I did it! 30 Daily Stitch Meditations!

The first 30 Stitch Meditations for 2019

Here’s a look at all of them. I’m going to explore with you some of hat them in more depth as we go along. Some I like more than others; some have taught me valuable lessons about myself and my style. But the first ones I’m going to cover are these.

Recently a friend was giving away strips of fabric she wanted to get rid of. They had been decorated by students at a workshop she taught. I took 3 of her strips but had no idea why.

Then I started researching an idea I had to see if anyone else was doing it. Well you know what happens online in places like google; Pinterest; Flickr and the likes. Rabbit holes are all over the place! I stumbled on this technique and realized that was what was going on with those fabric strips.

About the same time I came across the Stitch Meditation group on Facebook. I joined in and started creating little mini fabric collages which became a perfect place to use pieces of the strips. I’ve indicated where the strip was used on each piece.

First up are the “whole cloth” ones, only stitches were added to these and sometimes some buttons and lace. 

One took on the appearance of a fan.

Fan shape with lace trim

Another one had faces looking out at me. 

Faces one side view one straight on

One spoke to me of a summer cloudburst. 

Summer cloudburst over the hills

And then there was just stitches wandering around buttons and space.

Stitches and buttons wandering around

Placed with other fabric they blended in sometimes just a square in the middle,

Square in the middle

sometimes most of the middle,

Most of the middle section

or on the left side.

On the left side

One even joined with a piece of felt leftover from a stitching project my 4 year old granddaughter and I made.

A piece of felt and lots of stitching

Now back to the rabbit hole:

The process is simply using pre-washed fabric, rubbing alcohol and Sharpie pens. You can do it flat or place the fabric over a jar or some type of container and then use rubber bands to hold the fabric in place.

You color the fabric with two or three markers and then spritz it with a little rubbing alcohol or use an eye dropper to drop the rubbing alcohol onto the colored area. Then be patient and watch the magic happen. The color will start to spread. You can add more rubbing alcohol if desired or wait for the fabric to dry (takes just minutes) and then add more color and/or rubbing alcohol.

Some Sharpies will not work; like the ones made for fabric or the fast drying ones.

This process requires experimentation, patience, and imagination. The fabric should be heat set with an iron for 5 minutes (keep moving the iron to keep from scorching the fabric and use a press cloth), or it can be placed in a dryer.

It is best to use this fabric where it will not require washing.

Enjoy!

Rose

Just Bobbing Along

Homemade Bobbin Holder 

A long, long time ago I asked my husband to make me something to keep my sewing bobbins on. I had a lot of them and they were always getting tangled up because I kept them in a drawer or on my sewing table. I had purchased one of those blue bobbin keepers but I had way more bobbins than it could hold. So he put his creative head to the task and made me a holder for many, many bobbins. More bobbins than I had and then he bought me more bobbins. I used to do a lot of sewing with different colored threads so they came in handy.

Then a long time ago I found out I was using the wrong bobbin in my sewing machine so I bought some more bobbins of the correct size. But I had all of these already filled bobbins and couldn’t bring myself to waste them or the thread that was wound on them. So I carried them from home to home.

Bobbin Holder Hanging on Pegboard

When we put up pegboards in my sewing room in Texas I hung my thread racks and then figured out a way to hang the bobbin rack my husband had made for me.

Recently I was packing up a “to go” project (in this case it was making fabric yoyos or Suffolk puffs). I was adding thread spools to my small carry case and thought there should be a better way because the spools took up a lot of room. Then I spied my incorrect bobbins with thread on them. Perfect I thought I’ll start using that thread up. 

Bobbins with little thread, poorly wound thread, and wrong size

Then I realized I had some correct bobbins that only had a little bit of thread left on them. Now you know if you use those in your machine sure enough you will run out of thread before you finish sewing the seam. Ok I can use those up too! And then there is the few where the bobbin didn’t wind properly. Add those to the mix.

But I didn’t want to just put the bobbins in with the yoyos because the thread would just get all tangled up. What to do? Remember that blue bobbin keep I mentioned earlier? Perfect.

Blue bobbin keeper with threads

Now I’m making use of the bobbins and thread and the blue bobbin keeper.

What will happen though to all the empty spindles on the tool my husband made me? Well as you can see by my photos small spools of thread fit on them nicely.

Happy Bobbing Along!

Rose 

Prunes and Threads

Repurposing Plus

Prune Container

Today I’m giving you two ideas, one is for storage and the other is for controlling those threads.

I use prunes a lot – well I eat two a day. I used to buy them in the smaller tube container but then switched to the larger pack that is just a plastic bag. Well now I’ve switched back to the tube packaging for a while. Why?

Storage containers

I discovered I could remove the plastic label and the container is the perfect size to hold my pencils, brushes, pens, etc. So after throwing several away in the recycle bin I have found a use for them and I need more.

Next up came from my embroidery projects. First if you read this post you know I’ve been working on organizing and storing my floss. Well the little labels sold to be used on the floss bobbins do not stick to the plastic ones very well. While I was working on a project I put the selected colors on a binder ring. By the time I had finished the project the labels were everywhere but on the bobbin where they should be. After researching on the internet for a solution I decided to use a fine black sharpie pen and write the number on the bobbin. Make sure you use a pen that is waterproof and smear proof. You might want to test your pen out first on a few bobbins before doing all of them. Okay that was just an aside to what I really wanted to share.

Floss Bobbin with sets looped in hole

When I start to work on a project – small or large- I cut off a length of floss, separate the strands and then group them by the number of strands I plan to embroider with, 2 – 3- 4 etc.  If I’m not sure how many strands I will be using I will put all six back together. I then tie a single overhand knot at the bottom of each set. Now I’m ready to embroider. But wait! I am only using one set at a time. What to do with the rest? I was using a carbone ring to hold them but sometimes the colors are so close that I had a hard time distinguishing them. Looking at my thread bobbins it dawned on me, they all have a hole in the top of them for putting them on an organizing ring. Well I store mine in boxes so I don’t really use the hole. Yup you guessed it! I take the extra sets and loop them through the hole. Perfect! 

Thread sets ready for storage

And when I’m done and still have sets left I keep them looped in the hole and wrap them around the bobbin top to bottom. Nice and tidy.

Happy Stitching!

Rose

I've Been Busy

French Knot Closeup

Pin It

Bird's Eye View

The beginning owl doodle

Well kind of busy. I did get my owl embroidery and my Bird’s Eye View done. Like I said in my last post I can sit and stitch for hours. I get lost and love what is happening with the thread and the stitches. The more I thought about this the more I realized how often I’ve heard sayings that revolve around “Do what you love …” theme. And I’ve been convinced for a long time now that most of us discover what we love to do in our childhood. The only problem is we forget, get bogged down in other things, listen to the voices of well meaning family and friends and turn our backs on the “what we love”. This is true for me. I learned to embroider at a very early age (7) from a lady(my mother) who also had a love for it starting at a very early age. I moved out on my own in the late 60’s to San Francisco no less – that’s right - home of the hippies! I did not pick up my needle and thread at that time. Too bad! I did do some work in the early 70’s for my youngest brother and I still have a shirt I made and embroidered for him. It still looks pretty good; too bad I don’t fit into it. I have memories of things I worked on as a child and as a young girl. A few of these items are still with me today. While going through my stash of unfinished items I was surprised to see how many revolved around embroidery. And I am so happy to be back in the groove again!

Owl on Vintage Fabric

Faux Lava Rocks on "Lava Fabric"

One of the items I came across had nothing to do with embroidery. Here is some muslin I painted with a textured paint that was called lava. My original intent was to make some beads that looked like lava but were lightweight.

They kind of worked and I’m not sure where I was thinking of using them maybe on my woven necklace. But looking at that fabric gave me an idea. So now it has become my inspiration fabric. I’m not sure if I will actually use it but I decided to try my idea on regular fabric first. 

Here’s the first of a series of work I plan to do. I will probably sell both the readymade and the patterns once I have a few worked up. I think they are coming out quite nicely.

Big Island Hawaiian Petroglyph #1

And I discovered another piece of the painted fabric I didn’t remember I had. Haha!

However I’m so far behind on my 52 projects that I think I better start doing more work and less thinking.

Bone Rings and Button Blanks

Okay I’m off and running on another idea to accommodate my needle habit which I like to carry with me to work and other places. I was looking for some bone rings (well now they’re made of plastic) that I’m sure I had (that’s how I discovered my other piece of painted fabric!). I finally found them after muttering under my breath several times “I guess I have to go to town because I really want to make this – today”. In amongst them I found a button blank (part of a button that didn’t get to actually be a button) that would work just as well as the bone ring I was looking for. Now I’ve got another recycle, reuse, repurpose item! Just love it when that happens! And I know I have a lot of them somewhere but I’ve found enough to get me started. So now I’m off to my sewing machine to make it so I can take it with me tomorrow. You’ll just have to wait to see what I’m doing.

Happy stitching!

2011 A Year of Finishing, A Year of New Beginnings

This is really nothing new for me but a friend on Etsy who blogs as Fabric Fascinations issued a challenge to all of us starters who don’t always finish. The challenge - each week finish something we’ve already started. She encourages us to photo it in progress and then completed. Posting to our blog or flickr account or facebook will help up with accountability and encouragement.

I’m going to give it a go. I’ve tried this on my own before and had mild success for awhile. I thought maybe putting myself out there with others might be the trick. If it works I’ll have at least 52 completed projects. They can be anything that has a beginning and an end. Most of mine I think will be items either for my shop, myself, or for others. Some will take longer than others to accomplish but I hope to post at least once a week. Some weeks may only be in progress items and some weeks my have multiple finishes. But the goal is to finish the year with 52 items that were started prior to 2011 and completed in 2011.

Do I have 52 uncompleted items you ask? Oh yeah and then some! I’m not sure if I can round up all 52 projects immediately but I know they are there. It would be kind of interesting though to post all 52 in the state they are at now and then move them to a completed section as they get finished. We’ll see. Hmmmmmm - could that be a project?

One added bonus to this is I will need to post at least once a week to my blog and keep it active. Not like 2010 where it wilted in July! And yes I still have more hints and tips to post.

One final note for today it might be interesting to see how the 1st half of the year compares to the second half as I plan to retire from my full time job the 1st of July.

And I do know that I’m getting a late start on this. The above was actually written out on our way back from a nice vacation in Texas. One item I thought I would complete was stuck in my suitcase that was delayed. Another item I considered I remembered that I needed to find the scraps of fabric I was going to use as the binding and even if I did find them my sewing machine was still in the shop for servicing. And on it goes. I know excuses, excuses! But I did remember these sweet vases I had started and never finished so they are my first item (three of them, can that count for three items?). They were hand crocheted around the empty glade bottles. I just needed to finish the ends, starch the ruffles at the top and make the flowers. They will be listed in my Etsy shop soon. I love to recycle items. These bottles have been in my stash for awhile but it was just recently that I got the idea to crochet around them.

And so we begin 2011 the year of finishings and of new beginnings!

Happy stitching!
Rose

"Almost White"

It started out to be a white piece; it ended up almost white.
I’ve been trying to be creative every day following the Creative Every Day blog. One week Misty Mawn suggested working in one color a day. On one of those days the color given was white. To me that was the biggest challenge. An all white piece. Now those who know me or who have visited my online store Big Island Rose Designs know that I’m not afraid of color. Many of the treasuries I make on Etsy prove that point. But an all white piece – hmmmmmm. Going with my theme of "back to where I started from" I knew that it would be a collage. So I began the search for white items, textures, details from old magazines. After I had collected a supply I started laying them down on my canvas. Now nothing looked white-white. It wasn’t very exciting either but I continued.
First a layer of torn text covered with a little gesso to tone the text down. Then I found some white paper heart doilies in my stash. Good. Next I arranged my “white” magazine pieces until I liked it. Still not exciting though. I knew I would add some buttons somewhere on the canvas so I played with them for awhile. I had another challenge with this piece, how to finish the edges. A quilt gave me the idea to cut squares of paper and wrap them around the edges. First I was going to do all text but then I spied some old sheet music damaged in places and decided to alternate words with music. Okay that works!
Some vintage white rickrack from my stash caught my eye. I added it to kind of accent the heart shape of the doily and mimic the doily’s edging. Searching the magazines some more I found a white daisy, perfect for the center of the heart but what about that yellow center. Definitely not white. I played with my buttons some more – maybe all around the heart or along the edges of the canvas. How about a big one to cover up that yellow center? All the time I could hear my former art instructor Joan Hill, “Rose, when you think you are done, always remove at least one thing, don’t overdue it.” Okay too many buttons and I really like the yellow center of the daisy – it makes the piece pop. So take away all but a few buttons and I’m done.
Only problem now is I like this piece so much I’m not sure if I’ll sell the original. I will definitely do prints of it. It would make a lovely card don’t you think?