Upward and Onward!

As my hubby passed the doorway to my sewing room and saw the newly cleaned area, he decided to venture in further to see what I was up to. I watched him as his eyes slowly scanned the perimeter of the room. Okay, when a room is too small, what do you do? You build upward, right?

(This area is located between the very top of my desk and the ceiling)

(Alongside my desk)

Well, he took one look at my mastery and blurted out, "Isn't there a law or something about height restrictions?" Ha! Ha! Silly man. I quickly informed him that since I was the only one that used the room, there would be no liability issues. He looked at me with a some-what smirky grin, made an about turn, and marched back to the living room and hasn't said a word about it since. I gotta say that his reaction was rather funny and if I hadn't created this looming tower of plastic myself, I might have reacted in the same way too.

So, just for the record, my desk is extremely sturdy so I am not worried about anything falling on top of my head. BUT!......Let me assure you, if there should be an earth quake while I'm sitting at my desk, you can bet that I'll be out of there in a flash. I'm no fool.

Have a totally awesome day!

Aloha!

Busy Bee

How appropriate to have come across this little fellow while reorganizing my craft room because I have been busier than a bee. He's pretty old, as I must have made him over a dozen years ago. He's made from fun foam, a little bit of black paint, and has fabric decoupaged to his foam wings.


My son's girlfriend loves crafting and sewing just like me. I swear, it's fun having her around to share creative things with. She recently made me some of the sweetest sweets that I've ever seen. None are any larger than 7/8" and each are very highly detailed. Just look at those tiny sprinkles. They are barely larger than the width of a sewing needle. Each piece is as light as a feather because they are made from paper clay. Not only is she a very sweet girl, she is a very talented one at that!


As you can see, I'm getting ready to eat them. Don't they look scrumptiously real?


On the diet front, I have lost 2-1/2 pounds over the last 2 weeks. I am trying not to think too much about dieting because the mere thought of the word brings me to a tizzy and makes me want to eat everything in site. So, I've decided not to let it pressure me out anymore and it seems to be working.

I'm still cleaning and organizing my craft room. I will be cleaning until forever, it seems. Well, I'm giving myself until the end of this month to get it together.

Remember this picture of the floor as you enter the room?


Voila! What do you know, there's a floor under all that mess.


It was funny to see my cat stroll extremely slowly and cautiously through the new bit of open space. He couldn't believe it either.


This shelving unit sits next to the mess that you saw on the floor. It was in total disarray too.


The open shelving is now organized. I have yet to tackle the enclosed areas. It is filled to the brim with books and paperwork, a nightmare within itself.


All of this shuffling and sorting has brought out my asthma and has affected my breathing so I am planning to take it a bit slower this week. Not being able to breathe and having to use my inhaler scares me a little too much.

I hope you're having a fabulous day, everyone!

Aloha!

One Space Down

My desk is clean! My elbows are free and unobstructed by the mess that surrounded it each time I sat at the computer. One down, many more areas to go, but at least it's a start.


I would like to send out a group hug and a big thank you to Sue, Shannon, Connie W, Busym 1, The Artful Hooker, Kaye, Sherri, Annie of Blue Gables, Suze, Kath, Robyn, Sweetiepie, SG, Rumi, Deb, Terry, Lilly, and Carrie P for all your support. A big thank you also goes out to Kristin. For some reason, my computer wouldn't let me enter your site for me to post a link. You all could have called me names(like Miss Piggy), but no, not you nice people. You offered me encouragement instead and I'm very grateful for that. I enjoyed reading your comments about your struggles with your supplies and would love to hear about how you manage to keep it under control. As you can see, I can use any tip that you may have to offer.

Part of the fun of straightening up my room is discovering things that I haven't seen in a while. This is an assortment of novelty buttons that I've collected over the years. Funny thing is, I can't think of a single project to use them in.


Well, today I'll be heading upstairs to try to condense some of the supplies in my closet. This will allow me to return some of the items that are taking up space in my craft room. See you when the dust clears.

Aloha!

What stifles my creativity, you ask?

A very, very, very, messy sewing/craft room!!!!

This is as bad as it has ever been and I'm tired of maneuvering my way through it all. Day after day of seeing this mess is tiring me out and stifling my creative process. I can't go on anymore without cleaning this stuff up.

I don't have the heart to show you the entire room in it's current state but I will show you just a smidgen. I hope to show you shots of other areas as I tackle them (if I get brave enough). This is the floor on the left side as you enter the room. If you've seen this much, I'm sure you can just imagine what the rest of it looks like.


I have an extra closet upstairs in my bedroom which is crammed full of supplies. Whatever is in this closet slowly migrates downstairs to my room and never seems to find it's way back. Can you just imagine that this closet isn't as full as it usually is? Can't be true, right? Oh, but it is!

This is the left side of that closet. Wreath forms, wooden shapes, ribbon, wire, fimo, pompoms, magazines, styrofoam, rattail cord, contact paper, glass pebbles, wood roses, needle punch supplies, and so much more fill the left side of this closet.


This is the right side of the closet. Those cardboard boxes are filled with fabric. The lower 3 shelves are filled with mostly paints and painting supplies. There are patterns, lace and trims, beads, yarn, glues, cording, plastic lacing, paper ribbon, paper mache shapes, clear fishing line, jute, raffia, and a whole bunch of miscellaneous doodads scattered throughout.


Here's a piece of work. My desk, in all it's messy glory. This is where I sit when I'm not working on a project. It is located at the entrance of my craft/sewing room. I have difficulty typing because there are so many things surrounding either side of my arms. This will be the first place that I tackle. It's small and compact and I should be able to manage it within a reasonable amount of time.


If I had just one interest, such as sewing, this mess would probably be easier to control. Because I dabble in almost every craft known to man, I have an overwhelming amount of supplies. Y'know, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, just enough to drive a sane person mad.

I've thought long and hard about whether to show you my mess but you need to know why my creativity has somewhat come to a halt. Everything has gotten so out of control lately. I need to devote the time it takes to organizing it all. I mean, it has gotten so bad that I've even contemplated renting a storage unit. The one thing that has stopped me is that I wouldn't be able to access the things I need when I need it.

I will never have a pretty space to work in. It will always be very utilitarian. I am not complaining. I am very thankful to have the things that I do.

So, wish me luck. This is going to take a long time to get under control. If you hear someone scream, it will most likely be me as I dig myself out from under the mess or just purely out of frustration.

Have a good day!

Aloha!

Quick 'n Easy Fabric Bookmark

**This tutorial is intended for personal use only.**

Do you need a cute bookmark to jazz up your summer reading? Paper is a wonderful and fun medium to work in, but you all know me, I love fabric. So, I decided to make a quick 'n easy bookmark, held together entirely by Heat 'n Bond iron on adhesive.

I prefer Heat'n Bond Ultrahold for projects that do not require sewing.


This is a fabulous way to use up all those small pieces of scrap fabric that you have laying around.

You will need:
* 2 pieces of fabric in the same print approx. 6-1/2" in length x 2- 1/2" in width

* 1 piece of contrasting fabric approx. 5-1/2" in length x 2" in width

* small piece of fabric for the flower embellishment approx. 2" x 2"

* 3 pieces of Heat 'n Bond that measure approx. 6-1/2" x 2-1/2", 5-1/2" x 2", 2" x 2"

* Draw a flower shape of your liking to the paper side of the 2 x 2" Heat 'n Bond piece.


Iron the 6-1/2" x 2-1/2" Heat 'n Bond strip to the wrong side of the fabric of the same size.
Iron the 5-1/2" x 2" Heat 'n Bond strip to the wrong side of the fabric of the same size.
Iron the 2" x 2" Heat 'n Bond piece to the wrong side of the fabric of the same size.



Remove the paper from the Heat 'n Bond on the 6-1/2" x 2-1/2" piece of fabric. Fuse it to the wrong side of the remaining piece of fabric of the same size.


With rotary cutter, trim the larger piece to 6" x 2" and the smaller piece to 5-1/8" x 1-1/2".
Remove paper backing from the 5-1/8" piece and fuse it to the center of the 6" piece.
Cut out the flower, remove paper backing, and fuse it to the top of the bookmark.
You can embellish the flower center with a button if you wish or embellish it in any way you choose. I prefer to cut random shapes from other fused pieces of coordinating fabric and using it for the flower center to keep the bookmark flat. The choice is yours. Embellish away!


This is the completed bookmark.


A close-up of the flower.


This bookmark is fast and easy to make. I'd love receiving something like this tucked between the pages of a book that I received as a gift.

Just a thought...If you're a frequent visitor to the library, how about using this bookmark as a RAOK. How about attaching a tag to the back of the bookmark with a cute sentiment about kindness and passing it on and then tucking it into a random book on the library shelf. Imagine the delight of the person as they open the book to find a sweet sentiment from a stranger. Make this world a better place, one bookmark, one random act of kindness at a time!

Aloha!

Monday Muddle

It was a busy weekend, with no sewing or crafting involved. On Saturday, we attended my nephew's college graduation. On Sunday, I was supposed to attend a baby shower for my niece, but she decided to make it her baby's birthday instead. Although several weeks premature, the baby weighed 6.04 oz. and is healthy. I was able to hold baby for a few minutes and boy is she cute. Of course, I am a very biased auntie.

I received an email from Emy notifying me that she received the handbag that she won in my giveaway. Emy is from Italy and only speaks a smidge of English. She doesn't have a blog, but has been a visitor of mine for quite some time. She was able to communicate the following:

"Hallo Arlette!!!! I have received todey your wonderful giveaway. I am
really happy, I never received a gift so beautiful!!!! You are very
generous and your jobs are perfect!!! I think that will use your
jewelry tote for sewing. I haven't blog, and I have enclosed the your
gift photo in this mail, if you want post it in your blog. Sorry for my
english!
Grazie Arlette!!!!!"

I am glad that you are enjoying your goodies, Emy. Here is the picture that she sent to me...


My nephew's graduation party is this weekend and I finally finished his card box. Sorry for the poor lighting as there was no natural light available when I took these photos.

This is a front view of the box. I used brown Kraft Paper, which is used for wrapping boxes for shipping. I cut the paper into strips and wove it to create a faux lauhala design.


Top view showing the card slot.


A side view.


Although creating this box takes oodles of patience and time, it was fun to make. For a girl's first birthday party, I can envision this made from a light baby pink pearl wrapping paper and tied with a printed pink bow topped with a rattle or other cute baby item.

On the diet front, I have lost 1-1/2 pounds this past week. I really thought that I had gained it all back because we went to Tsukiji's Japanese Buffet and I ate tempura until I about exploded. It was good, but I think that I had my fill of tempura for the time being.

I hope you are having a fabulous day.

Aloha!

Halvsies

I love experimenting and coming up with new ways to use traditional designs. Since I started on this hexagon paper piecing journey, I have been yearning for more design alternatives. Combining 2 fabrics into a single hexagon adds creative flexibility and visual interest to your projects. So my friends, let me introduce you to Halvsies.

I've combined 2 fabrics and placed each hexagon paper shape on the seamline in different locations. I'll refer to the one on the left as horizontal and on the right as vertical.


This is a kaleidoscope effect that you can achieve by playing with tones. Notice how the triangle center jumps out at you, very similar to a kaleidoscope. This is a combination of horizontal and vertical hexagons with a plain center.


The following arrangements aren't sewn together. They've been loosely arranged to give you an idea of the kinds of options you have. I could have gone on and on with this, but I stopped at just 4.

You can achieve a whirlygig that actually looks like it is spinning by using vertical hexagons.


If you placed a printed hexagon into the center, you would have a hexie within a hexie. This design uses vertical hexagons. The consistent placement of the prints and solids make this design work.


This is a combination of horizontal and vertical hexagons arranged in rows. By rearranging the prints and solids, you can achieve a different effect.


These are made up entirely of horizontal hexagons which have been placed in a row. Again, rearranging the prints and solids will give you a different effect.


Another idea is to place the seam at random locations on your hexagon. You can even add more than 2 fabrics. When combined into a quilt, they will become a Crazy Hexagon Quilt.

Halvsies are very versatile. But, don't forget that you can do this with any paper shape. Adding these to your repertoire will allow you so many more design options simply because there are more fabric combinations to play with.

My apology to all you hexie purists out there. This girl just wants to have fun!

Have a good weekend!

Aloha!