Pincushion +

When I went to the post office yesterday to collect my mail, all that was in my box was a card indicating that I must go into the office to claim a parcel.  There was a new gal working behind the counter as our regular Post Mistress retired last Friday, so I handed her the card and she went into the back to retrieve the item.

It took only a few moments and upon her return, she handed me a large brown envelope and said, “So you’re the lady who gets and sends things all over the world.  This one is from England.”  In a small town, it doesn’t take long for ‘news’ to get around.

I knew it was my pincushion swap gift because it said ‘Pincushion’ on the custom declaration form.  I just couldn’t wait to get home to see what was inside!

When I got home, I immediately went into the kitchen, grabbed a pair of scissors and sliced the envelope open being as careful as I could.  There were a gazillion wrapped items inside, so naturally I reached for the largest one and tore off the wrapping.

A rooster pincushion with a tool caddy on it’s back to hold all kinds of sewing implements!  Isn’t he soooo cool?

After seeing Mr. Rooster, I just couldn’t wait to get at all the other goodies.

And then it happened…the battery in my camera died!!!  Just after I took this shot is when it happened and that’s probably why the photo is so dark because there wasn’t enough juice left to set the flash off.  Drat!

It takes a full six hours for the battery in my camera to charge so you know what that meant?  I had to wait until this morning before opening the other gifts in order to be able to take photos of them!  I felt like a child who had been handed their Christmas gifts and told to wait til the next morning before opening them.

You can be sure that the first thing I did this morning was go into the kitchen to see if the battery had charged overnight.  Yep, the red light was out so that meant it was charged and ready to go.

One by one I opened all the wee packages and oohed and aahed over each one.

Melanie  sent me all these wonderful goodies.  In keeping with the red, white and blue theme that I had written about in my profile…as well as liking vintage things…Melanie certainly outdid herself.  She included a balance between old and new…buttons, snaps, ribbon, rick rack and a postcard of Southport, England where she lives with a lovely note to me.

Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity, Melanie.  You certainly made my day…actually days…seeing that I had to spread my enjoyment over two days.

Another pincushion to add to my ever-growing collection.  And just in case you didn’t know, you can N-E-V-E-R have too many pincushions! 

Isn’t swapping grand?

Kaaren

A Plethora of Color!

The rain has finally stopped so I was able to venture out into the backyard this morning with my cup of tea and do my garden tour.  Although the sun is still behind the clouds, the color that greeted me was nothing short of breath taking.

The dwarf Korean lilac tree is in full bloom and the intoxicating aroma just seemed to fill the entire yard.

The pink lupines are in full bloom and when they’re spent, the phlox will not be too far behind.

Two of the five, twice-blooming irises in this raised bed are in bloom, as well as these…

and these…

and even more…

I just love irises and with the twice-blooming variety, we get to experience their beauty both in the Spring and Fall.

Perhaps the sun will come out later and the plethora of color will be even more spectacular.  Besides, the grass needs cutting and the flower beds need edging.

The splendor of late Spring…amazing!

Kaaren

My New Sewing Box

Last Friday morning when my friend Lucie and I were solving the problems of the world over a cup of tea, she brought out a papier mache box and asked me if I could find a use for it.  Immediately, I had a vision and when I got home, I sketched out a pattern and got to work.

I knew the fabric that I wanted to use for the sides so I went to my box with leftover scraps and found exactly what I was looking for…a piece of fabric with a stitched sampler design from Moda’s Madeira collection.  I trimmed the fabric to the width of the box and added a little extra in the length to allow for some overlap.

Whenever I apply fabric to either wood…or in this case, papier mache…I use a water based varnish which is readily available at most craft or hardware stores.

Note: I have tried petroleum based varnishes and they just don’t seem to work for this type of application.

At the outset, I would recommend wearing rubber gloves if you are going to attempt this as it can get kind of messy.

I liberally spread the varnish on the surface to be covered using a sponge brush and then smoothed out the fabric over the ‘wet’ area.  I then spread the varnish over the top of the fabric as well and smoothed it out again to ensure that there were no bubbles lurking beneath the fabric.  At this point I made sure that all the areas were covered well with the varnish and that there were no apparent ‘dry’ areas.  I then wiped off the excess drips of varnish with a dampened paper towel and allowed it to dry.  I set mine out in the sun on the deck and it was dry in less than 15 minutes.

While the box was drying, I traced the individual elements of the pattern that I had designed onto a sheet of ‘Steam-a-Seam 2’ using my light box.  If you don’t have a light box, you can achieve the same results by tracing your design against a window during daylight hours. 

I then painted the inside, lid and underside of the box using a colonial red color. 

While that was drying and curing, I ironed the cut out shapes of ‘Steam-a-Seam 2’ to the appropriate wool, cut them out, then ironed them onto the background fabric and began to stitch them in place using a blanket stitch.  In this instance, I used wool on a wool background. 

After the stitching was done, I decided that it was going to be a pincushion.

I sewed some binding around the outside edges and used the same fabric to line the inside of the box.  I cut a slit in the underside and stuffed it with polyfil and then stitched the opening closed.

I then painted some appropriate sewing ‘words’ around the rim of the lid e.g.. needles, thread, scissors, etc. and glued buttons between each of the words not only to separate them but to also add a little bit of interest and dimension.

Did you notice the little ‘bee’ button in the center?  I used that to attach the pincushion by making a little hole in the center of the lid through which I pulled the thread that I had used to attach the button and tied it to the underside of the lid.  I didn’t want to glue the pincushion to the top, just in case I want to change it out for another design at a later date.

And that’s what I did on Friday afternoon and part of Saturday…along with playing in my garden!

Happy stitching!

Kaaren 

 

Unexpected Guests

They arrived unexpectedly and without any luggage.  All they wanted was a room for a couple of weeks.  They would even furnish their own food.

How could we refuse such a request?  We had a few vacant rooms and they did look a bit weary after their long trip northward, so of course we invited them to stay for as long as was necessary.  They promised to be as quiet as possible and said that they’d be in and out quite a bit as they had some ‘business’ to attend to.  We told them to carry on and to try not to mind our comings and goings either.

They chose this vacant room, perched atop our clothesline pole that is attached to our deck and about 5’ away from our patio doors.

I’m not sure if that’s Mr. or Mrs. Tree Swallow perched on top of their interim residence.

He/she is exercising extreme patience, waiting until everything appears safe before entering.  This little ritual can take up to five minutes or longer.

If you click on the photo you can see either Mr. or Mrs. peeking their head out, checking once again to ensure that there is no eminent danger before they make a sortie to look for food.

Here’s what they look like up close and personal.  The color on their backs is a vibrant neon blue and they’re about the same size as a Goldfinch.

They’ve been in residence for almost two weeks now.  The first 3 to 4 days was spent building the nest which was no easy task given the fact that the opening to the birdhouse is not that large.  We don’t think that the eggs have hatched because we haven’t heard any noise from within.

They know that they’re welcome to stay for as long as they want and they definitely aren’t as skittish with our comings and goings into the backyard as they were when they first arrived. 

Isn’t nature amazing?

Kaaren

Productive Weekend

It was a cool and rainy weekend so I stayed indoors to work on swap gifts and other diversions.  The end is in sight and I hope to be finished everything by this evening.  Woo hoo!

While sipping tea on Friday morning, I started doodling and came up with a pattern for a needle case.  By dinner time, I had completed two of them.

The flowers on the front are made from wool and are appliquéd with a blanket stitch.

Inside, there are three pockets to hold needful sewing things, a detachable pincushion and a needle keep.  I also included a pair of reproduction ’Putford’ scissors.

Saturday was no better than Friday, weather-wise.  My friend Lucie and I got together and we made scissor fobs.  Scissor fobs are second only to pincushions in that you can never have too many of them either.

I also managed to complete this swap gift and…

this one should be a wrap by tonight.

Now we just need some warm, dry weather so I can get back to my gardens.  The weeds are having a field day!

Happy stitching!

Kaaren