Other things

Seems I sure spend a lot of time at the sewing machine…

…of course, it must be because I enjoy it so much.  It’s a relaxing, fun, creative outlet and so easy pick up and put down in between my daily activities.

But over the weekend I occupied myself with other things.

This little sculpture has been a part of my life since I was a little girl, when my dad built a lamp post for the front yard and put this on it with our family name… Robbins… robins…  get it?

They don’t live in that house anymore so he recently took it down and is going to use it elsewhere now.  It was pretty weathered so I painted it for them over the weekend.  Now it’s all fresh and new

…and I enjoyed playing with a good memory and thinking a little about my heritage and family name. 

I also enjoyed pulling out my paints again.  It’s been a long time.

But for now and for this week I’ll be back at my beloved sewing machine.

thought I’d give it a try

I’ve long admired Natalie Jo’s blog, Picalilli Days.  She makes the most beautiful pincushions and this year she was so generous to run a tutorial on how we could make one of our own. 

So I tried it. 

It was fun but it wasn’t easy. 

I really like my little girl pincushion

but it’s probably the only one I’ll ever make.

Besides a wonderful talent, Natalie Jo has a lot of patience.  I admire her skills even more now.

ribbon tree tutorial

Wow, two posts in one day.  But I was asked how my ribbon trees were made.  So I thought I’d share how I figured it out…

I cut a piece of ribbon about 19”.  With a fine tip marker made a tiny dot 2” from one end to mark a starting point. 

From there I made dots along the ribbon spacing them apart at: 2 3/4”, 2 1/2”, 2 1/4”, 2”, 1 3/4”, 1 1/2”, 1 1/4” and 1”.  (The spaces between get smaller by a quarter of an inch). I also gathered some pearl beads and large seed beads.

I inserted my double threaded needle through the beginning dot, a pearl bead and a seed bead.  Then came back through the pearl bead and ribbon to secure the bottom of the tree.

I added another bead and went through the next dot again and again…

 

Until there were four loops on each side ending with a pearl on top.  I threaded through another seed bead and back through the pearl and ribbon to secure just like at the beginning.

Finally I went back up through both beads again and tied a knot at about an inch or so to make a hanging loop.

 

Clipped the ends of the ribbons to where I liked them and touched them up with Fray Check…

and Voila!…a ribbon tree!

It’s beginning to look a little like Christmas…

    I’m just being busy crafting and doodling around in my sewing room…and singing Christmas songs in my head while I work.

Sending Flowers

Lettie over at Polka Dot Pineapple, who always has such awesome projects, has come up with yet another one. She has a tutorial for making darling bookmarks and then she adds the idea to go hide them in books at the library with a little note to randomly cheer some reader’s day.

I love that! I made a few this morning and now I’m on my way to the library to return a book and have some fun while I’m there! I think a couple of these look like they belong in the Young Adult books for girls section, don't you?

On another note: My husband brought home a new camera the other day, since ours was slowly dying. I’m learning to use it and my sweet little T-Rex has been graciously posing for me as a model so I can practice. Isn’t he beautiful?

Beautiful Words

I fell in love with this very clever idea from Little Birdie Secrets . Blocks that can be turned and arranged to spell different words. I spent my morning making a set of my own. they now sit on my kitchen window sill to daily encourage me with lovely positive thoughts.