Fabric Bookmarks

It's been over three months since I completed anything for Bags of Love, the charitable organization that I help out. The entire Fall and Winter got away from me. While working to catch up on my odds and ends of crafts and projects and email and and and ... I came across these photos of fabric bookmarks I finished last August.

I'd gone through my pieces and ends of holiday fabrics and pulled out the ones that were small. I made up these bookmarks and divided them by season when I turned them in to the office.

25 Patriotic / 4th of July bookmarks. That striped ribbon was fun to work with.

8 Halloween / Fall bookmarks

14 Christmas / Winter bookmarks

12 for any time of year

I've been meaning to make more bookmarks, but rather than sewing, I have some paper/cardstock designs in mind. I sure hope I can get to them before long. I get to start new projects when I'm done playing catch-up.

2024

I didn't do a monthly recap of my goals last year, so I'll do this annual breakdown instead. I actually had a very good year, finishing 24 of my main or alternate goals months early! Here we go ... 

Word of the Year:     Kindsight

Look upon past mistakes and shame with kindness toward the girl I was and what my circumstances were at the time. Reframe the difficult memories.
(This is ongoing)

Phrase of the Year:   Loving Kindness

Do intentional acts of loving kindness for myself, my kids, my grandkids, my husband, charitable organizations, and strangers.

Goals Completed:

1. Primarily use stash on hand for crafts. Supplement with new supplies as needed: Abby's afghan, Julie's Valentine wreath, Kit's cross-stitch cat, Annalee's photojournalist bag and Barbie clothes, Melody's cat purse, Abby's crochet goat, Dale's wood-burned swag, sewn bookmarks, crocheted purses
   
   
2. 24 Greeting cards
3. 24 Painted rocks using three new-to-me techniques
4. 24 Quilted Hearts
5. Flag of Stars counted cross-stitch
6. Floral Pumpkin Wreath
7. Tumbling Towers Pumpkins
8. Slinky Pumpkin
9. Many crocheted purses for Bags of Love
10. Painted 20 New Year cards
    
11. Helped care for Abby at least 4 times a month
12. Added more steps to my Daily Dance
13. Installed microscope software
14. Sorted through inherited jewelry
15. Installed blackout curtains in bedroom
16. Read 24+ books
17. Read friend's story
18. Read daughter's essays
19. Put together 24+ puzzles
20. Visited 24+ parks
21. Found 24+ geocaches
22. Drove alone to ten destinations (got used to driving again after my pandemic break)
23. Planted sunflowers, annuals in barrel, strawberries, morning glory, pumpkins
24. Bought a fountain for the bird bath and moved it to the backyard
25. Read 20+ books written by Judy Blume

Completed With Dale

1. New air conditioner

2. New water heater

3. 10,000 mile car maintenance

4. Went to Moscow for Annalee’s birthday

5. Went to Moscow for Melody’s birthday

6. Went to Moscow for Julie’s birthday and Spokane to see Dennis

7. Went on as much of the Oregon donut tour as we cared to do

8. Made it through his heart surgery

9. Garage door tune-up

That was quite a productive year! Maybe I can let up on the gas pedal a bit this year.

Primitive Wood Pumpkins

Here's another of my "I saved this video for over 5 years, so maybe it's finally time to make this craft" projects. It's also another of the 24 Goals in 2024 projects where I use items already at hand to create my crafts.

These adorable pumpkins are made from the Tumbling Towers blocks from Dollar Tree's toy department. Tumbling Towers is a take-off on Jenga. Many crafters uses these small wood blocks in innovative ways for their crafts. The game I have on hand has two colors of blocks, the raw wood and the dark brown. 

The pumpkins also use 1/2 inch wood cubes from the Crafter's Square department at Dollar Tree. 

I first painted the wood blocks with acrylic paint. I made white, orange, raw, and brown pumpkins. I painted the 1/2 inch cubes green for the stems. I attempted a dry brush technique to add painted details, which was somewhat successful.

I used floral wire twisted around a pen to make the tendrils. Everything is held together with hot glue.

I didn't have any small leaves left in my floral supplies, so I made my own. I found a green cotton fabric with a small leaf pattern in my stash. Since the fabric was somewhat floppy, I backed it with fusible interfacing. Using a pumpkin leaf pattern I found online, I cut the leaf shape from the stiffened fabric.

Here you can see the fusible interfacing on the back of the leaf. 

I'm extremely pleased with the result. Now there are more pumpkins in my patch!

This is the video tutorial I used for inspiration:

Pro tip ... if you're going to use Excelsior to style your photo, don't put it on top of a felt or velvet backdrop. Holy cow! What a mess! 

After I picked up the big bits with my hands, I tried using a lint roller to get the small pieces. That didn't work well, so I turned to my hand-held vacuum. That did most of the job. To gather the tiny bits I swept them together with a fingernail bush, then resorted to tweezers to pick the straw out of the fabric nap and get them to the trash can.

Never again!  😮

Slinky Pumpkin

I added a new pumpkin to my collection! It's made from a mini orange plastic Slinky-like toy.

First, I gathered the materials. The spring toy, orange markers, twisties, a twig ...

some twine ...

and orange gingham ribbon.

I used a marker to color both sides of the twistie. Most of the orange on the plastic-covered side smeared off the twistie and onto my fingers. Welcome to crafting.

I cut the twistie in half.

Then I connected the two ends of the spring together in two spots. I trimmed the twisties down further to make them less conspicuous. 

I wrapped the twine around the twig. Then I folded the ribbon in half lengthwise to make it narrower while tying it around the stem. I made a bow, fluffed it out, then trimmed the ends of the ribbon.

The stem and bow are held in place with gravity, not with adhesive.

Here's what the pumpkin looks like in place!

Do you want to make your own? I got my inspiration from this blog post at Crafty Morning and this video from Chalk It Up Fancy:

Hooray for me! Yet another 24 Goals in 2024 project completed with stash on  hand.

2024 Family Christmas Ornaments

They're done! 

10 tiny Santa hats. The finished size is about 2.5 inches tall.

It's a rib-stitch crochet body in red, with a single crochet "fir" trim, They're made from supplies in my stash ... one of my 24 Goals in 2024.

and a sparkly white and silver pompom on top. The hangers are made from red fishing line.

Ready for gifting and hanging on our trees.

I'm proud of myself for getting this year's ornaments done in November ... rather than in February 2025.

(Hey! It's been known to happen!)

Pumpkin Wreath

For a few years now I've been wanting to add a pumpkin wreath to my autumn collection. 

I bought the forms and gathered lots of ideas. 

This year I found an idea that inspired me due to its simplicity. I'm not sure who the original artist is:

Once again, I wanted to use supplies I had on hand to create this piece. I didn't have the exact velvety leaves used in the original inspiration photo, but I did have lots of fabric leaves on hand. 

First I pieced together some leftover foam core, adhered it with packing tape, traced the shape of the wreath onto it, and cut it out with an Exacto knife.

Using a piece of fuzzy orange fabric I'd bought at a thrift shop, I cut out the shape of the pumpkin, adding a seam allowance.

I made slits in the fabric seam allowance. Then I smoothed the fabric around the foam core as I hot glued the fabric in place.

To make sure the fabric was extra secure, I used painter's tape to cover the edges of the fabric.

The backing is complete. Here's what it looks like from the front. I was very pleased with how the process was going at this point.

Now to move on to the florals. I started by rough-cutting some brown craft felt strips and hot gluing them to the spines. I wanted to have something wider than the wire frame on which to glue the leaves. 

It's ok that it's so messy because it would all be covered.

Then I added a base of green leaves around the edges to use as a visual base. I think the placement is fine. But for me, this is where my wreath started going off the rails. This is the second time - or maybe third - that I attempted to use these leaves. One time was on a Spring wreath where the dull green leaves were the wrong color. I tried them again this time because I hoped they'd make a nice base for the bright Autumn leaves. 

The placement is quite nice.

At the top, I had the green leaves cascade down a bit from the stem. That made for good coverage.

Then I glued on the colorful leaves. This is where it visually fell apart for me. The colors do not work well together.

I do like how the leaves are placed. To cover the bottom of the wreath form a little better I added small sprigs of flowers I had on hand.

At this point only the stem remained to be covered. So I attached the orange backing to the wire frame. I poked hole in the foam core with the tip of some scissors. Then I threaded zip ties through the holes, and around the frame. When all was in place, I pulled the zip ties tight and cut off the trailing ends.

When I stood back and looked at the wreath, I was unsatisfied and disappointed. Those green leaves ...  

:: sigh ::

So I grabbed more of the Autumn florals in my stash, and tried to cover the green leaves up some more. Here are some details:

Bottom sprigs

Berries along the sides

Sunflowers at the top to cover the stem and add a focal point. I tried adding a bow, like in the inspiration photo, but that didn't work at all.

The finished piece is OK. It's fine. It's simply not what I had in my mind. 

I like the orange background a lot. I don't think I've ever used a background on a wreath before and find it to be an interesting variation.

I'm not convinced this looks like a pumpkin anymore. It looks like a weird oblong oval wreath. It's far more complex than I had in mind ... all because of the wrong shade of green. But this is how I learn.

Here's the wreath in place in our entryway. I may move it outside on the porch.

What's fun about the creative process is trying new things. Some work. Some don't. Some, like this, sort of work and help me learn so that I can make something more pleasing next time.

I did enjoy the hours in my Studio spent creating it.

Plus, I used up more stash which is one of my 24 Goals in 2024.

A Walk in the Park: Day Nine

Charnel Mulligan Park is the last of the Eugene parks Dale and I visited in August 2024.

It had some excellent features such as the mural above

A chessboard built into a tabletop

and this fantastic faucet in the sand pit.

It sports a huge grassy playfield

along with an extensive climbing apparatus for the little kids

and a lighted basketball court

While we were there, the last of the purple cornflowers were blooming in the flower beds along the walking path.

It's another great neighborhood park in Eugene and an excellent spot for our picnic lunch.