Crackpot Quilters’ Blog

I finished my vase made from a “silk hankie” (un-spun silk fibers) and hardened with Paverpol, a fabric hardener from the other Holland.

First I took the already dyed silk hankie and added various decorative threads scattered across the top. It was sandwiched between water-soluble stabilizer and then stitched in a manner I would call diagonal, curved, semi-parallel stitching. (Mathematicians are gagging–we know who they are).

Then I made the mold. This is a vase thoroughly covered with kitchen plastic wrap. The Paverpol apparently sticks to everything except plastic. Because I wanted a narrow bottom and a flared-out top, I wrapped quite a bit of plastic wrap around the middle of the vase to support the flare.

Then I painted the silk hankie with the Paverpol. I wore plastic gloves and used a plastic bag under the silk hankie. I shaped the hankie over the mold and left it to dry in the basement for three days.

Then it was time to remove the vase from the mold. I thought it would just slip off. No. I pulled out the plastic wrap supporting the flare and cut out as much as I could around the vase. From there it was just brute strength, of which I have plenty due to my rigorous exercise regimen.

This class has been too much fun!

The three drawer box is finished!

The fabric recipe is light blue felt, cheesecloth painted teal and purple, a few tissue paper fragments, blue tulle, stamping with silver and pearl turquoise to even out the tone, decorative yarn, lace and other fibers (some painted teal with Glimmer Mist), a few Angelina fibers, and purple tulle.

I was waiting for more Misty Fuse to arrive so I used the closest thing I found–Fine Fuse from Quilters’ Resource. It is not quite as soft as Misty Fuse, but it worked pretty well.

I was quite pleased with the way the outer fabric turned out. I think it’s the two colors of tulle that I like.

As I was putting it together, I decided there was too much contrast between the inside and the outside of the box. So I used a sponge to stamp silver, pink and purple on the lining fabric.

The beads were some I picked up for 10 cents each with the knowledge I would use them somewhere… I used a variegated perle cotton to sew them on and I deliberately left the thread tails on the inside.

Now, what to put in this little treasure chest?

I finally finished the third project for my online class. The the first layer for the cover fabric is pattern pieces fused to muslin. Then that fabric is cut up and fused to felt. Two layers of blue tulle are fused on top. If you look carefully, you can see that the pattern I used was for one of the Bear Suits.

Using the blue tulle gave the pattern pieces a little bit of a blue tinge that I liked. I did audition several colors of tulle before I picked the light blue.

The signatures (sets of pages) are white cardstock. Finding and then preparing the string to sew them in took a couple of tries. I didn’t like the look of white or natural colored string on the outside of the sketchbook. I found some vintage kite string in the junk drawer and used fabric paint to color it to match the felt. I ended up doing this twice because the first length was too short.

I wanted to embellish the strings somehow. My first attempt was braiding, with each set of four strings used together. That was not exciting. I played around with braiding a little more. Finally I found some instructions for making a 12 strand braid on a Cub Scout website. That was pretty cool, but not quite what I wanted. (For those who wondered, the pattern is over 8 and under 3.)

I then thought about beads. I didn’t think I had any beads with holes large enough for the string, and we were snowed in so there were no shopping opportunities. One idea was to make fabric beads to match the cover fabric. But then I went into my bead stash and found these. I picked them up last summer at our locally-owned, friendly yarn store for ten cents each. What a deal!

The title of this project is “The Sketchbook of Permanently Unfinished Ideas.” The first thing I plan to sketch in the book is the Finnish Knock-Off Project. It’s not only unfinished but also unstarted. But I now have another idea of how to do the knock-off.

I have been having lots and lots of fun in my online Mixed Media Surface Design class. I just love learning how to use new materials. However, it is important not merely to focus on the fun part and the learning part. My taking this class has a public service element.

That element is my own Economic Stimulus Package.

Note the “Iron Off Hot Iron Cleaner.” I actually had this on hand, but I am going to have to be more careful with my iron and fusible stuff or I will need the giant, economy size.

This first thing we did was make tissue paper fabric–two layers of tissue paper fused on muslin. Then it was sprayed with glittering paint and stamped with more sparkle stuff. I was a little concerned about the layers on the first piece staying together. So I did some stitching.

This piece looks pretty cool, but I haven’t decided what do do with it yet. The second piece was made the same way. I decided to use the second piece to make a little book. For the back of the book, I made random stitches with perle cotton.

For the front, I stitched with perle cotton in the same way, but put beads on the perle cotton. Then I fused some batik fabric to the back, cut out the little book covers (5″ x 6″) , and edged the covers with the perle cotton in the blanket stitch. I had some cardstock in the same color family so I used that for the pages. I stamped on the pages with a pearl ink to give a slightly mottled look. Then I sewed the covers and the pages together and added some dangling beads to the perle cotton holding the book together.

The second lesson was posted today. I still have some more things to do to finish the first lesson. That will be ok, unless I have that “It’s exam week and I haven’t opened the book” dream.

On Tuesday, I went to a multi-generational sushi workshop. It was fun, and the sushi was great. Our leader Jen had everything very well organized. And there was no raw fish!

So I decided to make sushi on Wednesday night. Here it is:

I gave it to Jen to take home last night at another meeting.

The sushi was fun to make. What took the most time was thinking of how to put it together. But the thinking can be done while something else is going on. The “rice” is several layers of Warm and White batting. Everything else is fabric. I folded the sides in so there would be no raw edges. I used a permanent fabric glue to put it together. The kind I have seems like thick airplane glue and it is messy to work with. When it runs out, I’ll look for another brand.

The Fiber Arts Guild’s February meeting will be a valentine workshop. The idea is bring it, share it, make it, take it. Everyone will bring something from her stash, and we will have a creative free-for-all. I had to make a sample for the press release and the newsletter photo. This is it:

Since the weather is too nasty to go out, my sample was made with fabrics, paint, ribbon and beads from the stash. I didn’t have a card decorate, so the valentine itself is just a piece of poster board. No room for wishes…

It was fun to root around in the stash for forgotten but valuable items. One thing I used was the heart stencil from Nicholas’s birthday banner. That brought back some great memories.

In the resulting mess, however, my only functional glue stick has escaped. And I never did find the craft knife.

I finished the beaded gift for my friend’s daughter-in-law. The “Rock of Hope” was given to all survivors at the Relay for Life, with the suggestion to pass it on to someone else at an appropriate time. I made a gift bag and a tag for it.

This is the embellished rock. I mounted it on ultrasuede and added the fringe.

I think of this project as a prayer shawl except with beads. So as you you look at it, send good thoughts along to the recipient.