Move in Getting Closer

 I am growing more excited by the day!

Our new home is finished to the point that we are beginning to move in belongings!  I am beginning to sense that my new Art Barn - now a room in the basement - will soon be ready to hold my art and crafting suppies and provide me with the space I need for my creative endeavors!  

This photo was taken while we were still under construction, but it's clear that the structure is and Arts-and-Crafts style cottage that, like the Tardis of Dr. Who fame, is bigger on the inside!  Can't wait!

Here's how it looks at the moment:

The green item behind the stool is a drafting table that is folded down to conserve space.  The words of Mark Knoffler's song "Prairie Wedding" from the Sailing to Philadelphia album / CD (2001): "I know it ain't much, it needs a woman's touch" pretty much say it all!

The Twelve Snowmen of Christmas, 2024

The preparations for the 2024 Deck the Trees fundraising effort revolve around the theme of "Winter Wonderland." While the image above is only of five snowmen, a complete set of 12 have been finished for this season's Tatted Tree.  Some years ago - 2011 to be precise - Palmetto Tatters Guild's Tat Days Conference had a similar theme: "Tatting in a Winter Wonderland" which had artwork in the Logo that included a snowman.  This has prompted the idea that snowmen would be an outstanding addition to the snowflakes, angels and bells that have been gracing the Tatted Tree for the past 13 years. 

Patterns for snowmen are a bit of a challenge to find, but Sandy Scales and Barbara Foster have written  a free one that can be found on the Handy Hands Tatting site here.   It is cute and fairly straight-forward to carry out.  Another such design is Wanda Salmans' "Button-centered Tatted Snowman" written in 2015.  This one, too is simple but effective.  Monica Hahn included 2 snowmen patterns in her Dover Needlework publication entitled "Christmas Angels and other Tatting Patterns"  Debbie Arnold sells a pair of patterns in her Etsy Shop and a completed tatted snowman is available for purchase from Tatted Dreams by Jolene Etsy shop.  That was for the most part the extent of what I found.  If I missed anything, it's on me, but armed with these patterns I set to work.  

It took several months to finish them, but to date, I have completed a total of 12 snowman bodies from 3 different patterns including ones with button centers and an older pattern that I have modified so that it went together more smoothly.  If a hat was part of the pattern, such as in the Scales & Foster pattern, the over all appearance seemed rather stiff.   Some of the patterns did not include hats at all. So off to the land of images went I looking for something I could use to add whimsy to the finished products.  I found a few that I though might be suitable, printed them out, re-sized them as necessary and came up with 3 options that I thought might work.  They looked like this:

Craft foam sheets are cost effective and easy to cut through.  They are useful in many crafting applications and really fit the requirements in this case because they are light weight, solid construction and not translucent or transparent.  I traced off the reapective outlines for each design and cut each out so that I had hats that looked something like this once a hat band was added:

The hats aren't very big some smaller ribbons were in order.  Since I am confined to our camper until the house is finished, I have to rely on what craft supplies I can find in our storage lockers unless I want to purchase items I have no room for.  Each hat that was worked up ranged in size between 1 inch and 2 1/2 inches wide and no more than an inch high.  If the ribbons on hand were too wide, I cut them down to a suitable size before adding them to the craft foam "hats."  

For the most part, the items were something I could use easily, but the ribbon with the red pom-poms was going to require greater modification,  I cut off the red pom-poms for use as "buttons" reserving the white band for use on some hats themselves.  

With the 12 hats and respective bands ready to attach to the tatted snowmen, I used a fabric glue to put the parts together.

Any of the snowmen that did not have a face as part of the tatting or pattern was going to require adding sequins for eyes and mouth and something to indicate buttons on the "body."  

The hats taken from snowmen images really added a touch of fancifulness to these snowmen!  Lastly,  ribbon scarves and embelishments are added to the hats as well as hangers to mount them on the tree at the Monte Vista Hotel the first week of December.  More to follow once the date has arrived.

Getting ready another Tatted Tree for Deck the Trees, Black Mountain

 For the past 11 years, a group I have been a part of has participated in a fund-raiser called Deck the Trees.  It's a benefit for the fuel assistance fund sponsored by the Swannanoa Valley Christian Ministries.  Held at the historic Monte Vista Hotel each year (except 2020 when Covid-19 was in its height), this benefit has raised in the vicinity of $100,000 to help families on the edge have enough fuel for our mountain winters.  The committee announced the theme for 2022 as "Let Heaven and Nature Sing" back in August, a theme that is bit more challenging than some have been in the past.  

I chose to acquire clear plastic ornaments that could be filled with not only tatting, but natural elements as well.  The journey to find the various elements began in September.  I first realized that the line "And Heaven and Nature sing" was from the Yuletide carol "Joy to the World" written in 1719 by Isaac Watts, an English Minister.  Locating the song in a hymnal was easy as was making copies that could be trimmed down to a reasonable size and used as a focal point inside the clear balls was a good place to begin.  One of the local charity shops had a hymnal lying on the counter the day I went in, and to my amazement, it was free for the asking.  I trimmed the copies down to the best size to fit the orbs and burnished the edges with a candle flame

The following weeks were spent looking for patterns that would create small snowflakes, musical notes and shapes that could also adorn the orbs.  Any that I couldn't find, I designed to the best of my ability.  Some time was spent looking around the neighborhood for acorns and pine cones that were small enough to fit into the ornamanets.  I also located lavender sprigs, hydrangea blossoms, moss and lichens to be used.  Here are some of the ornaments in various stages of completion:

Sewing project

 I found myself in the position of needing a costume.  Not just for Halloween, but for Swannanoa Valley Museum's Haunted History Tour.  Previously, I had introduced participants to a boarding house turned Bed and Breakfast as a guest of said boarding house in the 1920's.  However the property had been sold and had become law offices.  So a change in the story was in order.  To accomodate this change, I was determined to be a cleaning lady for the building that would give the history of the building since it had been built in about 1912.

There was nothing in the museum's costume holdings that would make this presentation beleiveable.  So a trip to the charity shop was in order.  I found not only a colorful skirt and sweater (think of Carol Burnette's cleaning lady from the 1970's), but also I was in search of an apron without having to create one from scratch.  A skirt with a flounce would do - so I found one and cut out the back of it out. 

My mother's Necci sewing machine, purchased in 1956, or there abouts had been my go-to for sewing since I had received it about 15 years ago.  But this time, when I attempted to fire it up, the motor would not turn the mechanism.  And so the nearly 70 year old machine would not be of any use to me.  Thank goodness for the modest Singer sewing machine purchased several year ago.  

Next was to find what whould make waistband and tying straps.  I found some fabric that I though might work:

 The border of this, if long enough would work for both.   And so it did:

I had enough to make substantial ties as well as a waistband.  This would create a suitable apron for our purposes:

All this created in just 3 hours including shopping.  Not IN the Art Barn, but a part of the creative process indicative of what the Art Barn is.

Hopefully, the Art Barn itself will be ready for using soon.  More to come!

New Times, New Blog!

Through the recent pandemic, I've been as isolated as I neede to be to protect myself, my family, my crafting buddies and my clients from becoming ill. Being this sort of confined opened opportunities for continued growth in the crafting world. This has brought me a lot of happiness and made some of it shareable with those I care about. The first thing I was able to do was to turn an outbuilding into. . . The Art Barn!! It's not very big - about 12 feet square, but it has 2 lofts for storage and with the shelving, craft table and organizational items, has been a life-saver - well more of a sanity-saver - over the past several years! Since setting everything up, I have been collecting stamps, dies, papers and other embellishments for creating hand made cards for all occasions. Christmas card greetings for the holidays are items I have created during times gone by, but I'm adding to my skills and collections. Cards for birthdays, graduations, special events and others can be pricy! I checked out Target several years back and at that time a hand-made card was more than $7.00. It doesn't take long for that to translate into $100.00 or more and the crafting items will allow many more than the 12 or 13 cards that $100.00 will buy. Even from other outlets such as Dollar Stores and grocery or variety stores, the occasions rack up quickly. Tatting contiinues to be my primary crafting focus, although I have also renewed my interest in knitting and sewing. I'm sure there will be more to come - with Autumn and Winter approaching, outside times will become inside times.