Stargaze Tome March Page

Today I finished the third page in the Stargazer Tome series by Patti Culea. This page was all about fabric collage. The front of the page was a garden design. I changed the girl in the original pattern to a fairy that I got from "The Crafter's Design Library: Fantasy" by Chris Down. I traced the fairy onto white fabric and colored with pencils and pens before fusing her to the background. I chose a very flowered background so that only a few items needed to be added to the foreground.


I have had scraps of these "tiger lily" and "snap-dragon" fabrics for many, many years and I think that a fantasy garden theme is the perfect place for them! A few butterflies and ladybugs from another fabric provide more "stuff."






For the back of the page I followed Patti's instructions and cut leaf-ish shapes from Tyvek and organza and then added heat - iron for the

Tyvek and a candle for the organza. This created fronds that I stitched down and did some free motion embroidery around. I also added some heated cellophane, a piece of vegetable netting and a few beads. At the bottom is more Tyvek - in rock shapes, and more free embroidery to create a "rocky" ground. I tried to keep the colors muted as if you are looking at the garden in moonlight. In fact, that circular mark next to the dragonfly is a crescent moon charm. I forgot to take a closeup photo!



The fun part about the Tome patterns is that each page explores a different technique, some of which are new to me. Next month is painting and dyeing fabric I think. One more week in March and I still have lots to do! Oh dear.

Finished Another One

I finished page 2 of the Tome today. Wahoo! Another project finished on time. And there's a whole week left in this month! Oh yeah - er - well, there's supposed to be a little doll in that pocket. And - uh - I haven't started it yet . . . BUT, the page is finished!

I wanted to do something about my grandmother, Ursula. When I started going through photos, I discovered I have very few of her - and none of her alone. Next visit with my mother I will have to see what she has. But these photos will do fine for now. The oval one is a 4 generations shot taken when my baby was about 6 months old - so 1970. Apparently I was in my "country girl" mode at that time. Pigtails? Good grief! The little picture (which doesn't show up at all well here) is of my grandparents Ursula and Leslie a few years later. On the other side of the page is one of my favorite photos of all. It is my mother and grandmother taken when they graduated from college. It was right after the war and when she realized she could graduate, my mother asked her mother when she was going to finish her college degree. When they checked on it, they discovered that Ursula had earned enough credits to get her degree at the same time. The local paper did a special interest piece on them and this was the picture they ran. Well they were farmers and the reporter must have thought carrying an empty bushel basket looked authentic!

I had quite a time sorting through my button collection to find just the right buttons. In fact, I wound up sorting the buttons into categories and colors. Now I have a nice box full of ziplock bags with neatly organized buttons. Just too, too efficient!

I even had time to do some beadwork on my doll club project. It is getting close to finished. I decided I want to print some photos for this project and then I can put everything together and there will be yet another finished item. Oh boy, I am on a roll now!

Stargaze Tome progress

These pictures are the cover page for Patti Culea's Stargaze Tome that I finished earlier this week. I posted in-progress pictures earlier (here) and I am quite pleased with the way this turned out. Once I drew the faces it was really easy to finish them up. I auditioned lots of different hair options - at one point they had green and purple hair! - but these worked out just fine. I really like the platinum blond. Doesn't she look like a 50's movie star?

I also optioned several different kinds of beads. I have quite a stash, you know! The two necklaces actually started life as full-size necklaces. The puka beads (on the right) were a full necklace of puka shell chips that I bought at the fair. I know that buying just the beads would have been much more expensive! The round white beads (on the left) are painted wood and made up the "support" beads on an old wooden necklace I found in a thrift shop years ago. I bought the necklace because the focus beads are large and look hand painted. Very pretty at least. Never dreamed I would find a use for the rest of the necklace!

Now I am ready to start page 2 of the Tome. It involves photo transfers. I have picked the photos I want to use, but they need to be scanned into the computer. I have one of the all-in-one type printers which is pretty handy. BUT (there's always a but!) once you have used the scanner part, the computer does not recognize the printer! Everything has to be turned off for more than 30 minutes so the electronics forget everything before one can print. What a nuisance! So I save scanning for evening, just before bedtime. Then computer and I both can rest and start over in the morning!

Finished A Project

The last couple of weeks I feel like I have not finished anything. Just keep starting new projects until just deciding what to work on has been a hassle. So today I decided I was going to finish SOMETHING!

And I did! Wahoo! This piece is my sampler from last year's Take A Stitch Tuesday. Every Tuesday, SharonB posted samples of a stitch and where to find instructions. Even though the challenge is over, the weekly postings are still available. I was not officially part of that challenge because (1) I did not have a blog until November, and (2) I was never caught up with the rest of the group! But I tried all the stitches and kept print outs of all the instructions.

It makes quite a big notebook, so today I turned my sampler into a book cover for the instructions. Now I have a nice reference book for a wide variety of stitches. Sweet.

I spent the rest of the day working on the Stargaze Tome front cover. Gosh, I'm tired but there's still some work to go. The ladies don't have faces yet! That's the fun part, so I'm looking forward to my next trip to the basement.

P.S. This is blog number 25. Not a big number, but a milestone nonetheless.

Last Day of January

My family knows very well that the last day of anything will usually find me frantically trying to finish some kind of project or another! All those time management courses I took over the years have just resulted in me being late in a more organized way!

Anyway, these two projects are supposed to be "January" submissions. They will be done by January - 2009, at least! The first one is Patti Culea's Tome pattern for the cover page. The Stargaze Yahoo group is attempting to do a page-a-month. So many people have gotten started and then did not finish all the pages for one reason or another. I am one of those people! I have four pages done, but they are two or three years old. Besides, I have learned a lot about fabric techniques since I did the first version and I'm going to see if I can do better. Not necessarily faster - but better.

The second photo is my TIF tribute piece. Now, I have already done the color TIF for January, so this doesn't count against me by not being done. Right? I've finished all the "work" and now what's left is the fun part. Embellishments! When SharonB announced the options for January, I chose to start working on the color, but my mind went right to work thinking about people I admire and how I could do a tribute piece. Once a project takes root in your mind, you have to do something to let it out, you know? I have actually chosen a group of people to represent in this piece. I think they have certain traits in common and each element in this picture represents - to me - one of these people. When I have finished this project, I'll post more about what and who and all that stuff.