New Look and New Quilt

Souvenirs from our trip last month to New York and Pennsylvania sparked a refreshed look for our bedroom. It started with a new quilt. This quilt was hand appliqued and hand quilted and embroidered accents are also done by hand. The quality of that stitching made it well worth the price we paid. Jim fell in love with the look and the rich colors. 

 

This close up shows the beauty of the fabrics used. The fabric on the right side of the picture below is rich looking in brown and gold. There is a metallic gold line that outlines the flowers.  I know some might not like them, but I think even the black hearts are pretty.

The gold metallic accents on the quilt lead me to choose curtains that had a touch of gold in them. Up close the gold really shows but at a distance it is hinted at. These curtains and the rods they are hung on were bought on Amazon. We used adhesive rods this time and so far, they are staying up just fine.

The next picture is an Amazon find too. I like art work with birds in it. The birds, the colors and the gold accents helped me choose this 3 piece wall art for above the bed. The birds look like chickadees to me, what do you think?

The last piece of art we bought in New York City. We bought it from a spray paint street artist on 7th Ave. He was finishing this up as we were walking by, and we had to be careful with carrying it while we finished our day in the city and our trip back to our hotel in New Jersey. He seemed to put a shooting star in most of the city scenes he painted. You can see ours in the upper right. I wish I could say I know the artist's name, but I don't, and the signature is hard to make out.

There you have it. A refreshed bedroom that will always remind us of a wonderful trip.

Back with more again soon. 

Take care and stay cozy! 

Made by Me @ Mom's House

Jim and I have made two trips to my mother's house in recent months. I had kind of forgotten the things she has in her home that I made. The span a few of my hobbies from quilting to crocheting to painting to leatherwork. 

She even has a shawl I knit for her that I don't have a picture of. I made it when she was recovering from some surgery and complained about cold shoulders that made her neck and back ache. I have never seen it in use and the last I knew the shawl is put away in a dresser drawer and she brings it out to show off my skills to visitors. I have told her that is doesn't keep any shoulder warm in a drawer and if it wears out I will make another. Oh well.

A pieced but not quilted dresser scarf. I crocheted the edging on this too.

I painted this in 1997 and it has hung outside her front door since then except for Christmas time when she puts up another holiday decoration.

One of my first jobs after high school was at a Tandy Leather store. I had to learn Western style leather carving and this is one of my learning projects.

This afghan was probably made in the 1980s. I still like the look of the pattern. Maybe I should dig it out of my pattern mess and make another.

From my quilting days. Hand applique and quilting. I think this pattern came from  a Family Circle or Women's Day magazine sometime in the 1980s.

A glue stiffened crocheted box. I still have a lot of those little silk flowers. Should figure out how to put then to good use. They aren't making anything pretty in a plastic bin.

The little hats above and the large one below were some of my favorite makes. When I was doing craft shows in person I sold quite a few of them. I don't make them now because I don't want to go through the hassle of shipping them in a way that keeps the from getting smooshed. That and the country look in decorating has gone out of style I think.

Hey thanks for making it through all my pictures. Hope you are all healthy and of course cozy!

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Prairie Roots

Each week the Etsy Bloggers Street Team does a blog carnival. A street team on Etsy is a group of members that share something in common and use team efforts to support and promote team members and their shops. There are teams for geographical locations, types of art or crafts or different social connections. As you can tell from the name you have found your way to the blog of an Etsy Blogger member. At more than 300 strong our goal is to create buzz and promote our shops, each other and Etsy.

A weekly blog carnival is one of our events. A blog carnival is a group of blog posts gathered together with links in one place and works kind of like a table of contents for the week.

The theme this week is “Cultural Leanings”. The ideas is to blog about how you integrate your own heritage into your work or how you are attracted to another culture - like Celtic knotwork, African art, island themes, renaissance, etc. Or how your culture/heritage/upbringing influence you in some way.

I did quite a bit of thinking about my post for this week. I really searched for an answer to where my influences come from. My heritage is mostly German and Irish as near as I know. Most of the family history seems to imply that my ancestors were part of the migrations from Europe to the United States in the 1800's when millions of others came to this country as well. I am grateful they came but as far as influence from them I don't think so.

I feel more connected to the pioneers in my family. Most of them loaded the wagons and came to the midwest prairies to farm. I have so much respect, awe and admiration to anyone who was able to do that. I think it is where my frugal nature comes from. I love to use things until they are worn out and then see if they can be brought to life in something new. This was a way of life on the prairies of Kansas where is could be very hard to have the cash for store bought goods. The quilt block you see here fits that theme. It is a family quilt made in Kansas possibly 70 or so years ago. I have heard that my grandmother who had 12 children and was too busy to quilt provided the print fabrics from worn out dresses and other women in the family with fewer or no children made the quilts. The entire quilt is hand pieced and hand quilted and no two flowers on it are the same. I treasure this quilt for its beauty and as an small example of the women I am descended from.

Here you can see a sample of my crafting in a rug I made for my home. I bought some polyester crochet thread one time thinking it was cheap and I would knit it into lacy washcloths. However what I found on making a sample was that the polyester thread irritated my skin so I knew I couldn't use it for that purpose and sell the cloths. I have always collected old sheets, table cloths and clothing that can no longer be worn for rag rugs. Over the years I have crocheted a lot of those and was looking for a new idea. I came up with crocheting my own rug base and then cutting bias strips to latch hook onto the base. This is what you see here. It is my new bathroom rug and I love the way it turned out. It is made from that crochet thread I couldn't use for washcloths, old sheets and some of those "I can't believe I bought this even if is was on the $1.00 a yard table" kind of fabrics that had been in my stash for years and never used. It is thick and soft and almost tickles your feet when you step on it getting out of the shower. It was one way that I was able to use things that could have been thrown away and have given them a new purpose. I get a great sense of pleasure and satisfaction from this type of project. I feel as if I am carrying on traditions by creating these kinds of things and they are worth the time and the energy to make and use every day in my home.

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Sources of Inspiration

I have more than one book I turn to when looking for inspiration. The book depends on what I want to do that hour, that day or that week. I collect reference books for knitting, crochet and quilting. I use them when I am feeling bored with what I am doing. Going slowly through the pages of this type of book, with my stash of yarns and fabrics in mind can lead to lots of new ideas. My oldest "craft bible" is the red Knitting book published by Abbey Press. I bought this book more than 30 years ago when I wanted to do more with knitting than garter stitch. It is starting to fall apart but I still love it's patterns, pictures and accurate instructions. It has followed me through getting married, living on Guam, in Vallejo, San Diego, Murray, Stansbury Park and now Apache Junction. With all the moves there was never any thought that this book would be given away with all the others I thinned out each time I needed to pack.

I also make use of some of the newer books in my collection. I have 2 of Vogue's Stitchionaries and I have found them to be a lot of fun. As you can see here I am using the chevron rib to make the red scarf that may end up in my Etsy shop. Then again I may just keep it for myself. Everyone needs a bit of power red in their wardrobe. I haven't finished it so I haven't decided. The pattern is a 16 row repeat so it is a bit more complicated than I usually do but the resulting texture is very pleasing and worth the effort and concentration I think.

Quilting, like knitting and crocheting, has been a part of my life for a long time. I got started on it by watching Georgia Bonesteel's PBS series. I have a few of her books. Her one block at a time method fit my life at the time with apartment living and three small children. I also made use of the "Quilt in a Day series when I helped a Navy wives group make a raffle quilt each year to help support communities events for kids like a breakfast with Santa Claus. I have shown in the top picture my latest quilt block book. Just looking through it puts me in idea overload.

I know the blog carnival topic was "Craft Bible" but I am a Gemini with crafting ADD so I just have to share more than one. Thanks for reading. If you want to read more posts on this topic from other bloggers you can use the blog carnival link on the left to take you to them.

Everyday Companion

This guy is always a big part of my day. His name is Patches and he follows me through the house and lays down whenever I stop to do something. Even as I am writing this he is in the doorway of the room ready to go for whatever we do next. Maybe you can tell he is a great listener. With his one up one down ears and a tilt of his head I get positive reinforcement from him every time.

More seriously I think, like a lot of crafters and artists, that the inspirations come from all of our environment. Color and texture impressions come from all directions. I think we take a lot of this in without actually realizing it. It can be as simple for me as seeing the clothes for a new season on display in a store or the piles of fabrics or yarns in your favorite store.

One of my favorite things to do is spend an afternoon or evening going through my collection of knitting, crocheting and quilting books and magazines. I really don't do it very often because I would go into idea overload. They are great however for planting the seeds for new projects with colors, shapes or stitch patterns. I keep notebooks around for jotting down ideas as they come to me. Flipping through these notebooks can help me make new lists of ideas.

On a final somewhat silly note, one of my biggest pushes to create comes from housework avoidance. After all if I am spending an afternoon on an idea or project that may eventually be for sale online or at a craft show that is work right? To me it is and that certainly beats dusting or folding laundry in my book.

It's About Etsy

Going through knitting blogs about 2 years ago I ran across a mention of a website named Etsy. I wish I could remember the name of the blog but it has disappeared from this old lady's memory. After that mention I checked it out and fell in love with it. I have crafted one thing or another for as far back as I can remember - knitting, crocheting, embroidery, quilting - anything with a needle, hook or thread. I did a little tole painting in there somewhere too as well as leather work. I started doing craft shows off and on in the early 1980's in San Diego, Ca. With a move to Utah I started doing craft shows there as well.

With the growth of the web I knew someday there would be a place for crafters and artists. I checked out site after site never quite finding a place that felt comfortable. Then one day surfing the blogs on a lunch break as mentioned before I found Etsy. It was wonderful to look around. The site design was and still is made so the products are the stars. Everything on the site is made to show off the creations of artists and crafters. The community spirit in the forums is amazing. The range of works this site has attracted is so wide as to be unbelievable.

Please if you value handcrafted work of any and all kinds check it out. You can look at individual sellers, shop by categories, check out what has just been listed or sold and see little user created mini galleries called treasuries. Where else can you find an arts festival 24/7/365 around the world with not hundreds but thousands of vendors?

Thanks to the people who created this place. The world needed it.

Let me, and everyone else you know, hear what you think about Etsy after you check it out for yourself.

First Time

I don't know where this writing will all lead but I'll see how it goes. I envision this blog as a way to chronicle my work, in progress and completed, and ideas. I would like to grow as a crafter and designer and maybe this blog will force me to get things done to have something to write about.

I have begun to list things in a shop called cozy on etsy.com. I am finding the photography part of it hard. I think it will take much more practice with the camera and some better editing software. My plan is to come up with my own designs in knitting, crocheting, and quilting.