These days, it’s important to celebrate the little things. Even though we’re still in isolation, I go out for a walk every day to enjoy my neighborhood and stretch a bit, appreciating nature as it’s waking from its winter slumber.
Today I brought home of few of these lovelies:
I believe they are “forget me nots”. Look at that beautiful iridescent cobalt!
Continuing with my “Making Series” to commemorate this time, and do what I love, I’ve made another journal case. This time, I decided to try out some “English Paper Piecing”, which has seen a resurgence of popularity these days. Especially so, is the hexagon shape, commonly referred to as “hexies”. I thought they would work great for using up my lovely little scraps that I can’t bear to toss.
It’s a good project while watching tv, as it’s all by hand, and the process is simple but time consuming.
Before I knew it, I had so many hexies, they almost completely covered my journal case. They’re scraps from my mask making, my stash (check out the purple and gold, 1970’s wax printed fabric from Germany) and some tiny floral print from the quilt I made my son and his wife when they got married.
I consulted with my brother, the artist, who was very patient in giving me some feedback, without giving me “the answer”. To be honest, I worked on this all day, and was feeling a little frustrated until...
I started removing pieces and liked how the floral shape was still there, but more abstract.
My brother was mentioning positive and negative space, which didn’t register with me...until it did!
Better right? Still not exactly what I wanted, but now I was motivated, and in need of closure. I know it sounds crazy, but fellow creatives will understand when I say, I had to figure this out, or I wouldn’t be able to sleep.
Woo-hoo! Finally what I had envisioned. Now I just had to sew them together, then sew them down to the case, all by hand. Not sure if I’ll be doing any more “hexies” as it’s so much work, but hey, that was the idea of the exercise.
Now on to the inside: I like how the first journal case turned out, so I didn’t make any changes there, except for fabric choices. The other part of this lesson was to practice my embroidery stitching.
The basic stitches are deceiving in their simplicity, but practice makes a huge difference.
Compare this one to the case in my first post:
And the back side looks good enough that I didn’t have to cover it with fabric.
This journal case is for my daughter-in-law, who like me, loves curling up with a good book, a nice cuppa and her puppy. Here is a close up of the embroidery, I’m really happy with how it turned out.
And here’s the inside, all finished. Well, actually, I think I’m going to add her initials, and maybe my initials as well, as my “signature”. I put the date on the back as well.
If you’ve actually read this whole post, thank you, I know it was a long one!
Until next time, where I hope to have some fabric coin purses, for my two daughters.
And maybe a yummy recipe ( gluten and dairy free.)
Stay well.
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