I Got Lost

 I got lost and just found my way back. Where was I lost. It was in the latest #52tagshannamade tag challenge. The latest prompt was to make a tag with some kind of pocket on it to put an item in that would remind/generate thoughts about a place (could be fictional or imaginary, or time, etc...) or a place we would like to visit ( same as above). That one through me right off the horse. So to speak. My brain went completely blank.  It took going shopping for some  solid fabric, the kind without pattern.I came across a precut fabric that was my answer to the blank brain syndrome . I will post a photo later. It was about gardening. I know, I know it was not a sold but it did set the gears in my brain a turning. When I had a house and yard I loved to garden. I would spend whole days out in my yard working from early morning till it was so dark I could not see what I was doing. Love pulling weeds and the smell of the fresh soil and adding compost (my own made) to the ground and mowing my lawn and everything else. Now I have potted plants and no yard. I would love to play in the dirt again. So there it is. Now to getting busy making the tag.  This one will take a bit of time as I will do a bit of embroidery on it and have to fined something to go in the pocked. Oh maybe some dry earth in a plastic bag. Will give that some thought. I do not like to get the tags done too early as then I sit the rest of the week with nothing to do. That is not true. I never have nothing to do. But I can hardly wait until the next set of prompts (Friday morning on youtube) are shared, and off I go on the next tag adventure. Ta for now

Who I am

So who is in the photo? That is my neighbor's  dog Zoe. She is the "bigblackstinkydog. 

Do not know what happened with the first image.  Happy old dog. Mis of black lab and chow . Very sweet (black lab part) but very stubborn (the chow part).

Junk Journal Tags & Embellishments

 Hey there. Been busy crafting and doing the dental tooth cleaning thing. Oh Whoopi Do! I get to have two new crowns. Enough bad news and on to the good.  Spring is closer. The weather is acting bad so Spring must be very close. 

Here is tag number 12 in the tag challenge. The prompt was to use blanket stitch. I was not entirely happy with the outcome. So be it.

This is tag number 13. Prompt was layering. Had fun with this one. I have some cotton fabric with Fall leaves scattered across it and they work very well to fussy cut out and then use thread to tack/embroider down.  Now I have to wait till next Friday to fined out what the next tag will be all about. If you need to know, the button is an authentic vintage button from my Mothers button tin.

Here is the beginning of my latest embellishments that I did finish today. It came together by sheer accident. I had a stack of cotton bits and pieces on the end of my sewing machine and the stack fell over and the yellow was on the green and the striped one was laying right next to them and bidda-bom-bidda-bing and lights went off in my head and there I was with the next embellishment.

I am auditioning the items I think I want to include in this fabric piece. I will move them about to see if I like the layout and do the items work together. They did for me. 

What is here. Every thing is built up on a cotton hand dyed shebory fabric (I am sure that spelling is not correct) that I still had a scrap of. Then there is the red, green,and brown stripped bit and across that is a bit of hand dyed yellow with rust stains. I added a bit of commercial lace along the left side. across the top are clay beads held down with black embroidery floss.  I save my left over thread when I hand sew and plucked out a small bunch to add a bit of thread freedom under the button and to fill that blank corner. I did running stitch up and down the stripped fabric. I liked the

way it looks with the lines crossing each other. I also did running stitch in a circle on the yellow as I wanted to give the eye something to look at besides right angles.  I am well pleased with this one. I now have four completed and will list them on Market Place.

What have I gotten myself into? What you see here is a wee bit of tatting. I never fined tatted lace the charity shops and would like to use it in the construction  of my junk journals. So me being me I am trying to learn tatting from Youtube University. I can tell you  right now it is not easy. Some of those people should not try to teach anything. They show you just a smidge and then drop you on your head. I have thrown away at least ten little circles with little ears on them. The best professor I have found so far is Vietnamese (I think) and she is very clear in what she is showing as she speak no American English.  I will stick with her and see how far I get.  

Well enough for now I need to get my dishes done and put myself to bed.  Ta for now.

Must clarify something and I am sure you will have figured it out by now. I have my own set of rules for grammar and spelling. They work for me even though others may have difficulty with them. It keeps things creative and interesting. Do have to apologize  for the last post having missing words and double words.  I must have been tired. Will try to do better with that.

I am knee deep in doing my latest tag for #52tagshannemade challenge.  

This photo show the placement I was working on. I was not happy with this one as there were an even number of rings. Odd is better as it is more pleasing to the eye.

So I added a fifth little circle up in the right corner and changed the placement of the other rings. 

    as well as the paperclip tags (embellishments.)

This is the finished product. I am really liking the plastic paperclip. I also use clothing tags in many of my works. The bit of lace in authentic vintage. 

Here you can see the embroidery and seed bead I use to help the light pink be more visible. The flowers (pink) is paper and the yellow is silk. I used safety pins to attach the fabric to the paperclip. The paperclip embellishments will be for sale once I fish about five of them.

This is the start of the next embellishment. I am using a portion of a authentic vintage handkerchief. The lace is contemporary lace. Have no idea where I am going from this point. Will post photos when I have made some progress.

This is the front cover of the latest journal. it measures 5" X 8 1/2 " X 1 1/2 spine. and has two signatures consisting of twenty pages each. The cover is painted fabric over a hard cover.  

I am also working  on a  new junk journal (am taking my time with this one. Has been over a month since I started it). 

This is the back cover.

 

I am still working on this one and have many more pages to construct.

Busy day. Doing this as well as making chicken veg. soup for dinner. still need to go to the store for celery (not a big challenge there as we have a market directly across the street).   Help deliver meals to residents of my building (Restaurants in my city have been donating lunch each Saturday to those who sign up for them). We have had Turkey cheese sandwiches from a grommet sandwich shop (came with the fixings including dessert), Turkey sliders, chips, and cookie, Chicken enchilada (2), rice and beans with chips and salsa, and today will be Hot Turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy. It makes the extra time at home go by faster. It is something to look forward to. 

I am calling it a day. Write more another day. Take care.

Working on tag # 11. and also working on giant paper clip embellishments for junk journals.

 I did a little bit on the new tag. Working out placement of rings. Some of the stitching I have to wait to do when I can work in the sun as I do not see as well as I use to.  The prompt here was to do button hole or blanket stitch around a ring and what ever else you wanted to. I also did my first piece of needle tatting (little white ring) and had a circle left over from an earlier tag I had done so I stitched running stitches around the edge. A ring of stitches. Now I need to work out placement. I do think I need to add one more ring as an even number is not pleasing to the eye. Has to be 3 or 5. I will keep working on it. I have time.

I am also working on giant paper clip embellishments for the junk journals or for sale.  

This is the first one I finished. It will clip onto the side of a page and measures about 2" x 2". This is the one under construction.

I am still working on the placement and what I want on it 

That paper clip is plastic. I wish I had more of them. I got a package of clips at a 2nd hand shop for $1.99. I ordered metal one from Amazon (I think it was 3 or 4 to the pack)  and I think they were 3 or 4 dollars or more for the metal ones. The pack I got at the 2nd hand hand shop had 10 in it. Quite the score.

Had to go out to the post office to post a package. Was not looking forward to it as I wanted to spend time working on the tag and embellishments , but did need the walk.  This old woman has to do that. Need to get dinner arranged so had better get moving. If I don't do it I will have to starve. Ya right. Ta for now.

New Start

 Where have I been. That is really a good question that I am not going to answer as it would take the rest of my life and I do have other things to do that will take the rest of my life.

At this time I am head-over-heels into junk journal construction as well as two hand fulls of other things art/craft related.

As for the junk journals, I got started with those a little over a year ago trying to fined something to do during the cold Winter months. Oh let's get real. I was bored with what I was doing and wanted something new to do and I saw some one on youtube constructing a junk journal.  And away I went. It used a lot of things I already had. Ja! that did not stop me from buying more. I did have to clean out my craft room so I would have more room for the new stuff. Now it is stuffed full of the new stuff.  I have boxes of journals that I am working on selling. I do not do the Etsy thing as they charge to much and have way to many rules. 

Here is one under construction. This was way last summer.

I am also involved in Anne Brookes' challenge #52tagshannedmade on instagram. she started it to give people something to think about besides covid. She gives a new prompt every Friday and I do look forward to finding out what I am in for in the new week. Cardboard hang tags are used (they measure 2"X 4") as well as paper, cloth, thread, beads, charms, or what ever else you want to be on your tag for that week. The following photos are what I have finished so far.

#1. We were to use white fabric, lace, paper or a combo of each as well as beads and hand/slow stitching on a white foundation then stitch to the tag.

 

#2. I do not use hearts in my work on a regular basis, but that was one of the prompt. I thought I would make it stand out as much as possible and be very unique . The heart was cut from one of my paint rags. I use them quite often in my work. We were prompted to use some stripped fabric/paper, buttons and lace if we wanted and stitching. 

#3 The prompt for this one was to use narrow strips of cloth or lace and sew them on a foundation fabric through the center of the strip so each edge made a "V". Anne demoed them going horizontally across the tag. I did not want to copy her. I did mine diagonally adding a button at the top corner as if they are radiating out from the button. This one took me the entire week to finish. Thought I would not ever finish hand sewing them on.

4# .The prompt for this one was to use a stitch you had never used before (she deemed this one). It is the Fly/"Y" stitch. Looks more like birds flying to me so that is what I did with them. The French knots are a flower garden.

#5.  The prompt was to use and "X" or more then one. Plus buttons.

#6.  The prompt was to use a scrap of old quilt and buttons and affixes  them on in various ways. This was a way to use some of the many buttons I have had for years. Some of them authentic vintage.

#7.  Prompt for this one was to use "yoyo's" and buttons. Anne showed how to make these little folded yoyo's.  Had fun with this one.

#8.  The prompt was to use Bullion stitches, French knots, and some buttons.

#9.  I do not remember what the prompt was for this one. I used lace, beads, Bullion stitch, French knots, couching, and a button. I wanted to cover all my bases.

#10.  I think this one was use a yoyo and button.  I am at work constructing #11. It will be using rings.  Check it out this week or on my Instagram   

See you later and stay safe and well.

Original knit dish cloth pattern.

   
Stone and Rail pattern  for dish towel. Using Lion Brand cotton. Size 5 needle and 4.5 stitches to the inch.

Cast on 48 st loosely

Row 1- 5 : Knit
Row 6 &8: k 4, p across to last 4 st  k these st  turn.
Row 7: knit across and turn.
Row 9: k across , turn.
Rows 10 , 12, & 14 : k 6, (p 5, k 2) 6 times, k 4, turn.
Rows 11 & 13:  k 4, ( p2, k 5) 6 times, p2, k 4, turn
Row 15 &17: k across, turn
Row 16: k 4, p across to last 4 st. K the last 4 st, turn.

Repeat pattern 13 times for a towel that is 11" X 17".

Bind off loosely.

*Because you have 5 rows in each stone you will start every other rail with a k across or a knit 4 purl to last 4 st. and knit. This will alternate with each set of blocks.

For the dish cloth it depends on the size of your hands as to how many stones across that you make it. or you could make the edging a row or two wider for width.

I made my repeat 6 times and three stones wide, but my hands are small.

This yarn did not shrink when washed but I did not put it in a dryer as I do not have one.

Best of luck and hope you enjoy the results.