Bright wall quilt.

This is a design I created for a wall hanging for my daughter.
The pieces are fused and then machine stitched.  I embroidered the surface with a varigated thread and added beads to represent stamens and flower effects to embellish the black background.

Mirror, mirror!

I am trying to design crafts that appeal to the males in my life!  I design plenty of things for my daughter, that's easy, since the feminine appeal surfaces easily!  Designing for males is more of a leap for me!  I took a shot at a small wall mirror.  A visit to a craft/art venue in St. Pete stimulated my use of nails and since I already collect nature items from our area, the wood was a natural addition!  I think my son will like this!  My husband couldn't believe I had the patience to glue all the nails individually to surround the mirror!  I sawed all the branches by hand as well as all the spacers!  I have the scars on my left index finger to prove it!  Enjoy!

Ohio heart.

I am currently working on a glass design to put into a 20 inch iron circular support.  

While sorting through some of my pictures and glass books I came across the Ohio State lamp that I made for my son.  

He is a big OSU fan obviously as he has lived in Columbus since leaving high school.  Interestingly, we moved to Gainesville, Florida and were fortunate to be able to watch Tim Tebow through his junior and senior year at UF, and now Urban Meyer is the coach at OSU!  What a small world!  

Here is a photo of the lamp.  Once I design my circular piece, I will share that with you as well!  Enjoy!

This is a 3 sided table lamp with the OSU design on 2 of the sides.

Quilt- machine and hand sewn.


This is a wall hanging that came as a kit, the pieces all machine cut.  I then had the taxing job of layout to see what colors went where to give the circular visual effect.  This is always the most time consuming part for me!  
The pieces were sewn together on the machine making each individual square.  Then the 12 squares were sewn together! 


I then placed onto batting and the backing and decided to hand quilt with beads,  embroidery with beads and contrasting threads, some of them feathery.  The effect is quite dynamic and really makes a great wall accent.  I particularly love working with batik prints.  They have great texture.

I added fiber to some of the edges both for the effect and camouflage of seams that didn't quite line up!

Embroidery and quilting detail with delica beads.

Embroidery and beading detail on the edges.

 T-shirt necklace! 


It's Wednesday!  85 degrees here and feels like 100% humidity! I have been looking for a particular color of pale green fabric to make a skirt or shorts to go with a batik print halter top I purchased in Key West and haven't been able to find anything to match until I stopped by Kmart today on a whim.  I found just the color I wanted in a t-shirt!  The only problem was first of all it's a t shirt and secondly there was only one and the size was an extra large!  


Brainfart!  


I can make a skirt out of it!


Today I want to show you the necklace I made from t-shirt material.  I bought a tan interlock material (1/4 yard) and cut it into one inch wide strips with a rotary cutter on a cutting mat.     

I then bought a bag of wooden beads at Jo-Ann for $3.99. The fabric was $9.99 a yard, so the piece was $2.50.  So two necklaces for $6.50!  The fabric was 48 inches, so the strips were that long.  I don't recommend cutting them short until you see how long you need your necklace to be.  


I used bead reamers to file all the holes of the beads  use so the fabric wouldn't snag. 
I loaded 5 beads onto each of 6 lengths of fabric. 


I varied the size and altered the color of beads for each.  I then gathered the strips at one end and secured them with a bulldog (binder) clip.  I then divided the strips into 3 sections of two strips and rolled up the other ends to manageable sections and secured each with a rubber band.  I braided a 5 inch length at the top and then tied a large knot with all the sections gathered.  Leave the clip on.


The section with the beads was given a couple to twists to give the drop of the necklace a mixed look, rearrange the beads and spread them out to get the look you want while leaving some at the mid section to weigh down the necklace. The length after the braid and knot measures about 20 inches.  Then tie a looser knot at 20 inches and hold it up to yourself in a mirror and see if this is the length you want.  If you need it to be longer, you ca remove the knot, add more beads and go from there.  


Braid the other end just as you did at the beginning. Compare the two lengths of braiding so they are the same length.  Place another bulldog clip to keep the ends in place and recheck the length to be sure it is the what you want.  The idea is to have the necklace fit over your head and fall to mid chest level.  The total length of my finished necklace is 32 inches, so drops 16 inches.


Now, lay the necklace on a table in a circular fashion so the clips are lined up and remove them.  I like to do this on the arm or seat of the fabric sofa, as there is no sliding around. Tie two of the ends of the strips on one side with two of the strips on the other end in a square knot, continue with the other two sections of the braid.  Trim the ends.  


Now take a separate strip about 10-12 inches long and wrap it around the knots to cover them. Cover your starting point with one of the wraps.  Tuck in the end and tack in place with a couple of stitches or some tacky glue.  You are done!  


If you have never shopped at Goodwill, it is a great place to find a variety of colors of T-shirts for this project!  Our Goodwill is divided by shirt color!  Depending on the size of the shirt, you may need to sew strips together to get the length you need so go for a larger size.  The highest price shirt is $4.  There will be a seams present from the sides as you cut the strips across starting at the bottom of the shirt.  These will curl up and make a tighter appearing strip than the fabric I used.  


Send me photos and let me see how yours turn out!

My hair covers the braided part. The knots are at the sides of my neck.

Quick hostess gift flower arrangement.
It is raining here, thanks to Beryl!  We need the rain desperately to put out all the brush fires!  The newscasters down here pronounce the name "Barryl" like barrel which sounds funny to me as my grandmother had a brother named Beryl and we pronounced it "burrel".
I am about to go to work on this Memorial Day, and wanted to post this in memory of all who have served our country!  

Find a pretty gift bag.  Glue a foam florist block to the bottom, then I weighted it down with fresh cat litter.
Place flowers, eucalyptus and sprigs of plastic ivy to drape over the edges.

My favorite photo of a sailboat out in the Pensacola Bay!

Last of the flower segment!  Then I'll move on to something else!  Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!  I will take time out to send my prayers out to all who have served our country and especially those who lost family members in that service!


I sent these flowers to my daughter who live out of state!  Everyone always needs some flowers in their life!  Now go out there and repurpose, reuse, and upcycle!

Take some of the fibers that you pulled out of the burlap rectangle and cut them into about 4 inch lengths.

Cut your toilet paper tube piece in the design of your choice.

Pieces you will need to assemble with the fiber bundle tied in the middle.  See previous post for instructions to complete the stamped paper circle.

Put the stem into the corrugated cardboard base, then glue the toilet paper tube piece to the base.  No need to glue the circular stamped paper.

Tie the fibers in the middle as in the above photo with a longer piece of fiber, fold  in half and use the remaining ends  to tie the base to hold it together.

Glue the fiber bundle to the base.  This one is fluffed out!

This one is not fluffed.

This one has a larger bead with a knot in the hemp cord on both ends.  I used a tan paper with green ink stamp for the background.  The possibilities are endless!  Enjoy!