A Beautiful Bouquet

My friend Bianca has made an utterly amazing yo-yo coat.  Which I got to see in person at Quilt Market Houston.  To. Die. For.  Honestly.

As Bianca posted in November about making some mends to her yo-yo's after swishing and sweeping about the Houston convention center, I was inspired to show you my own yo-yo project: the crafty bridal bouquet I made back in 2014.

Ok, you can't really see the yo-yo action in this picture, so I'll have to take some of my own pix, just to highlight the details.

(Wedding photographers are not paid to get detail shots of the DIY elements.  For good reason, I suppose.  Still extremely happy with everything New Morning Photography was able to capture.)

The beginning stages of this process were documented in early 2014, when I started wiring up various buttons, brooches, yo-yos and such; then tried (unsuccessfully) to put them into a bouquet shape; then tried a second construction method by working with a friend (more successfully).  But darn it, in the lead-up to the wedding, I neglected to actually blog the completed project.  Which is just a crying shame.

All crafty finishes deserve their moment in the blogging spotlight.

Basic yo-yo tools, while not absolutely necessary, definitely speed up the process.  And I LOVE the heart-shaped one! (Who wouldn't, I ask you?)

My favorite yo-yo heart, made from scraps of the heavy satin used to make my sister's wedding dress, got given extra oomph from a tiny dark purple silk yo-yo (lighter weight fabrics fared better in the small yo-yos), and a lilac bead.

In fact, for this project, every yo-yo was paired with beads or buttons (or both!), to make more of a statement within the bouquet.

My siblings: we clean up nice!

In the end, it was the event that was special here.  But my amazing, DIY bouquet really was (and is!) beautiful, full of memories associated with the brooches, earrings, buttons and yo-yo's that went into making it. 

Brief construction details

With help from extra hands, I finally got my crafty bridal bouquet all put together.  (See Take 1 and Take 2 posts for how we got to here.)

The big change this time around was twisting groups of stems together into clusters.  Each cluster then worked as a single element to thread through the fake hydrangea bouquet.



I made about 10 clusters, using around two-thirds of the approximately 80 individual stems.

The clusters were then inserted, one at a time, into the fake hydrangea as before.  I had an extra person helping me (mandatory), and we wrapped each cluster around the branches of the hydrangea and then continued wrapping down around the stem area to keep everything secured. 

Under construction: Take 3

Unlike the previous attempt, this version managed to have the brooches/buttons/bling be the star, rather than the hydrangea overtaking and swallowing all the bits I was trying to insert.

View from underneath it all

 Once we had all the stems/clusters arranged, all that remained was to make the "stem" be able to be held in one's hand.  It was already plenty thick, with massive amounts of wire wrapped all along the fake bouquet's original stem.
 

Buttons? No, corsage pins

Still a 2-person job: We wrapped the hefty wired stem with 2 layers of polyester quilt batting, and then wrapped a rectangle of the heavy bridal satin fabric around the whole thing.  The raw edges of the fabric were just folded under (ironed to hold the folds in place).  And the whole shebang was secured with corsage pins--a heavy-duty pin with decorative pearly head, that I had no worries about bending or ruining (I think they came in a package of 100).
 

That's it!  The key to this project being a success was starting early and having plenty of patience for the complexity of what I was trying to accomplish.

Here are links to the things I used/found helpful in making my own crafty bouquet:

Blue Petyl, who wrote the best cautionary tale on the brooch bouquet process, has an eBook, various DIY kits, and sells completed bouquets from their Etsy shop.

My favorite YouTube video, among the many I consulted, was by Jessica Flores, who has the same video plus more info on her own website, Domesticated Me (so I'm including links for both). 

Weddings can be so magical!  And we worked very hard to make ours so personalized.  From the family stash of buttons/brooches/earrings that were included in my bouquet, down to the sand we used in our sand ceremony (mine from Puget Sound, Sweetie's from Virginia Beach).  I wish you all the best as you CRAFT a wedding that makes you feel magical, too.

How to turn a Quilted Wallhanging into an Advent Calendar

For years, Sweetie has been on the hunt for a crafty/DIY Advent Calendar.  And been thwarted every time.  But not this year!

Charlotte, the long-needled Southern pine (flocked, for modesty)

This year, as we took out the holiday decorations, and put up our gaudy Christmas tree (aka Charlotte), she happened to mention an "advent calendar" that I apparently had put away last year.

I was perplexed.  I had no such advent calendar.

Ah, but I did have a neglected small holiday wallhanging.  Made from scrap fabrics, it was inspired by a project Barbara shared over on her Cat Patches blog.  In 2015 this was a class at the shop, teaching all the different techniques I know for making half-square triangles.  (How many techniques do you know?)  But it had languished in our house since then, not even getting a hanging sleeve put on.

 

So, how does one turn a quilted wallhanging into an Advent calendar?  I quickly rejected the idea of creating pockets, since the wallhanging was quilted and bound and finished.  I settled on buttons.  Twenty-five buttons, nicely spaced, that would hold small "somethings".  (What exactly was to be hung from the buttons was not mine to decide.  Sweetie is excellent at internet research.)

 In addition to a robust fabric stash, I have a surprisingly large button stash as well.  I found 16 identical green buttons, and filled in with red and silver/metal buttons, all from stash.  In order to be able to hang things from the buttons, they needed to be shank style.  Unfortunately, only the metal buttons came with shanks.  So I sewed each red and green button on over an object in order to make a thread shank after the fact.  Do you recognize said object?

It's a bobbin-holder.  I have used a toothpick for this task in the past, but I wanted to raise these buttons pretty far off the surface of the wallhanging.  This gave me uniformity from button to button, and worked like a charm.

Other note: my thread here was YLI Jeans Stitch, a high-quality 30-weight polyester thread that is strong and remarkably lovely to stitch with.  Its heavier weight meant that the shank built up nicely with fewer individual stitches.

Button with thread shank: a thing of beauty

And what, you may ask, is adorning this Advent Calendar?

Umm, would you believe Lego ornaments?  Sweetie managed to find a kit to construct Lego Friends countdown calendar ornaments--make one each day, then hang it on the tree.  And, because Sweetie is secretly still 8 years old (falling easily in the 6-12 age range suggested on the Lego package), this seemed like the perfect thing to make 25 little "somethings" to hang from the buttons.


My favorite ornament so far?  The microscope.  This is in honor of my parents, who were both scientists.  And my brothers, who are both engineers.

I can tell you're jealous.

And thus, after several years of longing, we have our crafty/DIY Advent Calendar.  Turns out, it was (almost) here all along.

Anything you would do differently?  I welcome helpful comments and suggestions.

Sewing for Quilt Market

In the flurry leading up to Quilt Market in Portland this past May, I did a bit of sewing--trying to decorate the booth for the Japanese fabric lines that I peddle (just one of my many part-time gigs).

Here's what got done!

1.  Reversible apron
Both a brand thing--"Hi, we sell Japanese fabrics here!"--as well as a practical issue--pockets!  I made this apron from a panel (currently in stock: tell your local quilt shop to order a bolt :)
 

2.  Tissue box covers
What does the enterprising salesperson do with sample swatches that are no longer needed?  Why, make something cute and clever (and useful! if I do say so myself).  Whipped these two up in a trice: traditional Japanese motifs on one, and the ever-so-cute contemporary Japanese designs on the other.  The fabrics are backed with scraps of fusible fleece, to give them some body.
I think I will add interfacing/fleece to my next tissue box project; I have made several, but have not thought to make them more sturdy.

3.  Upcycled jeans skirt
I wanted to play with double gauze material, but didn't have a lot of time to stitch something up that would look "professional".  I had seen some versions of an upcycle--attaching basically a long ruffle onto a pair of jeans, and decided to give it a go.  When I cut the jeans off at bottom of the zipper in the front, it did hack off a bit of the back pocket (unlike the YouTube video I linked), but I think this was absolutely the correct place to cut.  And, if you haven't tried double gauze yet, you simply must.  (Umm, get the good stuff, not the Shannon brand--sorry, Embrace.)

This skirt is like wearing secret pajamas!

4.  Hawaiian tote bag
This finish deserves its own post, but if I don't get to that anytime soon, here is at least a picture.  Made from scraps of Hawaiian print fabrics (a souvenir from last year's vacation visit to a swap meet).  This is one of my favorite tote bag patterns, and the exterior pocket is perfect for showing off a sashiko stitchery.  Conveniently, the stitchery was Hawaiian-themed as well. 

So that's some quick-stitch I got done in May.  Next Quilt Market is in November, and I've already started sewing for the booth.  Fortunately, most of my makes come back to me and get used & loved.


Finally, no mention of Quilt Market would be complete without a gratuitous picture of Oakie.  He has been my faithful traveling penguin companion on many quilt-y adventures of late.  Here he is with Lucy, a traveling doggie companion who had come all the way from Japan to visit Market.  They are totally upstaging the blue-footed booby and puffin fabrics that were supposed to be the stars of this corner of the booth...

 #wheresOakie

Quilt hanging sleeve alternative

Found this photo as I was trying to organize the digital clutter.  I took it at Late Night stitch-n-bitch, back when I lived in Oregon.  I thought it was so clever!

Instead of a sleeve: make triangular pockets in the top corners of your wallhanging, then cut a yardstick so it fits snugly.  I suppose a length of inexpensive wooden trim/molding or off-cuts from a lumber yard could also work.  And the *genius* final touch is to attach picture-hanging hardware to the center of the wood, so your masterpiece can be hung on a simple nail.

Ta-da!

I Hava Design Wall!!!

Yep, I hava design wall, and I'm pretty chuffed!
All last night I was singing, in my best Jo Anne Worley warble, about the virtues and wonders of this new development in my sewing space.

Not familiar with Jo Anne Worley? (Such a shame, youngsters)


(If for some reason the video doesn't play, I got it here on Youtube.)

Design wall specifics: two 4 foot x 8 foot pieces of rigid foam insulation, found at my local big-box lumber and building supply store. One side is a silvery mylar, one side is a white plastic; the "foam" looks like a styrofoam product to my untrained eye.

I covered the whole thing with 1 2/3 yards (8 feet) of polyester batting, from the roll at the quilt shop.

 
Held up very cleverly with blue painter's tape; and by being wedged between the floor and ceiling.

And on the design wall today?  A little ol' table runner whose borders need some help. 

(I am aware that 64 square feet of design wall is a tiny bit of overkill for a table runner.  But I will use its lovely, ginormous surface soon, I promise.)

This table runner is made from three blocks out of last year's black-white-and-bright Block of the Month.  I threw it together quickly, to show students an idea of how to use some of their blocks.  I also wanted to try out a border idea that I had previewed in 2014--also on a black-and-white quilt.

 

 Upon further review, I was left feeling that my version of the border--which I made narrower due to the size of a table runner vs. a full quilt--was just too darn loud.  The black-and-white fabrics I used did not allow for good viewing of the piecing.  Plus, they shouted down the lovely blocks in the center.  Not good at all.

So, there you have it: a large canvas to give perspective to noisy borders.  I'll be replacing some of the fabrics to try and calm things down a bit.

In other news... I will be hosting TGIFF this week.  More super excitement brewing!


If you have a FINISH, please come back and join the party on Friday this week.  I love to celebrate finishes!!

3rd of July wedding = awesome photographs

Bouquet Assembly: Take 2

Had my crafty Play Date with my friend Tree, and let me tell ya, she is a whiz.  She took apart the sad button/brooch bouquet with nary an emotional outburst, and started back in on the reconstruction post-haste.

After about 30 minutes, had a decent-looking collection of stems wired up.  Slight variation on the "use fake hydrangea's as a base" technique: twisted the wire stems around the hydrangea under-foliage to better secure them and prevent them from sliding about willy-nilly.

brooch bouquet under-structure

Also, kept twisting the wires around the stem all the way to the end (instead of trying to hold them straight in a bunch).

brooch bouquet stem (under construction)

This is so much more secure.  The brooches and button-towers are pretty immobilized, even though fewer than half of them have been placed so far.


Pros:

• don't have to twist each individual stem's wires down to the ends
• don't need floral tape until the end
• brooches can't slide around within the arrangement
• actually easier to thread the stems into the arrangement

Cons:

• takes more than 2 hands

However, I still think I am going to take this version apart.  I like the technique, but I want to tweak things a bit.

Too much hydrangea; it's hiding the bling

My main complaint is that the overall shape has strayed too far from oval/round, and the hydrangeas seem to be swallowing up a few of the stems.  I don't want to lose sight of any of my carefully crafted lovelies!

Phew, good thing I started this project so early...

The Little Bouquet That Could

I have put off the sewing this month, determined to complete a crafty project with a self-imposed deadline of February 28: making a bouquet for my upcoming wedding.  I am following lots of DIY advice from various online sources to craft a bouquet from buttons and brooches and other jewelry-like findings that have sentimental meaning for me.

So far, I have made:

26 button towers

wired up 8 brooches onto stems

8 stems from clip-on earrings

re-purposed 4 pairs of clip-on earrings (including a couple pair from my grandmother)

12 crafty creations

and miscellaneous other stems consisting of fabric yoyo's (many made out of leftover bits of satin and lace from when I made my sister's wedding dress many years ago), jewelry and beading findings, and anything else that looks like I can press it into service.

Don't really know how much more I need to make.  My initial estimates were that I need about 80 stems to fill in a bridal-size bouquet.  So... if I'm counting correctly, I still have 26 more to make.

Then onto the daunting task of making a bouquet shape out of them.  The best advice I read online was actually a cautionary tale about how the DIY process is not as easy as some online sources make it seem.  And that is one of the main reasons I started in January, and intend to complete this part of the wedding DIY in February.

Also, I really want to get back to sewing.

Minion cupcakes

Ok, this is definitely out of the normal realm of my blog posts.  No fabric or other craft materials were used.  But it does meet my cuteness standards!!!

Sweetie made Minion Cupcakes. You know, modeled after the minions from the movie "Despicable Me".  Darn cute characters--they definitely stole the show in the 2nd movie.

Vague directions...

Make cupcakes, allow to cool, and frost with desired frosting. These are a vanilla cake, with lemon frosting.

For the minions, use half of a cream-filled snack cake (ok, we all know them as Twinkies), piped with black details (hair, mouth, and goggles). Eyes can be made from white candies (Smarties will work), but we cheated and bought candy eyeballs from the cake decorating aisle of the store.

Shared them at work. Lots of folks stopped by just to admire them, and they made people smile all day long.

Yay for unexpected cuteness in the midst of a work week!

First anniversary: romantic paper escapade

Sweetie and I celebrated our first anniversary by taking a class together: we made books!  I contracted with my handmade-book-artist friend Tree to have a custom class where we could stitch together our own creations.

I chose an Anne Geddes poster to use as the front and back covers.  The finished book size is 8-1/2" wide by 6" tall.

The bookmaking class was spread over two evenings.  The first evening we decided on sizes, cut our covers (cardboard) and glued the coverings on them (the photo above is the inside of the back cover).  We also assembled all the pages, which were hand-torn from larger sheets of paper.

The second evening (after the covers had fully dried) involved punching holes in the covers and the signatures (what you call a grouping of pages, all folded together along the spine) and sewing everything together.

Oh, my camera does nice close-ups, doesn't it?  The stitching was fun and relaxing: we had time to chat and sip our tea as we worked.  I only had to undo things twice.  And the finished product is a lovely, blank journal.

I looked online for directions to bind your own book, but I'm not sure I'd recommend trying anything without hands-on instruction.  Tree is a fabulous, patient teacher, and comes with all sorts of supplies and equipment that I wouldn't want to have to purchase (two kinds of awls, a set of curved needles, bone folders, and glues for every possible purpose).

And I would show a picture of Sweetie's book, but she already shipped it off to her best friend as a birthday present.  Easy come, easy go.

Isn't the second anniversary supposed to be about leather?  Wonder what we'll do for that...

I made felt!

Christmas present from my dear daughter was to take a class together--class to be named later. We have taken several classes together over the years: beading, wire wrapping, bellydance (to name a few).  She is crafty and creative, has all the enthusiasm of youth, and is nerdy and loves to learn new things (like mother, like daughter).

Well, the delayed Christmas present happened this week at the Eugene Textile Center.  We made felt!

In a 2-hour class, with fabulous instruction, we took merino wool from roving to a finished rectangle of felt.  We got to make all the choices of color and pattern, including embellishing with yarn.  This could be a paralyzing level of choice for me, but I think I managed to come through picking a color scheme and design without too much angst.

Front side: my take on argyle

Reverse side: teal and purple ombre

The process of making felt is surprisingly not difficult.  I am still a bit sore in the upper body from the 20-minutes of rolling the wet-and-soapy mass over a pool noodle.  (Okay, also the 10-minutes of repeatedly throwing the almost-completed felt onto the table.)  Tiring, but not difficult.

What will I make with my 10" by 12" rectangle of felt?  Not sure.  Not committed yet (thus, I haven't gotten myself into project-mode; not one little bit).  Maybe a potholder/hotpad.  Maybe a case for my new, giant sunglasses.  Maybe a small bag/pouch.  (Not baby booties: i declined the free pattern offered to me by our instructor.  Don't need a project like that.)

For now, my lovely felt rectangle is hanging on the pegboard in my sewing room.  It's pretty.  And I made it!

Spoonflower: my newest obsession

OK, I don't know whether being obsessed with things is a true ADD trait, but I certainly can waste some time/brain energy/internet bandwidth on whatever my latest obsession-of-the-moment is.

Discovered while reading the Sew Mama Sew blog: Spoonflower, a site that lets you design your own fabric!  They print it out for you.  They will even offer your custom-designed fabric up for sale to others.  Immediately got sucked into browsing the "cut-and-sew patterns" section--which contains over 1,000 designs. 

Caught my eye:

• "My very first time traveler book" - a Dr. Who inspired fabric children's alphabet book
• "Baby's book of computer science" - omg cute-&-nerdy! fabric book with flaps to illustrate binary numbers and other elementary computer programming concepts
• "Vintage camera bag" - fabric sews into a small purse that looks just like an old-fashioned camera

And... after many oohs and aahs, I got started thinking about what fabric I might design.  (In my non-existent free time...)  Two projects came to mind, projects I have wanted to piece myself, but which could be "cut-and-sew".

"Hurry Up, Pizza Man" - an interactive children's book and activity kit

"pepperoni" made out of plastic bottle caps

Three Wise Men dolls made out of Kente cloth.

Not to worry, I'm not currently planning to start a new career as a fabric designer.  I just get a little excited/obsessed about new and creative things.  I'll keep Spoonflower in mind if I get to the place of truly wanting this particular vision to become a reality.

As always, so many ideas, so little time