I made another paper wreath to enter into the fair. I actually made two, one for the Fair and one for Grand Parlor, but the one for Grand Parlor had some issues and I am going to throw it out. The lady in charge of the Ladies events at Grand Parlor did not want the wreath anyway.
I really like the one that came out well.
I folded the legs for both wreaths at Craft Night – yes we are resuming Craft Night. I hadn’t made the time and took the opportunity to cross this task off my list. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the wreath after the Fair so I offered it to SIL#3. She helped me pick out the papers and I am pleased it will go to a good home.
Paper selection
I am entering a wreath, because I can certainly win in that category with it.
This is the fourth paper wreath I have made during the last few months. I really like making these, though I find making one rather than three at once is a lot easier on my hands.
This was another door prize for the Ladies Luncheon at Grand Parlor (that was one of Monday’s events). I have a tutorial so you can make your own.
I was so thrilled to find a tutorial on the origami starburst (paper wreath). It is a great tutorial, but I like to do my own, as you know. I made several of these and have enough paper to make a few more. We might use these to give out as gifts at the Ladies Lunch at DH’s Grand Parlor. These make great hostess gifts.
Supplies
16 pieces SQUARE paper (any size) – almost all paper is suitable except very thin paper. Super thick paper will be hard to fold
bone folder
glue (Elmer’s or Aleene’s are both fine)
Nota bene: you can use fabric. If you do, you will also need the following items:
Mary Ellen’s Best Press
ShapeFlex or other lightweight interfacing
16 square patches (any size)
Directions:
Make legs:
Fold square paper in half
1. Take square piece of paper and fold paper in half.
Fold square paper in half
2. Open and fold in half the other way
Fold corners into centerFold corners into center
3. Fold corners in to center point
Use bone folder
4. Use your bone folder to make the folds nice and sharp
With a point facing you, fold the bottom half up to meet the center crease.
5. With a point facing you, fold the bottom half up to meet the center crease.
Fold to a kite shape
6. Do the same to the other point. Now you will have a piece that looks like a kite.
Fold bottom of kite up
7. Flip the piece so the open bits are face down. Fold the short piece so you can see the open spot between the folded piece again.
Fold in halfFold in half
8. Fold leg in half with short side out. That opening will be where you put the other legs.
Make Wreath
1. Make 16 legs (directions above)
2. Put a little glue on to the tip of one leg
3. Insert each leg into 2 holes in another leg to make four quarters
4. Glue tip of each leg until you have a circle or wreath.
5. Before the glue dries, arrange the wreath so the inner circle is smooth.
Now you can carefully hang your wreath on the wall
Another crazy post about a variety of random topics from while I attempt to find my time management skills and tell you all the various things that have been happening.
Infinity Blocks
I showed these blocks yesterday, because I went to Always Quilting today to see Terri Thayer speak and do a book signing. I took a look at the quilts on the wall and found out that this is an Always Quilting exclusive pattern that they call Crazy Eights. I kind of like what the name Infinity suggests, so I will have to think about what I am going to call my quilt and the block.
Terri and I had a tentative date to go out and talk about writing. I was pleased that we were able to go and have a quick coffee. I like Terri, because she is very approachable and willing to talk about her writing process. We ended up talking about writing and migrating blogs, book promotion and other time management issues.
Terri’s new book, Ocean Waves, is out. As soon as you are done reading this post, go and buy it. 😉 Terri will be at the Chicago Quilt Festival in a couple of weeks. You can buy it from her directly there and get it autographed. Of course, you can buy it from Amazon as well. Just buy it. Supporting local authors is how we get books that have to do with quiltmaking. Terri is in the process of negotiating for the next contract for books in the Dewey/Quilter Paradiso series.
I heard about Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy on the CraftSanity podcast. Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood has interviewed Ms. Paulson twice, once in episode 17 and again in episode 91. She has several things on her blog and website that I like:
Posie Gets Cozy has a list of links to articles and blog posts about Ms. Paulson. Making Things for a Living by Becky from the Hidden Pearl blog is an interesting post/article about Ms. Paulson. The photos on this page are wonderful and I especially like the washtub of fabric flowers. I am also rather fond of the green on the walls behind the Posie letters.
Ms. Paulson has a webstore, where she sells the thing she makes. In it is a Gallery of Sold Things. I like the very appealing layout of the this page and think it shows the wide range of crafts she makes.
Finally, she has a close-up of one of the fabric flowers. I really like this one (it has dots!) and my mind is exploding with ideas for attaching them to tote bags. Or making bouquets that don’t die!
I have been working on the Tarts. It is slow going. My latest task is to find the right color for the tea kettle block in the lower left hand corner. I did the design last week, but haven’t put fabric to machine yet. Photos soon.
And finally,….
2009 Cherry tree
As I mentioned I headed south over last weekend. While driving I found that the cherry trees were in gorgeous bloom all along the highway. The color of the flower petals seemed darker than the petals falling to the ground already in San Francisco. They may be flowering quince or some other flowering tree. I don’t know for sure. I just know that love the cheerfulness of the trees and how they make the City look when they all come into bloom at once. I, finally, had the opportunity and the time and the camera and the tree all in the same place at the same timeand was able to snap the picture above.
My sister is a very talented scrapbook artist and these are some pages that she made for us.
Baby, It's Cold Outside PageChristmas With Page
Yes, the ‘t’ is missing, but I found it and glued it back on the page. Now, all I have to do is fill the pages with pictures.
As you can see, messy crafting runs in the family. I went to a scrapbook night with my sister Friday night. This is her work area. She does gorgeous pages! I created about 10 pages and they were all very basic. My theory is get those photos on pages and be done. When my photos are all up to date, I will take more time for each page. I am still set on the goal rather than really enjoying the process. I’ll get there yet. Sis takes her time with each page and really makes them wonderfully.
Time has been even shorter lately than before. Yesterday, we had a long car drive, so I brought my hand piecing and was able to finish another Cross Block (Flowering Snowball). I thought I would able to do more, but I have to face reality. It takes me about 1.5 hours to make each block. I can’t help but lay all of the blocks out each time I make a new block. Then I play around with them for a bit. I move them around so that no colors are too close to each other. I also try to make sure the backgrounds are duplicated too close to each other. This time, I realized that having more choices for foregrounds and backgrounds makes me make better choices. I have been trying not to duplicate colors or fabrics in one block.
I spent the day at my friend’s, Single Scrapbooker*, house working on my photo albums. I have been reading scrapbook magazines to get ideas for color schemes for my quilts. Most of the layouts are too complicated for me. I need to get the photos in the albums fast. However, I have been inspired by the layering and detail work. You can replicate some of the ideas in quiltimaking by getting inspiration from the colors, using beads and machine applique’ (or any kind of applique’, I suppose).
I tried creating a page yesterday based on some of the ideas I was seeing. It doesn’t have flair that layouts in the articles have. Still, I like the layout and am pleased with the way it turned out.
*SS has not updated her blog in awhile, but said she got a lot of great ideas yesterday, so I hope she does. She is a good writer and very thorough in her analysis .
Although I just finished the dishes, I spent most of the day being creative. After doing my Qi Gong exercises, I sewed all the Feelin’ Blue, Too blocks together.
Later this morning, my friend PG came over and we worked on our photo albums together. It is what we do together and I am glad that we do it. As a result most of my photos are in order. I have a backlog-from before W was born, mostly, but nothing out of control.
Having the photos in order means that W can look through his babyhood and enjoy the photos, laughing at himself.
Unfortunately, I don’t have enough time to spend really making the pages gorgeous, rich and supple. For me, it is most important to get the photos in order, documented and on the pages. The scrapbook magazines show layered pages with few photos. I find that I need to put many photos on a page and write the stories about the photos. I do some embellishments; I want my pages to look nice, but not like everyone else’s.
Still the album-making is not like quiltmaking. The feel of the fabric is much better than paper. I feel so relaxed when I touch fabric.
Sewing the fabric together and making something new feels wonderful to me.
Feelin’ Blue, Too is typical for me in some ways. There are many, many fabrics and the fabrics work together in a wonderful way. I like using many fabrics, because I never seem to have enough of one fabric to satisfy my need for yards of it. In a way, having many fabrics makes each one special.
