Pinterest Problem

I wanted to try the Pinterest inspired melted crayons onto a framed canvas art!

Well to be honest, I wanted to try it years ago, so the crayons have been glued and waiting for at least two years. I don't own a hairdryer or paint stripper and kept forgetting to ask the family if I could borrow one. Today they took matters into their own hands and put the prepared canvas into the oven.

Fortunately- the canvas turned out fab!

Unfortunately the crayons also melted onto the oven floor and sides!

Fortunately the baking tray caught most of it

Unfortunately I'm going to need to get someone in to clean the rest!
Sigh!

Fortunately tomorrow should be more successful - I'm sewing! One stack of blocks to finish and speed date, one UFO to move along, and one quilt that exists in my head but needs cutting and stitching



(Edit: I glued the crayons onto a canvas - the Pinterest ones are usually shown with a hot air blower of some type to melt the crayons, but the oven worked really well (apart from the dribbles). We had the oven on very low (I've got gas: we had it on S which is below gas mark 1) and watched through the window, stopping when we liked what we had. The wax stopped melting almost as soon as we turned the heat off or took the canvas out. We had to help one green bit - it had run into the blue and didn't want to run straight down- a toothpick helped to pull a bit of green down and guide the next dribble! If you look on Pinterest there are lots of variations - some have a piece of plastic or resist over part of the pic so it keeps an area clear. )

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The one where I stitched a dog!

I've finally finished the Pre-School embroideries, hooray!  The lady who runs the preschool also volunteers at a dog charity, and sent me their logo to ask if I could embroider it?

It was a difficult one, but I'm quite chuffed with the result - lets hope she likes it too!

I'm also playing with selvedge edges again -  saw this on Pinterest,

 and have started my own version

I'm making mine out of recycled denim, hence the colour changes, but I'm really loving it!  At the moment it's 32" x 27" but I'm adding a strip of selvedges to the left, and of denim to the right each time so it's growing quickly (or will do until I run out of selvedges!)

Passacaglia - Procrastination or Progress?

A while ago Jackie got me a starter pack of templates for the La Passacaglia EPP quilt.  Do you know the one I mean?  It's this really beautiful one - I've added lots of them to a Pinterest Board

I've been putting it off, as there are so many pieces, and so many decisions to make!  I *finally* got all the shapes out and sorted them

And then I arranged them to create one of the bigger shapes.  There is a book, but I'm hoping to have a go based on looking at photos

Great as far as that goes, but this is a long term project so it's going to have to sit around for a while as I progress, and I was worried I might lose pieces in the meantime.  So I've had a go at ironing them into freezer paper: they have stuck and seem to be happy to peel off as I need them, so I think I am, gulp, ready to start on the first shape

Well, ready to consider fabrics anyway

To recover from the stress of thinking about maybe starting this, I made a few purses - I feel calmer now!

Pinterest Problem

I know sometimes Pins on Pinterest have a missing link - ones where if you click on the pic it doesn't take you anywhere.

I pinned this Easter Chick basket a while ago, and in the last few days have wanted to make it

 

The picture takes me to this blog, but its just the same photos as on Pinterest.  The watermark on the photo is http://blog.sina.com.cn/ but its all in Chinese (I think) and certainly no chick baskets are evident.

I have created my own pattern and instructions, but afterwards I found a link to this blog where Tiffany has done the same thing!  So if you want to make this basket maybe look at her instructions and mine and have a go!

You'll need to print this pattern piece: the PDF can be down loaded here

And you'll need these instructions:(the PDF is here)

I took photos as I went, so hopefully these will help too

Pieces cut: 

Instruction 1

Instruction 2

Instruction 5

 Instructions 7 & 8

Instruction 9

 Instruction 11

 Instruction 15

I try not to think of this as being late for this Easter - rather being *very* early for next Easter!

PS I know my written instructions aren't brilliant - if you find  mistake please let me know!

Pinterest Proof

I love Pinterest, and have loads of crafty pins: often though I pin whilst thinking "humm, really?"

I tried the sharpie pens on a mug - NOT dishwasher proof, I even bought fancier sharpie pens, still not dishwasher proof.

So when I pinned the silk screen instructions I wasn't convinced. But a friend send a Red Cross package of unwanted fabric stuff (thanks Lise) and it included some fabric that looked suitable, and I had mod podge on my desk, and could reach an embroidery hoop so I figured I'd give it a go.

Prepare to be astonished! (not at my screen making skills though!).

I so didn't expect it to work, so there are no clean pictures of the screen, but here is an after picture (washed but still a bit stained)

And here is the result!!!!

And together

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Threaded Thread

Jackie made me this little thread case a while ago: it's great for having needle and thread in my bag

Recently I've been EPPing hexies and triangles, and I'm getting through the thread quite quickly, which meant lots of threading needles (pass the specs!)

And then I saw a great idea on Pinterest

It might not be clear from my dodgy photo, but I've got 8 needles threaded: as long as I take from the left, I'm sorted for loads more blocks! 

Two off the list

Two things on my list involved blogging about photos, so I can clear them now!

I wanted to share this fab Pied Piper the kids made at school,  He will now be cut out and put back together (a bit like patchwork) then will join the A to Z quilt on the school library wall, followed by a whole load of scrappy rats

Sadly, I wasn't even allowed to get involved so I cant claim any credit other than supplying scraps of fabric!

The second photo is this NOT so fab sharpie-and-oven-baked mug that is based on a Pinterest pin - hummmm, don't think I'll bother trying this again!!!

I also released the inner 16 year old, and did my coloured project list for the holidays:

Sad, I know, but I'm happy now!  I know it looks small here, but it's OK, I have a coloured version blu-takked to my wall :-)

Problems with my Brother

Not my actual, biological, brother (hello Titch), but one of the Brothers I have paid good money for!

I came home from my lovely, relaxing Spa Break to a delivery of polo shirts that needed to have a company logo embroidered onto them.  I've done this several times before: same logo, same supplier of polo shirts, so I started the first one - the tension on the top thread was awful.  I re-threaded both thread and bobbin - no improvement, so I went and got the old machine out of the shed and used that for the next few shirts, meanwhile I tried another design on the newer machine.  The first 100 or so stitches were still far too loose, then, suddenly, it sorted it's life out and worked fine.

I tried a few more projects on the new machine until I was convinced it was behaving and then started on the polo shirts again.  Well i didn't get a photo of the first problem, but the second problem it decided to throw as me involved a bird's nest under the race which meant I needed to cut the shirt to release it from the nest!

Not impressed!

However - far more fun was the testing project.

Victoria from Boutique Uniquely has some great pins on her Pinterest boards, including some felt citrus coasters.  I thought they looked great and would be quick to stitch using the embroidery machine.  So in order to test the machine I stitched up seven of these: orange, grapefruit, lime and lemon.  These the machine liked making, the polo shirts, not so much!

I think I am going to load these onto my ETSY site and see if they sell