbed it and walked home.

 We couldn't get the telescope to work and I didn't want the telescope anyway.  However, I took it apart.  The kids took the little mini-telescope as a toy. (it works and is cool) and I got my lamp.  I bought a $10 lamp kit and a $5 harp kit from Home Depot. I followed the directions on the back of the package and now I have a fantastic new lamp.

 

The shade is from the lamp that was in this corner and I don't really like it. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to run to the store and find a drum shade.  Even with the bad shade, I love my new almost free lamp.

Red Solo Cup Rockets

 Sometimes the things I find on Pinterest save a rainy afternoon. 
When the day looks like this.

sometimes it helps to use simple Red Solo Cups to have some fun
We found these at Frugal Fun For Boys

Simple Red Solo Cup and some tape and rubber bands. Take another cup and push down... Turns it into a nice little rocket.  We used the smaller cups and the bigger cups.  The smaller ones seemed to work better.

 

Sorry, but all the pictures are a little blurry, they were moving fast.  I finally managed to upload a video, so you can check this one out.

Annapolis Quilt Show

Sometimes I am completely spoiled.  It is Fathers Day weekend and I am the one getting spoiled.  Daddy took all 4 kids to Grandma and Grandpa's house so I could go volunteer at the quilt show.  It is great to volunteer at a show, especially to be a white glove attendant.  You get to wear white gloves and walk around lifting up the quilts to see the backs.  You get to talk to LOTS of people and learn about lots of different quilts.  Plus you get into the show for free and at this show you get free lunch and snacks.  It could not be much better for someone like me.

Check out some of my favorites.This is a cool Log Cabin and in the 1st pic you don't see the houses stand out. 

 Then you take a step back and they pop out at you.  This quilt was hand quilted.

 This year's challeng was Quilt me a song. There were some very cool entries.  This is Raindrops.

 Abbey Road

 Fireworks inspired by her grandson's picture.

 I loved this quilt, it combined beautiful piecing with wool applique.

 This pineapple quilt was beautifl, the picture doesn't show it best, but it was beautiful.

 This was a wedding quilt where all the guests at the wedding signed the squares and then they were used as a border of the quilt. 

 I am usually not a big fan of thread painting.  It is making a quilt with different color threads, but this one was AMAZING.  Those leaves are appliqued on in a solid color and then they are detailed with hand embroidery.  Then the whole thing is hand quilted.  I was very impressed.

Look at the tip of that one leaf, thousands of tiny stitches.

 This type of family quilt is becoming more popular, with the ability to print on fabric you can add lots of pictures to your quilt. However this one is unique on the back.

 The creator added a block that shows each persons name and the details of the quilt.  In another 50 years you will know the names and the story behind the quilt.

 One of the best things about this quilt show is the country store.  All the quilters in the guild. (this guild has more than 100 members)  go through their stash and sell anything that they don't want.  So you can get lots of stuff for REALLY cheap.  I found some fabric I could use, but my best find of the day is this.

 Simple metal case, but open it up and there is 140 wooden spools of thread.  All for the bargain price of $10. 

 Look at those cool labels.

 Then for 50 cents I got all these cool spools of Belding-Corticelli pure silk thread.  I did a Google search and found this.  This thread was sold door to door in the 1920s and 30's, so cool.

So now that I found this treasure do I finally create the wreath I want? That has empty spools with paper wrapped around them and would be a waste of all the beautiful thread.  I don't know.  I am counting on my sister to give me some fantastic ideas about this one.

Cork Canoes

The first of many summer craft projects was making cork canoes.  These were really in-expensive ($2.38 for 4 canoes plus paint I already had) and the kids love them.
I followed the tutorial at Apartment Therapy  It was a 2 day project because after soaking it takes a long time to dry before you can paint.  We started by cutting, soaking and forming.

It was a very wet day and the kids took the scrap pieces of cork out to play in the street.  They were floating lego guys and playmobil people out in the road.

 

Since they were already wet I let them walk around the block in the rain where they promptly found LOTS of mud.

 The next day after gluing and painting we got to test them out in the creek, yet another excuse to get wet.

 Buddy also took out his remote control boat and had lots of fun driving that around the little boats.  Of course after the storm there was also a lot of weeds that kept getting caught around the prop, so we had to pick it up to clean it fairly often.

 This is my boat being swamped by the waves.

 The girls with their boats.

Daddy and Scout had a chance to drive the boat, Scout didn't like the ideas of the cork boats in the water.

 

The 3 kids with their boats... not a great picture, but I was trying.