The Sewing Brick

 

If you sew, you may have come across a tool called a
Sewing Bird.
A friend had one of these attached to her sewing table.
If you have never seen one, it looks like a
sculpture of a bird with a hinged beak.
 Clamp your fabric in the birds beak if you need an extra hand.
Unfortunately, I don't have one of those, but I do have a
Sewing Brick.
I doubt it has an official name maybe a sewing weight!
I was taught to use one at the clothing design company
 I worked for in the 80's.
 Cover a brick with batting and then a layer of felt.
You can make it fancy if you like, or just pin the thing together.
Set it on your sewing table and pin one end of your work to it.
It is especially useful when sewing hems.
Try it!

Progress

I've made some progress on this piece. Little by little.
I added a pocket(so pleased to find a use for this bit of tea towel),
some leaves, some hexagons and some loops.
 You will perhaps notice a space in the loops.
I made several strips, but not quite enough.
Don't you hate it when you are short one piece?
I also continue to do hundreds of French Knots.
 I like the way they help to blend different areas.
 Surely there is an easier way,
but who wants easy! 

Progress Update (including a Give-Away!)

If you are reading my blog, you might be curious about what happened to these projects:

I don't think I took a picture of this piece after it was stitched. If I did, I don't know what I did with it!

Water Under the Bridge

15x20

And then there is this:

Remember my "ripple" blanket? I bet you thought I stuffed it in the UFO box. It started out as a project to use up my $2 thrift store bag of yarn (the hot pink) and now I am buying yarn for it every time I turn around! Talk about false economy. It now measures 50" wide x40" long. I guess I will keep going until it is at least 60" long.

Maybe you remember this?

This is the multi-colored pencil roving I bought and then couldn't manage to spin. No matter what I tried, it constantly came apart. Finally I core spun it and the chain plied it. It was such a frustrating process that I am NOT in love with this yarn at the moment. Maybe later....

And then here is the piece that you have seen in the In Work portion of my blog page:

I wasn't happy with the center section, so I cut it out and added a piece of mono printed fabric instead. I am still not sure about it. What do you think?

And finally, for the comedy portion of this posting:

Right, another Milk Bone notebook. So here is what I think. I have never done a

"give-away" and I think it would be fun. So if you would like a Milk-Bone, duct tape notebook, write me a comment telling me why you like it and I will send them out to 3 randomly selected people. There I did it. That wasn't so hard!

On The Table

These projects are on my table this weekend.

The on-going knitted collage,
(who knows what this will be)
Things I bought at the thrift store to spin,
(Thanks for the idea Bonnie, but the Easter grass doesn't want to spin)
A hand stitched piece that needs pliers to pull the needle through the fabric,
(remind me never, ever to dye fabric that I can't stitch through with a needle and thread)
A piece ready for hand stitching, but I think I need to machine embroider it instead
and, finally
The Sketch Book Project pages with "under-painting".

I was moving right along on the Sketch Book pages, but then I went to the care facility to see Mom and she and her roommate cornered me in front of the closet and bombarded me with questions that made no sense. And Mom wanted me to take her home because she was done visiting with Patty and she couldn't just stay there in Patty's room. Well, it is Mom's room too but apparently neither one of them remembers that! Patty didn't want me to put Mom's clean clothes in the closet because I needed to take them home when I took Mom. Mom thought she had just returned from Church and Patty thought she was going to the ranch. Mom wanted to know where I had parked her car. Yesterday, Mom told me she had been to Dallas for a visit. It was a "mad" scene reminding me of the Abbot and Costello kit "Who's on first". I felt like I was being attacked by a pair of Blue Jays. Steve and I finally escaped but when I got home, I had to unplug the phones. 12 calls and 12 messages to come and pick her up as she couldn't find her car and she needed to get home.

I will have to chill out for a bit with a large bowl of ice cream before I get back to the pages.....

Still Stitching

Can you feel the end of your finger tips?

I think I have killed every nerve in mine and then

 I prick them again and I know I still have some.

Catch Up

Here is what I have been working on this week.

From left to right:

A new stitched piece with gelatin monoprints, titled,
 Diary
The new house getting framed (no I personally did not work on this!)

A piece of knitting done with the Black and White yarns that I spun

A little book made from the box of a herbal eye pillow

Handspun yarn made from my first ever drum carded batt

Finally finished this stitched piece that I started way back when,
In the Evening I Went Walking

L Is For Leaf--again

I am trying to finish things I have started and this is one of them. At least I think it is finished. I changed the "f" as it was bothering me. I was going to add some more dots or x's or the like, but I was afraid it would get too busy. I haven't decided what to do about the edges. I am inclined to leave them. As always, your feedback is  appreciated.

L Is For Leaf

I worked on this piece, made with the elderberry dyed silk and cotton, most of the weekend. Half of the time I really liked it and then toward the end of the weekend, not so much. I did finally acknowledge that I am not really happy with anything until I start taking it apart. I think they are calling that deconstructing. The piece doesn't work for me until I cut holes in it, unstitch it, cover things up etc. I believe I am like this across the board--in all media. In painting, I call it subtracting. So, on some level I know this, but I never really knew it. Now that I am acknowledging this, I can plan for it. Maybe? I am probably not done taking this one apart..........

If you are reading my blog, please know that I look forward to hearing from you.