A Perfect Day to Reflect on a Joyous Year

As this year comes to a close I am want to wander back and take a look at the adventures it held for me. The holidays bring this on and we are a scant ten days from a new fresh calendar.

This was my year of wonder, learning, and love.  I had a feeling on my last birthday, a magical 1-11-11, that my life was going to brighten after so many years of dense fog and struggle.  I had a lovely party given to me by my peapod Talei and her husband James.  Good food, dear friends, and drumming to begin my new journey.  I could not have imagined just how much this would turn out to be so.

I love to learn. This has always been a passion for me and this year held so much fresh nourishment for my soul.  I took an astronomy class at Sierra College that helped me define my love of the cosmos.  My sewing took on new dimensions when I discovered the wonders of LED’s and conductive thread.  There were yarn bombs deployed and spoons to be hammered flat. With my appetite peaked from a day in the shop with my inspiring maker sweetheart I took a welding class and found the joy of metal and sparks.  After a jubilant quirky evening with Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman I found a Ukulele and have learned to play a number of songs (though I still will not sing to anyone but the cats) and continued to drum and laugh with joyous Bob, David, Jay and Peter. 

This year also brought some wonderful encounters in nature and family trips.  In June my sweet sister Betty and her husband Mike treated me to an amazing trip to Alaska.  We toured the rich and wild Denali and Wrangle St. Elias National Parks, took an amazing drive to Valdez, played on glaciers and photographed wild creatures.  The year also brought camping via kayak to beautiful natural quiet places, encounters with bear and views of bobcats, swims in serene mountain lakes, coastal salty air,  and soaks in hotsprings.  I was able to take my granddaughter on her first airplane flight for a trip to Phoenix to see Vera who just turned 93 and my brother John and wife Judi. Hiked the desert, and searched for petroglyphs.

There was sweet time spent with friends, some I have known most of my life, some this year has brought to me. My home was filled with music and laughter, girltalk and relaxed meals round table and night drumming firelight.  Family time has been rich with my loving children and grandchildren who love to create, play zombie, run wild with me …  And my brothers and sisters who have been my salvation through the hard times were there to share my joy and laughter in the good. 

Not long after my birthday spirit guided me in a fantastic way to my sweetheart.  A spirit filled with joy & adventure, who has gifted me with the most joyous, kind thoughtful love I have ever experienced… (and also a very cool portable Dobsonian Telescope). This journey is sweeter with you at my side Love…

The new year is ahead… though I am a bit unsure of the significance of an arbitrary  date on the Gregorian calendar, it is a continuation, a mark of another cycle round the sun…time to reflect on the blessing of an abundance of love in my life and my heart is filled to the brim with gratitude.

Little Stargazer

I just finished this... see my other post on making these for instructions.
On this one I hid the conductive thread under the main fabric by tacking a piece of muslin on the back and sewing the conductive thread along the muslin making it invisible.
Same technique otherwise, switch on the side and battery holder hidden behind on the canvas.

Pattern Test for IPAD, E-Reader Portfolio

I purchased this pattern last weekend on a trip to Petaluma.  If you have folks that tote about their IPAD or EReaders this would make a very cool gift. 
The pattern is by Amy Barickman and can be found here: indygojunction
Tips:
Read this pattern over a few times before beginning
Do not use self stick foam, I did because it was what I had about.
Choose carefully where you hand stitch the finish.. I recommend back and side.  I did along the front, bad idea... But now the next go round will be a breeze!

I don't have an ereader so I put a piece of paper where one should go.. This has a handy pocket for a note pad and pen (notice I put my hot springs membership card in the pocket..ahhh a good book and the springs)

 Closed up with Velcro Tab...see how it is a little off and tiny ripples.. that is the problem with the self stick padding.. love this fabric though!

Firefly Fasination

I have been in the planning process of this one for a while.. it seems to be one of those projects with starts and stops, but one I have very much enjoyed.

Ingredients: Piece of main fabric, black felt, template for silhouette, 2 yellow LED's, 1 lily switch, 1 battery holder, conductive thread, embroidery thread, 8X10 canvas.

Tools: embroidery hoop, good scissors, thin needle with a tiny eye, embroidery needle, bees wax or a candle,  needle-nose pliers, hot glue gun, staple gun. A multimeter is nice to have to check your circuits as well (but not necessary)

Cut out a paper template for your silhouette, use to the felt silhouette. 

Hand stitch the felt piece on to your main piece of fabric. 

 Using an embroidery hoop stitch your fireflies 

 Gather your electrical components, use your needle nose pliers to curl the leads of the LED's for sewing, curl the positive lead a little different than the negative so it is easy to tell them apart once you get them on the piece. (see next few photos)

 I then draped the whole deal over the canvas to determine the placement of the battery holder and switch, then hot glued them and the LED's  to the fabric so they would be easier to work with. (be careful to only use a dab of hot glue and to avoid any possible interference with connections.
Sew with your conductive thread (use a tiny needle, the hole on the battery holder is little and you will need to go through it three or four times, also conductive thread loves to separate and fray so it is far easier to thread wit a tiny bit of bees/candle wax at the end) Sew from the positive lead on one LED, to the positive side of the battery holder and then to the positive lead on the other LED, use one piece of thread for this!

 Next sew from the negative lead of one LED to one side of the switch (switches are not polarized so it doesn't matter what side you use) Repeat with the second negative lead to the same side as the first.  Next sew from the other side of the switch to the battery holder. At this point you can pop in a battery and see if all is working correctly.  If not get out your multimeter and check your connections.
 To attach to the canvas start with the side with your electrical components. I have the battery holder on the inside of the canvas frame and the switch on the outside side for convenience. Position your battery holder and hot glue the fabric to the frame, use the same process with the switch. (I check my connections regularly to be sure I haven't caused any problems in the process)
 Next using hot glue and then a staple gun stretch (be gentle) the fabric over the frame. I plan on going back with some wide ribbon and covering up the staples,etc.

See the tiny switch.  I was going to put it on the inside but didn't want this to have to come off an on the wall to turn on.

Sunday is Pillowcase Day!!

This a great project for your extra collection of fabric.
 The most difficult part of this simple project for me is trying to keep the cats off the cutting board!

• Cut Three pieces of fabric (all 42" length...life the universe and everything?)

1. Main Piece 27" X 42"
2. Border Piece 9" X 42"
3. Accent Piece 3" X 42" (you can also use lace or in this example I used some of the bunches of blanket binding I have from making baby blankets)

•  Lay out the 9" Boarder piece face up

• Lay Main fabric pice face up on top of the boarder piece (align the raw edges along the 42" length)

• Iron the 3" accent piece in half with wrong sides together, lenghwise and lace face up on top of the mail piece, raw edeges even

Take the Main Fabric piece from the bottom and roll the fabric
up towards the top leaving about 3" from the raw edge.

Take the boarder piece from the bottom and fold
toward the top and pin all edges together (5 layers)

 Stitch a 1/2" seam along the edge, making a tube of fabric 

Turn the fabric right side out

Stitch the side and bottom seams
(you can serge the edges, make a french seam
or pink as well) 

Spoon handle bookmarks

I have been looking for more ways to use the spoon handles I remove when making the cameos.  They were starting to "collect"  My coworker suggested bookmarks (Thank you Lisa) So I gave it a go and am really enjoying how they are turning out.  I even tried a few with the handles on.
This is so easy not going to do much of a "how to" Basically Pound the heck out of the handle (or entire spoon) drill a hole in the end, string some waxed linen (or what ever your favorite thread) through the hole, bead away and you are done!

Re-Purposed Spoon Wind Chime

For these I used sterling silver.. I found some beautiful pieces at Salvation Army in Auburn and they also had a 40% off sale.. ten assorted pieces for $2.00 not bad!
Ingredients: Four Silver Spoons, 1 Silver serving fork, 16 gauge silver plated wire, silver chain link, assorted silver beads.
Tools: Dremmel with drill bit ,cut off wheel, and grinder attachments, needlenose pliers, wire cutters, hammmer, piers.

Hammer the spoons flat, I polished them up a bit later as well with the polishing wheel on the dremmel

To hang them I used a serving fork, I didn't like the tines so I cut them off, then drilled holes for the spoons to hang from.

I then used the cutting wheel of the dremmel to form new tines and bent then in opposing directions

Here they are all bent. I then used the grinding attachment for the dremmmel and rounded and finished the corners.

Next drill holes at the top of each spoon

I used 16ga silver plated wire looped through the hole at the top of the spoon and spiraled it with my pliers.  I also added a silver spacer bead just for fun to each side

 

I then added two and a half inches of silver plated chain to the loop spiral and attached it to the hanger with another loop and also added another bead (dragonfly) just for fun.

 

Hanging

If you click to open the larger version of this photo you can see I crossed wires down the length of the fork, I liked the way this looks and used a loop a the top to hang the chimes, also making a spiral at the base just for pretty factor.

Here is a close up of the connections.

I am very happy with how this turned out and now am in search of more silverware!!

Canning, it's an addiction...

 End of summer is canning time at my house, this year is no exception.  I have traded strawberries and blueberries for website design done for Snowy Peaks Farms, picked blackberries, been gifted plums, grown tomatoes. peppers and tomatillos, and got a screaming deal on peaches...
This years count: (thus far)
12 green salsa, 22 strawberry jam,  6 strawberry blueberry jam, 10 blueberry peach jam, 5 blueberry plum,  14 plum pepper, 14 blackberry, 4 half peaches, 10 tomato sauce.
Again, come the zombies all my friends are welcome at my house... there is plenty to go around.
(much thanks to helpers Betty and Mike, trooper plum processors & my Love for being my blackberry picking, strawberry hulling companion...)

Fingerless Mitts

Last year I was treated with the most wonderful pattern for Fingerless Mitts at Craftzine.  I have since added embellishments to the pattern, including embroidery, felting and buttons.  They have evolved.  Feeling the cooler evenings the past few days has encouraged me to once again pull out the felting foam and needles. 
All of the gloves are made from re purposed material. Leggings, sweaters and t shirts.
The pattern is simple and fun to work with so here is the link at craftzine in case you would like to make some of your own.. Craftzine Fingerless Mitt Pattern

 Made from a heavy weight t-shirt.. felted butterfly and catapillar

 Re-purposed leggings, felted pedals, embroidered stem and button

The felting on this one was done off the fabric and sewn on.

 This is the first one I made from a re-purposed light weight cardigan

Beary Bear

I made this bear for my friend Marsha after she had some dental surgery.  I have never had so much joy making something for anyone... she takes Beary everywhere and takes these lovely photos of him.  Love you Marsha.. and love that Beary has such a cool awesome Mom!

The Beary Photos.... By Marsha