1/31/10

shabby labby ding dong

In Remains of the Day, Mary Ann demonstrates how to use miscellaneous scraps (paper, fabric, and other odds and ends) to give her journals that wonderful shabby look. This is what initially attracted me to the class. I have a LOT of that kind of stuff, and ever since we moved into a smaller house a few years ago, the boxes of ephemera were becoming an albatross. I was prepared to let it all go last fall but heard about this class before I had a chance. Now I can put all the “remains" I've collected to good use! Here are the journal pages I started yesterday.

1/29/10

remains of the day

Several months ago, I found out about this online journaling class by Mary Ann Moss. Since then, more and more people whose blogs I read have been posting about it and I’ve loved how their journals turned out. Now that holidays and houseguests are well behind me, I decided to sign up and get in on the fun, too. My first foray into this journaling style is actually going to be a travelogue of our Paris trip from last year, so I’m looking forward to revisiting those memories as I work on my pages. Here are some photos of the fabric cover I just finished.




Notes & Materials:

-instead of 6“ x 9“ x .5", I decided to make mine 6“ x 11“ x 1.25"

-I did not have a large enough piece of 80 lb paper so I just recycled pieces of cereal box cardboard and sewed each piece in at a time so the cover would still be easy to fold. The thicker layer made it more difficult to free-motion stitch...I broke a machine needle but then replaced it with a denim needle and that seemed to help.

-I left the flap empty (no cardboard) to allow it to accommodate expansion in the signature pages

-tea-stained trim (on flap spine), decorator fabric samples from SCRAP, velvet ribbon from a Paris flea market, flowers from Studios Blackbird, buckle from La Droguerie

1/14/10

knitters without borders


As most everyone has heard by now, a devastating earthquake has caused terrible damage and taken many lives in Haiti. You may also have heard of a medical relief organization called Doctors Without Borders. I came across some yarn that donates a portion of proceeds to DWB and noticed a Knitters Without Borders badge on the page. After clicking on it, I decided it made more sense for my money to go straight to DWB instead of more yarn. If you would like to learn more, follow the links in this blog post and consider making a donation if you can.

1/11/10

a great start to the new year

Sock designer and author Cookie A came to teach at our LYS Common Threads last week, and I volunteered to put her up for a few nights. She's as cool and fun as you might imagine and I learned a lot from her class - highly recommend it and her book, Sock Innovation: Knitting Techniques & Patterns for One-of-a-Kind Socks. It was really nice to be able to spend an extended period of time getting to know her. The first night, we had a fabulous dinner prepared with some knitting friends: Nancy and her mom Caryl (who both own and run Common Threads), Kelie, Rebecca, and Shelly. The next day was Cookie's top-down sock design class and then dinner at a restaurant - no photos of that because it was too dark. Before she left town to attend TNNA, Cookie was kind enough to invite me to lunch with knitwear designer Anne Hanson, Anne's husband, David, and their friend Kim. Anne took some pictures at lunch but I was too shy to ask her to send me one - luckily, she posted it on her blog!