It's a Fabric NoteBook

 

Do you remember this stack of fabric?  

This is what I created with it. 

 A Fabric NoteBook. I'm so excited to start adorning it with bits and pieces and little treasures.   Remember that little punch needle sampler I posted on facebook a couple of weeks ago?  This one? 

 Well, it is just a memory and saved pictures now.  I had all my notes on the backside of the fabric and I needed to buy some floss so I took it with me to JoAnn's shopping and along the way I lost it.  Someone in Petoskey, Michigan is wondering what the heck it is. Lol! 

 Anyways, I realized I needed something a little more substantial for my notes and samples and I remembered the wonderful fabric notebook that Michele Palmer was creating for her rug hooking dye samples.  Have you seen her book?  You can check it out on her Facebook page. Click the link to see a sample of her Fabric Book & Illustrations It contains her wonderful illustrations along with samples of dyed wool.  Eye candy for sure! Rest assured my Notebook won't be nearly as wonderful as hers but it will do the trick.

So let me show you some of the pages I created. This is the front of the book. 

 It is about 8.5 inches wide and 7 tall.  And before you ask, I didn't have a pattern, I just flew by the seat of my pants on this one.

Inside cover and first page.

This is where I had some fun playing with my sewing machine.  I added decorative embroidery stiches to the edges so they wouldn’t continue to fray.  And that's something I learned...how to fray fabric.  Mind you I didn't do a real good job and probably should have watched a YouTube video but it works for now.

Second and Third pages

 

Third page

Fourth and Fifth Pages

Sixth and Seventh Pages

Eighth and Ninth Pages.  

See the stitching down the center?  After I cut out and decorated all the pages, I simply sewed the book down the middle.The remaining pages are just the reverse of the previous pages.

Practice stitches with my sewing machine.

Learning to fray material.

For the cover of the book, I cut out 2 pieces of the red fabric along with a piece of batting and sewed them together to give a little weight to the cover of the book.

So what do you think?  Anyone else going to create one? 

 Happy Creating, Maria 

Antique Cow Rug

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A week or so ago, I posted a picture of the cow rug (based upon an antique rug) I was working on for my 10 minute Deanne Fitzpatrick Rug Hooking challenge, which you can find Here.
Not surprising, I had many inquiries about it and it's is no wonder.... just look at the precious little face.  

It just makes me smile every time I see it.   

Here is a picture of the antique rug 

And here are some pictures of  my version of it. 

You can see that I strayed from replicating the original to a T.  Hooking the  background behind the cow in brown and blue  just didn't make sense to me so I stuck with the blue color.  Also, I changed the flowers and leaves around the cow a little just to make more room to hook. The thought of finishing the scalloped edge was intimidating so I added a border around the edge.  I'm sure that the cow is supposed to have 3 teats but in the original it looks like only two were hooked so that’s what I hooked.   I can add the third one into the pattern if want it.

I have the pattern available for purchase if you would like to hook this sweet little rug. It is drawn on linen and measures 16 x 21 inches and is $42 plus $5 shipping first class. You can purchase by clicking the buy it now button. 

STAR RUG COMPANY 

Patriotic Flag is available as a digital download pattern

Hello friends,

Many of you have inquired about my Patriotic Flag Needle Punch Pattern and asked if it would be available as a punch needle pattern.   AND the answer is Yes!  I'm going to try something a little different  and sell it as a digital PDF pattern from my blog through paypal. In the photos below, the first  Patriotic Flag was punched by Judy Estep using Valdani threads and I punched the bottom Patriotic Flag using DMC flosses.  The Digital pattern contains a floss chart for both Valdani and DMC and also thread placement charts for both threads.  The size of Judy's PN is 3.25 by 4 inches and mine is 3.75 x 4.8.  

Click the button to buy the Digital PDF paper Needle Punch Pattern for $8.00.  I will email you the pattern.  If you do not receive it right away, please understand that I may be away from my computer or phone and unable to do so right away.  

Happy Accident

It’s a personal challenge of mine to finish some of my punch needle patterns that have been laying around waiting for me to punch the last few loops or finish the edges. While working on finishing the edge of my Witch in the Pumpkin Field Needle Punch Pattern (the digital pattern is on Etsy here) on Friday, I was dying some Pom-Pom trim for the edge of it. The first batch I dyed was pretty garish,

Yeah, no.....the trim is too orangey, don't your think?

                    Same with the send attempt, better but not quite right.

On the third attempt I think I nailed the color pretty well. What do you think? 

Anyways, fast forward to yesterday, I pulled out my Gnarly Dude to finish punching him. He’s been siting in my craft room for nearly 4 years waiting, waiting just waiting to be finished. Well, yesterday was the day. The only problem is I did not keep good records (actually no records) of the flosses I used, so much of my time was spent trying to determine and recreate the colors I used. Once, I figured out the colors, he was done pretty quickly.

Now here’s where the happy accident comes into play. While I was cleaning my punching area and gathering my stuff to put away, I happened to throw the garish Pom-Pom trim on Gnarly Dude and I was giddy with delight. It matched perfectly. My only choice now is to choose the top or the bottom trim color.  

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Happy Accident, I think so. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Easter.