Mad Scientist Monday #19: Organizing the resistance of the loose threads.

Day 260  Today its all about Mad Mod from Teen Titans or Mad Mod Poet God, such a crazy mixed up character with all the right lines.  His psychedelic backdrops and references just rocked and I miss watching this show.

I have been looking for a small travel case to carry my threads, scissors and embroidery supplies.  My youngest came across this case at a local thrift store and she knew it was exactly for me.

Originally it was a Smashing Pumpkins CD case thingy.

I just ripped out that plastic thing leaving a little bit of ripped paper on the sides.  Still have not decided what I want to do with it but I have some spray paint that might be just right.

I grabbed this scrap piece of Halloween fabric I had on hand because it was a print I like and roughly the dimensions of the inside of the lid.  I may change this out later if I find a 60s psychedelic scrap.

I machine sewed the right sides together, turned it inside out, then stuffed it full.

Here is my little pillow before gluing.

I glued it into the bottom part of the lid, squishing to the side so it would be stiff enough to use as a pincushion.  Then for extra sewing cuteness I glued 2 old wooden small thread spools in so I can use the holes to hold things when it is open.

Here is what it looks like open, with my my new needle and pin cushion in place.  The main part of the case will carry the threads for my current project and all the random loose strays leftover from other projects.

See I can now close it up and the needles stay right where I put them!

I know I haven't totally finished decorating this cute little case yet, it doesn't feel complete and totally representative of me, so I will be patient to see what I come across that fits the Mod vibe of this case.  Right now it is perfect for carrying all my stuff and I love that it locks tight.

It is so much fun to recycle and see what happens.  Sometimes it works and some days it is a bust, but we keep trying.  What will you create today?

Touch My Stitches #7: The Fly Stitch

Day 236  TAST Week 1 of 52
This weekly post has been lagging behind the others in terms of fun and posting and while I am stitching nearly every day I just couldn't come up with enough inspiration to get this one day's post together every week.  I was reading around the blogs one day and saw the 'Take A Stitch Tuesday' post come up over on Pintangle where she will post a different stitch every week and challenge the participants to learn the stitch or take it further and be creative.  So I signed myself up for 2012, thats right 52 weeks of stitching, lets see if I can keep up, it will be a nice challenge and get my creative stitching juices flowing in the right direction.  I really have learned a lot already just browsing through her website and blog, which is what drew me to the page in the first place.  While the list is closed to join anyone can play along so if you are interested come and join all the fun!  There is also a link in the right sidebar of this blog-->

This week was the Fly stitch.   Now the way I prefer to embroider is to keep it free flowing and loose.  So I dug through my scrap bucket and was immediately drawn to these 3 pieces:  Blue lineny type fabric, cream colored handmade? paper and orange tulle.  Don't ask me why I just don't want to stress about this project so I went with it.

 Using my embroidery scrap thread pile I then loosely stitched them all together in a running stitch.

 And then experimented with a loose fly stitch in a turquoise.  I see almost a beach, water scene here so I randomly placed the stitches along the bottom.

 You can see that I didn't stabilize the tulle and maybe I should have but I despise stabilizer of any kind and I know that I will be putting more sample stitches on it so if that doesn't make it lay better I might add a layer of scrap thin fleece to the back.

Later I decided to add a better example of the fly stitch in a tan color, since I am supposed to be learning the stitch and getting better at it anyway I figured why not do it right at some point.  I am just not a fan of directions I prefer to think of them as guidelines anyway because isn't that what they really are, don't you paint yourself into a corner if you always follow the rules?

What will you create today?

Mad Scientist Monday #2: Fabric Chain of Ghosties

Day 174:

An exhausting but joyful last few days as we prep for birthday season around here~everyone except me is a September baby OY!  My youngest turned 11 today and we always decorate the house the night before so that when the girls wake up it is obnoxiously covered in crepe paper and signs and balloons.  But we had time to go out and pick up some fabric and wallpaper sample books from a fellow Freecycler and come up with our latest Halloween decoration and Mad Scientist creation.......

Let me first introduce you to one of our favorite mad scientist, Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz of Phineas and Ferb fame.  Someone who is always coming up with mad cap inventions because of bizarre backstories and trying to take over the Tri-State Area and then the world.  Funny one-liners galore. Credit

Here is the birthday girl, this is one of her signature looks that captures her attitude.

And this is her other look...oh man is she a spunky one.  Just ignore the massive amounts of library  books in the background the 3 of us girls have been on a reading kick of American Girl and James Patterson around here.

 On to today's Mad Scientist Monday creation......
Take one book of upholstery fabric samples~we just randomly chose a size and color we wanted...these are medium weight upholstery treated with some fun stain resistant chemical combo that makes them stiff...mmmm chemicals.....

Get the cat to help out by rolling around on whatever project  you are working on, if you are on the floor you should be paying attention to the cats right?!?...NOT HELPING SOKKA

For this project we cut each larger rectangle in half. Sample books come in so many different varieties and sizes just pick one you like!

I just free-sketched two different ghosties with pencil and then covered with lightly drawn Sharpie~it will bleed through on lighter fabrics so just cut on that line to get rid of it or use something else~I just love my Sharpies so I use them even when I shouldn't.  Hmm I seem to have channeled my inner Oogedy Boogedy Man on one of them...cool, happy accident!

Cut those out to use as your templates, trace as many as you want in the line, flip the templates every other one to get ghosts aligned in different directions 

Cut them all out.  Save your scraps for now.  I used the pinking shears just because.  I was thinking they looked spookier maybe?  Well they definitely hid the Sharpie lines!

Separate your Ghosties into different colors or patterns to make them easier to place in a line....that is my OCD crafting talking I can't have the same color or pattern in a row.  Seriously do what you want and how it makes you happiest to create!

Take the medium sized scraps you saved ( I trimmed them into vague rectangle like shapes.) and picking patterns/colors not like the ones next to it sew them behind the hands of the Ghosties.  I used a zig zag stitch because well I used pinking shears and it matched. I also just used whatever leftover thread was in the machine at the time.  Throw away the leftover scraps or if you are really crafty use them up!

Here they are laid out on the floor.  My fail for this project was hanging them up...I overestimated the stiffness of the fabric and they are slightly floppy so right now we are glueing popsicle sticks behind them to keep them upright.  Next time I might try sewing bias tape or yarn behind their heads but I wanted them to look like cut paper dolls and not have a line going through their heads.  I will put up a finished picture of these tomorrow after the glue dries and see how I like that.  

UPDATE: This morning I woke up to hang the Ghosties and I think they look exactly how I imagined!  YAY!  So here are the finishing touches to this project:

Adding a popsicle stick to the back really helped make the Ghosties work and look like the stiff paper dolls I  was inspired by.  I used Aleene' sTacky Glue and let them dry overnight.

Don't they look like the paper dolls of old this way?  Much better than having to string something through their heads to make them stay upright.

Ah yes look who I snapped a blurry picture of after I hung the Ghosties up and went to get the camera.  My minion Sokka decided that the push pin was the devil and needed to be brought down immediately, he hates push pins so I had to get the nip and lure him away to convince him to leave it be.

I love all the patterns together and they way they go different directions.

Hmm I think my camera is telling me it would like to be retired but it needs to work a little harder for a little while longer right now not all electronics are allowed to break down at one time ;)

Now that I have the floppy issue covered I am going to put together a couple more Chains of Ghosties for decorating!

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Overall I am very pleased over the howling moon with this project.  They will be a most excellent addition to our Halloween decorating!

See you tomorrow with Scenes from my Sketchbook....what will you create today?

The Spring Cleaning continueth....and projects continue springing ...

Day 154

Our snowflakes are down....the nights are 32 and the days are 70s the 35+ constant winds and juniper pollen induced allergies clue me in to the fact that Spring is officially here in the desert....

...and we are decorating the ceiling with felt cherry blossoms this year....this will be our family's remembrance of the terrible tragedies that the Japanese people are enduring but also a celebration of these beautiful flowers of Spring...

...I had the little G's cutting for hours...this is gonna look very pretty...

...while that was going on during my Spring cleaning I found some fabric sample books I had stashed away BUT had also received more via Freecycle recently soooooo I got this idea in my head since part of my Spring cleaning is either donating, throwing away or finishing up projects that have been stagnating....

....I made this covering over our shoe shelf that is at the front door because I am one of those weirdos who knows that even though it is a hopeless act to try to keep the carpets somewhat clean I make people take off their shoes when they enter the house.....now to convince the cats that this is NOT their new play area, dang felines already took over the world and we are merely servants....anyway I like the colors, designs and the way they fit together here...

better angled picture...thinking I am gonna make a rug from the remainder of these...using up what I have is a good goal!


...ooooo look at these adorable scraps I found while cleaning...so many memories of things I have made for the girls...

More tomorrow.....so what will you create today?

Do you too feel like you are living in a Talking Heads album?

Day 110

""Time isn't holding up, time isn't after us

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was""

--Once in a Lifetime, Talking Heads

...letting the days go by....

...so I spent the entire weekend-minus cleaning time and eating, bathing and hanging with the kids-well maybe not so much bathing which could explain why no one else spent time in my sewing lair that and the fact that I had my favorite station on Pandora turned way up....that would be 'Classic Punk/New Wave' which I sort of take offense too because while yes I may BE a Classic I do not consider myself old enough to have the music that got me through much teen angst listed in the 'Classic' category.

In my weekend cleaning and purging I found one of my old jean jackets from those angsty years (boo on you, yes I still have my jean jacket I mean I didn't know if one day I wanted to wear it again, you know for nostalgia and all that sh!t) and as I had it hanging in the pile of 'maybes but can't yet let go' my tweenager declared it her property....and it almost fits but it totally works on her and looks much better than it ever did on me---oh yes she did pop her collar...hmm perhaps I will also go dig out all those cool military style pins I used to wear on it as well

Are you totally digging that skirt? Got it at my favorite thrift store it was wardrobe stuff from Universal Studios that was donated....cool eh?! Got a whole pile of great movie wardrobe castoffs!! Don't worry I don't think this kid will go all 'Pretty in Pink' on me...she is way too 'Push' for that

Anyway, we slapped a dragon applique on and some Chinese characters that mean -electric, wind and fast- they just looked cool--and that makes it totally her and not me so I LOVE it! Perhaps she will keep it and give it to her daughter one day who will add her 'signature' to it as well?! Rock on girl and rock it most excellently!

These are a blast from the past but I am working on making a bunch of little owlets....

and some owl pillows.....

even G2 worked on her Hannah blanket which required no sewing only tying the ties!

and I finally figured out what to line my boring white curtains with...real simple just measured, cut and sewed them to the existing curtains....this is an Amy Butler Lotus line print...they really do catch the light in a pretty way as the sun rises

and Sokka is not minding the view either....the view from his basket, with his eyes closed.

working on some other boring stuff but this was the best of the weekend. What are you gonna create tomorrow?

And hearing 'Video killed the Radio Star' is my clue to exit gracefully--how many of you knew that was the first video on Mtv...how many of you have actually watched videos on Mtv? HMMM? How many of you are cringing that 80s stuff is back in fashion?