Indulge Your Shelf

Remember those fabric images I was cutting out and sewing the other day?  I've gotten a little further with them: I've decided to make them into a fabric book with pockets to hold Christmas-themed tags I've collected over the years!  This will be the cover -- lots of silvery details. This page uses another fabric scrap collage I made a while back, but never used.  Sewn to some soft, fuzzy white fabric, I think it will be such a pretty pocket!   And, even though it's not Christmas-y, it fits nicely in with the theme. This page consists of a recycled piece of crazy quilted fabric (an early attempt of mine...) which creates another nice pocket when placed over a fabric panel.  I added one of the fabric images to be sewn onto the front. And this deer scene will eventually be the back cover.  I trimmed the fabric panel with gimp and some silver beads sewn on in rows.  I'm having a lot of fun with this little project and hope to finish it in tim...

We have much to be thankful for this year: my husband's new job -- he was only out of work for one month; my son settling in nicely at college and coming home safely to visit; and a lovely meal in our warm, safe home surrounded by friends. Above, slightly blurry because it was dark: the kids reunited for the holiday.  Mine is in the middle.  Gosh it was great to see him, even if just for 4 days! Notice Snoopy in the foreground?  He has earned quite the reputation as a photo bomber!  Now that Thanksgiving has passed, Christmas is coming very quickly!  We got our tree up yesterday, and the nativity tonight, but most of the decor is still boxed up and waiting.  How about at your house? Oh, and I put up my ornament wreath made by GeorgiaPeachez ! Here's our tree: I never remember until I'm in the thick of it just how much I love decorating the tree.  There are so many memories represented in the ornaments and it makes me happy to redisco...

It's almost turkey day -- are you ready for it?  As of yesterday, we are: we picked up the bird and all the fixings on a crowded Saturday at the markets.  As I walked around the grocery store and noticed what was in everyone's cart, I thought it was interesting just how traditional the American Thanksgiving meal is.   We were all buying much the same stuff! I am SO LOOKING FORWARD to my son coming home for the holiday!  Although he's just 3 hours away, he has not been home since he left for school in August and I can't wait to be under the same roof with him! We had a BLIZZARD last week.  Oh, it was painful.  Normally I love the snow but this storm was somehow so rough -- it was cold and inconvenient and icy and desolate, and instead of enjoying the change I felt like a fish out of water.  The dreariness may have had something to do with the mood in the world after the bad news from Paris. A tag I made out of frustration last week Now that ...

I've made a commitment lately to participate in the Tag Tuesday blog , where we have a weekly theme and create and post a tag.  This week's theme was "Minibeasts" -- aka, bugs.  It was a challenge.  I personally am not a real bug person.  I admit that while I admire bees and such, I don't particularly care for them, nor do they inspire me to want to make art -- not even butterflies.  So after a lot of thought, I ended up making this tag based upon a favorite book, Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. Charlotte, you'll remember, was a spider who befriended a small pig named Wilbur and saved his life with some clever web-writing.  Now, I must tell you, of all the beasties in the whole beastie realm, spiders are my least favorite.  I am actually very afraid of them, and have been all my life.  I well remember hearing about Charlotte's Web when I was in first or second grade and being sure I wouldn't care for it -- being about a spider and all.  ...

At it again.  This time, I started with another little quilt/sampler I pieced back in May; I blogged about it here .  It was a collage-like mix of similar-toned fabrics.  It only took a couple of hours to go from this: to this; now, it's finished! I love that it's kind of curvy and wonky--not all straight lines and corners. I loved the print of the cars, but not the words so much, so I covered one line up with a strip of ribbon trim... laced through an old, early plastic buckle. Do you see the painted wooden button in the upper right corner? The detail of the orange bordered doily is with the millinery flower sewn on it is probably my favorite detail. I also really like the rectangular crocheted doily insert topped with the blue and orange buttons.  Isn't it surprising how well the orange and blue go together? I had fun layering this part: the fabric under the doily, the fabric point over the doily, and the leaf-shaped embellishment ...