New Doorknob Art May, 2011

This is the front and back of some new Doorknob Art for my wonderful yoga teacher.  It's been a rocky spring and yoga has really been a fantastic oasis throughout it all. The monkey fabric is what I used for the quilt I made for my class.  Quilted Librarian is now off to the movies with my dear husband.

More Christmas presents

With all of the purple fabric scraps I had left from the wedding, I've made two different kinds of ornaments.  You will remember that I made pennants for porch and prayer flags for wedding decorations.

First I cross stitched Anna and Matty's names and the date of their wedding on canvas.

 Next, I did some crazy piecing around the canvas to create the front of the ornament.

Here they are  all ready to stuff.  One is for Matty's mom and dad, one for Anna and Matty, and one for us.  As doorknob art, ours will hang on the door of Anna's room.

This is a gift for Anna.  The lavender  was in her bouquet.  I dried it and made a little bag with the netting that we used to make bows on some of the guest chairs at the wedding.  The binding is made from the purple scraps and the bow is from the ribbon on her bouquet. The little tag at the top says all of that.

Design problem solved: Wedding Bento quilt

After composing several bento box blocks on Saturday, I quickly realized that the same method I was using for the yellow, black and white quilt was not going to work for the wedding bento. The blocks were just blah. I decided to try the method I used with the baby bentos with color being the unifying factor and this seems to be working. I took the blocks apart and reconstructed them.



Here's an orange one...



and a green one...



and a brown one.



I'm doing diagonal rows with brown in the middle, green on each side of that, and then orange. That way the orange which is the strongest visually, will be the least represented in numbers of blocks.

Shoutout Sidebar


I made doorknob art for my friend Mary who blogs at Mary at Lake Pulaski and she put up a picture of it on her blog. So here's a "you're welcome" shoutout to her. I'm pleased that she liked it.

Sunday Potpourri

A little bit of everything today, hence the title. On the kitchen front, I decided to make onion soup for dinner. (Julia Child's recipe, of course.) It makes enough that we can have it again later in the week with quiche lorraine.



The hyacinth is blooming and is very fragrant when you walk into the house. It makes me very impatient for spring. The rain today should green things up and at least it's warmer than it has been.



Prepping to make a little doorknob art for a friend. Previous post about these small art objects can be found here. They were thus christened by my dear husband, Jim, when he saw one displayed on a friend's doorknob.



Here's the finished product.



Tags always accompanying these little presents. My dear friend, Chris Schaefer, introduced me to the joys of collecting and playing with rubber stamps.



Yet another doorknob art project begins.



One final thing: there's a new version of Jane Austen's "Emma" beginning on PBS tonight. As a comfirmed Janeite, I'm very excited. The timing is wonderful as I'm actually rereading it right now. As we see January out, I hope you all have a happy and productive week.

New Doorknob Art

I've written before about my Doorknob art. One of the things I wanted to complete during this past long weekend was a little gift for a teacher at school. I thought I'd share my process. Our school colors are green, white, and black, so I used green cross stitch canvas with white floss for the school name and pulled the fabrics from my scrap box.



I cut the cross stitch canvas at odd angles because it makes the crazy piecing more interesting. Starting in the upper right, I add fabrics in a clockwise direction.



I trim and then press after each fabric is added to make the piece lay flat and cut down on bulk.



Each succeeding fabric should be long enough to cover the previous one.



This is about halfway through the crazy piecing.



All the fabrics are added and the front just needs to be trimmed. The backing fabric has all three colors.



Here's the finished front.



Our school mascot is the cowboy, so I had to add this cute button of a cowboy hat.




I cut a 12-inch length of ribbon and sew it to the front about half an inch in on each end making a loop.



Then I sew the back to the front (right sides together, of course) leaving the bottom open for stuffing.



Next I turn it inside out and use the point turner.



I cut up batting scraps and save them for stuffing.



All stuffed and I just whip stitch the opening closed.



All finished.

Spring break update

Dan and I are back from Florida. I took lots of pictures, so while I'm getting things organized, I'll share "doorknob art" I made for my Dad when he had his 50th reunion at Purdue University.

Purdue's colors are old gold and black. I ironed freezer paper to fabric and sent it through my printer to make the back.

More on our Florida adventures to follow.

Doorknob art

Safety Pin Studio was open early this morning (5:45!) so I could finish the flag for my Team India students for the Multicultural Fair. I ironed a piece of freezer paper to the center so one of the girls can draw the center motif. You can see my lovely cup of tea in my Hogwarts mug, too.

I'm coming around side three on the baby quilt, but rather than photograph that again, I thought I would show you some "small art"* that I've made for years. Usually, I take one as a gift when we're invited out to eat or as guests at someone's home. One of my friends back in Crawfordsville used to display hers on all of her doorknobs, so my dear husband dubbed them "Doorknob Art". I loved the phrase, so it stuck. Eventually, I found rubber stamps and now I make tags to go on them. I often make these little ornaments for faculty friends, so I use the school colors and embroider the name of the school and crazy piece around it. This is one I did for myself for Skidmore, my undergraduate alma mater.

This one was for my last one woman show, Ancora Imparo ("I am still learning" in Latin).

When I find charms or buttons, I will make a small joy piece. Tea is a very important part of my life, so I also made this one for me.

These are my stamps and several of the tags I've made to go on the doorknob art.

And finally, a hopeful image from my front yard. Sure, some of the leaves got nipped in the last frost, but, they are still trumpeting the arrival of spring!

* "Small art" is a phrase that I first heard in a Judy Collins
song "Bread and Roses." The song lyrics are a poem by James Oppenheim set to music by Mimi Fariña. The poem is incredibly moving. The song just kills. Tissues at the ready. This is the stanza it comes from:
As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for -- but we fight for roses, too!
This site has the entire poem and the story of the Lawrence Textile Mill workers who inspired it.