Hello Readers!
Well, I haven't gotten as much done as I had hoped to get done but things did get done before the trip south to my son's house. That commences tomorrow evening when the DIL gets here to kidnap me!
I've barely started packing the tonnage I'll be taking with me on the trip. More on that later though, for now, let's talk some fishes!
These are the fishes I showed you all in the last post that were in need of finishing.
TaDa! Finished!
All but this pink one are 8.5 inches long. This one is about 8 inches long. All are painted with acrylics of one color or another and then they were glittered to match their acrylic color (more or less).
They still need a coat of sealer before they're done. One of them will be headed to Minnesota tomorrow.
I did some more weaving with the quilt scraps....
Two mug rug sized pads. They're about 3.5 inches across. I need a bigger hoop to make the right sized pads for sitting a glass on. These are too thick and lumpy for sitting a glass on. A mug would sit nicely though.
These next four are a lot larger than the mug rugs but not large enough for a chair pad like I was hoping for.
The spokes are elastic and the woven strands are mostly cotton quilt fabric torn into strips.
These are about 11-12 inches across.
To make ones big enough for a chair pad I'll need a much larger hoop than the metal ring I used for these. This metal ring is a bit too large for weaving a mug rug though.
I have enough elastic left to make three thousand of these things but only enough fabric strips to do maybe three more of them. I've put out the word to my gatherers that I am on the hunt for cotton fabric.
You all remember when I was hot and heavy into making balls? These have sat on the end table in the livingroom for months now, waiting on me to do something with them. There weren't very pretty before I did some embroidery work on them.
Blue Ball.
Gray and White Ball
(My favorite of the three.)
Blue Fleece Ball
Each of the balls is roughly the size of a tennis ball. They were built using two plastic bottle caps taped together for the center of the ball. Inside the bottle caps are some little metal bits to make the ball rattle when it's shook. Around the bottle caps I taped a bunch of plastic packing....bread sacks, things of that nature. I added plastic till the ball was almost the size I wanted. Next I wrapped the plastic ball with some thick macrame cord. One or two layers of it. Then lots of layers of crochet cotton thread. And finally I sewed fabric to the ball before embroidering on it. There's no rhyme nor reason the embroidery. I just did whatever the muse wanted to do.
These balls essentially are made from nothing but scraps and castoffs. The only thing you may need to purchase to make your own ball is some embroidery thread. What are they good for, you ask?
You can throw five or six of them in your dryer and lessen the drying time of your loads.
You could give one to a baby to play with.
You could give one to your cat to play with. I had to fight with one of my cats to retrieve the dark blue one when she ran off with it while photography was happening!
You could sit a few of them in a bowl just to look pretty.
And beings you all are smart folks, you can probably think of other things to do with them. I'm going to try to sell a few of them at the craft fair.
The naked fishes I showed you all in the last post are now done.
I really like how the fishes turned out! These guys started life as packaging for cereal, cake mixes, other boxed goods.
There's a wooden bead in the center of each one to give them a 3D effect. Nothing worse than a flat fish that isn't supposed to be flat. Usually paper mache things do end up being 3D. They're covered with masking tape and homemade gesso.
I painted each of them a different color with acrylic paint and then applied the glitter of varying colors.
The pink glitter used on these stripes is my most favorite of all the glitter I have. It's not even really glitter! I believe it's body glitter. It's some fantastic stuff whatever its original use was! And I guess if we want to get technical, body glitter IS glitter...
Doesn't really matter! I like glitter! And I have been known (on numerous occasions) to use things for what they were not intended for.
Each fish is about 4 inches long and has a copper wire loop at their nose.
I took their pictures before I put the sealant on. I'm hoping, hoping, hoping the sealant plays nice with all the glitter colors. Some sealers don't play nice and the glitter gets all yucky.
I finished a fairy dottee doll. I sewed the body and made the wings, probably close to or over a year ago. The flower on her belly is a piece of junk jewelry. An earring, if memory serves me correctly.
I told you all I was in need of some more little books for the sale.
I drew this lady sometime ago. She's on a piece of 4x4 inch drawing board, done in markers. I sewed this book together with the coptic stitch in crochet cotton. It has copy paper pages. 7 signatures with 5 sheets in each, giving the book a total of 35 pages.
This book is 8x8 inches made from a cereal box painted gray with acrylics. It folds over itself on the front cover and closes with a velcro dot. It has manila paper pages. I forget how many...guessing around 15. It is sewn in the pamphlet stitch.
Tiny diamond book. This one is about 3.5x2.5 inches. Its's sewn in the pamphlet stitch. It has 10 sheets of different colored construction paper for pages. This book is literally made of scraps.
Home Depot supplied the covers for this book. They are linoleum samples, 4x4 inches square. Sewn in the coptic stitch with crochet cotton. I drew the owl in markers. The back cover is left plain. This book has 6signatures of 5 pages each of copy paper. Nice sturdy little book.
I discovered that using a curved needle to sew the coptic stitch makes a much tighter stitch than using a straight needle.
This book has problems. I did not pay attention when sewing the front cover on! The cover is cut from a vinyl record and the label on the record is upside down. It's a nice book though. Sewn in the coptic stitch, it sewed up nice and tight. It has copy paper pages. 5signatures with 5 sheets each. The book measures 6x8 inches.
I had more help than I wanted while glittering fishes. Murray insisted on drinking my paintbrush water! I'm not sure white glue is good for a cat! I'm fairly certain that acrylic paints are not good for a cat but try telling that cat the perils of drinking paint water! I did try! It was wasted energy! That fool cat drank the paint water anyway.
And the other two brats were no help either in the bedroom. I was trying to pack my bags for the trip tomorrow but Lola insisted she needed to be in the bag and Tippy insisted on trying to grab each and everything I tried putting in the bag! I gave up on trying to pack with those two around!
I'll probably have more things to share when I get back from RJ's house. I never go there empty handed. I'll take the markers, some cardstock of various sizes, something to do some weaving and more than likely I will take the sewing with me also.
Happy Halloween to Everyone!
Remember
be good to one another!
it matters!
Peace
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