Moving on...

Howdy Folks!

Yes - I've moved on from this blog and am now more active on my Instagram. Join me there if you wish!

www.instagram.com/jckirner

Thanks for stopping by ;-)

More Oleander - Creative Recap

Hesitantly, I opened my draft blog post today, expecting a big blank staring back at me.

I was cheered to find these images waiting here. You see, in this last month a hard drive crash and new computer have consumed  my creative time. 

And despite a good amount of backups - I wasn't quite perfect in that backup implementation.

So, I lost some spreadsheet data and photos.  But not these ones!

Continuing on from last month with that oleander motif, this time stitched on cotton over-dyed with indigo, using simple DMC stranded embroidery floss.

You know, working with anything hanging around the house!!

Pondering, too, how to use the Spoonflower printed fabric samples with the oleander images.

And I have a tale about that little 4" embroidery hoop I use...

It came from France, from the Sajou embroidery store online. It's a lovely little hoop with nicely beveled edges and wood that doesn't split.

Late one night clicking around the internet I found the shop online - at that time all in French. And using my high school language abilities I managed to order the hoop - padding my order with some thread bobbins and postcards to reach the minimum international order.

Yet my math failed me in converting from Francs to Dollars (or was it Euros?),and I reversed the conversion factor in my head.

So that cute little inexpensive hoop ended up costing me...

...$50!!

OOops!
...

As always - thanks for stopping by!

Thrift Stories - Aqua

I have a history with things aqua. It's one of those go-to colors that always pulls my attention. It's such a happy hue.

A year or so ago I found this vintage rotary telephone. Slightly overpriced, I just had to have it!

It's kept me company in my office ringing away with its classic bell tone. (Yes, it works!)

Although as a practical device in these digital times - not so much. (Try responding to a menu tree from a rotary phone - can't be done!)

 Great accessory piece, regardless of it's practicality.

For practicality, a Samsonite suitcase fits the bill. This one was tucked into a corner of my favorite thrift shop. (The one that features a wide range of prices.)

 For $4.00 it came home with me. I love the subtle sparkle to the aqua blue textured exterior, and I love the shirred cover over the lid.

 It's a bit stained inside so I use it to tote art supplies to our Odd Tuesday creative group.

Some items come with great surprises inside.

 A recent jaunt to that same thrift shop on a busy day had me feeling that the offerings were picked over.

 Up high on a shelf I spied this aqua and white ice bucket - obviously older with the robust metal handle. Dangling from the side was a small tag with tiny writing - "ice bucket with 35 silver".

They weren't kidding - inside an almost complete set of Towle silverplate flatware. Gorgeous! Made my day.

Suburban thrift picking - always a pleasure and sometimes there's treasure!

Do you venture out thrift picking? Are there go-to items that you always seem to be picking up?



As always - thanks for stopping by!

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Southern Hospitality's Thrifty Treasures

Use a Theme as a Creative Jumpstart

Hi folks! I'm back to blogging again, Yay!!
Here's a little creative recap then I'll show you some enjoyable things I'm trying.

Last year, I created many pieces using this dog silhouette: lots of postcards with the hand carved stamp, some fabric pieces and postcards. After the loss of my dog Lily we are going to be 'cat people' only for awhile.  This kinda' remained in the back of my mind all year and I unintentionally turned to the dog shape again and again.

Kitten Huey joins us - our Dewey is mildly amused
(next year we find Louie?)

You know, I didn't realize that I was doing it at the time, but I found that a theme is a great catalyst when wanting to try a different technique. It gets me past that 'blank paper - YIKES- what shall I do?' fear. The dog silhouette was a jumping off point to get going last year. The end result was a year of projects with a common thread, creating a cohesive mini collection.

Gouache Resist First Effort

This year my creative group 'Odd Tuesday' gave the gouache resist technique a go. (You can find Jane Powell's brief video tutorial here.) I'd tired of my dog silhouette and after bright day outside trimming the oleanders I thought I'd play with the flowers and the associated caterpillars/moths.

That day had brilliant blue skies and clear colors in the blooms and foliage

On Pinterest I started an oleander board for reference (and disappeared down that rabbit hole researching plants and several ways to trim my oleanders - darn you Pinterest!). Sketching from some photos I drew several blooms, buds, leaves, caterpillars and moths.

Four oleander mini cards using gouache resist technique

Taking scans of the resist images I created grid arrays of the flowers and printed them as  paper for origami boxes.

Later, I used those same images to produce some notecards from Shutterfly.

 Do you ever use that service? They make great quality photo books, cards, magnets, etc. Here's a tip: sign up for their email newsletter. They offer frequent free and/or big discount coupons for their products. Then, because their lead time to use the offer is often a matter of days, be prepared with a couple of projects ready to go on the Shutterfly site. When the free/discount offer hits your email, you'll be all set to get great products often for just the cost of shipping! (Not an affiliate - just a happy customer)

I'm a bit excited about the floral images and have some mini projects in the pipeline using them. Next month I'll show you those fabric and stitch ideas.

That's my creative recap for this month. I'll be sharing some vintage finds from the thrift shops next time! It seems that aqua colored bits have been a theme for me there...

How have you explored working with a theme in your creative pursuits?



As always - Thanks for stopping by!

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A Brief View - World Quilt Show Florida 2013/2014

Where's Mickey - Gabriele DiTota - World Quilt Show Florida 2013 - Jan 2014 

Confusingly, Mancuso's World Quilt Show Florida 2013 was held in West Palm Beach in January 2014. Previous years this was a November show - typically right after The Big One in Houston.

Taweekaachee - Linn Shimek -World Quilt Show Florida 2013 - Jan 2014

Probably my fourth year visiting this show, this time it seemed smaller and less diverse. My perception may be off though, it was held in a different part of the convention center and in a different layout.

Spiders In The Night Exchanging Glances - Carol Churchhill - Magnified View exhibit - Quilts on the Wall at World Quilt Show Fl

As always, I'm drawn to the details of quilts regardless of which exhibit they're displayed in. You can see more pictures and full views in my flickr set album. Click here.

With the low light at the venue I had few stellar photos this time!

My Favorite Flower Basket - Karen McTavish quilter - Quilt as Desired vintage 1940s top - World Quilt Show Florida 2013

I did enjoy the Quilt as Desired exhibit - where pieced tops from the 30's and 40's were completed by top long-arm quilters of today. My favorite was that one above with Karen McTavish quilting...to me it had just the right amount of detail and big flourish quilting.

Equus - Sandy Monk - Martin County Quilters Black and White Challenge World Quilt Show Florida 2013 - Jan 2014 

At the entrance to the convention hall was the Black and White challenge quilts from the Martin County Quilters - this thread painted zebra won several ribbons.

Mozart - Barbara Stewart -World Quilt Show Florida 2013 - Jan 2014

Taken from the side - this portrait of Mozart has quite a saucy glance! A ribbon winner from the Florida quilts challenge.

In the World Quilts section I was enamored of numerous entries - none of which I captured well in photos! These included Laura Kemshall's 'Don't Go', Annabel Rainbow's 'Life-1, Measures of Time' which I'd seen on blogs as they developed and delighted examining them in reality.

In general, I'm experiencing a bit of fatigue viewing certain styles of quilts. I'm going off heavy machine quilting, instead preferring quilts with more dynamic texture. I'm looking for variety, whether through hand and machine stitch combinations, or those with variable stitch density. Regardless, I appreciate the work that all these quilts need to complete!

And I leave you with this simple gem: A Christmas in Kindergarten - quilt created from kid's art:

Christmas in Kindergarten - Jenny Shirley artwork interpreted as quilt - World Quilt Show Florida 2013 - Jan 2014 

As always  - thanks for stopping by!

A Spot of Tea (Break)

Hello there! It's been while, hasn't it?

Yes, I hit a blogging wall after an exhausting long driving vacation this summer. Then it was all a whirlwind of back to school and start of high school for our daughter.

Followed by a fallow time with no.creative.urges whatsoever. (oh yes, and the sewing machine was in disrepair)

Slowly I've returned to WANT to create again. (and thanks, Mom, for the gift of another machine!)

Last week I stitched the final two letters on the Dragon Dreams cross stitch above - and today seamed it into a tea cozy. Those are sunprinted fabrics created recently with friends.

I'm taking baby steps back into making...don't want to overwhelm myself with too much too soon!

So...what have you been up to?

As always, thanks for stopping by!


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Vintage Finds - Thrift Share

Vintage children's books with great cover illustrations

Last month was our local Big Garage Sale held at the South Florida Fairgrounds. Once again my daughter and I were up early to forage through the bargain priced goodies.

We're very picky nowadays what we buy - preferring to window shop rather than over-buy. (Something to do with a bursting at the seams ebay/etsy stockroom and plenty of things to list already sitting on shelves!)

This morning I arrive in my home studio/office to find our cat Dewey perched nearby. (He's sitting on top of my covered binder - guess it needs a little cat fiber embellishments!)

He was reminding me of one of our thrift finds that I'd just started to process...

...yes, another textile rescue waiting in the wings. This time a stamped cat embroidery that was in a very grungy frame.

I've since removed it from the frame and given it (and the cardinals picture) a gentle sudsy wash to rid them of years of dust and dirt. Thankfully they came out great - and none of the fiber colors bled into the background linen.

Next up for them? A couple of big pillows!



As always,
Thanks for stopping by!
See you next time...

Glamping Table Topper - an UH OH! and a plan

Over this week I've slowly (do I work any other way?!) and carefully  worked my way around the center triangles of my table topper, hand stitching down my vintage red rick rack.

It's funny how your mind wanders as you're stitching. I'm thinking ahead to how I want to quilt the center, borders, dresdens etc.

I've dallied with adding more dresden fans to the borders or even at the edges (turned outwards so the points become the corners!)

I've thought about adding more rick rack, maybe in larger sizes towards the outside edges.

And then all the day dreaming comes to a screeching halt when I discover this ...

UGH! my rick rack too short by about 1".

I run away from the project  - avoiding - debating - should I rip off everything and get more rick rack?

Or...attempt to splice it as invisibly as possible?

Splice it is my first choice - and I think I can hide the joins against the similarly colored dots along this edge (see photo).

Now - what do you think - fray check the edges and butt splice them? Or turn them under ever so slightly? What will give me the most inconspicuous join AND actually be possible for me to pull off?

Any and all suggestions welcomed. (well - polite ones anyway!!)


As always,
Thanks for stopping by,
See you next time!


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Scrappy Trip - completely addicting!

Wow - these Scrappy Trip quilt blocks go together quickly! I've already replaced my oversized blocks with better sized blocks over this weekend.

In between the slower hand stitching on the glamping quilt I pop over to the sewing machine to churn out another Scrappy Trip block.

Playing with the block placement has become a post-finish ritual as I turn and move each one to see the patterns emerge. (And the brain kicks in  - should this become a quilt top? A window panel? lap quilt? when my original intention is a quilt back!)

Working with so many fabrics has stressed my rudimentary fabric organization bin (above!).

An intervention was in order - and I admit to inspiration from Lynn Krawcyzk's recent studio/warehouse reinvention/declutter.

(You can read her blog series on the professional organization process here.)

After two trips to Target and an evening streaming Midsomer Murders on Netflix while playing with fabric...

Ta-dah! A new drawer tower with sorted and organized fabrics - far, far better than a laundry hamper and an undersized bin.

As always,
Thanks for stopping by,
See you next time!


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Glamping Quilt - sewing the rick rack

I'm bouncing around from project to project this week - and making tiny strides on each.

(Do you need to have more than one thing on the go, or are you a stick with it until you're done type?)

Anxious to move forward on the Glamping table topper quilt, I tackled getting the rick rack in place.

It's tiny stuff - scarcely 3/8" peak to peak. I'd tested out sewing by machine and abandoned that idea immediately. Holding it in place well would need basting - and if I was going to baste I may as well sew the whole thing by hand!!

So I got started - dedicating the work table to the topper and popping in and out throughout the day to sit and stitch a bit more down.

I'm just about halfway around already - not as time consuming as I'd thought - about the same amount of effort as stitching a binding.

Sheesh - I'm always over thinking things - to think I stalled on this portion to evade the hand stitching and it turns out to be far less effort than I'd thought!!

(now to tackle the machine maintenance - got any tips on cleaning out the upper thread path? Mine seems too 'friction-y')

As always,
thanks for stopping by,
see you next time!

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