Spool Story workshop

Last Saturday, was Carol Wingert's "Spool Story" workshop.  Patty Fleming and her husband opened up their beautiful home for 16 of us to participate in this workshop.  Carol always creates wonderful projects.  She fills some kind of large container for each of us and decorates it.  Inside we find a treasure chest of fabric, trinkets, ribbon, trims, and the bits and pieces to complete the entire project.  These workshops are great fun!

Each one of us found our own special box with a lollipop flower on top and a fabric name tag.  Carol always packages up many treasures inside each box for our projects.

There was a burlap bag inside full of French ribbons and trims.  You can see some of my completed pieces on the right.

A bundle of beautiful fabric pieces ranging from canvas, to cottons, to silks!  The parcel contains some rubons, labels and bits of wire for the project.

Here you can see my spool that is awaiting my finished strip of squares.  You also see more trims and stuff that came in those two brown envelopes.

The inside of the box has black and white gingham fabric lining.  You can see the metal top that goes on the spool, makings for a tiny nest, and the strip to attach all the little squares for the story.  In the bag is a pocket watch that we can fill with a small collage and attach to our finished spool.

Late in the afternoon, Patty prepared a selection of desserts for all of us.  She made these cute teacups that held two of the most scrumptious chocolate chip cookies!  Isn't this just the cutest thing?  Patty made enough for every one of us!  How special!  How wonderful!

A wonderful time was had by all!  Thanks to Carol, Vern and Ashley Wingert for all the prep work!  And thanks to Patty and her hubby for opening their beautiful home to all of us, for cooking the most scrumptious foods (the gumbo was fantastic!), and for being such welcoming and delightful hosts!

More projects finished

I worked on black slip dress and it is now finished.  Am happy with the end result and it will find it's way to my booth, dress form and all, this week.

Here is a close up of the top of the slip and a necklace I created.

I used a piece of vintage lace trim, dyed roses and corsage petals for the large corsage and tiny ones at the top.  The necklace was created using bits and pieces I have in my stash. 

Have also been working on necklaces made out of old keys, an old watch, and some Tim Holtz bits.  The earrings at the top of the form are out of my stash.  Click on the pictures to get a larger view in order to see detail of the slip dress and the necklaces.

This mannequin was made by Karen Lackey of Starshine Salon.  If you like this mannequin, you can find several for sale in her booth at Merchant Square.  The torso mannequins are well made and weighted so they stand up.  Check them out!

Romantic Gothic Ghosts bag

Just finished my first project with the Romantic Gothic Ghosts workshop.  I am lovin' this bag!  It is very pretty and very romantic.  Used linen, vintage laces, vintage fabric, tatting, and a vintage earring.  Am lovin' this!!

I made the bag out of ecru linen.   Real easy to cut out and sew together following the instructions in the workshop.  Will be making more bags in the days to come.

I think you can see the tatting that surrounds the image if you click on the image to enlarge it.  I did add a bit of pink to her cheeks.  She looked a little pale without it.  LOL!!

Stocking the antique booth today

Here are just a few items that I cleaned out from the garage, priced and am taking to Merchant Square today.

This child's western style belt holds a pile of old children's books.  I thought this could be the first backpack for children of the early 20th century!

Loads of bridal lace bits and pieces, lengths of vintage lace wrapped around old wooden spools tucked into an antique soap dish, and 4 vintage hand towels.  The towels are beautifully embroidered and there is a term for this type of embroidery or needlework.  Irish something, I think, but can't remember exactly.  Do you happen to know??

Two finished lampshades

These are two of the small shades.  I finished them up yesterday.  They are actually for a chandelier or tiny lamp that takes a flame bulb with a small base.  I need to make two more to go on a chandelier I have for sale in my booth at Merchant Square.

Fun to do!  Here is the first one I did . . .

It had six sections.  Three I covered with a cut up doily.  I overstitched the pieces to the wire frame.  This particular section in the middle is covered with a piece of lacey ribbon wrapped around the frame and pinned.  The bow is from a piece of tulle fabric that has pink felt polka dots on it.

This side is wrapped with another piece of lace and has a white feather glued to it.

This section has tiny rick rack wrapped from top to bottom.  An old photo was cut out and glued to coffee dyed cheese cloth and a piece of pink fabric.  It is pinned to the wire frame with safety pins.  I also glued on the ribbon roses and then put old shoe buttons, crystals, a diary key and some pearls on the bottom.

Here I covered the entire shade with an old piece of lacey fabric from an old dress.  I overstitched it at the top and bottom of the frame.  I had this old vintage bouquet of pink flowers and I tied a piece of rayon ribbon on it.  Once again I put old pearls from vintage and new jewelry around the bottom.

You can tell I spent more time on the first one.  It was a learning piece.  The second one was easier because I used one piece of lace to cover the entire shade and whipstitched it in place.  I may have to make changes since I don't know how much light they will filter once they are on the chandelier. 

I plan to do a couple more and will post them when finished.  I have to hunt through the thrift stores to see if I can find two more small shades OR some small lamps that take clip on flame bulbs.  :-))

Embellishments

I recently read an article in "Cloth Paper Scissors" written by Beryl Taylor. It was entitled "Building Upon Layers" and featured some of her sewing creations. Several items in this article caught my attention and I would like to share some of my thoughts with you.

Beryl recommends creating a stash of embellishments. I recently put together a large altered book full of pages made from an antique photo album. Embellishment is one of my favorite things to do in my artwork. Here are a couple of things I did in this altered book.

First is a flower embellishment. It is made from black dress trim, vintage black ribbon, black hat netting, white tulle, pieces of white lace and a doily and a broken pin I acquired while treasure hunting. I love this piece!
This next embellishment is made from a piece of ribbon! The ribbon actually came with the ribbon roses on it. It is glued to the back side of a bit of old fabric, has two old buttons sewn on, and a trinket pinned to one of the roses. I found this ribbon at Ruffler's Roost's new shop at Ray and Alma School in Chandler, AZ. This place is full of beautiful ribbons, lace and some pretty ready-made things to add as embellishments. I prefer to create my own!!
One of my resolutions this year is to create a stash of embellishments as I work on other projects. I will share them with you in future blogs.

Today I am really stressed! My freezer quit working yesterday and today the fridge part is slowly warming up. The warranty repair person cannot get to me until tomorrow!!! I have already thrown out a lot of stuff and I know more is going to go to waste! Neighbors have loaned me big picnic coolers, but those won't save the frozen foods. I am on my way to buy more bags of ice in hopes of saving some of it. Thank goodness my homeowner's insurance will cover the loss.

Special Winter White Give-Away!!

This blog hit a milestone earlier this week. It has had 10,000 plus visitors! I thought that was pretty good!!

SO! I decided that I was going to do a special give-away to celebrate the first 10,000 visits and to say "thank you" for reading and visiting my blog!! I sorted through my stash and found all these special items in winter white. I will send this package to one special visitor who leaves a comment (one comment per person!) on this post during the next week.There are several pieces of vintage lace, a vintage hankie, three vintage cards (two with white flowers and the third has a winter scene), a small bag full of flowers, lace, buttons and a couple of small white clothespins, and the glittery "Dream" to hang somewhere in your home!

All you have to do win this special package of goodies is leave a comment on this post during the next week. I'd love to hear from you! Then....

Next Sunday, the 21st, I will put everyone's name (who left a comment here) in a hat and have my son draw out one name. I will post the winner's name next Sunday. So check back next week to see if your name was drawn from the hat!