Creativity Month Week Three

For the third week of Creative August I wanted to try to step outside my comfort zone every day. I haven't made a journal in quite a few years, so I got out my papers and some pretty linens and started with that.

I got out these two thrifted kits that didn't come with all the components to do a little jewelry making.

I've never tried a pre-fused applique kit, so I decided to use this one that I thrifted and see how they work.

I made an adorable vintage handkerchief I've been saving into a mini-quilt box topper. Definitely thinking outside the box here. :)

I've never tried to make anything from the selvages I save from fabric, so I hauled out the bag to change that.

I found a dusty wooden hatbox at a junk shop for a few bucks that I thought I'd try to clean and upcycle to store my perle embroidery thread.

I sewed together some chili peppers from the garden in my first attempt to air-dry them.

This little raggedy piece of patchwork became a stitch practice piece, and then evolved from there.

I've not done much crocheting with chenille yarn (I've made exactly one thing from it), so I pulled one blue (far right with the Lion Chenille label) and two brown skeins (far left, no labels) from a thrifted lot to do a practice piece.

I've got one more week plus three days left in August to be creative, and I'm pretty happy with what I've done so far. Let's see if I can keep it up for ten more days. :)

Comments

Fell Off the Wagon

I did cut up that plastic dollar tote to make into something stronger, but got caught up with work and set it aside. Then last night some hand-dyed silk and pretty threads called my name, and, well . . . Felt SO good to do some handwork, except my neck began hurting about an hour into it. I tried changing the way I sit and work, but it's pretty obvious that the doc is right.

T-minus Day

This was our little Thanksgiving dinner last year, when it was just the three of us. Time keeps whittling down my favorite holiday; this year it will be just me and my guy, and we likely won't even have a turkey.* That will be a first in 35 years. I feel about Thanksgiving the way other people do about Christmas, and while it's a lot of work it's my favorite holiday. Of all the Thanksgivings I've had in the past sixty years, only three were truly terrible: one when I was a kid that I don't talk about (#1 most miserable); the time I roasted two turkeys together and hosted fifteen people whom I cooked for and served with zero help (the largest and #2 most miserable); and the one I spent in basic training (the #3 most miserable.) I have no pictures of any of those, thank heavens. In addition to doing all the cooking I'm the one who takes all the pictures, washes all the dishes and puts away all the leftovers. I suppose no one else cares because to them it...

Old Loves & Such

My guy kindly bought me my favorite Chinese take out the other night, and my fortune cookie offered up an interesting story starter: This sounds sweet, right? Only the first thing I thought of was an old love coming back from the dead . . . . must be October. In other lovely news, my favorite hand-dyed thread artist, Lorraine from Colour Complements , is moving her business from Etsy to her own web site. Many of my favorite sellers on Etsy are leaving due to the whole "free shipping" coercion debacle, which has also soured me on the site. To show support I did a little shopping at Lorraine's web site and got in these: I love her threads and trims; you simply can't buy anything like them anywhere. Her work makes my specialty thread box look like a treasure chest: At night I'm spending just as hour working on quilting the scrap project runner, and I'm making slow progress: I'll keep quilting the runner while I try to decide on a design for t...

Valerean

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