Ornament Thursday: celedon
Blame it on the codeine in that cough medicine, but I really messed up this month and missed Ornament Thursday completely. But not one to be totally absent, I'm going to share a card that I made a while ago in celedon and also share the links of those who did get it together this month. So there's the card--to your right. And here are the links from my OT pals.
Celadon Dreamer
Michelle Zimmeman creates a dreamer box from one of her molds and Helen Bradley grabs another for her jewelry project.
Embellished Ear Wires
Lynn Kvigne of Beading Help Web shows you how to create these embellished ear wires in spring colors (like Celedon!)
OT Goes Celadon
Lisa finds calm in the color "Celadon"
Strands of Beads
Melissa creates a simple necklace from a slab of chrysoprase
Ornament Thursday giveaway
Fear not, dear readers, I haven't forgotten about the Ornament Thursday Heliotrope giveaway. I just have to verify a few things. But I'll announce the winner soon!
Ornament Thursday Teaser
Okay, so it's almost Ornament Thursday again and the theme is heliotrope. For the uninformed, it's a pinkish purplish color, though I'd forgotten that it was more pink than purple when I started creating my design. But here it is anyway, a teaser of what's to come on Thursday. See you Thursday!
Ornament Thursday January 2009
It's Ornament Thursday and my first official Ornament Thursday on my own blog. The overall theme this year is colors, which is a great way to play creatively, as there are some colors on this list that I don't work with much so I'll be expanding my horizons.
I have to tell you, the way I've rearranged the living room so the cardmaking station is right there staring at me sure is getting me thinking about making cards more often. But don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the quilting machine.
I'm on Facebook now
Wow, it's just one electronic mountain being conquered after another. The blog is working, and now, after several invitation from friends, I've joined Facebook. So if you're on there, you can friend me.
Meanwhile, in the health department, I finally went to the Dr. and got something for this cough. Hoping it kicks in fast, because I'm on a plane to the CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) Show less than a week from now. I can't wait; I get to see everything new and fabulous in the craft industry and all of the wonderful people that also work in the creative industry. And after the show, I get to spend a few days with my friend Vicki in Long Beach and my sister Alice in Phoenix. So I want to be healthy for all of that.
But before I go, I have to get my project done for the Ornament Thursday group. As I look at the stack of cardmaking supplies across the room, I think it might have to be a card.
Meanwhile, there's beef stew underway in the crock pot, so I better go check that.
Creative recharge
What a great weekend! First, I found some amazing clothing deals around town. I had to alter one of the skirts (last of its kind) and shorten one of the dresses, but that just motivated me to do the same with a few things that had been tossed into the sewing room to be altered, so the bonus is now I have a few more items back in my closet and out of the sewing room.
The underlying reason for this spree was that my blogging friends have helped me with one of my pledges for this year. Lest you've forgotten, at the end of 2007, I was involved in Ornament Thursday. This blogger exchange involved a bunch of creative gals, and several Thursdays in December, we posted Christmas ornaments on our blogs. I got so many great ideas visiting the other blogs and made some new friends and magazine contacts along the way! So this same creative group decided we should keep it going with one post a month. The posts will be themed, with the "Ornament" part really being the origin of the group--so anything goes as far as the finished piece! (Of course, once the holidays draw near again, we'll go back to ornaments and increase the frequency.) So one of the garments (can't tell you more than that right now) will be my first Ornament Thursday posting! Be sure to check in this Thursday (the fourth Thursday of each month) and see what everyone has going on!
And by the way, lesson learned: When a care tag on a knit garment says, "hang to dry", it probably doesn't mean, "tumble dry low". Luckily, rewetting immediately after noticing the loss in length, a some gentle tugs to the bottom of the dress, and hanging to dry seems to have corrected my error, though it's still drying in the basement because thick knit hanging dry doesn't happen in two hours--even with the fan set on high! Perhaps next time, the better solution is to launder first THEN shorten! Or actually paying attention to the care label...
Ornament Thursday part 3
Welcome to the final installment of Ornament Thursday. Here's my little guy. He's adapted from a pattern that I saw in Love of Quilting magazine—he was one of four snowman blocks in the middle of a table centerpiece on the cover and he was a much larger block. I decided he'd be an adorable ornament, so I took the basic lines and drafted him in Quark (it was what I had available) and turned him into a foundation-pieced ornament. (For the non-quilters: Foundation piecing is sewing pieces of fabric to a foundation and, in this case, the foundation was paper. I tore the paper off after it was done, but it keeps everything very accurate.)
Again, I copied a bunch of foundation papers when I decided to make him two years ago (same reason as the other one—GREAT take-along ornament that just didn't get finished in the timely manner I had planned). I cut and sewed about a dozen at that time, but I'd copied many more foundations than that (I always think big). So on that snow day last week, the foundations were right there waiting, as were the fabrics that I'd used for the other ornaments. He sews together very fast, and then I just embroidered a little nose and sewed on the bead eyes and mouth, added a hanger and back and stuffed him through the opening in the back.
I saw one of his brothers while I was at my parent's house this weekend; they got one of last year's models. I noticed that hers had little embroidered cheek circles, a bigger carrot nose, and French knots for the eyes and mouth, but I still think this one has character.
I know right now, some of you are reflecting back to where I said something about "the foundations were right there waiting, as were the fabrics...." and you're probably starting to think, "Linda sure has a lot of thing sitting around in that sewing/craft room of hers." Yes, the truth is, that room is a big mess. Projects don't usually get completely put away, there's a spare mattress and box springs leaning upright against the wall (NO floor space to set that up!), I have shelves and containers everywhere for storage in addition to the two old dressers and one old bookcase, and it really does need serious attention. Maybe next week I'll work on a list of resolutions for 2008. Though I'm embarrassed to admit that I think getting that room in order was on the 2007 list... and the 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003....
Ornament Thursday part 2
It's Ornament Thursday! Thank goodness Tuesday was a snow day, or I might still be finishing my ornament. I knew that stash of supplies in my craft room would save me!
My ornament is embroidered with silk ribbon on a navy felt background. I even added red glass beads to make all the bead gals in this exchange smile!
Ornament part 1
My very creative pal Katie Hacker invited me to join her and her friends in a virtual ornament exchange (exchanging links to pictures on blogs, that is, not actual ornaments).
So shrinkety-shrink with the photocopier, and tracety-trace onto fusible webbing, and fusety-fuse to some cottons from my quilt fabric stash, and stitchety-stitch around the edges, and I was good to go, right? NO problem. I actually traced the patterns onto the fusible-backed fabric in the car on a Thanksgiving weekend trip out of town. (No, I wasn't driving!) I layered and fused them in the hotel room. I cut around the shapes while hanging out with the folks I was visiting. (They knew me well enough to know that this was NOT rude.) I knew that the blanket stitching around the edges would be a great take-along project, and aren't we always looking for a great take-along project? I knew I had several long trips ahead of me, so no problem, I'll have them done by Christmas 2005. (THIS is where my personal projects goes awry every single time! No concept of the actual time involved!)
And it was a great take-along project... for the rest of '05 and half of '06! I think I finished the blanket stitching by summer, but, c'mon, who wants to assemble Christmas ornaments in June when there's sunshine, rollerblading, and the lakefront to be enjoyed? (I ought to!) So it took a snow day December 1, 2006 to get what I thought was all of them assembled. And everyone loved them (or said they did).
But earlier this year, as I was searching in the mess that is my craft room for a runaway spool of thread, I ran across one little orphan snowguy behind my sewing cabinet (along with several runaway spools of thread, stray pattern pieces, and some truly scary dust bunnies). Did I finish him right away when I found him? Don't be silly. But Katie's invitation Wednesday lit a fire under me. So last night, all I had to do was add the backing, ribbon hanger, and stuffing, and here he is, hanging on my yet-to-be-decorated Christmas tree.
