I'm Glad You're Here

Iron Craft Challenge #14:  "Wish You Were Here" . . . .  make a postcard.

Mine is "Spring"

Strips of Spring-like fabric,

embroided leaves and flowers,

pink and green ric-rac, yellow beads

and, embroidered in hot pink, the word "Spring!"

This was as much fun as an inchie.... I just didn't have to squint!

IC#11 and Lessons Learned

Iron Craft #1:  something green

I made a mini green pincushion.  And I learned a few things. 

1.  Hot glue is HOT!  'nuf said.

2.  Cotton balls are the not the best option for stuffing a pincushion. 

Detour:  I have a whole bag of cotton balls for my Brown Paper Bag, of which I only used two.  I have another large bag for medicinal purposes.  Did you know that about a gazillion brands of alcohol wipes (the kind you use to prep the skin for an injection) were recalled about two months ago and they still didn't have more on the shelves when I looked last week. So we use cotton balls and a bottle of alcohol (no, not that kind - that comes after the shot).  Okay, back on track...

So I wish cotton balls worked well for stuffing pincushions.  But they don't.

3.  Bigger is not always better.

In the case of mini stuff I think a smaller glue gun would be better.

4.  I learned, again, that I like mini stuff!

I really do!



Park Hours: Dec to Feb

Flurry Park

The Iron Craft #6 Challenge was all about Winter.   This was lots of fun to do...... probably 'cause I put a bird on it.  As usual, I was working on it late and pushing the deadline.  I finished with a couple hours to spare, shot a pic and headed to the computer.  No internet.  grrrrrr.  Thought it was my computer and spent thirty minutes trying to fix it before I realized that it wasn't just my computer.  Our service was down.  I tried uploaded a pic with my phone.  Tried that for 30 minutes and learned lots of ways NOT to do it.  Finally decided I'm just too technically challenged for that.  I missed the deadline. 

So, just for fun, here is Flurry Park. 

Open Dec to Feb.

A couple skaters on the ice.  A pair of sledders who look like they are on a collision course with the skier.  That's an optical illusion though because they are on completely different slopes so they'll be okay. However, Mr. H.D. Snowman thought he could sit on the wall and look what happened to him!  Not to worry, Bluebird is calling for the King to send all his horses and all his men.... they can fix things, right?

UPDATE:  I just read the rules and I might not have missed the deadline after all.  This challenge is going to be open for voting and says it needs to be posted by Thursday at 8:00 pm to be included in the contest.  Usually it's by end of the day Wednesday. 

14 Reasons

This week's Iron Craft challenge (#5) said to make a valentine.  I sewed this happy looking, heart and flower filled fabric to a piece of colored paper using a heart stitch and red thread.

Inside I wrote "14 Reasons I Love You" and then wrote 14 reasons.  This idea came from a post last February on Tea Rose Home.    She was brave and actually showed her list.  Me, I'm not so brave.  I wrote my list but I smudged the picture.  Yep, I'm a scaredy cat.

Tune in tomorrow for the Krafter Show challenge which will consist of a valentine, a new-to-me technique/project and, from the Brown Paper Bag, crayons.

Simply Dotty

Take one plain, boring, bland, white mug.

Add a pink and brown polka dot mug warmer wrap and it gets better.

Add hot chocolate and it gets even better!

I made this for the Iron Craft challenge. There are some really creative ones at the Iron Craft Flickr site.

I Spy Bunting

For Iron Craft #3 "Just Bunt" .......

I have 200 4" squares of novelty fabrics from a swap I was in last year.  The intention was to make several I Spy quilts.  It hasn't happened.  But ten of those squares made some fun bunting.  Fits just right on the kitchen window where the grandkids can see it at meal times.  190 squares left.  I can make bunting 19 more times :)

Iron Craft #2 - Warm

The instructions said "make a draft dodger".   I made a few last year and stuffed them with batting and fabric scraps and had a really hard time stuffing them.   Iron Craft suggested pipe insulation as an option.  So much easier!!!

The materials...

Pipe insulation for innards, green fabric for body, brown felt for legs, black foam for antennae.

 I sandwiched two long strips of fabric with batting and quilted straight lines to simulate body sections. Then cut 24 legs and glue basted to the edge of the fabric and sewed another long strip of fabric on top. Switch sides and repeat.

   

 Two brown beads for the eyes were sewn on before the face end was sewn together. After all sides were sewn and the face end sewn it was easy enough to turn right side out. A little bit of batting went in for the face, followed by the pipe insulation which went in with little trouble.

Another nice thing about the insulation is that it has a hole in the center that's just right for stuffing the tail end into if you don't want to sew it closed. Or you can sew it closed and still stuff it for a neater look.

Iron Craft #1 - Lighting the Winter Gloom

Candle Holder with Bead Bunting

I knew almost right away that I wanted to use glass beads for this challenge but couldn't seem to get it to work. I'd try something and fail and start something with different materials. Repeat. Repeat. But I really like the way the light was reflected with the glass beads so I kept coming back to them.

I tried rubbing a glue stick on the candle holder and then rolled it in the glass in the beads.  This looked really neat because when the glue dried it gave a frosted look to the glass.  It was fine until I touched it.  Then, of course, duh, the beads fell off.  But until then it looked great.

Another thing I tried was ornament hooks to hang the bead rope but the hooks looked bad.

I thought of elastic around the top and was still trying to figure out how to attach the bunting as I searched for the elastic and couldn't find it.  (Gotta clean and organize the sewing room!)  But I found little girls hair bands in my rummaging.  AH HAH!