Mini Art Quilt

I decided to be brave this week, and sign up for the 4 x 6" Art Swap on Craftster.  What makes it a brave move for me is that I haven't really done any art bigger than an ATC recently (Artist's Trading Cards are 3 x 5") .  That may not sound like much of a difference, but I decided not to draw a piece of art this time; instead, I wanted to make some sort of fabric collage-type piece.

 In this swap, unlike most swaps, you make the art piece in your own style, rather than in a style your partner likes, because you don't know who your partner will be!  That made it especially fun, but it also left me without a starting point.  Usually I read my partner's questionnaire and something jumps out at me right away, giving me a direction to go in.  So I needed some inspiration.

I sometimes buy a magazine called Sew Somerset, and the winter 2012 issue (pictured below) was nearby, so I picked it up and paged through it. 

Wow, did I ever find inspiration!  On almost every page I saw something that I loved and wanted to use in my art piece.  It was hard to narrow my focus, but I finally decided to do something with a house, like the one on the cover, above, and a collage element, like the two pictured below.  I started pulling fabrics off the shelves in my sewing room, and I cut and arranged and finally sewed it all together...

...and I ended up with this:

The funny thing is, it really looks NOTHING like either of the pieces I was using for inspiration!  The only thing that is the same is the word "Home" from the houses on the magazine cover.

I love bright colors, so it's hard for me not to reach for them when I'm free to choose anything I want.  I left all the edges raw, with many of the threads dangling.  I added some beads to the flowers, and hand embroidery to the roof and leaves.

This is just the first of what I hope will be many art quilts; I'm sure I will refine my style and color selection as I go along.  A year from now I will probably look back at this little art quilt and find it amusing; but I'm satisfied with it, and I hope my partner--whoever she it--will love it.

Ten More Bags, and a Big Decision

You might remember this post last April, when I did a "show and tell" of the bags I made for Dale of Dale's Floral Designs in the small town of Warsaw, Virginia.  She likes my bags, and so do her customers, so she ordered 10 more bags!  As she did with the previous order, Dale went fabric shopping and sent me a quarter-yard of ten different prints.  I made these bags, using fabrics from my "stash" to augment the fabrics she sent.

From left to right, they are Oriental floral, roses, Gerbera daisies, and cardinals:

Here we have hummingbirds, palm trees, and autumn leaves:

These are red berries, Christmas snowflakes, and leopard print:

Again, I think Dale did a great job of choosing fabrics, and I love all these bags.  (My favorite is the red berries!)


Now for the big decision.  I have been thinking about this for many months, and...

 I've finally decided to close my sewing business! 

What that means for me is that I will no longer spend long hours making large numbers of the same thing.  This will free me to be more creative with my sewing (for myself, family, friends, and swaps), and it will give me time to explore the areas of art that I'm interested in.  For example, I just joined a facebook group called Art Abandonment, with members from all over the world who make pieces of artwork to leave in public places for strangers to find and take and enjoy.  I desperately want to abandon some art, but first I have to make something! 

So, I've told Dale that I will do one more bag order for her before I close; I will close my Etsy store as soon as I get around to it; and I've told Pat at Country Treasures that I will clear out my booth at the end of July.  (I got a phone call from her, asking me to bring in one more batch of my Scrappy Fabric Bracelets.  Apparently there is an older woman who comes in frequently, and she buys these bracelets for gifts...they want to be sure she has all she wants before I close!)

For those of you who are interested in the financial aspect of it...I will say that selling my handmade items has never been very profitable, mainly because I have a hard time charging what my goods are worth.  I have always geared my prices toward what the "average" person could easily spend.  When you add in things like paying for a business license, business property tax, self-employment tax, insurance, and the paperwork hassle of collecting and remitting sales tax, it just isn't worth it any more.  It's time to free myself from this!

I'm looking forward to making new things, and blogging all about them here! 



Fob Winners and Updates

Here are the three people who were chosen by the random number generator to each receive one of my wool felt scissors fobs:

True Random Number GeneratorMin:Max:Result:20

True Random Number GeneratorMin:Max:Result:6

True Random Number GeneratorMin:Max:Result:8

(After generating each number, I copied and pasted the results here; there were 56 comments, and I entered the number 56 as the "Max", but when I copied it here it reverted to the default setting of 100.  Weird!  Anyway, it generated the random numbers just fine.)

Comment #20 is from "Carla".  She will receive the bird fob.

Comment #6 is from "bethwalker07".  She chose the watermelon fob.

Comment #8 is from:  "linny".  I will send her a ladybug fob.

Congratulations!  I will be contacting each of you shortly.



And now, a few updates on past posts:

1.  My Blog is a Book:  I told you that I used Blog 2 Print to have all my blog entries from 2011 turned into a soft-cover book, which I was going to give to my mother.  You may have been wondering how she reacted to it, and the answer is, she LOVED it!!  She was very impressed with it and she read it from cover to cover, and commented on many of the things I had written.  It may be the best gift I've ever given her!  So now I can highly recommend this, especially if you have a relative who (like my mom) doesn't have a computer to read your blog.

2.  Octo-Bear:  After showing you this "interesting" creature I made for a partner in the March Birthday swap on Craftster, some readers wanted to know how I attached the legs.  Since I had received a special order for an Octo-Bear as a result of the post, I announced that I would be making another one and posting in-progress pictures.  Well, that order was cancelled (the young woman's car broke down so she didn't have the money for an Octo-Bear), so the leg-attaching tutorial will have to wait until some future date.

3. Amazing Amaryllis:  In January I showed you my pot of amaryllis bulbs as they grew into huge and gorgeous flowers.  Well, they continue to be amazing, because they are blooming again!  In July!  After having just bloomed in January!!!  The pot is on my front porch now, and in addition to the four-blossom stalk in the picture below, there is a second stalk starting to emerge.  These are some serious over-achievers, and I feel like I've been given an unexpected gift with this second round of blooms.

Summer-y Swap

The "Sew Something Summery Swap" is just finishing up on Craftster (that awesome online crafting community).  My partner said she would love a "funky bag" so this is what I sent her:  one of my signature bags made out of a fun and somewhat funky fabric; it has a lot of different design elements, and a lot of colors that my partner likes.  I thought the bird silhouette and the big flower made it look summery, despite all the black on it!

This is the back; there is a pocket in the center, but the patterns have disguised it.

The inside is a drapery fabric

I also made a small pouch using fabric from the same line.  The button in the middle says "I'm not weird, I'm limited edition" which is a quote I found on her Pinterest. 

Here's everything from a different angle.  I included a fat quarter of the black and pink polka-dot fabric because black and pink is one of her favorite color combinations.

She has received this package now and she's very happy with it!  She sent me a lovely set of placemats and coasters in return:

Aren't they gorgeous?  I love the colors!  This swap was a lot of fun...if you aren't on Craftster, you are missing out!  You can find me there under the name Leslieshappyheart.  If you sign up, I would love to hear from you!

Another Spoonflower Bag

After I made the Pug Dog Purse for my sister-in-law, her friend saw it and wanted one too!  The friend's favorite dog is a miniature schnauzer...which is perhaps not the most widely known dog breed...and I suspected that it would be hard to find fabric with miniature schnauzers prominently featured...and I was right.  So I returned to Spoonflower, where a wonderful designer called Dogdaze had created just exactly the right fabric for this project.  I had to purchase a yard of it because of the placement of the design...so I have extra in case any of you would like a miniature schnauzer bag...anyway, the purse came out so beautifully, I am THRILLED with it!

I just adore the combination of aqua and black. 

I even had the perfect lining fabric in my stash!

I sent this purse to it's new home just before the July 4th holiday, so I haven't heard from the owner yet, but I can't imagine that she will be anything but pleased with it. 

Happy Birthday, America!

"God Bless America" wallhanging, 9 1/2" x 11 1/2".  Cotton fabrics, polyester batting; machine pieced; appliqued, embroidered and quilted by hand.  This has been half-finished for the longest time; I finally managed to add the binding this week!  I will add a hanging sleeve to the back and find a place for it on a wall in my living room.

A Whole Bunch of Scissors Fobs

Since January I have been diligently working on a challenge proposed by my friend Susan to sew a heart every day for a year.  I am happy to say that I am currently 10 ahead in my heart count, yippee!  For the past 34 days I have been making heart-shaped wool-felt scissors fobs for this challenge.  You can see them individually on my other blog, 365 Sewn Hearts, but this is the only place you will see them all together in a single photo!

The fobs are all made of wool felt, embroidery floss, sewing thread, baker's twine, and polyfill.  They are all sewn entirely by hand.

Here they are in the pint-size canning jar I challenged myself to fill with fobs.  It took 34 of these little hearts to fill this jar:

And here they are, all laid out :

The bright flower fob, below, is my favorite.  Which one is yours?  If you leave a comment and mention which ones you like best, you might just win one of them!  On July 11th I will randomly choose three lucky winners to receive one fob each.  Please be sure I have a way to contact you if you win.