Field Trips in Fiber - Adventures in quilting, hand dyed fabric and fiber art.

More gift boxes

I suppose I've happened upon my craft theme for Christmas 2007 - packaging!

These two boxes will go to my hairdresser today. A few years ago I gave her a couple of glass ornaments for Christmas. Little did I know that I started a tradition! She loves them and leaves them out all year. Her signature color is pink (even the outside of her house is pink) so I usually buy her ornaments that aren't in Christmas-y colors. I've never wrapped the ornaments in any special way before and knowing Donna, the box is likely to become a new tradition as well.

Here's the inside. I just love the long skinny one for the icicle ornament! it's about 8" x 1". To all of you that have done the inchie charms - you have my deepest respect! Those tiny end pieces were very fiddly. I can't wait to deliver these this afternoon.

It's still the basic box pattern from Fibre and Stitch. Here are the ingredients - from left to right. It's all done on a base of dark red felt. The first layer fused is the gradient pink-to-purple silk chiffon (from the stash - it was there so I used it!). I tore off big pieces and let it pleat across the felt foundation. Next I added a layer of Mistyfuse. I cut squares from the pink sparkle dot remnant and tossed them around the piece and then added loads of the pink and purple acrylic threads, cut pieces of the Superior metallic silver thread and finally loads of sequins sprinkled everywhere. Another layer of Mistyfuse to hold all of that in place and a final layer of pink tulle was fused on top. I wanted these boxes to be sturdy so I added a layer of Timtex between the felt outer layer and the green lining. It's nearly impossible to fuse the Timtex to the felt layer so I quilted the outer layer and the Timtex with Superior Glitter Hologram in silver before I fused on the lining.

Specialty threads have really come a long way. Starting with the postcards this past weekend and now the two boxes, I have used a variety of acrylic, Wonderfil (poly and metallic) and Superior (metallic) threads and have been using a standard 80/12 needle  with no problems at all. I remember when you had to have a special needle and say a lot of prayers to get Sliver or one of the other early metallics to sew properly. Thread technology has certainly come a long way!

There are several more boxes (and some bags) in my future. These are loads of fun to make and everything is coming from the stash!

Stashbusting, the counter argument

If you have some time and need a good laugh please read Helen's post on her position re stashbusting and the judges final verdict on charges of libel against her. She's obviously a very good lawyer!

It's just a box

but if you were getting birthday gift Wednesday would you rather have the gift in the plain white box or the black box with the red and silver dots?

I made this for my friend's birthday gift. She doesn't generally read the blog on a regular basis so I hope she keeps to that habit this week. I basically used the Fibre&Stitch Box tutorial. The inside fabric is hand-dyed. The decoration is foil fused to the box. I cut a top piece big enough for the top and sides and fused WonderUnder circles all over it and then fused the foil to the circles. I cut out the individual pieces after the foiling was done. I have one of those Clover mini-irons and it was really useful on this project. The thread is Sulky rayon that has been in my thread stash for years and the black fabric was a scrap piece just big enough to make the entire box. I love it. I might have to make one for myself! It took less than 2 hours start to finish.

A Christmas Postcard

I worked at home today so the commute home was faster than normal. While Chris was preparing dinner I was able to get my first set of Christmas postcards done.

This is the first crazy quilt type project I have ever done! I'm so take with the beautiful work of the crazy quilters in the blog world that I decided to give it a try. The central motif is from  Dover holiday image CD. The fabrics are a mix of all kids of scrap fabrics and even some gift wrapping ribbons. It's not real crazy quilting because it's not done in a sew-and-flip method. Each new piece was position with raw edges showing - it's a postcard after all. It was fun tr use some of the decorative stitches on the machine. The threads are gold Superior Metallic, gold Wonderfil Hologram and red and green acrylic threads that I bought several years ago when Lunn Fabrics was clearing out their thread inventory. The acrylic threads has a beautiful sheen and each cone is about 6000 yards! It was such a bargain that I probably have about 40 cones of the stuff. I can even run it on the longarm.

I made 16 of these cards because that's how many images that I could print on one fabric sheet. Now on to contemplating the second Christmas design. I found a postcard stamp on the web today so should be able to get these addressed and in the mail next week.

When I was shopping for the stamp I noticed that the stamp internet stores all seem to organize their stamps by brand. Why? It makes it nearly impossible to find something without searching through every page. Those brand names mean nothing to me. The best online fabric stores got over that insanity and now cross reference they inventory by designer, color, theme, whatever. That's one reason that eQuilter is so successful - you can find things! Why haven't the stamp companies done that as well? My favorite mixed media supply site, Joggles, is the same way. I generally only buy there when I know EXACTLY what I want and can find it but it sure is a difficult site to browse. It seems to me that once your inventory in a category goes over 2 pages it's time to break the inventory into sub-menus. It drives me nuts but they probably shouldn't change that any time soon because if shopping were easier I might fall off my stash control wagon faster!

.....48 hours without a migraine! I'm starting to feel whole again.

WIP Wednesday

and no photos! I apologize for that. I hate to post without pictures.

I haven't posted in a few days because I've not been feeling great. I've had 3 migraines in 8 days and have had some persistent allergy symptoms. I can't figure out what the allergen could be though! I've passed 36 hours without a migraine now and have my fingers crossed for the rest of the week.

I have progressed on a few projects:

• My first set of Christmas postcards are almost done. Hope to have a picture to post for you soon
• I've made some good progress on the locker hooking rug
• I finished quilting Anne's quilt and sent some fabric to Debra so that she can embroider a label for me. That's going to be really cool, I usually just print my labels on fabric with my ink jet printer.
• I've started planning my next set of Christmas postcards - I hope to come up with 3 designs.

I also cleaned up a lot of piles around the house. Occasionally I get the need to fill garbage bags. So we cleaned out 3 bags of clothes and things from our closets and next I will hit some of the other closets in the house. I'd love to fill the car with stuff for the thrift shop! Aside from my sewing stashes, I hate having too much stuff in the house. I want things to be used and prefer to give a useful item away rather than keep it for "someday I might need it". I rarely need the item and by the time I'd want to use it I would want the new and improved version anyway.

On the stash control front I've been good. But it was easy because I haven't gone anywhere! My LQS is having a Fat Quarter Frenzy sale this weekend. Fortunately Chris and I will be out of town so I will miss it. I am going to order a rubber stamp for the backs of my postcards - does that count as stash? I don't think so and besides I am ordering it to use right away!