Hanging

Ever felt like nothing quite went right and everything had its own schedule, completely different from yours,  and just left you hanging?

Phone calls unanswered;  internet mucking up; computers failing; sewing machines grinding to a screeching halt;  construction next door robbing you of your sleep; dental office visits.....   all adding up to a general sense of loss of control resulting in  panic and crazyness?

Well, we had one of those weeks and I decided to hide in my little atelier and just create.  I did not have much to work with because of the general sense of disorganization, and just collected odds and ends, even from the rubbish basket by the sewing desk and stitched together something that, in fact, reflects my whirlwind mind of that time.  Made me feel better though.

I started out with bunches of loose threads placed on a piece of mattress cover, which formed the basis of the little wall hanging, and then stitched on odds and ends from my bead collection and strips of yarn and fabric, branches covered in scraps of material or thread and hung it from a few dried branches from the yard.  Et voila!  A little wall hanging, and peace has returned in the house as well as in my mind.

We now have two new computers, and WiFi:  yeah, that is an improvement!!  Why did we wait this long?... and it is even cheaper than the old and slow DSL.   Thanks Time Warner!  Still waiting for the sewing machines to return home.  The White just needs a tune up; the ancient (1954 Kenmore) one, needs repair, but is so worth it, according to Tony the repair person.  It is a collector's item.  Who knew?  It belonged to my mother-in-law, bless her heart.

Take away pizza to be delivered in a bit:  heaven!

☯

~ Tranquility and Tolerance ~

Experiments

Muslin is one of my favorite fabrics to froebel around with.  It is very inexpensive, usually not more than  a dollar a yard, and I like to buy a a whole bunch of it and then just do different things with it.    At the moment I am trying to make a cloth journal and I wanted to see what I could do with ink markers.  On the right side I just used different markers and then took wet Qtips and diluted the inks.  On the right side I drew something simple and then also diluted the pink hair with water.  After that, which is not very visible at all on the photograph, I spray painted the area with Pearl Cote Pearl Glaze which only made the cloth a bit firmer but did not do much else.

The 4x6 fabric postcard I made, was only so I could see what would happen if, again, I wrote on a piece of muslin, then glued it over printed paper and spray painted it.  Only the paper took on the silvery shine, but it is not very obvious here.  Made the writing run too, but it's just an experiment anyway.

I was curious what the effect of this paint  would have on
something darker, so I went outside and sprayed it on the cover of  our black Webber kettle.  I am not particularly attached to this thing, so who cares.  I did not even clean it.  But woohoo, even with the dirt on it, it suddenly had a nice dark grayish silvery patina.  We never use it, but it looks a lot more decorative now.  A warning though: it looks just a bit prettier in the photo than in reality.

You may wonder why I bought the darn paint in the first place.  I was thinking of making a mosaic of the shards of a very expensive coffeepot I accidentally cracked.  It was from the Smithsonian shop, so it wasn't exactly cheap, and I wanted to preserve it somehow.  I thought I would put the shards in a thin base of plaster of Paris paste in a frame and then use something to seal it and the very nice, but I believe now, not too knowledgeable young man at Michael's sold me this can, which, by the way, was locked up in a cabinet with an imposing chain and lock hanging from it.  "Because of the huffers", he said and he had to explain that one to me.  I never got past having a few doobies in the sixties.  Anyway, I have the feeling this won't work on my coffeepot project, but I can always get something else;  Michael's is just down the road.

Back to the 4x6, I also experimented with wrapping stones in wire.  This was something new for me and I like it so far.  Then I tied the whole thing up with bits of cord and tried to convey the thought that if we do not use our ink, or in other words, do not express ourselves in writing or in other creative ways, all the words and ideas and thoughts we have will become choked up, tied in knots, bound and unborn,  and never see the light of day.   Which would be sad, because expressing ourselves may help us understand ourselves, and each other, better.

☯

~ Tranquility and Tolerance ~

Fabric Postcards

Lately I have started to make some fabric and multimedia 4x6 postcards.  There's a lot of activity in that corner of the crafting world, with many sites where you can sign up to do exchanges with other 4x6-ers.  I believe it started after the popularity of the ATCs  -with the 4x6 size allowing a bit more space to work in.
I understand that you can just send them in the mail, without additional protection, as long as you get them hand stamped at the post office (they must really enjoy that...).

Here is the first one I made;  a multilayer one which says: Home is where the heart is.  I planned to exchange that with someone, but when my husband saw it he wanted it.  I know, awww... so sweet!  So I stuck a little photo of him in his college days in the cut out heart.  He looks adorable!


The next one I made is the Thanksgiving one for which
I used a cross stitched cornucopia I made long ago.

I fused that with double stick fusible web  (I love that stuff) to the burlap and did some hand stitching and embroidery.  I was going to send it to my friend Randy, but my husband confiscated it as well.


Then,  saddened by the current anti-Islamic sentiments, which I find disturbing and Unamerican,  I made this one for my cardiologist who is Muslim and who once saved my life.  It is called "Many Religions - One Heart"   I typed that on a 8.5x11 sheet of muslin, which I had fused to the plastic side of freezer paper to give it the substance needed to run it  through my printer.  When you cut out the printed words you want, and remove the paper (comes off easy and leaves a sticky residue)  with a protective cover sheet of paper (otherwise the ink runs) you can iron it on most paper or fabric surfaces, but don't move the iron too much then the ink will run.

 And finally  here's one I made specifically for my husband to reflect  how much we love music and our life together, here in Socal, near the ocean, where every day is "just another day in paradise".

These last two are covered with used dryer sheets, ironed on, to give it a gauzy finish, and I cut out holes over the group of international stamps to show the various people on them more clearly.

So far I have yet to join an exchange group.  It is important that you have a bunch ready when you sign up so that you can  participate without others having to wait for you to finish one first, I was told.  Personally I would send them in a protective envelope, but that's just me and only based on how our mail arrives here sometimes, quite a bit in tatters or not at all.

These cards can be as versatile a project as you would like,  and some people make absolutely gorgeous cards.  Try it, it's fun!

☯

~ Tranquility and Tolerance ~