Category Archives: Collage

Cheerfully requesting your votes to help me win a knitting bag! Whoohoo!

No, I’m not kidding.  Most folks know I don’t usually do this kind of thing.  I actually decided not to after I did the first design, but I got 2 likes in the first half hour on Polyvore and thought, hmmm….  So here’s to self expressing and throwing caution to the winds.

What:  I’m trying to win a Jordana Paige knitting bag.  (Even Miss E helped and stepped in to offer fashion advice.)

Why:  Because even though I’m not a fashionista myself, I REALLY like nice bags.  And, I would rather have a non-knitter tell me they love my bag than have someone know it’s a knitting bag and say nothing.  Trust me, it’s totally preen worthy when it happens.

When:  Right now through April 24th!

How:  Follow this link and either “like” or “repin” any of the outfit collages you like on Pinterest.  You can choose as many as you like.  If they are my designs, even better!  (And if they aren’t mine, just don’t tell me and we can still be friends.  Giggle.)

Jordana Paige Globe Trotter Pin Up Challenge

Many, many thanks!!!

(ps.  The geek in me is totally loving this whole contest.  It will be very curious to see “where” the outfits go…)

Knitting Over Lunch

I’m having way too much fun with these contest entries.

I admit, I’m not much for clothing myself well.  If I could live in jeans, flannel shirts and tevas for all occasions I’d be over the moon.  However, this site is just way too much fun.  Polyvore is like paper dolls for grown ups.  You can be whatever you can imagine.

For today, I imagined a nice lunch date with the gals or a friend I haven’t seen in a while.  I think it could either be a spa like place in the city I’m visiting or some seaside place on a Friday afternoon.  In either case, there would be knitting involved and a snazzy Jordana Paige Bella knitting bag to go with it.

The entries will be posted on Jordana’s Paige’s Pinterest site on Monday April 16th.  I will keep you updated in case you are interested in voting for one of my collages.

Knitting Over Lunch

Houston, we have finished coasters and sewing lift off!

(Insert happy dance here!)

The coasters are finished and waiting to cure for (gasp!) a month so they don’t decide to adhere to any glasses.  I did try the painted glaze, but quickly wiped it off.  It just looked too muddy.  Here’s a side view of what they look like with their cork.

2/28/12 Project 365 coasters, side

And here’s the top view of my two new sets of coasters.  Yay!

2/28/12 Project 365 coasters, top view

And today’s work has been sewing a pillowcase burrito style.  I got the pdf for the “recipe” off the allpeoplequilt.com website.  The instructions are very thorough and include step by step pictures.  The only thing between me and the pillowcase was then:

repinning the burrito because I didn’t read ahead to the next step

realizing very fine needles cannot be felt that much… you just see them dangling from your finger… interesting

a search for a small screwdriver

finding out I didn’t need the screwdriver and hoping I didn’t just screw up my machine

cleaning off the feed dogs

finding out that probably wasn’t the problem either

ripping and restarting nearly every seam

wondering why my fabric still kept shifting (need to call Mom about that one)

ironing the end seams funny and not caring because it was DONE!

2/28/12 Project 365 pillowcase

One down, 6 more to go.  Yeah, I went crazy on the fabric end of my stash enhancing.  In my defense, I’m thinking customization.  No more shopping 3 different stores to find linens to match.  I’m sincerely hoping I get faster… and figure out my feed dog issues with flannel.

Decision points…

Ever notice how sometimes things don’t get finished.  Projects don’t get fully knit up.  Piles of clutter sit, and sit, and sit.  I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, it usually means I’m dragging my feet on making some decision.  Maybe I’m not sure what to do.  Maybe I don’t know where to put the stuff.  Maybe I’m worried I’ll mess something up.  Once I realize that I’m delaying on a project, I can usually put on my big girl panties and tackle the decision in question.  Sometimes it takes a bit more… like hubbie suggesting very kindly that he would like to see some of these projects I feature actually finished.  I’m betting you would, too.  Ooooooo!

So today I broke into hubbie’s collection of sandpaper and pulled out paper for wet-sanding.  Imagine my relief to find out that wet sanding was a type of paper and not a technique.  Whew!  Once past that (decision point) I sanded down the modge podge on 8 coasters.  (Yes, my hand was cramping and I worried it would stay in that funny position.)  I then broke out the heavy-duty glue to take care of the wallpaper curl on the one coaster.  I followed this with a bit of paint on the edges of the backsides where the cork may not cover… so they look more finished in the end.  In all, this probably took about an hour.

2/23/12 Project 365 coaster progress

I’m thinking I might do a final color glaze on the fronts (decision point?) before another coat or two of modge podge.  I can then finish them off with the cork on the bottom.  I just won’t do it tomorrow because I’m going to Stitches West… my annual yarn trek/nirvana/buying spree.  Just to be very clear, there is no dithering with that (decision point)!

I’m famous!

Well, not really.  But, I was terribly tickled and stunned today to find a photo of my weaving work featured for the Decorative & Fiber Arts section of the Walnut Creek Arts + Rec catalog.  I’m always looking for good weaving classes, so it was a wonderful surprise and honor to see it there.

2/15/12 photo of actual catalog

This is the scarf project they featured… a raw silk warp at 10 ends per inch with a sock yarn for the weft zig zags.  It’s very cushy and one of my favorites to wear.  (Doing my victory dance around the dining table.  Okay, I’m back down to earth now.)

2/15/12 catalog pic of woven scarf

I created 2 kanzashi flowers yesterday.  There were a couple of setbacks that slowed me down.  Apparently, you really do have to follow the directions and not use anything that is denim weight or heavier fabric.  And if you still don’t believe that and continue to push the fabric weight boundaries, you have to adjust and make fewer petals.  Because if you don’t… you end up with a gaping hole in the middle that needs covering with felt and buttons.  As it is, I’m left with a moderate hole that still needs a bit of felt and button work to finish the flowers off.  The upside is, these are “upcycled” from fabric sample books that decorators use.  These new red ones will go on the “Fall” side of the large painting.  The white one (along with a few more that I still have to make) will go on the “Spring” side of things.  Loooove it when a concept starts falling into place.

2/15/2012 kanzashi flowers

I also did a bunch of knitting.  You can’t really tell from the photo of the back, but it now looks like a little mini vest.  I’m at the point where the shoulders are complete on both sides and the fronts and back connect under the arms.  I’m going back and forth to start working on the sides and lower back.  I will continue to knit on this tonight, but the lighting will stink later, so I thought I’d blog about it now.

2/15/12 back view of sweater

Would it be too vain to put the catalog in a plastic sleeve?  Giggle.

Probably should have paid more attention in chemistry class…

So what does art have to do with chemistry, you might ask?  Well, apparently quite a lot when you start playing with gels and Modge Podge.  I didn’t say anything earlier, but the gel medium I put on the large painting ended up turning the gold tissue paper… well, green.  One of my crafting buds saved the day by pointing out the color scheme made her think of cherry trees blossoming in spring.  (Whew!)

Yesterday, I had difficulties with the whole acrylic paint, wallpaper, paper & Modge Podge mix.  The acrylic paint seemed to adhere to the ceramic tiles just fine, until I put Modge Podge on… then they started peeling like badly painted fingernails.  Skip the acrylic paint?  Rough up the ceramic tiles with sandpaper?  Some research is obviously in order.

Project 365 2/9/2012 peeling tiles

The wallpaper seemed to adhere to the tile via the Modge Podge just fine, until I repositioned one.  Now there is this gravity defying corner on one of my coasters.  (No worries, I’ll be whipping out the E6000 for that bad boy.)

Project 365 2/9/2012 defying gravity

The regular paper bubbled up with the Modge Podge, so I’m wondering if I missed some critical step…?  Or maybe the paper should have been a certain weight, like watercolor paper?  It didn’t look as bad after drying so that was good.

I certainly posed a lot of questions for myself with this one little foray into coasters.  The odd bit was that it was a lot of fun.  I really loved how the paint and Modge Podge went on.  I actually contemplated the idea of 365 days of coasters… until I thought about storing them in my wee house.  Hmmm…

ps.  If you have Modge Podge, acrylic paint or ceramic tile tips, please feel free to post a comment.  I’m obviously needing help with my chemistry homework.

Couldn’t wait till Friday…

I totally started in on those coasters today.  I began with tile that I picked up for dirt cheap at FabMo.  I was thinking one set would be copper with wallpaper paper on top, the other set gold with black and white prints on top.

Project 365 2/7/2012 pre-painted tiles

The acrylic paint went on beautifully with a sponge brush, with one exception… the gold was all dried up.  Ah, the hazards of letting your crafting/art supplies lie unused for too long.  I rallied with some aqua, ’cause I just roll that way.

Project 365 2/7/2012 painted tiles

Given how fun the paint was to put on, I may just have to buy more tiles at FabMo’s event this Friday.  Hmmm….

A little of this and a little of that.

Yesterday I traipsed away from blogging to enjoy some wine with good friends.  (It was totally worth it!)  My project was a cabled coffee cup cozy by Austen Gilliland knit with Elsebeth Lavold Baby Llama yarn, camel colorway.  It’s soft, cushy and so fun to make I made a second one this morning.  I was able to knit both from a single skein.  Now hubbie and I are all matchy matchy with the mug cozies.

Project 365 2/3/2012 cabled cup cozies

This afternoon I ripped into designer fabric books from FabMo.  I’m thinking the patterned paper might work with the tiles (also from FabMo) to make coasters.  Maybe that will be Friday’s project…

Project 365 2/4/2012 patterned papers

The impetus for tearing into the designer books was to harvest the fabric to make kanzashi flower petals.  I had originally thought to use them for the large painting called Big Bertha (now renamed Ebb & Flow).  Given how busy the painting appeared, I assumed it would no longer work.  The painting still seemed to need something so I asked my fellow Friday morning crafting mavens what they thought.  It was pretty much decided that the branches on right side of the painting needed beefing up, to which I still agree.  After everyone left I decided just for giggles and grins to quickly tape up the kanzashi flower I had on hand.  It looked great!  Huh!  That just goes to show you what assumptions can keep you from.  Tomorrow is going to find me making as many as I can stand…

Project 365 2/4/2012

… or as many as I can make with whatever fabric Miss E leaves me.  She keeps squirreling away her “favorites” of the fabric pieces.

20 min here… 20 min there…

I started by taping on the paper bag pieces.  I had a couple of extras (?!!), but figured I could live with each side not being perfectly perfect.  At the top of the photo you can see the small sketches from a couple of days ago to get an idea of what I’m after.

Project 365 2/1/2012 taping paper bag template

I didn’t have any black.  (Gasp!)  I found some Payne’s gray, but it looked awful blue when I mixed it with some gel medium (to make the paint go further).  I threw in some copper paint that made the result a deep iridescent purple.   I doubt it will show up in any of the photos, but the color was absolutely luscious.

Project 365 2/1/2012 purple paint

I was a little concerned that there might be some various problems:  paper sticking, running out of my fab purple, tape picking up the bottom layer, or paint going under gaps of the paper bag template.  The paper bag did stick a bit in a couple of places where the paint went under, but overall I’m very pleased with the results.

Project 365 2/1/2012 sleeping on it

For now, I plan to let it dry while I sleep on whether I would like to do anything more to it.  I suspect maybe a wash to unify everything.  We’ll see.

Progress

I got a layer of gel medium on the big painting.  It looks milky white now, but will dry clear letting all the lovely papers show through.  It will also add another layer of random texture as I’ve let the palette knife strokes stay.

Project 365 1/31/2012 gel medium

After drawing the sketches yesterday I decided I liked both the black tree and the black background versions.  I vented to hubbie that I STILL couldn’t decide between the two and he very calmly and logically suggested I do both.   Huh!  Brilliance!  Yin and yang with a tree!  Here you can see the template I cut out from a paper grocery bag.  (If you don’t have an exacto knife yet, you NEED one.  It is faster and substantially more accurate than scissors.)  I plan to put the tree image on one side of the painting and the pile of cut out pieces on the other side.

Project 365 1/31/2012 tree template

Tomorrow I’m getting happy with the black paint.