Four more scarves

sewcrastinations — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 01:55:26 +0000

Here are photos of four more scarves I’ve finished and put up for sale through my Etsy.com store. Three are made from old kimonos and the fourth, the red one, was made from a piece of silk purchased at a local thrift shop.

Black Silk Kimono Scarf

sewcrastinations — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:36:07 +0000

This is a beautiful and unique silk fabric. Though not visible in the photos, it is “embossed” with a delicate floral design in addition to the brown and silver motifs, also woven in, which are visible. Again, this came to me as an old kimono. The black and silver synthetic fabric on both ends was supposed to have been the lining of a jacket I never got around to making. It and the glass beads add enough weight to make the scarf drape well. At 82.5″ long by 6″ wide, this is the longest, widest and heaviest scarf I’ve made so far. It’s also the most elegant and dressy. I’ve just added it for sale in my Etsy store.

Ikat Silk Kimono Scarf

sewcrastinations — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:05:47 +0000

This scarf is fashioned from some of the salvageable pieces of a badly worn kimono. It measures 70″ long by 4.5″ wide. The most time-consuming part of this project was the addition of the glass beads on both ends, but they add just the right touch of “bling” to the scarf, while also adding just enough weight to each end that it drapes well. It is currently available for sale in my Etsy store.

Silk Scarf

sewcrastinations — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:37:03 +0000

This scarf measures 75″ long by 3.5″ wide. My sister gave me her collection of home decorator fabric samples last summer and these pieces of silk, in blue, black and chartreuse, were in that collection. This was probably a series of drapery fabric. The black is embroidered with gold dots, with brown embroidery on the blue and chartreuse. I cut each piece in half, added pieces of my own black silk, and made up this design as I went along. The finished piece is actually a tube, so all the seam allowances are inside. I didn’t want to have the design on just one side with a lining on the other, so after all the pieces were sewn together it was folded in half lengthwise and sewn down the side to create the tube.

sewcrastinations — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:49:53 +0000

No photos to post yet, but for the past several weeks my work has gone in an entirely different direction . . . from art quilts, things to decorate walls, I’ve worked on items to decorate yourself.

My collection of old kimonos, purchased years ago when I was so ambitiously going to make them into jackets or blouses, make beautiful scarves. These are between 4 and 6 inches wide, an from 65 to 75 inches long. The ends are embellished and weighted down with glass beads. Sewing on all those beads is the most time consuming part but that time is well worth it. The scarves are turning out beautifully. Some will be Christmas gifts and others will go up for sale on my Etsy store site.

In the meantime, I’m back to addressing Christmas cards. Photos of some of the scarves will be posted soon.

Black and White with Color!

sewcrastinations — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:59:52 +0000

This is the first of 4 or 5 prototypes produced when I was trying to make a black and white art quilt to donate to the alumni association of my old high school. The school colors are black and white, something I’ve always felt was quite smart and sophisticated; but working with only black and white was difficult for someone used to using much more color. So this bargello quilt was quickly abandoned and hung on the design wall in my studio for weeks as I worked on other ideas. Once the black and white piece was completed and shipped off to Colorado, I again looked at this quilt and decided it would be a great background for some color. The yoyos were made several years ago, just something to do in the evenings when watching TV, with no real plan or idea of how to use them. They do seem to work well on the black and white background, though. Each was embellished with glass beads as they were sewn onto the quilt, then more beads were strung and added, as though moving in and out, through and around, the brightly colored yoyos. Unfortunately, the photo doesn’t show all the beads.

Black and White with Color! – detail photos

sewcrastinations — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:44:55 +0000

Bubbles

sewcrastinations — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:17:28 +0000

Here are close up photos of the whole piece you see across the top of this page as my banner. It started with several small pieces of unbleached muslin, left overs that should have been put way when I finished the project they had been used on. Instead, they were folded and stacked on a corner of my cutting table, which I was using to wrap Christmas gifts. At some point I spilled a cup of tea so that it stained the muslin with tea and with some red tissue paper. (Oddly, only the color from the red tissue paper transferred to the muslin; the blue, purple and green tissue paper didn’t.) But I was intrigued with the pattern and shading of the dark versus the light tea stains, as well as how the red bled with the tea. Since the muslin was now “ruined” anyway, I grabbed a package of felt tipped markers and experimented, just barely touching the tip of a marker to a tea-wet portion of the muslin and watching the ink spread. The typical “star burst” pattern as the ink spread equally in all directions from the contact point was often interrupted by objects beneath the fabric such as scissors, so I used the plastic grid from an electric box fan that had quit working to add more pattern and texture; then, to add more definition to that, I spread parts of the fabric (by now dry) over the plastic grid and rubbed it with the side of a dark gray crayon. All the muslin, some now heavily stained and other portions much less so, were cut into smaller pieces and sewn together in a pattern I made up as I went along, trying to alternate light and dark pieces. To add interest, I then appliqued some of the leftover pieces, cut into circles, with the embroidery machine. An extra piece of batting was used under each circle, adding more depth to the whole piece. I tried to use embroidery thread on the circles that matched or complimented the stained muslin, and then quilted the dark gray grid marks with invisible nylon thread. This is one of my few “pastel” pieces as I tend to use dark, more dramatic colors in most of my work.

Log Cabin 3 and 4

sewcrastinations — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:59:05 +0000

While I have great respect for traditional quilt patterns I’ve never had any desire to make such a quilt, myself. The one exception is the Log Cabin pattern. Perhaps it is the fact that it is based on a spiral, which is a favorite motif. At any rate, these four Log Cabin wall hangings are the only example of a traditional pattern I’ve ever attempted. All four were done in three colors: blue, blue and white polka dot, and white. All strips were cut 1″ wide so the finished width of each is one half inch. I’m not sure exactly why I thought to add the strips of pieced strips but they do seem to add interest, don’t they?

Log Cabins 1 and 2

sewcrastinations — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:22:42 +0000